Filter Your Responses

Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. Today, we’re talking about how you should filter your responses on social media.
Social media can be an author’s best friend and a terrible trap waiting to be sprung. Unfortunately, social media is very much a part of an author’s life. You can’t just post “buy my book” links. You have to be a real human to those you are interacting with. But, you also have to be somewhat of a celebrity to these people too. That means you need to ensure what you post doesn’t offend your fan base.
This means staying away from potentially explosive posts. Even though the urge is strong to respond when you see inaccurate posts about political or other issues, you have to scroll past them. A single comment seen by a single fan can destroy most if not all of your readership.
The fact is that our fans don’t see us as people who may have differing opinions than theirs. All they know about us is what they learn from our books. We offer them some time away from their lives and give them some enjoyment. Their fervent belief is that we think the same way they do. In all honesty, authors are far different in the normal lives than what our fans see in our books, but because we enjoy our privacy we rarely let anyone see us beyond our public persona.
Your public persona is all you should present when you’re active on social media. That means not letting how you feel about politics or religion, current events or the current “story of the day” from the news media. By remaining silent about your opinions, you are allowing your fans to continue to believe you are much like they are. They’ll continue to read your books and write reviews about them.
But, if you do give in to the urge to respond to a potentially explosive post, and that urge can be very strong, you will find the repercussions to be like nothing you expected.
Some people will agree with you. They’ll rant and rave that the other side is wrong and you did the right thing posting what you did. There will be great feelings that your fans agree with what you had to say. Until, someone shows up to tell you what a jerk you are and how they thought you were such a sensitive artist. You’ll be very tempted to put that individual on the right track and if you do you’ll have created a lifelong enemy and lost a fan.
That might be the least of your worries. These disgruntled fans could very well take to your sales venues and place very negative reviews about your work. They’ll gather others who think like them and attack you at every opportunity. Soon, you’ll see your sales falling off drastically. You’re at a loss to explain this turn of events, until you remember that one post where you had very differing opinions.
At this point, you’ll be at a turning point. You can retreat from your position by remaining silent regarding all hot topics. That won’t bring back the angry readers but you may see a slight increase in sales, if you continue to remain middle of the road in what you talk about.
That might help you recover from the bump in the road your post caused. Or it might not. It all depends on you… on not getting involved with hot topic discussions, and remembering that even though you are the author, your readers are the ones who are important.


About the K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.
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