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Miranda Fave

Linking your stories to Social Media

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Links to Your Stories on Social Media

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We've added a new function to the Archive. (I say 'we' but you know it's the wizard in the machine Mike who worked it out, right?). The new function permits the linking Ad Astra stories to various social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.Â  It is of course optional but certainly this is an option for all authors on the Archive to consider. The default answer for everyone is 'no.'Â  If you don't want your stories from this site linked to outside platforms, you don't need to do anything.

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If you do wish to have stories linked to social media, you need to change the answer to 'yes' in your Archive profile.Â  Log on to the archive and go to 'edit bio' under your account info.Â  This appears as the last option on this page.Â  Once you have made your choice, hit 'submit' for the change to go into effect.

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FYI Older stories will probably have to be manually added to social media (by, well, by me, most likely).

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Covers and other images are very, very nice to have. Don't fret if you don't have a cover, but if you are deciding whether to add a cover to a story, and Â you haven't, let this sway you in the direction of adding that cover.

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Who has said yes to this? I ask because once class is done I am going to start to put these together, and start to dig into older works.

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Currently, I've been experimenting with some of LBD's work. Check it out on the Facebook page - it looks pretty snazzy if I do say so m'self.

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Right now, I am concentrating on works with covers. If you don't have any covers, don't panic! I can slip in an Ad Astra logo but it most likely won't work with scheduled posts.Â 

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So, I strongly suggest covers. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. A plain single-color cover with the name of the story and your userid (and the name of your series, if applicable), can be perfectly fine.

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If you would prefer space images, NASA graciously provides copyright-free imagery. See their policies.

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Not everything you can find online is free use. In fact, most stuff isn't. When in doubt, ASK! Deviant Art is a great place to get images but you need artist permission. Most artists love this, and usually all you need to do is drop a link to their DeviantArt page or website, preferably in your story summary or notes. Please and thank you go a long, long way!

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And, for all covers, one problem that we have with scheduled Facebook posts is that they often show the html coding. Usually the way Facebook posts work is, you get about 25 or so words and then if there's an image it shows it. But if the coding is within those first 25 or so words, the post picks those up. There is not a lot that can be done about that from my end, so it should behoove you to move your first 25 or so summary words to the top and then slip in your cover.

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E. g. This lovely story is doing it right. The Facebook post will probably look a lot like -Â 

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The second story of the Aegolius Harrier. Ryaenn has taken command of her new ship but now she must prove herself to the crew and begin to win their loyalty. As Ryaenn readies the ship and crew for launch, she is faced with challenges ... and Ryaenn meets every challenge as a duel. (image)

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Truth is, I can't always tell how the automatic posts will look beforehand.

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If the image was at the top, the blurb would instead look a lot like this -

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http://i960.photobucket.com/albums/ae85/mirandafave/Aegolius%20Harrier%20crew/AegoliusHarrierTitlecopysmaller_zps887942dc.jpg"> The second story of the Aegolius Harrier. Ryaenn has .... (image)

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Look at all that real estate you lose.

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This should also tell you that your first 25 or so words in your summary are kind of important. Consider how summary blurbs look on the side of the front page of the Archives. Some teasers are better than others. 'Nuff said.

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Holler if you have questions but I am doing final project work for the next few days. Then I'll have two weeks before my next semester and would love to be working on these then! :)

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Got a bunch of 'em scheduled into early June. Right now, I'm only going with approved works that have covers. Coverless work is fine, but I want to see how these do first.

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These are works by LBD, trekfan, mdgarcia, RogueJawa and Miranda Fave.

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I've got some results!

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Posts with images (and that includes Archive works with covers) get more clicks than posts without (which rather neatly confirms something already proven by Hubspot).

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For members who've had their works boosted on social media, I'm curious - are you seeing more readers?

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Also, these are our most popular Facebook posts, so far -

  1. A personal emergency calls Isira home to Betazed #startrek http://ow.ly/wonkE

  2. 2384: As the Alpha & Beta Quadrants recover from the Dominon War #startrek http://ow.ly/wonkB

  3. Portrait of a Character Ã¢â¬â Takara Sato

  4. #tttot14 #startrek 2 tragedies, 3 stories of personal growth, 2 battles won,Â new beginnings, 1 escape, 1 non-escape, nemeses! This vote is going to be difficult at best. And it's only the first week!

  5. What's Chapel's 1st day like? What's a butterfly mean 2 Jess? What about Gary Mitchell?Â 4 answers 2 these qs, tune intoÂ Ã¢â¬Âª#Ã¢â¬Å½ttot14Ã¢â¬Â¬Â Ã¢â¬Âª#Ã¢â¬Å½startrekÃ¢â¬Â¬

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Congratulations to Mike for THE most popular post on social media. The post about his story was seen by 113 people, clicked on 7 times, and received 1 like, 1 comment, and 1 share.

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Note: all of these were also shared on Twitter. My own post (#3) was shared on both the Ad Astra Twitter feed and my own Twitter feeds. The #2 most popular post is one of trekfan's stories, and the last 2 are Twelve Trials of Triskelion promo posts.

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Just a quickie reminder that I am still doing these. If I have missed you, my apologies! Please make sure your profile says that it's okay for me to do this. Further, give me a nudge if you think I didn't get you, as I don't always see 'em. Thank you. :)

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PS Since July, this is our most popular post -

Â The Hooded Man by LA Moody

104 people reached! But recognize that this has not translated into that many readers (that story has under 90 reads, IIRC). Reach was increased because the post was shared.

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Posts do best under the following conditions:

1) There's a cover image. The one above didn't have one, but the next seven did, of the top eight posts during this time frame.

2) The post is shared. Even one share increases reach pretty dramatically.

3) The post is liked. Likes take a few seconds and they deliver a small notification to your followers. Hence reach is increased.

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One more quick note - if you have a collaboration or a crossover, I would rather not share them unless I know both (or more than two) people agree that it's okay. I just want to cover all bases. If you've got a great collaboration but only two of three people say it's okay to share on social media, I would rather that you got unanimity before going ahead. I just think it's a best practice.

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Thank you and happy writing!

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I certainly wouldn't mind; I use G+ for my own stuff and there is also a search bump from it (Google bribes you to use their social network, fer realz).

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