1. Use a scheduler. I use Hootsuite and it is genuinely a life saver! I can't believe I used to manually write all my statuses, tweets, group postings etc in real time. Was I actually insane? What's more, it's problematic because you end up forgetting what you've done AND where.
2. Create a storyworld. I photographed a girl I know to play Lizzie, plus real places near where I live to build the fictional town of Winby. Then your characters aren't "floating in space" in your audience's minds and it feels more "real", somehow. Of course, a few people thought Lizzie was a real person too, so it's important to be ethical about this and try and ensure there are no lasting misunderstandings.
3. Use a selection of different ways to tell your story. For LIZZIE'S DIARY I used photos, links and statuses in real time, as if the events of the backstory that lead us to those in the novel were happening "now". This worked really well and lots of people engaged with Lizzie, chatting about the issue of teenage pregnancy and giving her advice. But you could do memes, short "talking head" style videos, podcasts - whatever you want!
4. Get real. Can you team up with real life allies to bring a message, or reach your audience in other ways? My project is about a REAL issue, so it made sense to talk to real teenage Mums, pregnant teens and services/projects for them. I set up a Twitter chat with the amazing @EdForChoice and a s**election of allies who've really got behind Lizzie and advocating for young parents and teenage sexual health. Read the Storify HERE.
5. Change it up. Sometimes certain things won't work as well as you hoped, or will work better than you imagined. I was really surprised to find my audience are really receptive to "Liking" and sharing quote messages online for example (I had assumed teens would find them tacky or dull). Yet a good portion of my "Likes" on the Facebook page come from teen groups, who come to my page for life advice quotes, so now I try and share at least one daily.
