by Nosheen

Question that Every Writer Dreads

A simple (yet dreadful) question: Is what you write being read?

Before you blink and pass this one, let us assure you that every Seth Godin/ Steve Jobs and (oh how could we forget!) Mark Zuckerberg was anonymous at some point in their lives. So, its all good, you still have the ground under your feet and some really great potential to shake the same!

We’ve all been in and through a phase that meant no comment streams, no likes (off or on FB), no mentions and worse of all the ever so friggin demoralizing rhetorical question – is it even being read?

Pre- Socia Media B(l)oom!
Before the dawn of social media broke and down came the angels, read social media experts, parting the smokey clouds; we writers had no choice but to rely on our writing ability (or disability) to initiate that hard-to-get response from the reading tribe. Remember the time when you couldn’t tweet or viral your post and prayed to Apollo (Or may be that was just me :P) for sending your way some readers who understood you or what you wrote.

Times changed and became incredibly social and before we knew Facebook and Twitter made the dead and gone word-of-mouth strategy seem alive and kicking!

Living in the Social Media B(l)oom

Now that we’re part of the bubble, we ask the same dreadful question: Is it being read? Well if you’re again shirking away from the question, then we got a problem. Also if you’ve tried every social media strategy there ever was to get those readers to your page and still wait for the first legitimate comment to pop-up; first like to come from someone you don’t know, we again got a problem and that to a big one!

How to Get Read

Depending too much on social media isn’t qutie enough. If you thought that Twitter was going to put the spotlights on your blog then you were very hopeful. What social media does is put it out there for everyone to know that its there but it can’t force those poor beings to like or comment on it if they don’t want to. Social media is indispensable in making your title read at least or bring the read to your post. However, for the reader to respond to your post; you’ll have to be old school and follow the traditional rule of Writing Brilliant Copy!

And that means….

Intrigue your readers
Pick their interests
Address Problems, offer solutions
Involve them, weave them stories
Inspire a response – One that you can see. A person nodding in agreement with you looking at the screen won’t do you any good. So don’t forget to add relevant call to action to your copies

We don’t guarantee a Steve Jobs for your blog but definitely it will be more alive then it already is. Sometimes all that is required is to face our fears and answer questions more honestly to get to that promised land of fame and obviously ‘Likes’!

Nosheen

I am a writer, reader, and a part time adventure and travel enthusiast. The other three things that vie for my mind share are dark chocolate, coffee, and photography. I am highly motivated by user perspectives and addressing the common human experience when I write.