I have been reading a lot of articles lately about platform building and how any want to be writer/author needs to work on their on-line presence before they worry about the business side of getting published and I started thinking about all the social media I use and how I use them.

The Blog – I started this as a way of practising my art, I never for one minute thought that people would find their way here and read it.  I also found lots of blogs I love reading though this is very time consuming I do feel I gain valuable advice and support which makes it worth the time sacrifice.  One gripe I do have is with WP at the minute I am not receiving any notifications of any posts you guys make, I have notified them but had no reply in an attempt to remedy this I downloaded the WP app for Windows 8 which actually is brilliant for reading your posts…

Sadly there is one huge down side to it in that it does not allow me to like or comment on anything so am going back to using the reader here in WP for now until my notifications issue is fixed.  I also started a second blog for my photos which you can find here if you want to take a look, I have to say I do find that the photo blog has gained a following quicker than the writing one and I think that comes down to the ease of looking at a picture rather than reading a post such as this.

Facebook – one of the most common tools we writers use but one I realised I have been seriously misusing.  Most of the people who end up on the Facebook page find there way there either via the blog or via your friends on your personal Facebook page at least until after you are published.  So why should they bother going to your Facebook page on a regular basis, most of us share our posts everywhere, we share the posts from our author pages to our personal Facebook so why do they need to visit both pages?  I realised I need to include more exclusive content on my Author Facebook page so I have taken the decision to share less to my personal page and to post extra personal content such as photos on there to make it worth visiting (or I hope it will be) so if you would like to see what I have been up to including a pic or two of me from the weekend and photos of my recent day out in Whitby go pop over here and say hi.

Tumblr – this is one of those I joined but do not use anywhere near as much as I should, my blogs get posted here and I pop on occasionally and reblog things I find interesting.  I really should use it more but I am not that keen on how it works which is why I think I dismissed it so easily but if you want to see what I get up to there or leave me a link to your account I can be found here.

Pinterest –  possibly one of the most addictive of the social media sites.  The main problem with Pinterest is you pop on for five minutes and several hours later you look at the clock and wonder where the day went.  Until recently I had decided not to bother with it because of how easy it is to get lost looking at pictures but now I have decided to allow myself one hour a week (I set a timer) to wonder round the boards looking for inspiration and sharing the great images I find on my Author Facebook rather than my personal one (though not sure it always works that way) you can see my boards here and let me know if you use this and I will come look at yours.

Writers Cafe – I have not used this at all I set it up then could not find friends even though I know some of you were there and found it quite difficult to navigate I do intend giving it another go when I get chance to spend some time looking into it more.

Twitter –  in some ways my most used and most poorly managed social media.  All the sites share via my twitter account, occasionally I tweet on route to work and that is sent to both personal and author Facebook pages, sometimes I just use it for what it was designed to chat to friends but I find I do not really spend much time on it.  I know once I have a book to publicise I may tweet a little more but I know I find it annoying when all I see from certain people is tweet after tweet saying the same thing ‘buy my book’ and I get annoyed when I follow someone back only to immediately receive the hard sell in a DM.  I have downloaded Tweetdeck in an attempt to use Twitter more as it is impossible to keep up with the news-feed at times on the phone if you are on Twitter and I don’t already follow you give me a tweet here.

Magic Spreadsheet – this is more of a tool but also has a social side.  with recent events at home I was struggling to get back into writing daily again this is a great tool to encourage you (and eases you in gently) it gives you a support network and shiny badges you can find out more here, and check out the actual spread sheet here.

Which social media do you use? Which do you enjoy which are a chore?