You Are the Media! Now Shake It Up!

You are the media.

Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself in that way, but if you have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and Instagram account, etc., you are the media.

As such, you’re either contributing to the collective noise (which exhausts and annoys us all) OR offering interesting content of value to your audience.

There are only two elements that make or break great content: what you say and how you say it. We’ve written a lot about the first element. Today, we’ll tackle the second. There are so many media formats at your fingertips. Use them. It will quickly improve engagement with your social content. Over time, this will have a very positive impact on your ability to build a fan base for your work.

So which media formats can you use to make your content stand out? Here are 4 ideas:

• Video—It’s fastest growing content medium on the planet…and, good news…it has never been easier to create and share videos. Use your smartphone. Keep your videos short—30-60 seconds. Here are some video ideas: Have a friend ask you 3 questions about why you became a writer, read an excerpt from your book, film yourself writing and put it to music, make a video montage of the things that inspire your creativity, make your own video book trailer. There are loads of new apps to help you produce great videos quickly and inexpensively. Just Google it.
• Audio—As with video, smartphones have made it very easy to create and share audio clips. Consider a sharing morning coffee with your readers once a week (begin with sound of pouring coffee, share your mood and what you’ll be working on for the day). Or how about sharing a music clip that you think would complement the story in your latest book? If you write horror, do something spooky. If you write comedy, create a humorous audio clip. If you write literature, share something elegant and cerebral. Be creative. Experiment. Have fun with it.
• Photos and images—With millions of social posts each day, visuals are no longer a nicety, they are required. According to Twitter, posts with visuals receive a 35% boost in retweets. Use photos and images to participate in popular memes. Share a childhood photo along with the popular hashtag #ThrowbackThursday. Take a nature photo and put a quote from your favorite writer on top of it. Apps like canva.com make sizing photos and adding text and interesting filters simple. If you write nonfiction, infographics are a very popular form of visual content. The key is NEVER share a post without a photo or an images. In today’s hyper-visual world, no one will notice your content without a photo or image.
• GIFs—I’m not going to spend too much time on this medium, but GIFs are a popular and easy way to capture and express an emotion in very short video that loops. Experiencing writers block? Share your frustration with a GIF of someone twiddling their thumbs or banging their head against the wall in frustration. Had a breakthrough moment? Create a mind blowing GIF—animation might be fun for this. There are tons of stock GIFs, so you don’t have to create your own—though you can add your own text on top of a GIF.
• Book Bubbles—Last, but definitely not least, Bublish’s book bubbles make it easy for you to use the written word AND visuals to share the stories behind your stories. Choose a great excerpt from your book and then use your book bubble’s Author Insight to explain how you created the scene or the characters or the dialogue…or share what inspired these things. Engage readers in your creative process. Readers spend more than 3 minutes browsing a bubble. That’s a lifetime for social content! Use that time to capture their imagination and take them on an emotional journey into your writing world.

Don’t forget to write a book bubble for Bublish’s Weekend Reader Marathon and Floating Bookstore. To participate in this weekend’s events, just publish a bubble by Friday at noon. All book bubbles created this week are automatically included. If you’ve never tried Bublish, head over to bublish.com and start a free trial. There’s no obligation. We don’t even take your credit card. Happy bublishing everyone!

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You are the media.

Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself in that way, but if you have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and Instagram account, etc., you are the media.

As such, you’re either contributing to the collective noise (which exhausts and annoys us all) OR offering interesting content of value to your audience.

There are only two elements that make or break great content: what you say and how you say it. I’ve written a lot about the first element. Today, I’d like to tackle the second. There are so many media formats at your fingertips. Use them. It will quickly improve engagement with your social content. Over time, this will have a very positive impact on your ability to build a fan base for your work.

So what media formats can you use to make your content stand out. Here are 4 ide

Don’t forget to write a book bubble for Bublish’s Weekend Reader Marathon and Floating Bookstore. To participate in this weekend’s events, just publish a bubble by tomorrow(5/18) at noon. All book bubbles created this week are automatically included. If you’ve never tried Bublish, head over to bublish.com and start a free trial. There’s no obligation. We don’t even take your credit card.