Engagement

In the Army, there was a concept called strategic messaging.  It was designed to use themes and messages in order to elicit a desired response.  Basically, it was designed to affect attitudes and behaviors towards what the organization wanted.  Business uses the same concept(think corporate public affairs or advertising).

So, why did I bring this up?  Because I’m trying to figure out how to best engage on community writing boards.  No, I’m not trying to be straight up Machiavellian; instead, I’m hoping to use common interests among writers to showcase my own talents and (hopefully) get some more traffic to both my website and my novels.

So how does one engage a bunch of writers?  We’re an eclectic bunch whose interests can be very broad or incredibly narrow depending on our mood.  So I think the way to do it is manifold.  First, one has to establish a relationship with those on the board and show you’re not just a craven manipulator who wants to use others to advance one’s own work.  You have to get to know people and take interest in them and their work(this should always be reciprocal).  Second, don’t get specific at first; engage broad interests and ideas in order to get people to engage with you.  When people think they’re involved, it allows them to buy in emotionally.  Then, once you have established relationships and wetted their appetite with your concepts, then you can get a little more specific with what you’re looking to do(release dates, character arcs, etc).

Unfortunately, my time has been squeezed recently, so I haven’t been able to engage on these boards as much as I wanted to.  That means I’m going to have to a) essentially start over, and b) make a more concentrated effort to engage so I’m not having to continually start over.  Despite the COVID pandemic, I haven’t gotten onto the boards in more than two months because working from home doesn’t necessarily mean that I have more time(in most cases, I have less because my bosses assume I’m more available).

So I’m going to go back on and try to restart my introduction.  If I can keep that consistent and demonstrate I’m interested in authors as people, then maybe I can get some interest in my ideas.  But first, I have to begin…again.