5 Social Media Tools for Great Writing

Writing wordsI decided to put a hold on the next installment of my series Using Social Media Marketing to Promote Yourself as a Brand to bring you something a little less involved, but hopefully useful nonetheless. I do a lot of writing, (though not as much as I should) and when I do, I am always impressed at how using social media tools is entirely beneficial. The list caters to bloggers, but hopefully there are some things here you can use to help in your creative writing, too.

    5 Social Media Tools for Great Writing

  • StumbleUpon – I love StumbleUpon. It’s the type of social application that allows you to explore the web in a roulette-wheel way, where you can happen upon some really great inspirational content to fuel your blogposts or just get the creative gears going. For a more direct approach, the search function of StumbleUpon can be a valuable engine. Unlike Google, if you punch in your search term, you’ll get a slew of sites that other users have found interesting. If you stumble on something, chances are that someone else has given it a thumbs up. If a site is good enough for crowds, it’s good enough for me. SU is probably best used when searching for ideas of what others are doing, and can help you find material to back up what you are saying, or you know, just give you some great ideas.
  • Twitter – Speaking of the wisdom of crowds, half of the cool stuff and news I hear about comes to me from my Tweeps. This news / info is easily plugged into blogposts, and can serve up some great inspiration. Additionally, you can always use this service to ask a question to anyone listening and get a variety of opinions. Who needs research when your friends and followers probably know the answer already, right?
  • Digg, etc. – Digg and its brothers, Reddit, Propeller, Mixx, and probably some others are great resources to listen to what others are saying, and to get the news as it becomes available. Now, I don’t recommend that you “steal” anything from popular articles, but honestly, how much of the web is actually new content, and how much of it is “borrowed”? If, for nothing else, a lot of the articles in these places will make you say, “Hey, I can do better than that!” So put your money where your mouth is, smart guy.
  • WeBook – This one is less about blogging and more about collaboration. For the uninitiated, WeBook is essentially a platform to help produce user-generated books. The tagline “writing loves company” says it all. You can join in to existing projects and give feedback or count on other members’ advice to refine your own work. My own experience with the service is limited, but it looks at the least like it could be a lot of fun.
  • NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month is right around the corner (November), so it is high time to kick your writing into gear and finish that novel you’ve been thinking about forever. Now, while the act of writing a novel itself isn’t especially an aspect of social media, the message boards on the NaNoWriMo site are top notch. There are lots of folks searching for advice and inspiration, so your questions might be their questions. These people are prolific, and they are willing to lend a hand and share their own experiences, too. The end goal of the project is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and even if your novel is no good (the first draft won’t be, so don’t worry) it will get you in the habit of writing every day, which certainly won’t hurt your writing.

Of course, there are some great blogs out there with tips on becoming a better writer, but when it comes to social tools to help you on your way, these are at the top of my list. I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year, so if you want to keep up with my progress and follow my updates on Twitter, you can follow me here.



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