How I’m Taking Control of Social Media Instead of Letting It Control Me

Like most people I know, I have a love-hate relationship with social media. It provides endless entertainment (cute animal memes anyone?), and useful information (best newsletter providers for authors), but it’s also filled with poison.

Unlike most people, I’m tethered to social media in a different way because of my profession. Writers don’t get to ignore it. At the very least we need certain accounts to run ads for our books, and the reality is, even the biggest most successful traditionally published authors these days use social media to reach new readers and engage with existing fans.

But in truth, the vast majority of us are spending far more time on social media than we should for any reason. We don’t actually need Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube accounts for every pen name. We don’t actually need to post daily to three different social media accounts, and keep active in half a dozen reader groups. Some authors have found success with certain formulas that incorporate lots of social media — Chuck…