Social media – Clare O'Dea

For the past month, I’ve been experimenting on social media by posting videos on a regular basis. I’d been threatening to do this for a while but something* always held me back. Fourteen reels later, I am still finding my feet and trying to figure out the point of it all.

Among the videos I’ve shared are a couple of informative chats about the Swiss German dialect. These were instant ‘hits’ with views in the thousands and friendly reactions. I couldn’t believe that I was able to reach that many people so quickly. I think if your topic is clear, you will be matched with the right audience for that topic. I’m still playing around with topics.

I did two short readings from Before the Leaves Fall and these did not get people excited. Direct communication seems to be what people respond to. Especially if you have some news. A post I did about The Naked Irish going out of print was popular. It was lovely to hear from people who had read and appreciated the book.

In another reel, filmed when it was about 30 degrees at 8pm, I explained the link between Voting Day and Before the Leaves Fall. The novels are set 60 years apart with the two youngest characters in Voting Day, Ruedi and Margrit, returning in their old age as the main characters of Before the Leaves Fall.

It’s been fun filming these videos and figuring out the technical challenges. My videos are far from slick but I like coming up with ideas and I’ve got quicker at putting everything together. But why am I actually doing it?

Partly for the same reason I started writing this blog 13 years ago. It’s an outlet, a channel of communication and a record of what’s happening in my writing life. I enjoy seeing what others are doing so why not add my own drop to the never-ending flood of content.

It’s also a way of pushing back against obscurity – in the knowledge that no-one else will do this for me. In my day job working for a Swiss book wholesaler, I see the conveyor belt of new titles speeding along faster than readers and booksellers can keep up with. People won’t stumble across my book unless I put it in their path to trip over.

For authors published by small presses, if you want your book to have a long tail, ie. not disappear from sight completely, you need to stay active in different ways. Social media is one channel that I can control – and it’s free. I’ve enjoyed this month of producing content and I plan to keep going for now.

These videos are light in nature. They only show a slice of my life but they do reflect that fact that I am living through a tranquil phase and I am very grateful for that. I know that there is no escaping the vicissitudes of life, which makes the good times all the more precious.

If you’re not following me already, drop by and say hello on Instagram. And if you have any gentle feedback on which reels work best or ideas of new things to try, do let me know.

*actually many things held me back, probably the same things that hold many people back. They may also kick in again any time: low or fragile mood, discomfort about my appearance, lack of inspiration, fear of being seen to be foolish, a desire for privacy, distrust and dislike of social media companies – the list is long!

I’m not just a late adopter, I’m a reluctant one. If I’d been around in the 1920s, I probably would only have only learned the steps for the Charleston in 1931. It took a social media course at work for me to finally ‘join the conversation’ through gritted teeth last May. Turns out, like many arranged marriages, it was a good match after all.

Some see the service only as a glorified link-sharing platform or a place to let off steam, but it is much more than that. Twitter is a fantastic shortcut to good quality information. Through Twitter you borrow the eyes and ears of the people you find most interesting, important or fun. I think of it as a never-ending group discussion, like sitting around with a bunch of people making scrapbooks from a pile of global content. They’re pasting news reports, research findings, events, reviews, blog posts, videos, photos, personal observations and witty one-liners into their scrapbooks, pointing out each item to you as they go along. It’s a way of sharing passions and you can join or leave the feast at any time. For me that’s been invigorating, it has fed into my work on the journalism side as well as my creative writing.

Without Twitter I would not have:
1. Entered a flash fiction story for the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology yesterday because I wouldn’t have heard of it without following Irish writer @NualaNiC (Nuala Ní Chonchúir)
2. Interviewed @AlaindeBotton in Basel on Wednesday (all arranged last minute on Twitter, more about that next week)
3. Written articles about women’s issues in Switzerland in response to Anne Marie Slaughter’s @SlaughterAM having-it-all essay.

Twitter is all things to all (wo)men. The Twitterati I follow fall into three broad categories – news, countries and writing.

Twitter is a fabulous resource for people interested in a particular region or country. It has helped me feel much more present in Ireland. From small things, like hearing a pub I used to work in burned down, to big things like the current abortion debate, I get a sense of being around again. Don’t worry there’s lots of good stuff too, like the pictures of sunrises in Sandycove posted by @blathnaidhealy.

On the ground
There’s a thrill to be had following a dynamic developing story on Twitter. You don’t have to wait for the reporter to come out of the court for his or her piece to camera. Follow the right person (like BBC Africa Correspondent Andrew Harding @BBCAndrewH at the Pistorius trial) and you can get the action line by line as it happens.

Of course with an unfolding story, information has to be handled with care. One tweet during the Boston manhunt said it all (I’m paraphrasing here): “Faced with this barrage of confusing and conflicting information, I just wish there was a printed summary of all the verified facts available the next day.”

There’s so much to say about the writing community on Twitter that I’ll have to put it in another post. For emerging writers Twitter is Open University meets support group. Check it out for yourself!

Share this:

Share this: