Day 5 of 100: Social Media is More Than Noise

Well, it’s the fifth day now since I’ve started this one-hundred day blackout, and already I can tell that this experiment wasn’t as simple as “tuning out the noise.” What I found, through the course of dealing with a bunch of snafus, is that I’ve been relying on these tools to resolve problems. For some of those issues, like communicating when my site goes down, there is no other tool that exists to send out a message.

Going dark has forced me to circumvent what I normally do, in an attempt to resolve a problem I normally solve through social media. I didn’t expect that to happen. I mean, it’s not even the end of the week and I’m already realizing I use these tools for more than just inane babble and telling you what I eat every day.

Note: I heartily enjoy a decent plate of nachos with real cheese. None of that orange reconstituted dust in a can business.

Sorry, I just had to throw that in there. Anyway, it’s interesting that I’ve experienced first-hand what I often tell people about social media. These are tools that have multiple uses. They don’t just facilitate a constant stream of noise; pick apart what Twitter or Facebook or IMs are being used for and they turn into complex information networks.

Believe me, while I miss some of the conversations with friends that live long distances away, I am enjoying the break. Written words are sounds to me; always have been, always will be. So cutting down on that stream has helped me shrink my world considerably, which is what I felt I needed to do.

I’m not going to post during my appearance at OddCon, but I will do a wrap-up post for the week and another one about OddCon. I’m curious to see if anyone is going to bring this experiment up; I’ve had a few instances where people I’ve never met before mention things that I’ve said online. We shall see what the weekend brings, I suppose. Hopefully, a million sales of The Queen of Crows, right? RIGHT?

What? I’m innocent! No, really.

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

About 100 Days: From April 4th to July 13th I’m turning the lights off on Facebook, Twitter and IMs for personal use. Read 100 Days: Turning off the Lights on Social Media for more information. You can also read the 100 Days post archive.

April 8, 2011
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New Interview and Reviews for Paths of Storytelling

Hi folks,

I’m over at FlamesRising.com today along with the developer of Paths of Storytelling, Eddy Webb, and my fellow authors Jess Hartley and Kelley Barnes. This three-question interview offers all of us the chance to talk about this project from our unique clan perspective. I hope you drop by and read Author Interview for Paths of Storytelling on FlamesRising.com, because Eddy reveals yet another easter egg. Shhh!

Here’s a quote from our group interview:

MONICA: I felt that matching the voice and the feel of the setting was crucial to the joke’s believability, which was part of the reason why I dropped in signature characters like Karsh, El Diablo Verde and a few other familiar faces. It was really fascinating for me to map out, because the goal was to introduce Vampire: the Masquerade to a fictitious reader, all the while knowing that the person most likely reading it would be someone who knew the setting. So in this path, the reader doesn’t just become a Gangrel, they get introduced to Vampire: the Masquerade. — SOURCE: Author Interview for Paths of Storytelling

After you read the interview, a reader recently shared a review of Paths of Storytelling on DriveThruRPG.com. I thought the review was interesting, because the reviewer is correct: this format isn’t something White Wolf would publish professionally to represent World of Darkness, which is why it was billed as a rejected manuscript for April Fool’s. I was happy to hear he not only enjoyed it, but also recognized the amount of work we put into this.

Over at Gameolosophy, you can also read an in-depth review written by Raymond Frazee entitled RPG Game Review: Paths of Storytelling. His thoughts are really interesting to read because he talks about the theme from the perspective of a long-time fan and player of Vampire: the Masquerade.

For more information, read my announcement entitled: New Release! Vampire: the Masquerade Fiction.

Enjoy!

April 7, 2011
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Day 4 of 100: Crowdsourcing Versus Experts

Found myself needing advice today, and mentally ran through my cyber-deck of experts to see who I could e-mail about a few things.

In the time that I spent explaining what I wanted in an e-mail, I could have ran to Twitter and said: “Hey, anyone know of…” or “Anyone have a link for…” Instead, I e-mailed people I knew and asked for their advice.

There’s a huge difference between tapping into “the hive mind” where you may get a bevy of responses you can judge quickly, as opposed to getting one response from a trusted source. When you get a variety of responses from multiple people, you can ascertain if the value of the advice is similar and pick the best option. By singling out an individual, you’re viewing them as someone who will give you that best option.

The other benefit to asking an individual for advice, is that you are making a personal connection through a one-to-one exchange. You’re saying: “Hey, I trust that you’re going to give me the right information.” With crowd-sourcing, that dynamic changes because now the onus isn’t on you for the connection. You’re throwing something against the wall publicly, almost like posting a flyer, and the other people who see that will either chime in or not.

What’s also interesting about the crowdsourcing on social media to me, is that sometimes it feels like a trivia game. The volume of people using Twitter or similar tools to ask questions is pretty staggering. When people respond, often I feel like it’s because they’re trying to establish themselves as an expert for that particular category.

One thing I have noticed, is that when I’ve asked questions in the past not because I didn’t know the answer, but because I wanted to strike up conversations, some people treat me as if: “Well, duh! How come you don’t know this?” In other words, some people view questions as an indication that the person lacks knowledge or intelligence on that topic. To me, that’s fascinating because that may highlight how little we know people we talk to on social media. If we’re there for the conversation, then are we fulfilled simply by the interaction? If the other person on the end of the line wasn’t a human being, but a robot — could we tell the difference?

About 100 Days: From April 4th to July 13th I’m turning the lights off on Facebook, Twitter and IMs for personal use. Read 100 Days: Turning off the Lights on Social Media for more information. You can also read the 100 Days post archive.

April 7, 2011
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Day 3 of 100: When Systems Fail

Of course, right after I go dark on social media, my webhost starts having problems. For the past couple of days, service has been spotty, which has no doubt affected your ability to read the posts I’ve been writing.

It’s even more frustrating on my end because I didn’t want to get back on Facebook/Twitter just to communicate server issues. My options were either a) not say anything b) have someone else say something or c) leave it alone.

I chose to leave it alone and logged the dates, but it brought up another realization. While it’s great to have a website, if you have pretty decent traffic and all of a sudden your website goes down — then what? How do you let people know the status? You can’t email everyone but you could send a message out to Twitter and Facebook where it has a better chance of reaching people. No, it may not hit everyone, but shooting out that information would be doing due diligence.

So yeah, in this case my site having troubles lately has nothing to do with Starscream (my computer). Completely random occurrence that just so happened to coincide with going dark. Curses, foiled again!

If you have recommendations for webhosts, please post them in the comments below. Thank you!

About 100 Days: From April 4th to July 13th I’m turning the lights off on Facebook, Twitter and IMs for personal use. Read 100 Days: Turning off the Lights on Social Media for more information. You can also read the 100 Days post archive.

April 6, 2011
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[My Guest Post] Aspiring Authors Should Think Twice Before Marketing

Hi everyone,

Today on the How To Write Shop I posed a question about whether or not aspiring authors should start promoting themselves before they learn how to write.

This is one of my longer columns where I cover the difference between website visitors and readers, mention why it’s important to focus on your craft, and where some of the confusion might be coming in. Many of the topics I brush on might be uncomfortable for people eager to write their first short story and hopefully sell a ton of copies, but I felt it needed to be said. I’m seeing a heavy-handed focus on developing an online presence and how necessary it is to get online traffic, but for new authors I feel this is greatly misleading.

There are benefits and drawbacks to jumping in to online promotion when you don’t have the resume to back it up. However, you have more flexibility to experiment because you have nothing to lose. Many people want to be a writer because, on the surface, it appears glamorous. No set schedule, work from home, make a ton of money, etc. But there’s a lot that goes on in the industry outside of writing that eventually you’ll need to pick up on. To survive, you need to be flexible, disciplined, determined and thick-skinned. Not everyone is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Like books, there are many different types of writers out there. I know some who are perfectly happy writing for a few small presses; others want their books in retail stores like Target, Wal-Mart, etc. As a result, their online promotional efforts reflect their goals and life as a writer. — SOURCE: When Should You Start Promoting Online? at the How To Write Shop

If you’re new to writing, I hope you’ll drop by and read my article today. After all, if you’re going to chase the rainbow, you’ll need to put your running shoes on first…

April 6, 2011
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