Are you overwhelming your social media followers?

Yes, yes—all authors are told to market. You need sales! You need reviews! You need readers! You need beta readers! You need to catch the eye of an agent or publisher! So off you scurry and spend as much time as possible reposting your blog articles or inserting links to them everywhere you can.

Unfortunately, there is something known as “too much of a good thing.” Even your most loyal followers may unsubscribe if they get tired of seeing the same posts everywhere. This is called “social media fatigue,” and you definitely want to avoid it! Think of any popular commercial that seems to play endlessly on several channels for months at a time. You may be able to quote it word for word, but how likely is it that you’ll actually purchase the item?

Linking all your accounts may be easy for you with the help of online scheduling programs or sites. Some of the ones available in 2017 are Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Seesmic, SocialPilot, DoShare, and Buffer. You only have to touch a button and your post gets distributed everywhere: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. However, this type of robo-posting can be annoying for your followers. Who wants to see the same thing everywhere they turn?

If you belong to multiple writers’ groups on LinkedIn, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Every group you enter on a certain day contains the same post from the same person. You get to see it over and over and over and over… (imagine Susan’s eyes glazing over here) Blah.

It’s a lot harder to individualize your postings, but you’ll gain more followers and keep the ones you already have! Try keeping a spreadsheet of your posting articles. Record on it when and where you’ve posted them. Like this:

Article A, June 15, posted to Instagram.

Article B, June 15, posted to Facebook.

Article C, June 15, posted to Pinterest

Article A, June 20, posted to Facebook

Article B, June 20, posted to Twitter

Article C, June 20, posted to LinkedIn

Article A, June 25, posted to LinkedIn

Article B, June 25, posted to Pinterest

Article C, June 25, posted to Facebook

Now when your followers tune into their multiple social media accounts on June 20 (and yes, we all know most people have at least two or three), they’ll see three posts from you—but all different. One post may stimulate their interest more than the others, but the next time they see one of the other posts, it may strike them as interesting on that day.

Yes, there will be some repeats for your followers—that’s practically unavoidable—but not on every platform all on the same day. Trust me, that approach is a real turn-off.

What do you think?

We’re Dun for today, so keep on Writin’!

Next week we’ll discuss ‘Story Organization’

Susan

To see the index and catch up with missed episodes of this series – CLICK HERE

NOTE:

This series is not meant to be (nor will it be) simple static information.

I’ll be here for each post to answer questions, offer suggestions as necessary, and interact with you.

If there’s something you specifically want (or need!) to see addressed in terms of self-editing, please let me know in the comments under this, or any of the articles of the series.

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