5 Social Media Mistakes for Writers

Writing on social media is a whole other animal than writing books. So no wonder so many writers put off building their social media following...self included.

In 2023, it became unavoidable for me in my ghostwriting/book coaching business. One of my business pipelines had disappeared overnight when the publisher imploded. The other one dried up for about six months, bringing me no new contracts.

So I decided to give LinkedIn a real try. I even paid for a course from a LinkedInfluencer to learn the basics and get myself going. And even though I'm still far from an influencer and I've only landed a handful of clients through LinkedIn, it's definitely been worth the effort.

I've had multiple clients tell me, "I looked you up on LinkedIn" and then go on to hire me. I've also gone from having a few hundred contacts to having over 7,500 followers. Again, not guru status, but definitely better than my 600-ish followers on Instagram.

Which, speaking of, I recently decided to branch out more into places like Instagram and TikTok, with some limited success. I need better systems for those platforms to keep me consistent, but I've learned a ton by experimenting with different types of posts.

Learn from my mistakes, though.

5 Mistakes. 5 Lessons.

Mistake 1: Trying to Be Everywhere

I wish I could say this is a mistake I've fully learned from but it's not. Back in May/June, I challenged myself to post a video for 30 days straight across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. On top of my regular LinkedIn posts.

The exercise was great for getting me to learn and see how each platform behaves differently even with the same video. But I also burned out. Life got lifey and my batch content creation time on Sundays disappeared, so that I couldn't keep up.

The reason I've grown on LinkedIn is because I didn't try to be everywhere. I learned one platform and focused my attention there.

But eventually, I fell into the trap of "Oh, now I need a Substack. Oh, now I need Threads. Oh, now I need a YouTube..."

You're better off finding one or two platforms that you really like and focusing your attention there. Once you get more comfortable, sure, you can try branching out. But don't be afraid to scale back again if it becomes too much.

Social media can turn into a full-time job if you let it. And there's only so much you can automate and pre-plan if you want to remain relevant so that the algorithm helps you out.

Don't be tempted to post everywhere. Find one or two you really like. Be consistent. [And don't join Threads.]

Mistake 2: Trying to Make Others Happy

Part of why social media can become so toxic is because being divisive drives engagement. One of my LinkedIn buddies who can now call himself and influencer even admitted this on a call with me:

"I don't even fully agree with myself on everything I post. But I know it will get clicks and comments. And that's my only goal."

To his point, though, trying to make everyone happy is a fool's errand. You'll always have people who misunderstand your posts because they don't really read it and because they have their own issues.

If you want to grow, you'll have to become comfortable with people misunderstand you and outright attacking you. In fact, if you don't have the occasional unhappy commenter, then you're probably not doing something right.

I learned that firsthand with my first LinkedIn post that broke 100,000 impressions and then again on Instagram when one of my videos got over 100,000 views [half as regular reel, the other half as a trial reel]. You'll always have a few people in the mix who want to crap on whatever you have to say because that's the only way they know how to get attention.

So you have a choice:

(a) Be so vanilla that no one ever disagrees with you but you probably won't grow.

(b) Choose your strong stances and where you'll push the envelope but be ready for the pushback.

As a reforming People Pleaser, I tried (a) for a long time. It doesn't work. But (b) works. You just have to ignore the Negative Nancys. [apologies to any positive Nancys out there.]

Which leads us to...

Mistake 3: Arguing Back

When you get pushback on social media, there's a temptation to assert yourself. To fight back. To show that they are the one in the wrong.

It's mostly a waste of effort. You're better off ignoring those people because all they want is the attention anyway. One-third of them are rage-baiting. One-third didn't really read your post. And one-third will just never agree no matter what.

I use 3 approaches when someone pushes back on social media:

1) Ignore. Especially when I can tell they just don't understand the post or are rage-baiting me.

2) Acknowledge the Nuance. Sometimes people make a good point. Even one I agree with. But social media posts packed with nuance don't do well. So I'll often chime in and say, "I totally agree. There are exceptions/nuances to this like anything in life. Appreciate you mentioning that."

This works best when the person isn't in attack mode but just presenting their POV. I'm always open to dialogue and respectful disagreement.

3) Ask for Their Feedback. This is my absolute favorite. When someone comes at you, instead of arguing back, you ask them for their idea or their take. 99.9% of the time, they don't have one. Because they don't actually have any ideas...they just want to attack yours.

I had this happen on LinkedIn one time where a commenter called my post "a weak take." I commented back that "I'm always open to hear a stronger take. What's yours?" And sure enough, he never replied. Which means my take wasn't really weak, and I'd subtly called him out on it without making myself look defensive.

BTW, I learned this one from my wife back when she was promoting her own book on Instagram. She often got attack comments about her book and when she started asking for people to chime in with their idea/solution, they always went immediately silent.

Mistake 4: Ignoring Virality

For a while, I wore a badge of honor that sounded like this: "I don't care about going viral."

The problem is that it's much more of a flex than it is true. When people say they don't care about going viral, it's usually more to make themselves feel better about low numbers than doing the hard work to get those numbers up. [speaking from experience...]

That said, virality isn't everything. I've had a couple of posts go "mini-viral." Not millions of views, but in the 100,000+ range. Not one of those has brought me business directly.

But they did bring me more attention and more followers. And online, follower count = credibility. Don't argue otherwise. You know that when you click on someone's profile, your eyes go right to that follower count to see "how legit" they really are.

Not every post can go viral, and you don't want every post to go viral. But you can't grow if you don't pay attention to what works. Now that I've had a handful of posts go bigger, I'm trying to reverse-engineer what I did that worked. Sometimes the post is a one-off, but you can still learn something.

With my Instagram post that blew up, it was a few things:

1) I complained about AI [hot topic for fellow writers and readers]

2) I used a video where I showed emotion [ugh...so annoying that the stupid "reaction" type video actually works...]

3) It was a mix of BTS and education

Though I'm letting Instagram take a backseat for now [see Mistake 1], these lessons aren't isolated to Instagram itself. Now I'm looking at how I can use them in my other content to make sure I reach new eyes and gain more followers. Because in the long run, learning how to be more viral and reach new people matters when you're trying to market your book or your freelance services.

Mistake 5: Trying to Shortcut Success

Everywhere you look online, there's some guru trying to sell you a way to shortcut your way to success. They're pitching a program or a tool and even have reviews "from real users" claiming success. But, of course, they also have the fine print "results not typical" tucked away at the bottom of the post.

But let's talk about one of the most tempting on social media: Paying to boost the post.

If you're still early in your social growth, there's little reason to pay for your post to be boosted.

I've done this a few times, both on LinkedIn and Instagram. And guess what? Paying to boost your post doesn't help as much as the gurus want you to believe. You get a sight dopamine boost...but usually few results.

At first, I thought boosting was helping me on Instagram because I gained 100 new followers in a single weekend. "Wow, this actually works!" But the problem with ads is that once the platform knows you have money to spend, they want you to keep spending to get the same results. [they treat you like a drug addict.]

Once I ended the campaigns and stopped paying, my reach stunk for weeks afterwards. The algorithm wanted me to go into withdrawals and then cave in by spending more on boosting another post.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't ever boost a post. But paying to boost [or running ads on Amazon] should add fuel to the fire, not start the fire. If you try to start your growth by paying your way there, you'll quickly fizzle out. If you grow organically and THEN add fuel once you've got some results, it's a different story.

There are other shortcuts people try: AI-generated ads, apps that will "sell your book for you," and scammers claiming to be literary agents or publishers who will "make your book a bestseller!" [liars]

Deep down, we all know the truth, though. There is no such thing as overnight success. No shortcut. Yes, you need talent, but you also need dedication, consistency, and a willingness to create your own opportunities. Shortcuts promise opportunities but they always fail to deliver.

Social media success can feel super-elusive and impossible. Especially if you'd rather be spending your time writing and editing [hi], or if you're camera shy [also me]. But success has always depended on some level of visibility. And we live in a really interesting time when we can create so much of our own visibility.

I've made all these mistakes [plus some], but you don't have to. Learn and do better. Oh, and see my social links in the footer if you want to follow a totally chopped, forty-something Disney adult whose writing and reading taste is all over the board.