Episode Transcript
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If you are a writer, you might be wondering,
Do I
really need to be on social media?
And the short answer is
yes.
I'll give a longer answer in a moment in
case you're not convinced.
Social media platforms allow you to promote
your work, connect with readers, and engage
with the
writing community at large.
(00:20):
Specifically, I'm going to be talking about
Instagram and TikTok during this episode
because I feel like they're
kind of the most popular.
But I think a lot of these tips
would apply to other channels as well.
Welcome to the Poetry Lab Podcast.
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The Poetry Lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated, self-taught, and formally
trained writers find a place in their
community to write,
read,
learn,
and collaborate.
We help writers tap into their craft with
radical self-compassion,
unlike anything you've ever seen in a
creative writing classroom before.
(01:03):
If you're a creative person trying to
establish a writing practice in the real world,
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time,
the courage,
and the inspiration to keep writing your
new shit.
Are you ready, poet?
Let's get into it.
(01:28):
Welcome, dear listeners, to another episode
of the Poetry Lab Podcast.
I'm Lori Walker, and today
we are talking about how to optimize your
social media presence.
Social media can help you build your
audience, promote your work, and connect
with other writers and readers.
But with so many writers on social media,
how do you get noticed?
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How do you take your social media game from meh
to
yay?
And how do you keep it from taking too much
time away from your writing?
This episode will walk you through some
simple techniques for optimizing your
presence to make social media work for you.
A quick intro into the two channels, in
case you're not familiar yet.
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Instagram is a visual storytelling platform
that is perfect for writers to create a
strong, authentic presence.
And TikTok is a platform where
short creative videos reign supreme,
ideal for bringing your stories and
personality to life.
And it's not enough to just be on these
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platforms.
You need to optimize your profiles
to get the most out of them.
But at the same time, you don't wanna spend
too much time on it.
I get it,
and I'm here to tell you that you can have
an effective social media presence without
forsaking your writing time.
Optimizing your profile will help you
attract readers,
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build your personal brand, and connect with
your audience in a more meaningful way.
Whether you are just getting started on
social media or are looking to improve your
existing social media presence,
listen up because I've got some practical,
easy to follow advice for you.
Now, before I dive into how to optimize
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your social media presence, I wanted to
briefly explain why social media is
important.
This is for all of you doubters out there.
And I've got to say, we've got a whole
episode on social media for poets, episode
six, I believe, called Creating Community
Through Social Media, if you want to learn more.
And we'll link to that in the show notes.
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But in a nutshell,
social media is how you create your
community.
It's how you get acquainted with other
writers and build
your literary citizenship by liking,
commenting on, and sharing posts by other
writers.
It's how your readers get to know you
beyond and behind your writing.
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It's how people who don't know you learn
about you and then go check out your
website and or join your e-mail list.
And we've got episodes on those two topics
as well.
Episode 26 is about your author website.
And episode 14 is about starting your
e-mail list.
Those are linked in the show notes as well.
(04:15):
And
I mentioned your website and mailing list
because in the barstool of your creative
career,
you need all three legs, social media,
website, and e-mail list
to be stable.
And if you're like creative career,
We've got you covered there too.
Episode nine is all about organizing your
creative career
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so you can establish a focused writing
practice and achieve your creative goals.
You know where to go.
Show notes.
So,
quick aside before we dive in.
If there's an author platform or creative
career topic that we don't currently have
an episode on,
just holler and we'll see what we can do.
(04:57):
Six strategies for optimizing your social
media presence.
First things first,
your profile picture.
This is the first impression people get
when they come across your profile.
And let's be honest, we have all judged a
book by its cover.
So you want to choose a
picture that is well lit,
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high resolution, and represents you in a
way that fits your writing identity.
The typical guideline is professional yet
approachable.
And by professional, I don't mean
stuffy and boring.
Your picture can be creative,
perhaps a candid shot or something that
shows off your personality, but still,
you know, professional-ish.
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And another thing about professional, I
don't mean you have to book a professional
photo shoot.
You can have a friend take a good clear
shot of your face in front of a
not too busy background, and it'll work
perfectly.
Cell phone cameras are hella better than
they used to be.
Pro tip,
consistency is crucial.
Use the same picture across platforms to
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make yourself easily recognizable.
I myself use a couple of shots from the
same photo shoot.
One is of me in a cream colored blouse
and a black blazer, and then the other one
is me in a black top with a
black and white floral flowing jackety thing.
which is like my favorite piece of clothing
ever, and interestingly, is something that
I'm wearing as I'm recording this episode.
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That's how often I wear it.
Anyway,
my hair and makeup and jewelry in the
background are the same in both photos,
so it's consistent in that it's familiar.
I know I said your profile picture should
be of your face,
but I recognize that there are reasons why
you might not wanna do that.
So here are a couple of alternatives.
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you can create a logo in Canva with like
your name, comma, writer,
or something like that.
That will tie your handle to your name
so people know,
oh,
@so-and-so is
so-and-so the writer.
Or if you have a book or a collection
coming out,
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you could use your book cover as your
profile picture.
That will tie your book and your name to
your social media account.
But most people are visual creatures, so
being able to put a face to the name slash
account is going to be your best bet.
But
those are some alternatives if showing your
face is just not an option.
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Next up is your bio.
Your bio is prime real estate.
You've got just a handful of characters to
tell people who you are, what you do, and
why they should follow you.
This means your bio needs to hook people fast.
Tell them your name in your genre or niche,
or your current project or personal brand.
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Instagram gives you up to 150 characters in
your bio.
So for example, you could do
poet and then like the
vertical line
separator, short story writer,
vertical line separator,
DM for writing tips.
or memoirist capturing life's moments one
page at a time.
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TikTok bios are even shorter, only 80
characters,
so you have to be extra concise.
Your bio should summarize your niche or
what kind of content you'll share.
Poet, vertical line,
writing tips, vertical line,
book reviews.
In both cases, you want to be smart about
using keywords that are related to your
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writing niche.
And you don't want to forget a call to
action or a CTA.
This is an invitation for visitors to get
to know you
off the app.
Both Instagram and TikTok allow you to
include a link.
So make use of it.
Something like
get 25 free poetry prompts
or whatever your freebie is with a link to
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your newsletter opt-in page
or check out my latest book and then link
to your book page on your website
or
If you've got a lot going on
digitally,
you might consider getting a Linktree.
This is
one link that you can add
to that profile,
but it allows you to send people to all
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different places.
And there is a free option of that and
there are paid options if you want a little
bit more customization with that.
And another pro tip for you,
use the name field on Instagram to include
keywords related to your niche.
For example,
you could do your name,
fantasy writer.
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That will make you more discoverable in
search results.
Now that your profile is set up, let's talk
about what to post.
I don't wanna spend too much time on this
because it could and should and probably
will eventually be its own episode.
So I'm going to give some general tips and
guidelines,
but I promise it'll be enough to get you
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started or get you optimized.
So while optimizing your profile is
crucial, it's your content that keeps
people coming back.
So you need to develop a content strategy
that's both engaging and sustainable.
Like I said at the outset, both Instagram
and TikTok are especially visual mediums,
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but different types of content tend to
perform better on one app over the other.
So I'm going to talk about content for
Instagram, then I'll hit on content for
TikTok.
With Instagram, you want to pair compelling
visuals with your writing,
namely in the captions.
Your content should reflect the key
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elements of your writing life, so you wanna
post a mix of things to keep it fresh.
Some ideas for Instagram include
promote your work through updates about
upcoming book launches, submissions, or
projects that you're working on.
Go behind the scenes with a peek into your
writing process.
Show your desk setup, your writing tools,
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or a screenshot of your latest draft.
Sharing writing tips and quotes.
That's super popular on Instagram.
Share a bite-sized bit of writing advice or
motivational quotes that resonate with
fellow writers.
Engage your audience by asking questions in
your captions, like what's the best book
you've read this month?
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Or how do you beat writer's block?
Now let's shift over to TikTok.
TikTok consists of short, highly engaging
videos and thrives on personality and
creativity.
Here's what works well over on TikTok,
writing challenges.
Participate in or create writing challenges
that encourage people
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to engage, like 30-second writing prompts
or POV storytelling challenges.
Story snippets.
Record short videos of you reading sections
of your work.
This not only showcases your writing, but
also lets people hear your voice.
Quick, actionable tips do really well on
TikTok.
Use the native editing tools
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to create snappy, visually engaging videos
that convey useful advice.
TikTok users love authentic content, so
consider doing a day in the life of a
writer series
or vlogs about your writing journey.
And that also works really well on
Instagram as well, I will add.
With both channels, don't be afraid to get
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creative with trends.
Use viral sounds or trending audio, put
your own twist on popular reels or videos,
or participate in challenges.
This can help your account be seen by more
viewers.
While there's a big writerly presence on
Instagram,
BookTok has
blown
up.
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Regardless of which channel you're on,
build your literary citizenry by
recommending your favorite books, or
explaining your own writing process.
And speaking of BookTalk, we have a new
BookTalk column in the resource center
written by
Kristin Britta.
So check that out for some more BookTalk
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content.
And
here's the thing with content.
Experiment and play around with it until
you find what you like creating
and what your audience responds to.
It might take a little bit of trial and
error before you find what works,
so
just have fun with it.
Final thing about content,
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hashtags greatly increase your visibility
on both Instagram and TikTok.
Use writing related hashtags like
booktok, writers of Instagram, or
amwriting.
But here's the thing,
millions of people use those hashtags, so
your post or video will be one of millions,
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that's not great odds.
So in addition to using those broader
hashtags, use some smaller ones that are
more specific,
like am writing poetry
on Instagram that has 59,000 posts, whereas
am writing
has 5.5 million posts.
But at the same time, you don't want to use
something so specific that next to nobody
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is going to look for it, like
am writing haiku
that has just 90 posts.
So
You want to kind of have a mixture
of small, medium and large hashtags
to see,
you know, to get the most people
potentially seeing your stuff.
And a pro tip,
repurpose content between Instagram and TikTok
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or other channels.
If you make a great TikTok video,
tweak it and post it as an Instagram reel.
This allows you to save time and increase
your reach.
Next up, I want to talk about highlights
and pinned videos.
So think of highlights on Instagram and
pinned videos on TikTok
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as a way to showcase your best content or
the things that you want new followers to
see first.
TikTok allows you to pin up to three videos
at the top of your profile, so choose
wisely.
Commented advice is to pin a video that
introduces you and your content,
one that showcases a viral or popular piece
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of work,
and then maybe a writing tip video that
also performed well.
This gives new viewers an immediate sense
of what to expect from you.
Instagram also allows you to pin three
posts or reels to the top of your feed,
so I'd say same suggestions as above.
Additionally, on Instagram,
take advantage of the highlights feature.
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This is a perfect way for organizing your
content into categories.
And some ideas for highlights include
published work, which shows off your
publications, book covers, or features in
literary magazines.
Writing tips.
Save any writing tips that you share on
stories so that new followers can easily
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access them from your profile.
And then also testimonials slash reviews.
If people are leaving great reviews on your
books or stories, highlight those.
Another pro tip for you,
update your highlights and pinned videos
regularly to keep things fresh.
Now I want to talk about another way
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of expanding your reach through engagement.
Engagement is the heartbeat of social
media, especially on Instagram and TikTok.
You might have the most
beautifully crafted profile, but if you're
not engaging with your audience, you're not
going to grow.
Engagement on Instagram is multifaceted.
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Engagement also keeps your profile active
in followers' feeds.
An easy way to engage on Instagram is to
ask questions in your captions
and then be sure to respond
to the comments.
You can also use Instagram stories to run
polls or
Q&A sessions.
Stories are an amazing way to have
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real-time conversations with your audience.
And also,
use Instagram's questions sticker to gather
ideas from your followers,
whether it's for your next story, blog
post, or even writing prompt ideas.
TikTok's engagement style is a little bit
different, but equally powerful.
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One of the best ways to engage on TikTok is
to respond to comments with a video.
which allows you to connect more personally
and it gives you an easy way to generate
new content.
The more you engage on either channel, the
more the algorithm rewards your visibility.
Pro tip
engagement
isn't just about your own posts.
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Be active in the writing community.
Follow fellow writers,
comment on their content and participate in
writing discussions.
This builds connections and boost your
visibility
and
Literary citizenship.
I cannot
say that enough.
Literary citizenship,
you want
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it.
And the final thing I want to talk about is
consistency.
You don't need to post every day to be
successful on social media,
but having a consistent schedule
helps keep you visible.
You might want to create a content calendar
planning out posts a week or two in advance
to stay organized.
And don't worry if every post isn't
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perfect, just keep showing up.
A good rule of thumb
is that if you can manage three quality
posts a week,
you're doing great.
On Instagram, like I said, it's recommended
to have two to three posts every week,
but then also supplement that with some
daily stories to stay on your audience's radar.
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The TikTok algorithm loves consistency, but
it also rewards creativity.
So even if you're not posting every day,
interacting with others' content
helps keep you visible on the platform.
And another common tip is to make sure that
you keep your aesthetic consistent, whether it's
a warm color scheme or a black and white,
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let your visual identity be a reflection of
your writing style.
And I agree with that to
a point.
But honestly, I don't see a ton of writers
with highly manicured
aesthetics in their feed.
Um I think that writers are a little bit more
whimsical.
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So what you might consider
doing is if you post,
you know, quotes or writing tips regularly,
create a template in Canva
where you can use the same background
design and swap out the text so that you're
consistently using that same design
Maybe have like
two or three colors that you rotate in
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that are like in the same color family or
complimentary colors.
Or if you do posts of your current read,
use a consistent background,
like always posting
next to
a particular chair,
or
I don't know,
I'm blanking on an idea, but you know, you
get the idea.
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And then you can intersperse these curated
pictures, these regularly appearing
pictures
with
some
more candid shots of what's going on in
your life.
Final pro tip for you,
don't burn out. It's
okay to take breaks when you need to.
And also just life happens.
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So sometimes you have to take a break.
Consistency doesn't mean never stepping away.
It just means having a strategy that works
for you long term
so that
if you do take a break, you can get back in
the swing of things more easily.
Whether you're just starting out on
Instagram and TikTok, or you've been
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building your profile for a while,
I hope these tips help you connect with
readers and fellow writers.
Social media is all about connection.
Think of it as building your community one
post at a time.
By focusing on the basics that I mentioned,
like having a strong profile picture,
a solid bio, a cohesive content strategy,
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and consistent engagement,
you'll be in good shape.
Remember, social media doesn't have to be
overwhelming, and it doesn't need to take
away from your writing time.
It's all about balance.
If you liked this episode, please give us a
like and a follow and help us spread the
word about our podcast
by texting the link to a few creative
(21:37):
friends.
You can also find us at
thepoetrylab.com/podcast.
Again, I'm Lori Walker, and you can find me
on Instagram @loriethewriter
or peruse my website at
loriwriteswords.com.
I am also in the process of setting up a
sub stack and I will link to that on my
(21:58):
website when it's ready.
And if there is an author platform
slash marketing
or creative career topic that we don't have
an episode on yet,
let me know and I'll see what I can do.
That's all for now.
I'll catch you soon at The Poetry Lab.