First Mentor: The Social Media Jedi of WANATribe, Kristen Lamb

We are not alone: WANA

Powerful concept there, and the brain child of my first author mentor, Kristen Lamb. Kristen is likely known to you, and if not there is a link to her site and other goodies at the end of the post.

If you are:

• An Indie of any form
• Self-published
• Pushing towards either
• In need of low-impact marketing ideas to get your name in front of the people who need to see your creative spark
• Heck, if you just want to be a stronger professional creative, then Kristen is one of those people you’ll want to get to know.

In my first online iteration, I connected with Kristen through social media before I had a hundred Twitter followers, and no blog — this was in late 2010 early 2011.

It was not long before her blogging and social media classes had me humming along with a small but vibrant community of readers (by the way, if you are a reader at the time of this posting you are likely one of those), and a social media presence that…well let me say this:

When I stopped posting in November of 2013, I had close to 240 blog subscribers and just under 1700 Twitter followers. I stopped using Twitter as of August 2013 for personal reasons, so this piece of my platform was already static. Over the past two years, I added almost 120 blog subscribers and over 3000 Twitter followers — without a single post or tweet. Granted these may not seem like stellar numbers to some, but all the growth came with zero input from me other than the echo of my words and a well-built platform — which is what I learned from Kristen Lamb.

“It writes the words or it gets the hose”

Yeah, Kristen put that line into mine and other Warrior Writers heads as part of what I consider my professional “basic training” —  and now I give it out to my closest writing friend, my wife, and to all of you, because powerful motivational lines must be shared.

This phrase became an early reminder to keep what I do in perspective. Social media is awesome, but if you are a creative, then the art you pursue is the only thing of real value.

We all gets things wrong at times. We all amp up things that should remain small. We all blow off things about to crush us. We all need someone out there to give us a less than gentle reminder *smile* to clarify our perspective. Go read Kristen’s blog and it won’t take long to realize she has a gift for kicking the occasionally slow-moving creative tush into gear — and what she preaches is what she holds herself to, and more.

The most valuable lesson: Be smart about your social media usage and you’ll have more time to do the thing you love — be that a creative pursuit, your family, or whatever it is that drives you to enjoy life. Because what is the point of all the work if we never get to enjoy ourselves?

Platform does not have to be stressful. Instead, platform should be a way to play with and engage friends and fans in a manner that builds real connections. By the way, all those marketing classes I alluded to taking in my return post — social marketing isn’t the future, its the present. Numbers do not represent reach or influence or in some cases, anything at all but B.S. warped into being by well-chosen subjective questions and statements — BUT, numbers in combination across multiple platforms (combined social media presence) now that is powerful — and that, is what WANA and Kristen Lamb are all about.

“It’s all about tribe”

Tribe. Family. We are not alone. And that means as Creatives — we are a tribe already, we just haven’t all met yet.

Kristen’s greatest innovation, in my opinion, offers a rare chance to rectify this, and it’s called: WANATribe.

WANATribe is a golden opportunity for creatives that are looking for a stress-free, marketing-free environment filled with creatives of all types.  The platform offers many of the features we are all already familiar with on mainstream social media, but does it in a way that doesn’t study every click to force advertising on you. None of that on WANATribe. Just lots of creatives being, creative.

For all the current NaNoWriMo champions — Kristen is leading daily sprints on WANATribe which is a great way to stay motivated while easing away some of the loneliness that often accompanies a creative lifestyle. Go give it a look.

What you’ll find on WANATribe are other creatives of all shapes, forms, and genres — all walking the same path together. Supporting each others efforts with motivation, experience, and actionable advice that lead towards an expanding creative future.

So, if this sounds interesting to you — a path you’d like to walk:

Here’s the link to WANATribe

And as promised: Kristen’s We Are Not Alone post

Kristen Lamb’s blog