Building a social media tracker in your bullet journal

I shared an image of my social media calendar on Instagram earlier this month. I thought it might help some of my fellow authors to keep better track of their social media reach and habits.

Now I’m in the middle of this awesome 30 Authors, 30 Days event. And it’s all about learning how to use social media better. I’m having a ton of fun with it, and I’m making contact with some awesome new writing friends.

I’ve learned that if I have a set plan for what I want to share on social media it frees my brain. Because I often fill my Buffer account in the evenings after a day of writing and day job and kids, my brain is often not working. If I’m not careful, I’ll just fill up my whole Buffer with Tasty videos and songs by Lindsay Stirling. Anyone who follows me on any social media knows that to be true.

So I wanted to do a breakdown of how I create my social media spread in my bullet journal. It’s actually going to change now that I’ve learned so many new tricks. Lots of love and credit go to Lucinda Moebius who wrote a wonderful book for writers who want to see their work, suggested many of the social media techniques I’m going to talk about in building my SM spread. Here’s a link to her book, if you want to check it out.

Deciding what to share

The thing that has helped me the most with my social media is to make a list of things to post. This enables me to be on auto piolet when I’m making my lists.

Your list is going to look different than mine, of course. But here’s what I do. Again, many of these were suggestions from Lucinda.

• Post a writing prompt.
• Post a promotional tip.
• Share an image.
• Link to a good article that I’ve enjoyed and found helpful.
• Ask a thought-provoking question that will encourage other people to respond.
• Post a link to my book.
• Post an inspirational quote.
• Post a WIP excerpt.
• Share a quick poem or tiny snippet of a writing example.
• Share an inspirational image.
• Share an image of my WIP.
• Link to my newsletter signup sheet.
• Ask for reviews of my book.
• Give a progress report for my WIP.
• Do a Twitter share thread.
• Give a writing tip.
• Do a Facebook fan share thread.
• Link to my book.
• Link to a video I’ve enjoyed recently.

So with that list in place, I can just go right down it and post just that.

Deciding where to share it

I definitely suggest not spreading yourself too thin with social media. You don’t need to be everywhere. First of all, you are going to get more traction from posting more often on one SM account than posting infrequently on seven. For the most part, I post on Facebook and Twitter. While I do post on Instagram and Pinterest, I do that more because I enjoy those formats and they take less time.

If you’re not a fan of social media, pick one that you can tolerate and commit to it. When you get accustomed to that, or if you use Buffer and can post to two accounts at once, do that.

Deciding when to share

For Twitter and Facebook, this is easy. Buffer will figure out for you when the best time to post for your area is, and schedule your posts accordingly. The big thing, then, is to decide how often to post.

I generally post five times a day to Twitter, three to Facebook. I also try to take one Instagram picture a day, excluding Sundays.

Building the spread

Finally, the fun part. This is how I build my Bullet Journal spread, complete with mock-up pictures. For the sake of this post, I’ve designed a nice page in my bullet journal full of fake info. Enjoy.

First, we’ll set up the page just the same as if you were starting a new month in your bullet journal. I do fit this into my monthly set up.

Next, I’ll schedule in all of my blog posts for the month. I try to at least know what I’ll be posting for the month before the month starts.

Then I’ll notate any days when I’ll be promoting a book launch for another writer, or announcing something exciting of my own. If I’m publishing fiction, that goes on the list, too.

As I publish posts and share them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest I’ll highlight the posts.

Finally, I’ll add three columns. They’re labeled SM, Buff and Insta.

SM stands for social media. That indicates whether or not I’ve shared my post for the day on social media.

Buff stands for if I’ve filled my Buffer feed for the day.

Insta is for if I’ve posted a picture on Instagram.

These can all be personalized depending on how you use social media.

I’d love to see your social media spreads on your bullet journals! Feel free to tag me on Instagram or Twitter to share. I’m @nicolecluttrell86 on Instagram and @nicolecluttrell on Twitter.