Sharing ideas, procrastinating a tad, sweeping, mopping, and waxing the platform, and big, doughy eyes with fluttering lashes

          I apologize for such random posts.  I now owe you all pictures and details of the Moore/ Newalla tornadoes, it's aftermath, and my little Mexico trip.  Don't worry.  I'm good for it.  I finalize on the house this week and should close.  then as my wife packs and unpacks boxes, all I'll have to do is supervise and write.  Which means I'll have plenty time to write.  So again, apologies!  That said, and meaningfully so, let’s get on with it. 

          I am using BlogSpot (http://paulmichaelpoole.blogspot.com/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/poole.paul.michael.), Google + (http://www.google.com/profiles/108402486118030830627),   and Xanga (http://crazyahab.xanga.com/) as the basis for my platform.   Facebook is the largest social networking site, and so it’s an obvious choice to include in the platform.  The blog is the component from which all the posts to Facebook and Google+ derive.  Unfortunately,  Google+ doesn’t allow for personalized URL’s yet and requires a Gmail account, so advertising it is more difficult and presently limited.  Xanga holds my short fiction, and allows the audience an honest look at the writer’s writing, without advertising. 

          The overall focus for the platform is to gather fans who like to visit looking for some light reading, maybe something thought provoking, something nostalgic, or evocative to read with coffee, or on a bus ride somewhere.  Basic entertainment.  Just a way to connect with fans, hopefully make them laugh a little, tear up a touch, and then move on with their day.  Something small, fun, and memorable so that when I can produce larger works that audience is willing to take a chance for a small fee on investing their time and attention.  

          BlogSpot focuses on current events in life, thoughts, random posts and a little bit of advertising.  It is linked to the Facebook page so that with each post, a post is sent to Facebook as well.  The same thing occurs with Google +.  Both the Facebook and Google+ components should grow organically, adding and being added by people, including and being included in circles, etc.  The blog is the key component, the central hub.  Both Facebook and Google + are used to reach a wider audience, and notify my audience that there is new material.   I have included the blog address in the Contact Info or About section of Facebook and with each new post, the BlogSpot URL is featured to direct traffic to that site.  Conversely, on the BlogSpot site there is a Like button to connect the audience to Facebook, if that particular audience member or members get on the proverbial airline at either location. 

          In keeping with the airline metaphor in the lecture series from David Corey, (https://blackboard.snhu.edu/courses/1/ENG-421-X5787_13EW5/content/_5062294_1/m8lecture/) ) it occurs to me that it does not matter where the audience member (fingers crossed for members, plural) gets on the airline, or where they are laid over for a short time, just so long as it’s my airline they’re on.  With that thought, I’m including my old Xanga site into the platform.   Xanga is probably currently on par with MySpace, referred to several times throughout this course as, at best, a ghost town.   It’s true, but it’s still in use.  It’s not the central hub of social networking, but audiences can still be directed there, and information can still be useful.  I think of Xanga in these terms as the red eye at St. Paul International (http://www.mspairport.com/ - just look at this monster of a place, I’ll tell you an interesting story in a another post about how I got lost here once and spent the night wandering terminals).   I’ve been adding short fiction that I’ve created throughout the writing workshops I’ve taken at SNHU to the Xanga site, as well as a few other projects I’ve worked on with other writers.  Initially, it was a way to collect all the work together in one place where I couldn’t lose it due to a computer crash or just saving a document to a random, unknown location on the machine, as I’m prone to doing.  Up until this point, it never occurred to me to feature those stories, all mostly craft and technique exercises without enough polish on them for featuring.  As it turns out, they make an excellent reflection of the blog theme and display my development as a writer.  It can give my audience a chance to see beyond advertising and persuasion that can’t help but trickle through with sites like Facebook.  The Xanga page holds stories, and stories only.  In a way, it becomes an endearing component to the platform for my audience to know more about me and the kind of work I’ve been struggling to produce with me overtly saying it.  And it’s 100% free, which, anymore, can attract just about anyone.  The Xanga site now includes links to the blog, Google +, and to the Facebook page.  I’ve gone into each and posted to help drive traffic there as well. 

       The overall platform, like my short stories, still needs a lot of polish.  But each component supports the other in a neat and tidy web.  One site helps the audience find the other.  In the future, I’ll probably move into a personal website, and involve micro-blogging via Twitter.  I may always keep the early versions of stories in Xanga.  I think it holds good potential for writing advice material I can be worthy to provide one day.  Posts through the blog will be moderately infrequent until then, planning on about once per month and to three times per month to Facebook with links to other writer’s advice and selected advocacy.  The central focus of the writer’s platform, of course, will be to new stories.  Without the writing, after all, there is only an empty platform.   And with that said, thanks for your attention, your time, and your patience.  Don’t touch that dial!