What Kristen Lamb said, and what I did about it

If you’re interested in writing and social media, you’ll know about Kristen Lamb – Author, Blogger and Social Media Jedi, in her own words. Indeed, according to her Amazon page she’s ‘the author of the top resource for author branding in the digital age’.

                                 

Fourteen months ago, Kristen was a special guest speaker at the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference in Rotorua. This is the tourist city in the centre of our North Island – an explosive place where the earth’s crust is very thin, and mud-pools plop and bubble, steam roars out of vents, and boiling water shoots into the air to alarming heights. If you visit, stick to the signposted paths!

Kristen spent all of Friday encouraging us to blog very frequently – three times a week was the magic number she’d settled on – and to make ourselves sound like real people. We could report a baking disaster (and follow it up with a little mention of our latest book.) We could talk about a family situation (and follow it up with a little mention of our latest book.) You see where I’m going with this?

She was a noisy, confident, engaging speaker, and plainly if she was a Social Media Jedi she knew more than me and I’d better give it a go. Oh sigh…