Today I’m a guest on a blog called Daily Signs of Hope, which has more than 15,000 followers. It’s mostly for hope against depression, but has strong ties to the addiction/recovery community. You can access my essay at http://dailysignsofhope.com/?p=5878 . Please leave a comment–it’s a great site for encouragement, run by Doug Bolton.
Writing Tip for Today: In this era of social marketing, some writers are still either petrified of marketing their work or say it’s too much bother and the learning curve is too steep. But consider these things:

• Social Media Time-Suck? Foot traffic or phone calls are MUCH more time-consuming. While the sales adage says that you should prefer face-to-face over impersonal sales strategies, you can tweet, post or pin to thousands at one time. In spreading the word about my guest essay on the Daily Signs blog, I accessed my network in a few clicks, then repeated with other groups I belong to and other similar websites.
• Email vs. Social Networks. But can’t you just send out a mail email? Perhaps. But consider this: Many email recipients will either dump a mass message, it’ll get caught in a spam filter or some email addresses may not be valid. With social media you don’t have to know an email. As you post in a brief yet targeted way, readers can decide at a glance if your announcement merits clicking through to your stuff.
• Copy and Paste.  Use your copy and paste function to post your announcement in multiple groups or sites. Yes, it does get slightly less personal, but do it anyway. You can use a social media dashboard such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite to make it even easier–one location, one announcement goes to your entire network. The Big Dogs (those you are most concerned with reaching) can be messaged privately. This is your chance to be heard! Use it.