Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Connecting the Dots .. er, Blog Posts

Okay, I know I said I'd be better about posting, but I'm out of town with the day job (yes, again) and I just haven't had a chance to. I've tried the whole, blogging for the week over the weekend, but that doesn't work well for me because, there's usually a bunch of stuff that happens during the week that I end up wanting to talk about and then by the time the next week comes, it's old news or I've just forgotten.

Plus I've been feeling so disconnected from all of you!

Firstly, though, welcome to my new followers! Yay for new friends! Thanks to LT Elliot for the shout out and I'll be getting my thoughts posted on this soon.

And of course, thanks to all my existing followers for, you know, still following even though I've been so random and sporadic lately!

So speaking of disconnected.... I was thinking about how to stay connected to your network.

Holy, that sounds all IT-ish. It's not. I started thinking about this when over the course of the last couple months I've tweeted about specific books by a certain author whom I really like. Said author also tweets. And saw my mention and then replied to me and direct messaged me as well.

As a reader and a pretty big fan of this author, I loved that they took the time to reply to me directly. It just makes me respect this person more that they'd take time out of the day to go through and reply so specifically - it was a personal message that referenced some specific info in my tweet.

There's lots of posts out there on self-marketing and how important it is to sell yourself in trying to sell your book(s). Connecting those dots to the DM I received on Twitter, it made me feel really appreciated as a reader. I try really hard to reply to comments on my blog as I'm able. (Sometimes the darn dj makes things difficult ;D) I've been working really hard on reprioritizing so I can stay more connected - though I can be a bit sporadic. I'm trying!

So as a writer, how do you stay connected to your peeps?

P.S. In case you were wondering ... I was born the year of the monkey. =)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Two words: Google reader. It has helped me immensely! I love that I can get all the posts of the day in one tidy little spot. So nice! I haven't started twitter yet, though I'm tempted to try it now that I'm not spending so much time combing through blogs.

And my posts are so sporadic! Once a month here, twice a week there. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that was pretty normal. :D Life!

Windy said...

Nisa - I used to use Google Reader and now I haven't for a while. I'll have to go thorugh and clean it up and start that again. I know a few people swear by it... so we'll see!

Anonymous said...

I stay connected usually by reading their blogs and if their email is connected to their blogger profile, I like to respond to comments. Mostly, I try to be there and be authentic. I try to be myself and believe that other people do too. =]

You're welcome for the shout out (although it really wasn't so big of a thing *blush*) but I'm glad that you have new followers!!

Windy said...

LT, I too try to check in on blogs and comment, keeping at least a toe into the conversation when I can.

And there really is something to be said about being authentic around here. :D

Elana Johnson said...

Online relationships are a lot like real life relationships. If you don't talk, you're not really friends. So I try to email my buddies I haven't heard from in a while, and do something weird: talk about them instead of me.

Sometimes it works, too! ;-)

Oh, and I use my list of blogs to keep up with their blogs. And did you know I'm addicted to Facebook? No? Well, I am. So there's that too.

Windy said...

Elana - I had NO idea you were addicted to FB. None. At all. I guess that means we should talk more.

p.s. how's the farm & cafe doing?