Panel:
Writers and Social Media: What You Could (and Should) Be Doing Now
Monday, March 26, 2018
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)
TheWGroup members – free
Non-members – $15
This Panel has passed but you can purchase a recording of it if you’d like.
You’re a Writer. You’ve got words to write. It’s hard enough to get the words down, put a book together and get it published. Who’s got time to be a media star or marketer?
We hear you. We struggle “doing social media” too. Still, there are some pretty amazing success stories out there. Nobodies who got a million dollar book deal because they rocked something called a “blog tour.” People who leveraged a single book they were working on into home study and college curricula used all over the country, all from a humble Twitter following. Hmm. Maybe worth another look.
So you’re not ready to be a YouTube Star, but you do have a Facebook account, your cell phone CAN record videos, and you’re willing to give it a try. Great! What should you do first? How much time and money should you budget for Social Media? What really works so you’re not wasting that precious time and money?
That’s where we come in. The Independent Writers Of Southern California’s Social Media Marketing Panel. Writers, who know and are using Social Media, talking about the practical things people just like you can do to use Social Media effectively.
- How are WRITERS using Social Media to sell books?
- What’s working in 2018 (and what looked promising in 2017 but isn’t working as well today)?
- What’s your Amazon Author Page got to do with Social Media?
- How can Social Media help you get legitimate book reviews that help sell books?
- What kind of Social Media Presence do you really need and what does it take to maintain it?
- How much time (and money) should you budget for Social Media?
- How do you START, from zero, with Social Media?
- Which Social Media networks are most effective for Writers?
- How do you know if your Social Media efforts are even working?
- How can a writer who’s not comfortable in front of a camera use video?
- How do you know if something isn’t working and safely stop doing it?
- Where can you go to get help?
We get it. You’d rather be writing (or even going to the dentist) rather than adding Facebook ad marketing, tweeting, Instagramming, chatting, blogging, vlogging, or whatever the heck the new made up thing is today to your daily routine. But, if a little posting, creating a few graphic memes that go viral, or engaging some of your readers through the safety of the Internet gets you and your writing onto the radar of some of the 3 billion people using the Internet, wouldn’t that be worth it?
We think so. We hope you do too and will join us with other like-minded Writers, to learn how 2018 can be the year you go from obscurity to well-known and beloved Author.
Our Panel of new faces to give you some fresh ideas.
Our social media panelists:
Author Jennifer Brody
Jennifer Brody
Jennifer Brody is the award-winning author of The 13th Continuum.
Her book sold in a 3-book deal and is being packaged into a feature film. The book is a Gold Medal Winner (Young Adult – Sci-Fi/Fantasy) from the Independent Publisher‘s Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. Return of the Continuums and The United Continuums complete this epic trilogy.
She is a graduate of Harvard University, a creative writing instructor at the Writing Pad, and a volunteer mentor for the Young Storytellers Foundation. She lives and writes in LA, where she’s hard at work on her next book.
Michelle Grondine
Michelle Grondine
Michelle Grondine is a sensitivity reader for Writing In The Margins, a freelance line editor, and a head mentor for the Young Storytellers Foundation — none of which she picked up at Ithaca College where she earned her BSci in Applied Economics.
Michelle co-founded and curates the @travelingbooknerds #bookstagram, where she shares creative bookish photos and hosts book giveaways to over 1.5K followers. You can find Michelle (and photos of her rescue dogs) online at @tediously_brief on Twitter and Instagram, @mimsyg on Snapchat, and @michellegrondine on Facebook.
She has contributed creative non-fiction to Rebelle Society and is currently workshopping her first novel at the Writing Pad.
She lives and writes in a crystal-adorned beach pad in West Los Angeles with her two chihuahuas-mix rescues, Halston Rose and Kennedy Eastwood.
Alaia Williams
Alaia Williams
Alaia Williams is a Business Systems and Online Marketing Strategist. Through her company, One Organized Business, she helps small business owners organize and promote their businesses.
Alaia started her first blog in 2000 and now has over a decade of content and social media experience that she has leveraged to help others grow their platforms and businesses.
Here’s some of her online presence:
Alaia’s website
Instagram • Pinterest • Facebook • LinkedIn • Podcast
Moderator Steve Sanchez
Moderator: Steven Sanchez
Steven is TheWGroup’s marketing and Internet guy, and a member of its board. For more than 20 years his Los Angeles-based Internet Agency has worked to create operations-integrated Internet solutions that work for both business and consumer interests.
Steven has helped companies large and small start their web businesses from scratch, build their platforms, publish online and service the needs of their followers and customers.
He has also served as technical editor on bestsellers such as Homepage Usability, Web Design on a Shoestring and The Unusually Useful Web Book, and is currently writing a book for first-time authors. He enjoys the cutting edge of technology, all things Internet, publishing and social media, as well as movies, travel, sailing and scuba diving.
Steven is a frequent TheWGroup workshop leader and panelist on marketing, social media, and website development topics, and is currently working on several Internet projects to help writers develop their author platforms. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children. Our social media panel moderator’s website is SmarterWriters.com.
We love hearing from members and all attendees.
Some great words from attendee Linda Ruggeri
So I had a chance to hear/see/get my mind frazzled by Alaia Williams, Jen Brody and Michelle Grondine last night at the TheWGroup meeting/panel (where the very sweet, kind and knowledgeable Steve Sanchez moderated). Let me just say that these three ladies blew the crowd away with 90 intense minutes of what we SHOULD and SHOULDN’T be doing on social media (as authors).
I consider myself pretty social media savvy, but I walked away with some great tips and good homework on how to be BETTER. I didn’t get a chance to stay for the socializing part afterwards, but it was fun to see everyone in the crowd with their heads down, scrambling at full speed to write notes after notes, trying to get it all in (the recording of the session is available on the TheWGroup website for a minimal fee) Writers and Social Media: What You Could (and Should) Be Doing Now – Independent Writers of Southern California.
And yeah, after so many years of standing on the sidelines, I finally ended up getting a Twitter account today: @lindaruggeri
So proud to be a part of BookPod and TheWGroup!
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