Friday, November 14, 2014

Blogging and Social Media Workshop for Writers

My November 9th workshop on Blogging & Social Media for Writers was held at the Mississauga Central Library. It was the second workshop in the “Telling My Story” workshop series conducted by Rise Up! Rise ABOVE! (Ru!RA!), a not for profit organization dedicated to empowerment through creativity.

The workshop navigated writers with differing levels of social media proficiency, exploring anything from the Twitter gospel of using hashtags (#) to why a blogger should also use Facebook. Writers from a wide range of genres were eager to learn and generated exuberant discussion.

When I decided to attend the session on blogging, I was sure in myhttp://riseupriseabove.ca mind that I will not find the time to do it; but I just wanted to
Nina teaches about blogging
know about it all the same. Nina's enthusiastic and yet demystifying class, converted me. She made the activity of blogging both enjoyable and somehow a necessary aspect of modern life - the new communication to connect with the World, the people, our audience
.”—Prata Reddy, Toronto writer 

The workshop overviewed the history of social media; we reviewed the five most common and useful social media and what their best uses are; and I described the structure of a typical blog. I reviewed: branding, SEO (how to bring and keep traffic coming to your blog), tagging, content, times and schedules, comments and linking to / from other social networks. Through my own example over a dozen blogs (both my own and guest blogging) and as many social media, I explored a system that allowed me to create a strong Internet presence—and still have time to go to the beach!

Nina Munteanu with RuRA's Cheryl Xavier
The Blogging & Social Media Workshop for Writers is ongoing through RuRA! If you’re a Toronto writer and starting a blog or just wondering if you should, this workshop is for you. Contact Ru!RA! for the next Blogging Workshop in the GTA.

For more information on the Telling My Story workshop series and on RuRA! visit my previous post here.


Contact:

For more information on Ru!RA! and their programs go to their website or contact the director, Cheryl Antao Xavier at cxavier@riseupriseabove.ca.

Ru!RA! Website: http://riseupriseabove.ca

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