Chapter One: Understand Your Target Audience

January 24, 2019 · 6 Comments

chapter one understanding your audience via wit and travesty

Hello readers and writers! You are reading chapter one of my upcoming e-book [title pending]. Please enjoy these tips for the writer hoping to master Instagram to find readers and sell some books.

If you want a more positive, effective approach to understanding your audience, then this chapter is just for you. You will learn my basics for determining your audience and how to encourage that relationship to become mutual.

Creating a social media platform from scratch can be frustrating, overwhelming, and draining. I’ve heard some extreme stories—where a platform becomes the creator’s new life; they’re looking each day for something to post and talk about to the point that their every day is restructured around what will satisfy this beast that is their audience.

Luckily, this example is bonkers and you don’t have to approach social media that way.

Understand that your target audience is not a relentless feeding session. Instead, consider the process the same way you would make a new friend. Whether you’re extroverted or introverted, we often do the same thing when making a friend: we start by sharing an “acceptable” part of ourselves, and we tend to share things about us that attract people that have common ground and enrich our lives.

Try to approach social media the same way—otherwise it can feel like a major drain of your time, your health, and your energy.

Why Are You Using Instagram?

This is an honest question we should all ask to start with. If you’re going to spend all this time and effort to use the platform, it should be clear what you want. Many of us would love some likes and comments. But is that what you actually want? As a writer, you likely want to make money off of your writing. Thus, you should use Instagram to springboard your followers towards your website or product page.

When you acknowledge what you want, then everything about your platform changes from a typical social media account. It chiefly changes how you present yourself and what you share with your future fans. Instead of saying “audience,” we will use “future fans.” See, we’ve already switched our mindset from “followers”—super vague—to future fans. That’s what you’re looking for and you’re not really interested in anything else.

When you know what you want your future fans to do, it’s time to establish a call to action and make it deliberate and clear. Be careful; there is a sweet spot between spamming your followers and being wishy-washy. It only takes someone a few seconds to know whether they should follow you or not, so use that first impression to let them know what you post and why they need it.

You can make this clear through your profile picture, your bio, your bio link, your photos, captions, and your username.

Who Are Your Future Fans?

Everything you post should basically convince your following to buy your book or hire you. Again, that’s what you want, so there’s no point in feeling icky about that.

It’s ideal to really think about your audience before you consider what to post. What’s their age range? What’s their budget? What do they look like? What are their values? What’s their favorite genre? There are a lot of easily accessible templates out there with different questions to ask yourself, but the idea is to construct your ideal future fan.

You can’t please every demographic. In fact, it’s just as important to identify who IS NOT your audience. Not everyone will like or buy your work. Eventually every entrepreneur understands this. That means that your efforts should be focused on attracting your ideal audience and not worrying about the others that don’t fit that niche.

Your future fan should also be your ideal fan. Marketing sure would be miserable if you have to arm wrestle them into liking you and your books. Your ideal audience for example loves to read and wants to read as many books as possible. They also invest a lot of their money into books and don’t balk at reasonable prices. They also adore the book cover and absolutely want to share their recent purchase on their own feed.

I hope you see the balance here between hitting your readers’ sweet spots and being true to yourself. It’s actually really liberating to remember that you don’t need to please millions of people; you just need to please the select few who are willing and ready to buy.

Dream big, writer. I know you already do, but dream big about who your future fans are and how you can create an instant connection.

What Will Attract Your Future Fans?

Okay, so once you are super in love with your future fans, you should next understand how your audience uses Instagram. AKA, you need to create a list of the types of posts that will catch their eye. So what would catch the eye of an eager reader?

A reader might rather look for upcoming books and matching merch, especially if they’re a budding bookstagrammer. They might also want to know about your publishing journey and how they can navigate their own. You can basically ask yourself “If I were a fan of my book, what would I click on?”

What if you’re unsure of what to post? You can start by looking at your own feed. Do you gravitate towards blog posts, giveaways, freebies, pretty book covers, author updates, sales, or merch? There is still something to share even if you don’t have a product yet.

I spent 4 years promoting a book that wasn’t published. I did this by sharing parts of the writing and publishing process in a way that translated well for my target audience. I also watched what other writers shared. I didn’t copy them but I basically looked at what they were contributing to the industry and determined what I could specifically contribute. That’s how I started sharing a lot more about my mental health journey; I wasn’t seeing it enough and I wanted to put something out there that my ideal audience would need.

Get Ready to Give the People What They Want

As Lucia Pador teaches, when you create a brand, you often tell a story. Your brand is that story of how you learned about your passion and how you turned it into a career. The story is also what the reader is going through and how you can help them be better or happier. I know you feel like a drop in the bucket of aspiring writers, but it’s possible to stand out and find the people who are ready for you and your books.

Let’s go back to the friendship-building concept. I hope you see that thinking about your audience as future fans or friends helps you realize that you don’t have to show up to social media in a skin suit disguise in order for people to like you. I want you to consider the idea that people out there already jive with you—you just haven’t been properly introduced yet.

My chief goal is to ensure that you are participating in your own promotion process with the agency, creativity, and fun that you already possess. Just a few moments of pondering can lead to a full year of content ideas, inspiration, and focus.

Quick Recap:

Consider your followers a future friend or a potential friend.
Make it easy for future fans to know what to expect
Understand what your audience needs or why they use Instagram
Create a plan of what to share based on how you can cater to their wants and needs

Resources:

There you go! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please give me your suggestions of what you’d like to see in future chapters. Or, tell me what I missed in this chapter; did you have more questions? Contact me or comment below. Thanks, friends!

How to Be Super Bold, Brave & Vulnerable Online

November 12, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Many of you know me as the writer who is super open, super brave, and super real. I know because you told me so! I am happy to be that over-sharer because I know it helps at least one person—and most of the time, that’s me. Writing is a way for me to explore what I’m feeling and what I’m going to do about it. Thus, I highly recommend this if you’re ever feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, or any other unpleasant feeling.

But how do you go from being “normal” to talking about the hard, real stuff? In the spirit of transparency, I’m sharing the steps I take long before my posts go live.

Free Write All the Feels

Before I post anything, I free write. This is the most healing part about being vulnerable. When I free write, I’m able to stare at my problems or my worldviews in the face. This is how I identify things that are bugging me by just writing down or saying everything that comes to mind. I go as honest as possible and I don’t edit myself. I’m pretty wordy and so this exercise could be up to 1000 words of word vomit. Either way, I just let myself be honest with myself about what’s on my mind and why it won’t leave me alone.

If you’re wondering where to start, just go with “Why” questions. Why are you anxious, upset, mad, stressed, happy, excited, or conflicted? Keep asking why until you get to the kernel of truth hidden underneath.

Understand the Point of Sharing

Sharing your weaknesses and failures is embarrassing. After all, I’m using social media to sell my books; that’s not really a surprise if you scroll long enough. I remember the first time using my tinest voice to say “I don’t write every day.” I thought it would turn people off or make me look like a terrible writer. Why buy a book from someone who isn’t 100% enthusiastic about their book?

But is the reading community really that harsh? Not really.

Ever since I started being honest, I’ve seen whole blog posts, Twitter threads, and more where writers say the same thing. (This isn’t because of me; I just noticed this more.) They lost someone close to them. Being a new parent is hard. They lost interest in their novel and scrapped the whole thing. They’re depressed. Everyone is going through a hard time, but those writers chose to come clean and say “I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to write when life is still happening in the background.” I was inspired by that and knew I wanted to contribute to that trend of transparency and community.

For example, how many of you are currently behind on NaNoWriMo? At any given moment, I’m likely behind a few thousand words. But how normal is it to mention that? I’ve noticed it’s become much more mainstream to do so—to the point where writers don’t care if they’re behind, never finished, or never started. Think of the pressure we can take off our backs when we collectively raise our hands and say “I struggle, too.”

I say all of this to conclude that there is a point to being transparent. The ball is in your court to decide if the thoughts on your mind will help or hinder your journey.

Pick Out the Points that Speak to Your Audience

Next, I shorten down my thoughts to something that fits the social media platforms of choice. I usually take to Facebook to talk about politics and I go to Instagram to talk about body positivity, mental health, and more. Sometimes I go to Twitter but I don’t get a lot of feedback; I might save my Big Thoughts for when I have a more established following.

Anyway, if I realize something fits in these major categories, I pick out my most important points. I’m pretty guilty of writing lengthy Facebook essays/think pieces, so I’m always trying to be as concise as possible.

I know how to pick out these points by considering my audience. On Instagram, I’m mainly talking to IRL friends and my dear online writing friends. They generally empathize with me and have shared kind messages in the past. It’s like sending some texts to a close friend when I’m lost in my self-doubt and I need someone to pull me out.

Conversely, I’ve learned that my personal Facebook account has a bit more of a diverse audience. These are all people I know in real life. Over time, I’ve learned that my friends and family members want to talk about politics or current events but we might disagree on certain points. I’ve been able to find the middle ground of addressing an audience that generally supports me but also doesn’t hesitate to push back. It has taught me to present my viewpoints much more logically with resources and paired with a solution. I rarely use FB to rant anymore because I know as an FB user, I gravitate towards people who provide empowerment, facts from multiple sources, and reasonable solutions.

Keep the Rest Private

As you’re picking out what will jive with your audience, consider what you’ll keep private. While I myself am an open book, you have the choice to keep things personal, too. Often to prove a point, I might go off-topic or I might have thoughts that are too sharp for my audience. Yeah, there are a lot of things about politics or societal views that make me really angry, but I know that telling people how to think or change is not how things go my way. It’s also hateful and divisive and that’s not my mission when I share my thoughts and experiences. I share these views with my husband, a close friend, or no one at all.

Also, you don’t have to share every single feeling you have—good or bad. You don’t owe the general public such an intimate view of your life. I have way more high points and low points than what I share online. I mainly choose to share when I feel like writing on the topic will help me or another person.

Get a Second Pair of Eyes on Your Post

Regardless of how extroverted you are, it never hurts to get a second opinion to read your post. I do this a lot with Travis because when I’m talking politics, I want to be accurate, uplifting, and confident. If I’m sharing stuff I’ve learned from therapy or personal experience, I want it to be concise, helpful, and hopeful. What am I mainly looking for?:

Does this encourage inclusion and solidarity?
Am I being honest?
Does this nurture my mental health?
Am I being passionate as opposed to angry?
How would I want my audience to ideally react?
Have I done enough adequate research or soul-searching?
Has someone else said this shorter? (Should I re-share that instead?)

Looking back, I’m not sure if I’ve always kept my own rules, but having them has improved my online sharing methods. I know that if my intentions are in the right direction, I can afford to share my thoughts without being angry, whiny, destructive, counter-productive, or a burden.

Take the Leap & Share

The scariest posts I’ve shared have gotten the most love. And often, it’s because I go with my Gryffindor gut and just share without asking anyone if it’s okay or not. I just do it.

This takes me back to early July where I was really struggling as a newly-minted published author. I broke my own author rules and obsessed over some negative book reviews. I knew I needed to get out of the house and spend time with a good friend or else I would get stuck in a terrible cycle of self-hate and anguish. This was after free writing, talking to Travis, calling my dad, and crying without inhibition.

When I thought I had no more tears left to shed, I took to my Instagram stories to share some unfiltered thoughts, knowing that some of the people that left those reviews would be able to see my raw emotion. I didn’t necessarily cry but I had heavy emotion in my voice. My eyes were swollen from crying, I wasn’t wearing makeup, and it was late at night so the lighting was bad. It probably looked like a real cry for help. I re-watched each story segment on my phone before publishing them and it hurt to watch myself try to put to words the disappointment and anxiety I felt.

I chose to share all that because I’ve never seen that before on social media. Everyone else seems to take their trials with stride and here I was falling apart and really questioning my right to call myself a writer. So, I thought that I would be the first to share such a real dialogue. It’s the hard part about being the change you want to see.

Y’all, the heavy feelings were overpowered by the texts, messages, and calls that I received as the story was available for 24 hours. At first, I was embarrassed because it meant a lot of people saw it. I always forget how public I am now but there were so many people that felt moved enough to respond. Most of my writing friends responded with all the right words I needed to hear. And they felt comfortable sharing their personal experiences.

Taking the leap is scary. But so many of you follow me or want to hear from me because I’m willing to take that leap. And to me, that trust and support make it worth it.

Document the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens

Be consistent about whatever life throws at you. People often obsess with their “brand” or online persona to the point where they change their own life to fit with their ideal online life. Many of you take a break from social media because you consume so much of those posed and doctored photos of someone else’s glamorous life. You wonder what you’re doing wrong and thus avoid social media to put an end to the terrible comparisons.

Thus, with great social media platforms comes great responsibility.

If your output is fairly balanced with the ups, downs, and the middles, you can see your progress as a writer and a human. If I only share the heavy, honest stuff, I could easily feel like my mental health isn’t improving. Conversely, if I’m only happy, then I don’t feel like I’m completely honest or I’m holding myself to an unrealistic standard. Being real with all the things has been really freeing to me. I enjoy the good times more and endure the bad times better.

Respond to All the Comments

The general point of posting is to get all those great comments, right? Like, how depressing is it when you bare your soul and it seems like no one saw or care? That happened a lot at first, honestly. Once I responded thoughtfully to all my comments, I grew in my confidence to share bigger and bolder feelings. Even if everyone is saying roughly the same thing (“Hope you feel better!” “You got this, girl!”), it pays to respond with something more substantial. My favorite thing is to thank the person for commenting, and then I refer to another time they helped me with a similar struggle. It’s win-win, trust me.

My main drive is to put myself out there so when it’s my turn to fall or trip, I can rely on a few other friends to help me up. If I don’t reply to the nice people stopping to read my posts, then I’m not really fostering community, am I? Remember, sharing the big stuff isn’t about getting likes or comments; otherwise your post might not be as genuine as you think. People are watching what you say and don’t say, so choose to be consistent with how you interact with people online; it’s the slow and steady way to find the place where you belong.

Well, I think that about covers it! What are your methods for knowing when to share the tough stuff? Have you had good experiences with it? I hope this piece resonates with you in some way so you know that you’re not alone and someone out there understands a part of what you’re feeling.

Do you want more of this kind of content in your life? If you’d like to get more behind-the-scenes content, updates, mental health tips, and more, be sure to sign up for the Wit & Travesty newsletter! Click here or the image below to start getting monthly doses of self-care, writing advice, and friendship!

How You Can Balance Writing & Exercise

September 19, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I started working out regularly in high school because it seemed like that’s what everyone else did. Nearly all of my kids did a sport of some kind, and both of my parents have always been super active, so I fell in line.

What used to be an activity I did out of fear, I now do it out of fun and fulfillment. Can you say the same? I’m writing this post because I imagine each of you have one good habit nailed down and you wish you could add more good habits. For me, I am much more diligent with exercising than writing. Going without movement for a week sounds terrible to me, but pretty normal in regards to writing.

So while I’m reading your posts about setting a good writing regimen, I’ve got some ideas for how to add more exercise into your life. This goes out to anyone who feels like they have zero time for exercise—or they do make time for it and hate it.

Set your own expectations

As you might’ve guessed, every body is different. Thus everyone should have their own unique expectations for what is considered “healthy” for your body and your schedule. I want you to think about your expectations down to the bare basics: what do you want exercise to do for you? Try to eliminate as much outside bias as possible. Don’t work out because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do or you have to be a certain weight. Scratch all of that; otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and money reaching someone else’s goals.

Here are some examples of some goals my friends have in regards to exercise:

The ability to do a head stand
Do a proper plank
Live longer
Have more gratitude
Be strong enough for pole dancing
Eat whatever they want
To have more fun with their kids
Participate in competitions
Avoid hereditary setbacks
Have a moment for themselves
Be more flexible

Ultimately, your goals and expectations should be exciting and motivating. What’s a form of movement that you would actually look forward to: swimming, martial arts, dancing, yoga, playing Pokemon Go? Could you see yourself doing any of these activities for the rest of your life and feel happy?

Follow your own definition of health

Once you have a goal, it’s time to change more than just your schedule. Exercise may come with a lot of baggage. We all have different ideas of what constitutes “health” and for a long time I tried desperately to fit into other people’s ideas and definitions of “healthy.” Can anyone else relate? After working with a personal trainer for the past six months, I’ve learned better, correct, and healthy ways of gauging my progress. It took a lot of unlearning stuff that I just assumed about working out.

I hope the same for you. If you’ve avoided exercise because of bullying, negative body image, or whatever life has thrown at you, it’s possible to give yourself a fresh start by having a healthy outlook on health.

Still, don’t be surprised that it’s still hard and frustrating. I have good gym days and rotten ones. Some days I feel like I’m putting out the maximum effort and yet I still feel bad about myself. Some days I just hug my body and think the best things and other days I can’t look at myself. Just like writing, you’ll have your ups and downs but if you remember why you wanted to exercise, it could motivate you to keep going and keep trying.

Use the same drive you have to write to exercise

If you already have a good writing schedule, then you likely already know how hard it is to consistently do an activity that no one is making you do. Writing and exercising are both activities that I plan on doing for the rest of my life regardless of the outcome. Since they’re both a lifestyle for me, I use my prioritizing skills for writing and exercising to ensure they both get adequate attention in my weekly schedule.

As a refresher, here are a few tips to help you fit exercise in your week without pushing other things out:

Work out on the days/hours of the day that you have energy
Don’t let other things take away from your exercise time
Exercise with other friends—specifically friends that have similar lifestyle goals
Let your body rest when you’re sick

I’m not sure if you use guilt or shame as a motivation to write (“I’m not a good writer if I skip a day”) but I’m just gonna go ahead and say that guilt and shame will get you in the gym but you won’t love it. Thus, I’d strongly recommend that you ease into your lifestyle goals rather than have the mentality of “starting Monday I’m going to do XYZ.” If you’re only exercising because you feel unnecessary and unsound pressure, then don’t. Only exercise if you enjoy it or you know you have the drive to reach a certain goal.

Let exercise help your writing

I know it’s probably unwise to suggest multitasking, but if you are strapped for time in a day, then you might be able to fit in some writing or researching time as you workout. Depending on what you do, you could use the time to think about a scene.

For example, if you’re on a treadmill, you can sort of let your mind wander and fill that time with some thoughts about your novel. If you bring paper and a pencil, you can record your thoughts. This is kind of like getting really good writing ideas while you’re in the shower except hopefully you’re not too wet from working out.

Exercise could also indirectly help you ensure your writing is realistic. Even if your character is in a fantasy setting, they’ll eventually break a sweat, right? Consider weightlifting. After a while, you’ll recognize how heavy 20, 50, or 70 pounds will feel. That might come in handy for something in any novel. You naturally learn a lot about the human body as you take care of yours, so you could learn other things such as what it feels like to pull a muscle, sustain an injury, or push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Well, I hope you don’t injure yourself in the gym for novel research!

But most importantly, let exercise free your brain. Your writing can often encompass a lot of your bandwidth. For me, I spend all day on a computer. After a full day of writing and editing, I often would rather do just about anything than write or read another word. That’s probably why I love exercising so much; it gives my brain a break and I genuinely feel happy after a good workout.

Satisfy your budget and schedule

Depending on your weekly schedule, exercise will likely only take up 3-5 extra hours in your week. I’d like to help you figure out how to make exercise work as much as possible with your budget or lifestyle.

If you don’t know where to begin, you can always get a trainer at a local gym. Like a therapist, you should pair up with someone who understands your goals and has an agreeable personality. I use a Health Savings Account (HSA) to cover my costs. If you have this kind of budget, it’s totally appropriate to use it to pay for personal training!

If you prefer to work out at your own pace, then you have a ton of resources online—anything from YouTube videos, workout videos, Just Dance, Pokemon Go, workout apps, and more.

You can even try one of those TV/movie workouts where you do a certain exercise every time a character does a very typical thing. An example would be doing 5 pushups anytime someone performs a spell in a Harry Potter movie, or 10 crunches anytime Malfoy uses the word “Mudblood.” That way you’re multitasking during an upcoming binge fest! You can find a lot of these on Pinterest if you’re not feeling particularly creative.

So that’s what I’ve got for today! I hope these tips help my fellow writers get more excited about exercise. If you have personal questions for me, hop over into the comments or on Instagram and I’ll help however I can.

Also, if you’d like to get more behind-the-scenes content, updates, and more, be sure to sign up for the Wit & Travesty newsletter! Click here or the image below to start getting monthly doses of self-care, writing advice, and friendship!

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