If you use twitter, you may find that you quickly become overwhelmed by the number of people following you. Now here’s the problem — you need to follow people to build followers, but if someone follows you and you don’t follow back, they may stop following you. There’s a “politeness” in the twitterverse that comes [...]
Posts by tm.smith:
Jun 02 2011
How many social network friends can you handle
There are two interesting bits of news going on this week that should be of interest to bloggers and perhaps anyone who uses social networking. The first article was a bit of academic type news that said that studies have shown that humans can really only handle a social network of about 200 people. Now [...]
May 26 2011
When do I find time to write
I’ve come across this question on yet another writing group site. It seems to be one of the most common questions out there asked by those who strive to be writers — “when do you find time to write” or “how do you find time to write.” Now here’s something to think about. My brother [...]
May 19 2011
Group tasks for focus
So you’ve started your blog with lots of energy and put up some posts and set your goals. And then you realize something. Blogging is taking more time than you expected. Suddenly this hobby or freelance job becomes a drain instead of an exciting way to bring in some money. We all want to be [...]
May 10 2011
Is blogging dead?
I recently ran into a writer who was frustrated because he kept seeing advice for authors to have blogs when his writing professor had confidently told his class that blogging was dead. You know, sometimes even professors get it wrong. But the professor isn’t the only one to predict that social networking sites will completely [...]
May 05 2011
The content provider debate
The internet has created a trend – content providers. Now, this isn’t really a bad trend or a new trend. After all, journalists are content providers for newpapers and magazines. And, yes, they are content providers who often write according to assigned topics (or breaking news) rather than focusing in on topics of personal interest. [...]
Apr 21 2011
I’m technology dependent
Today is a difficult day for me. I’ve become dependent on a number of tools to help me get work done and particularly to manage my social media needs. I blog, I write articles and I’m an author. I use Twitter as a quick way to interact with others, let people know when I’ve written [...]
Apr 14 2011
Copyright in the digital age
Today I want to address a complicated and issue – copyright. I’ve found that many bloggers and others often misunderstand the copyright issue and in fact often confuse copyright with plagiarism. Not understanding can lead to actual legal problems. First I’m going to look at plagiarism because it is the easier topic for most people [...]
Apr 06 2011
Are you making use of Twitter hash tags
I’ve discovered that some writers around me are still unfamiliar with Twitter and don’t grasp how to use Twitter. This amuses me because often these writers are actually younger than I am. There seems to be a sort of “I’m above Twitter” attitude that the younger writers have while the older crowd is more inclined [...]
Mar 31 2011
Write shorter emails
You know what social media on the web may have taught us — shorter can be better. Look at twitter. I love twitter. I can keep up with hundreds of my fellow writers, everyone from professionals to friends. And the reason I can do that is because twitter restricts them to 140 characters. The site [...]