Just before Christmas I was sitting on a train back from London with my boss, Chris. Next to us was an elderly lady, reading the poetry section of the London Review of Books. Before long we were discussing her favourite poets. I asked her how she buys poetry: I go into Heffers, or occasionally Toppings … bookshop staff are very helpful and will order in anything I can’t find … I’m not fond of Amazon at all.

The lady was keen to know about my own writing, and at the end of the journey, I was sure to pass on my contact details. The next day she emailed me with an order for my book. I popped a copy in the post, and a couple of days later I received a cheque in return. Paper-clipped to it was a colourful postcard and thank you note.

The coincidental nature of this real-world transaction charmed me. In fact, it’s the most pleasurable book sale I’ve made. This lady had no interest in my website or facebook page, and many other potential ‘customers’ will be the same. I quite like the idea that the internet isn’t everything.

But it’s also a reminder that I’m not meeting enough people. Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be stepping up my online and physical presence. But firstly, I’d like to share my thoughts on how these two very different methods of self promotion can work together:

The importance of physical and web presence for creative practitioners

I’m slightly uncomfortable with the way people are using social media as a tool for relentless self promotion. Surely there’s a limit to the number of ‘hey, check out this link’ tweets you can post before your followers decide they’re not going to bother anymore.

For most of us, having a website, twitter and facebook account is vital in order to communicate content, update news and generally remind people we are still here. But we must also remember that we’re real people too. It’s no use spending all our time grooming our digital profiles, if we’re not meeting people in person.

Social media is becoming increasingly important to the way artists communicate with their audience. It’s how we tell people about our events, our latest projects, sell our creations. We use these platforms to promote our physical appearances, report our reactions to events, share photographs of our real-world activities. And generally, it’s this content that encourages people to return to our websites - these things evoke an emotional response - rather than posting links to other online content that forces you to open another tab… to watch another stupid music video.

The trick with social media is to be hospitable. To welcome people, let them know that you’re doing things in real life. (There’s a line here, and no one needs to know when it’s time to go to bed.) Regular, personable blog posts will persuade your audience to return to your site on their own accord. And this will eliminate the need for constant facebook and twitter posts that eventually become more irritating than informative.

If this doesn’t happen, we risk becoming obsessive social media spammers who, instead of showcasing our talents, are reduced to re-tweeting super-slow-motion videos of a guy being slapped in the face. 

I’m going to challenge myself. Over the next month, I’ll be writing regular posts in response to my efforts in self promotion. I have four targets:

1. Give out postcards to 30 real people 

2. Add 30 virtual people to my facebook and twitter accounts

3. Sell 10 copies of my book

Let’s see how I get on.