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Thread: Social Media Wiz [$50-100 per month]

  1. #1
    Live a little. Write a lot. Karen Junker's Avatar
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    Social Media Wiz [$50-100 per month]

    Cascade Writers workshop is looking for someone to do social media posts to promote our events. You would need to spend 2-3 hours per week updating Twitter, blog posts and so on. Your expertise in how to expand our promo opportunities would be most welcome!

    The job would be on a trial basis at first, but could be year-round. We would pay by Paypal at the end of each month. Pay is based on hours worked at approximately $8 per hour to a max of $100 per month.

    Please email Karen at writersweekend at hotmail dot com for more information.
    Karen Junker
    www.CascadeWriters.com
    "Spend a passionate weekend with your muse!"

  2. #2
    Cultus Gopherus MacAllister SuperModerator Medievalist's Avatar
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    Karen this is on the face of it a great idea, but it's not how social media works. It really isn't.

    You would do better, as the face of Cascade Writers, to engage with the community yourself, and encourage alums to re-tweet.

    Hiring someone outside of the Cascade community isn't going to have a community base. They're going to be a shill, however well-intentioned.

    Go create a Cascade Writers account on FB and Twitter and G+.

    And one for you as Karen.

    You can manage them both easily for free from www.hootsuite.com

    Create a list on Twitter of alums and faculty who have accounts. Call it Cascade Writers or something.

    Follow them all. They'll likely follow you back--especially if you send out an email ahead of time with an announcement including your FB and Twitter links.

    You don't have to be constantly promoting the Workshop, just when you have news to share--but you can retweet the things your alums and faculty post, and occasionally, post an interesting link yourself.
    Hiring people really doesn't work. They aren't engaged with the community.

    People know you.
    Last edited by Medievalist; 05-30-2012 at 08:25 AM.

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  3. #3
    practical experience, FTW areteus's Avatar
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    Agree with Medievalist here. Why pay for something you can do yourself for free? And in fact often do better because instead of posting something someone else told you to post you are posting stuff that interests you and that enthusiasm shows in your posts.

    Is there not a workshop attendee who has the know how to manipulate the social media sites for you?

  4. #4
    Live a little. Write a lot. Karen Junker's Avatar
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    I'd like to just respond to the question of why I don't just do it myself.

    I can't figure out Twitter. I have certain cognitive and logic issues from a head injury. I have absolutely no idea how to get followers and I need someone to help me figure it out. In addition to my confusion about how it works, there is also the issue of my flat affect in voice--I'd like someone to help me figure out how to sound a little cheerier.

    I have posted to the attendee group and asked for help and received no responses. As of right now, we have 4 volunteer board members and 28 attendees. We only take 32 for this year's event. As to why no one has offered to help--I assume it's because people have full time jobs in addition to writing of their own. I'm hoping to find someone who has a couple of free hours a week to help me with the social media posts.

    It's not unreasonable for a business to hire a PR person--and there's no reason to keep it quiet or have the person try to pretend to be me. I've hired people to handle this type of activity in the past and it never occurred to me that I was doing anything out of the ordinary.
    Karen Junker
    www.CascadeWriters.com
    "Spend a passionate weekend with your muse!"

  5. #5
    practical experience, FTW areteus's Avatar
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    Followers just happen. At least in my experience. From my posting my own blog and on other blogs as I guest, I usually end up with a load of friend requests. If your twitter id is out there on the net somewhere for people to find and they have a reason to want to follow you then they will.

    And yes, Twitter is confusing and I don't think you need a head injury to have that problem. I'd say just get in there and play with it until you learn. Its not something that can be easily taught and it may not come easily but eventually you'll get the hang of it (I still have problems with it).

    As for the voice, not really an issue on twitter with the limited word count on offer. Usually you can barely get the message you want out. I usually find it better as a link to another site like a blog - a few words of description (i.e. More Cascade Workshop news! Or: Next Worskshop date announced) then a link to a blog post that tells those who are interested the info they need to know.

    Make sure the blog and any other sites linked to the workshop have the twitter ID posted (some blogs let you have a twitter RSS feed) and that will lead people to your twitter. You can also post them in any online Bio (i.e. your Amazon page, your Facebook page etc) and in signature files on forums. The more places you post it the more will follow.

  6. #6
    Cultus Gopherus MacAllister SuperModerator Medievalist's Avatar
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    Karen do at least try Twitter. There are a bunch of AWers there already.

    I know that there are bunch of Cascade Writers alums too.

    Why not give it a try? You can tell people you're trying to figure out Twitter, and they'll help.

    And you absolutely ought to at least follow the alums from Cascade Writers--you can certainly congratulate them on subbing and pubbing, and re-tweet them.

    You can tweet about Web sites you think might interest or help your community.

    You're so very closely associated with Cascade Writers that I think you'll be surprised how many followers you have, and easy it is.

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  7. #7
    Live a little. Write a lot. Karen Junker's Avatar
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    I'm not quite sure how to find people on Twitter -- I've had the account for over a year and I just don't remember to post. Part of why I want someone to help me with it is to be more active.

    How do we find the AWers? Do they post using their AW user name or their real names? ETA: I found the list on Twitter! It's a miracle!

    I'd like to set up the RSS feed but I have no idea how to do that -- and if it gives you any idea how bad my memory is, I have to have help every time I try to freeze panes in Excel, too. Maybe if someone could explain it to me and I could make a step-by-step chart to follow...

    But I'd like help with some web site content and possible blog posts as well. And for that, my voice does come out and it's not the best for PR types of things. I pay people to reword my articles so that they sound better.
    Last edited by Karen Junker; 03-14-2012 at 10:43 PM. Reason: Found Twitter list of AWers!
    Karen Junker
    www.CascadeWriters.com
    "Spend a passionate weekend with your muse!"

  8. #8
    New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin
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    Karen, hiring someone is not out of the ordinary. In fact, if you Google "Social Media Marketing," "Social Media Marketing Consultant," or any variation you will find plenty of businesses and individuals for hire that do exactly what you described in your first post.
    While Medievalist has valid points (and Hootsuite is fabulous), I just wanted to be sure you know that hiring someone is not unusual at all.

  9. #9
    What happened to my LIFE?! Skyraven's Avatar
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    Hi Karen. I just saw this and wondered if you're still interested in having help for your twitter and blogposts? If you are, feel free to email me at Hzalamar@gmail.com. You can check out my portfolio here. Hope to hear from you soon.

    Heiddi
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  10. #10
    An Author in Search of a Plot Catadmin's Avatar
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    Skyraven,

    Karen listed an email address in her first post. If you really want the job, you should be emailing her, not requesting that she email you.
    Brandie Tarvin
    Urania Publication Coordinator, Musa Publishing
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  11. #11
    What happened to my LIFE?! Skyraven's Avatar
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    Hi Catadmin, thanks. I didn't read Karen's post closely.
    Heiddi

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  12. #12
    Complete NEWBIE crazywritingmom's Avatar
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    Are you still looking for someone? I'd be up for the job.

    PM me if it's still available.

    On Amazon
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    Life According to Julie: Way Too Honest For My Own Good.

  13. #13
    practical experience, FTW CrystalCierlak's Avatar
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    Just wanted to jump in and say it is COMPLETELY NORMAL to want to hire someone to do your social media for you. I study it extensively as a media psych grad student and I have to say that what the OP is doing is nothing out of the ordinary. Naysayers be damned.

  14. #14
    Live a little. Write a lot. Karen Junker's Avatar
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    I just wanted to come back in and thank everyone who has contacted me about this job. We have decided to postpone hiring anyone for the time being--we are a small nonprofit and we need to make sure we have it in our budget to pay a marketing person. After our meeting in July, we will know more.

    Upon reading Medievalist's posts, I tried using Twitter on my own. I now have 940 followers and I think I can point to at least two people who have registered for our workshop as a result of hearing about us in that medium. We'd love to continue that kind of posting/response.

    Thanks again for all your help.
    Karen Junker
    www.CascadeWriters.com
    "Spend a passionate weekend with your muse!"

  15. #15
    waxing digital artistic Gale Haut's Avatar
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    I know this isn't technically a discussion thread, but I would just like chime in for a sec.

    The company I work for has a contracted communications specialist who works the social media side of of ours and several other local businesses to great succes. In combination with my own and the work of our marketing director we have a very large following for the area up in the thousands.

    That said, Medi is right that your own voice is going to have to be a key part of this. Having someone help you focus and optimize your use of social media tools should not be an excuse to not be involved, IMO.

    I wish you the best with this.

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