Platform: 10 Seconds, 10 Minutes, 10 Ways, 10 Years

 

By Marilyn Nutter

It’s impossible not to hear the word “platform” at a writers’ conference. We attend classes on how to build our platform and grow our audience. Editors want to know about our platform in our proposals. They’re investing in us and our projects.

Building and developing a platform is essential and takes time and work. While platform refers to a raised level surface on which people stand or things are placed, it’s also a group or organization’s declared statement of policies or opinions. For writers, we do both. We stand on our message and declare it. The challenge is growing our audience.

How can we help fellow writers?

As we think about blogs we follow, and books and articles we read, the message or topic may not always be for us, but we may know someone who is looking for it. Perhaps the subjects of hospitality, grief, historical fiction, or elder care may not directly apply to us, but they may apply to someone in our circle of influence. When we share other writers’ work, we help them declare and share in enlarging their platform. We can do that in ways that might take us ten seconds to ten minutes.

·       Comment on their blogposts.

·       Share their sites and blogs on social media and in social media groups.

·       Write a review of their book and post it on Amazon. Copy and paste the same review wherever their book is listed.

·       Subscribe to their blogs.

·       Support and serve on their launch teams.

·       Use a quote or a reference in your writing with links to their book, article, or post.

·       Support and attend their book signing events or share the event on social media.

·       Follow and like author pages.

·       Like, tweet, pin, and share social media posts.

·       Offer your real estate—your site—and have them as guest post or interview.

 

Platform is often thought of as numbers, but if we think about it as promoting a message that could benefit another, it’s an effective ministry to a reader and to a fellow writer. Scripture is clear about supporting and encouraging each other. A mailing list may not advance to thousands, but we can help  expand visibility and extend  a message to those who need it—sometimes in ten seconds or ten minutes. We don’t have a magic wand to move numbers from 100 to 10,000, and that may take ten years, but we can encourage and support each other in many ways and one, then ten, may hear a message you share. How can you do that today?

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Marilyn Nutter is an award winning author who loves finding treasures in unexpected places: gratitude in mulch, conversations with grandchildren, and secrets in an old trunk. Most of all she has found the treasure of hope in loss. Unexpectedly widowed after forty-two years of marriage, Lamentations 3: 22-23 has been a brilliant treasure. She is a speaker for women's and grief support groups. Her book, Hope for Widows: Reflections on Mourning, Living, and Change was recently released.

She is co-author with April White of Destination Hope: A Travel Companion When Life Falls Apart, the author of three devotional books, a contributor to compilations, print, and online sites, including Refresh Bible study magazine, CBN, and Hope-Full Living. She began married life on a Caribbean island and any beach with splashing waves is still her happy place, especially when shared with her grands. Find her at www.marilynnutter.com and receive blog posts to enrich your day guiding you discover how to weave hope and purpose into our life stories.

Here’s the Amazon link to HFW : https://tinyurl.com/2mu5becz