Author Liz Fenwick

I am passionate about the power of social media as part of a well-thought-out marketing plan and I never tire of hearing people’s approach to the subject. So I jumped at the chance to attend Liz Fenwick’s Social Media for Writers Workshop at Chipping Norton Literary Festival last weekend. You can easily apply Liz’s valuable tips to any business, particularly one where you and your personality are at the centre of it.

I was delighted to hear Liz talk about the importance of having a structured approach to social media – something I wholeheartedly agree with – including the following steps:

1. Know where you are in your publishing (or business) journey – for example, Liz began her own social media journey before she was published or had an agent. Now that she has one book published and another on the way next month, her objectives have changed and her focus is more about engaging with readers.
2. Know what you want to achieve – if you don’t know what you want to get from using social media you can waste hours without getting anywhere….or worse, being counterproductive. Know who your audience is and make sure you are approachable for them.
3. Be clear what your brand is – this is about showing your personality but remember to keep it professional at all times. Think about who you are and what you want to portray. And get a great photo taken!
4. Know how much you’re willing to share about yourself – share enough to be interesting but know how much you want to talk about personal things, like your family. And take care expressing religious or political beliefs unless they are relevant (you don’t want to alienate half your audience before you’ve even started!).

However long you have been tweeting, blogging or pinning away on your Pinterest boards, it is well worth revisiting these steps from time to time to make sure you are on the right lines. And remember, as Liz says, “The best way to help yourself is to help other people – it’s not about saying “buy my book”” (you can replace “my book” with “my product” or “my service” as appropriate to your business).

I was very to proud sponsor Liz’s workshop at the Festival and to give two people the chance to win tickets to join me. Here is what my competition winner said about her experience:

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Liz Fenwick’s talk on ‘Social Media for Writers’. She is such an engaging speaker and interacted with the audience without hesitation, answering questions as they arose. Liz gave us a really fascinating insight into the use of social media, particularly Facebook, including ways to increase the number of people coming to your page, and how to improve your ranking on the system.

Although I dabble with Facebook and Twitter, Liz’s talk gave me a new perspective on how it can work for business, and the Pinterest information was very interesting, and something I will certainly follow up on.” Sally Logan

Competition winners Sally Logan (left) and Tina Smith (right) with Lucy Eckley

The Blue Penguin Communications cupcakes

Liz certainly knows her stuff when it comes to social media and is adept at putting it into practice. We can all learn from her timely tweeting – no sooner had the workshop finished, she kindly shared a picture of the little Blue Penguin cupcakes I gave out to the audience. And I can testify that she is every bit as friendly, professional and approachable as she portrays with her online presence.

Having met Liz, and been inspired by her enthusiasm, I’m now looking forward even more to reading her new book the Cornish Affair which is out in May.