With hundreds of thousands of poems being posted online each day, sharing your poetry with a global audience has never been easier. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of other platforms are offering unpublished poets the chance to connect with others, and published poets a way to grow their connections with old and new readers.
You have something to say. You have words inside that are dying to get out, and you want to share your creations online with the world—but you aren’t quite sure how to put it all together. Look no further! In this chapter, you’ll find a quick starting guide for your digital publishing journey, and a case study to ensure that once you are online, you and your poems are protected from plagiarism or worse—having your account hacked or stolen.
Baring your soul on social media can be a daunting prospect. Not only do you have to think about the words themselves, but also the best way to present those words so that you can engage other poets, writers, and readers. In this section, you’ll find our how-to tips for setting up an attractive and engaging online poetry profile.
We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: it all begins with you and your poetic voice. The digital poetry accounts that gain a following and engage their readers are the ones that are written with an authentic voice. It is clear from their work that the poet knows who they are and what they represent, and this in turn creates a connection to the readers. Begin your journey by finding your authentic voice. For more, see Chapter 4.
Popular poetry accounts make an impact by creating a consistent theme and signature style. Your account might focus on uplifting poetry, poems for women, poems that explore a journey through mental illness or addiction, or themes of lust and love. The theme can also be aesthetic: a style of font, a series of images, or even the length of the poems. Identify the theme that speaks to your personal style of writing and presentation, and embrace it.
For information on apps that you can use to post your poetry, please see the App and Platform Guide at the end of this book.
Long works often struggle to translate well onto a single image or post, especially if the platform has a character or word limit. Also, consider that many people access social media sites on their phones; a lot of text crammed onto a small image is difficult and unenjoyable to read, so people may skip over your post. You can use captions in platforms like Instagram and Facebook to make lengthier works easy to read: take a snippet of the poem, such as the opening stanza, and place this on the background image, then write the full poem in the caption so that it hooks the reader, but is also readable.
You don’t have to post every day, but you do have to post regularly. Posting regularly will help you build a following and give readers and other poets a sense of your writing style. It will also mean that your poems are featured in media feeds regularly. A good guide is to post at least one poem every other day, and try to post between seven p.m. and ten p.m., as this time period has a high number of users online. If you aren’t posting every day, consider liking and commenting on a daily basis to continue to make connections with readers and other writers.
Hashtags are important, as they allow other users to sift through the millions of images online to find what they are looking for. You should use around ten hashtags per post (you can use up to thirty total), and they should largely consist of popular hashtags, such as: #poem #poetry #writer #lovepoem #teenpoets #poetryisnotdead #poetrycommunity #writerscommunity. You should change the hashtags that you use on a weekly basis so that the search algorithms used by social media platforms don’t interpret your posts as spam and reduce the frequency with which they are shown in feeds. Also, consider creating your own unique hashtag. This might be your name, the name of your book if you have one, or something similar. You can then add this to each of your posts and include it in your profile so that your followers can find your work. The hashtag for our book is #youpoetpoetrybook, so feel free to tag your work so we can connect and check out your poetry!
Creating networks with other poets is not only helpful for growing your online connections, it’s also a great way to improve your writing skills and talk about your shared passion. Other poets will give you feedback, like your posts, and tag you in the many prompts and events available in the online writing community. To start building networks, simply follow some poetry accounts that interest you, like the poems that you connect with, and provide some thoughtful feedback. In time, your network will grow and you will find that others are just as happy to support and promote your work as you are. Don’t, I repeat don’t, be that person who will follow an account to gain a follower, and then unfollow them once they have followed you back. It’s just rude.
Also remember: plagiarism is never acceptable. If you love a poem and want to share it, check that the owner is okay with you reposting his or her work, and always credit the author in your post.
Many accounts offer regular writing prompts. You will find more and more writing challenges as you adventure through the online poetry community. Most challenge hosts also provide support and feedback, which is a great way to have others review your work. These challenges will also inspire your work, challenge you to become a better poet, and increase your following.
There are hundreds of poetry accounts that focus on posting or retweeting the work of other poets. Many of these accounts have thousands of followers, so it is a free and easy way to gain exposure for your poetry. Submission methods vary, but the most common methods are direct message, adding the account’s signature hashtag to your caption, and submitting via the account’s website.
If there is one thing that we encourage all new digital poets to do, it is to focus on the poetry and making quality connections, rather than gaining likes and followers. If you only base your success on how many people like a poem or follow you back, then at some point writing poetry is no longer going to be enjoyable. You will always be worried about how many likes a poem gets or who follows or unfollows you. This can be horribly stressful and can make your poetry a source of social anxiety rather than an empowering outlet for your creativity.
As the saying goes, “If you build it, they will come.” If you focus on writing great work that expresses your unique point of view and connects with others, and you get involved in the community, the followers will come. They may not come in the hundreds of thousands, but you will create real connections that will enhance your poetry and your online experience. You may even make some good friends in the process. We certainly have.
Aishanee awoke on a cool morning in November 2016. She found that she had an automated message from Instagram telling her that she had successfully changed her password. She had been using her Instagram account, nicknamed the Ink Alcove, to post her poetry for almost a year and had more than five hundred followers. Alarmed, she quickly clicked on the Instagram app to find that she could no longer access her account, and that all of the poetry she had created and the connections she had made had been stolen.
Like thousands of others, Aishanee had lost her Instagram account to hackers. Unfortunately, hacking is not a new problem on Instagram, or on other social media sites, and there are many ways that your account can be hacked, from not logging out of a shared computer to losing your personal information via a phishing scam. Fortunately, there are some easy-to-follow security processes that you can put in place to prevent a hacker from getting your prized poetry and claiming your hard work as their own. Instagram and Facebook give the following advice for protecting your account:
• Pick a strong password. Use a combination of at least six numbers, letters, and punctuation marks. It should be different from other passwords you use elsewhere on the Internet.
• Change your password regularly, especially if you see a message from the social media provider asking you to do so. Remember to only change your password on the website or in the app itself, and never email your password to yourself or others.
• Never give your password to someone you don’t know.
• Make sure your email account is secure. Anyone who can read your email can probably also access your social media accounts. Change the passwords for all of your email accounts regularly and make sure that no two email passwords are the same.
• Log out of your social media sites when you use a computer or phone you share with other people. Don’t check the “Remember Me” box when logging in from a public computer, as this will keep you logged in even after you close the browser window.
• Think before you authorize any third-party app, and revoke access to any app that you do not use or can’t fully trust.
We also recommend taking the following steps:
• Turn on “Two Factor Authentication” in your Instagram settings. To do this, click on the three dots in the top right corner to access your options. Scroll down and select “Two Factor Authentication.”
• Create an email address that you only use to create and access your social media profiles.
• Regularly check what you have liked, and look for comments and follows that you do not remember doing. This may indicate that someone else is accessing your account.
• Think very carefully about buying or boosting followers. Not only is it likely that you are buying bot accounts (fake accounts set up to boost follower numbers), but these types of apps have been linked to numerous risks, including account hacking. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. This practice can also get your account shadowbanned, where your posts will not show up in any of your followers’ feeds or in hashtag searches. You can even end up with your account being deleted, as bot accounts and apps that sell bot accounts breach the terms of use of most social media platforms.
• Put your name on your work! Don’t forget to include your account name, real name, or both, on your posts. If one of your poems is reposted it will always have your details on it. Please note, there is nothing you can do to stop someone from reposting your work. Not only can they use a repost app to do this, but they can also screenshot and post, or even manually rewrite your poem using an app. If you do find that your work has been plagiarized, be sure to report the post and contact the account holder to have it removed.
Now you know how to start your online poetry journey—and how to stay safe when you begin posting. It’s time to share your work with the world. Good luck! We cannot wait to see where the words take you. Remember to check out our appendix on apps, social media platforms, and other great poetry resources.