Social Media Lab at Midwest Writers Workshop 2012

Facilitators at writers workshops may suggest that writers need to develop a social media platform to aid in marketing their books, and even offer some ideas as to how to do this, but how many offer hands-on training with a consultant (or tutor) in a computer lab?

This year Midwest Writers Workshop (MWW12 held in Muncie, Indiana July 26-28, 2012) offered attendees FREE social media tutoring at a computer lab loaned by Ball State University's English Department. Creative Writing Professor Cathy Day and four Creative Writing students (Ashley Cassandra Ford, Tyler Fields, Spencer McNelly, and Maye Ralston) operated and staffed the social media lab. Ball State IT employees installed and kept the computers operating well throughout the conference.

The Social Media Lab was kick-started Thursday evening, July 26, with a social media panel moderated by Day, and presented by the social media tutors (Ford, Fields, McNelly, and Ralston) and social media guru Jane Friedman.

Photo by Deborah Lucas

During the panel

Ford explained how to use #mww12 to join the Twitter dialogue during MWW12, Fields gave some pointers on making blog posts more effective, McNelly spoke about book trailers, and Ralston explained how to use QR codes to gather and share online business cards more efficiently and enjoyably during the conference. Friedman wrapped up the panel presentations with an overview of social media and urging attendees to take what they need from the social media smorgasbord and not feel they must engage in aspects they aren't yet ready for.

Attendees learned how to (and practiced) setting up various social media accounts (for example: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), and websites and blogs. Also, they learned how to use social media effectively to grow their writer's platform, use positive social media etiquette, and how to interconnect various social media with each other.

Here is a video Cathy Day made during one of the many 45-minute tutoring sessions held in the MWW Social Media Lab:

In addition, Friedman gave a workshop on effective use of Twitter, and another workshop on how to build a web site, during which she walked the room step-by-step through setting up a web page or blog on WordPress.com.

Day gave a presentation on Literary Citizenship, in which she described ethical ways to use social media to build community, and to engage that community in conversation.

While Midwest Writers Workshop has offered presentations and workshops on social media in the past, this is the first year they've included a hands-on social media lab component to compliment the lectures.  About fifty workshop attendees participated in the lab/tutoring component of the workshop.

The social media tutors were all English/Creative Writing students at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. This is the first time BSU students were able to participate in a "real world" writers conference. 

I believe I can speak for all the interns when saying we enjoyed this "intern" experience and learned a lot from participating in the planning and preparation process. I hope this program will become a regular event  at MWW, and a yearly intern opportunity for future Creative Writing students at Ball State.

Have you been to a writer's conference that offered hands on social media tutoring? Was it in a lab setting? Would you like to see more conferences offer something like this? Share your experiences and ideas with me in the comments section.

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