Harnessing the Power of Community: 50 Creative Ways to Share and Promote Your Business, Writing, Music, Photography, Passions, and Art at Gather.com (Part 1 of 3)

My son, age 12, called me to his side. He sat at the family computer. The screen flickered with the ochre, black and gray of NPR's website.

"Mom! Look! You should send one of your stories here!"

He touched the screen, touched an orange advertisement. I leaned over his head, my right arm resting on his shoulder, and I read about a place where intelligent, informed people meet to share, to discuss.

I clicked.

I uploaded words, digital ephemera full of captured moments. I met a woman who sat Zen, just like me, whose stark poems explored a harsh inner landscape. I met a man who breathed Old Orchard Beach to life through his delicate description. I met readers with wits sharp and jagged, who left gifts beneath the pieces I wrote, the pieces others wrote. I met people who don't practice the pen, whose sense of being comes from some other medium, who post gorgeous photographs and art works. I met some whose sublime gift to share is in the simple observation and repartee of life.

One clicked became a thousand clicks, more, became a garden to cultivate. The stories I post drift here and there like dandelion seeds, ready to cling, to sprout in a new environment. What I didn’t realize when I started was that the power of community would bring me new readers, new neighbors, new people who wanted to learn more about me, to read more of my stories.

Whether you write, sign, paint, sculpt, sell bath salts or software, Gather.com can help you create an incredible neighborhood, one that nurtures your passion, creativity, art, as well as pocketbook.

Before I describe my creative 50 Creative Ways to use Gather.com to promote your work, you will need to create a unique and easy-to-identify username.

Gather accounts are free, and Gather allows you to own several unique usernames. Set up a special Gather account for your business, whether you sell handmade soaps or real estate, whether you freelance write or publish helpful ebooks, whether you paint velvet portraits of Elvis or carve marble into works of fine art.

Choose a username that reflects your business or artistic identity such as “elvisonvelvet” or “katesellssoap” and upload a custom icon with a photograph of one of your products, or a cute headshot.

Got it? Great! Now, on to the 50 Creative Ways to Share and Promote Your Work and Passion on Gather.com. Some of these ideas have not been utilized by ANY Gather member yet! Let's see what amazing things we can accomplish together, through the incredible power of community.

1) Become your own "correspondent" at Gather with your own weekly column.

You've probably seen the Gather Correspondents' articles featured on the homepage. If you click on one of the correspondents' articles, you will find a helpful or enlightening piece presented with a special icon, a column title, byline, and author contact information.

Why not create your own regular column at Gather.com?

Come up with a descriptive and fun title and a customized graphic with your column's name to post with each piece. Add your contact information – website or blog, business or pen name, email address, and relevant credentials – to the bottom of each of your columns.

Your column should be relevant – related to your field, area of work, or passion. Give readers a reason to return for each new issue by responding to comments and continuing the conversation.

2) Create a group for your new correspondent column.

Organize your columns in an easy-to-find location by creating a Gather Group just for your collection of articles. I created a group, Nature and Nurture, for my Health Correspondent column. I added a customized banner, and I make sure to feature my latest article once it's posted. Open your group to the public so that your regular readers can join and receive updates when you post new content.

Always keep in mind the potential of tags. Appropriate tags will help readers find your Gather group, article, or image.

3) Develop a weekly newsletter.

Newsletters are a little different than written columns. Create a newsletter to post news, developments, and to highlight articles and photographs of note that you post to your Gather namespace or group. Make sure you add the URLs of the articles you reference in your newsletter so that readers can easily find your images and stories.

Post your newsletter as an article, and send it to members of your relevant group.

4) Want to highlight your best works of art? Best written pieces? Create a Best Of group!

Over time, your Gather namespace will become filled with an incredible number of articles – some meant for discussion, some serious, some short and sassy, some long and thoughtful. How can a reader find your best pieces? A Best Of group is a great way to showcase your best written works, your best reference articles, your best photographs and artworks. Be sure to create an easy-to-recognize name for your group, for example “Best Of Kate's Soaps” with the group address “bestofkatessoaps.gather.com.” Republish your favorite pieces to your new Best Of group.

5) Feedback builds your community. Hold a once a month Roundtable discussion.

Do you write Mystery Stories? Hold a once-a-month roundtable discussion for mystery writers and readers in the form of an article where you lay out the discussion topic and ask probing questions such as “What mystery writer best describes the mechanics of death? How does he or she accomplish this?”

You can do the same if you business is creating handcrafted puzzles - “What puzzle in history would you have loved to solve?”  - or if you write lyrics for a Reggae band - “Bob or Ziggy? Compare and contrast.”

Building a community of like-minded people interested in your work requires interaction and thought. Holding a monthly discussion will draw new people to your work, and will help you grow a network of peers, readers, and customers.

Build a Gather group to house your monthly roundtable discussions so that new readers can access your conversation archives in an easy way.

6) Hold a “Carnival” of related articles.

A popular method of gathering writers, specialists, and artists of related subjects over the internet is to hold a “Carnival.” Invite other Gather members who work in your area – be it in the same writing genre, or the same political stripe, or in a similar business – to submit articles for your Carnival.

Want to hold a Carnival of Mystery? Set up a group for the event – carnivalofmystery.gather.com – and invite your favorite mystery writers and readers to submit a book review of a great mystery book, or a piece of short original mystery fiction, even a detective or police officer to post an article on crime scene procedure. Your carnival will be preserved for posterity at the group.

7) The best way to become an expert? Teach!

People appreciate what you do more if they learn how to do it themselves to some extent. Don't be afraid to share what you know because you fear it will build competition. You will actually build customers and readers by teaching, as it will help you develop a reputation as an expert. If you build baskets, or write amazing mystery stories, give a primer on how to do this better.

Why not hold a weekly Creative Writing seminar? Or a Soap-Making Class? Offer thoughtful critique on your students' efforts. Set up a Gather group to hold your How To articles, along with submissions from your students.

8) Tell your story.

Don't simply say you sell handcrafted soap, that you write sonnets, that you offer career guidance – tell the whole story. Don't assume people know or appreciate what you do - show your history, your background, your journey from beginning to today in a series of articles or images - so that people can see and experience you and passion as a more real entity.

If you think the impact or history of your area isn't well-known, put together a series of articles on that subject, especially if this story hasn't yet been told on the internet. What you write can become an reference for what you do, and will make it easier for search engines to find your Gather space.

9) Speak your mind – yeah, really!

If what you do has some social, cultural, political, or economic impact about which you are not afraid to take a position, take the position. Controversy breeds interest. Don't assume that people can tell from what you do or create, that they know what you think and feel.  Go ahead and speak it. Your readers will see more in what you do and create, enhancing its value for some, and perhaps decreasing it for others, but in the long run, really being who you are will take you the farthest.

Let's say two people make handcrafted soap. One of them uses all-natural eco-friendly ingredients because she believes that's the future and we should tread lightly on Mother Earth. The other does it because he likes traditional ways of doing things, because it's important to remember our roots. By each of them talking about what motivates them to do what they do and how they do it, it will attract people who share those values with them and who simply like really great soap.

10) Trade interviews with a Gather friend.

Ask a Gather friend – she doesn't have to work or write in the same area – to interview you and post the questions and answers. This doesn't have to take much time – you can even help your friend by offering a list of suggested interview questions. Return the favor by interviewing her. An interview is a wonderful way to let the community get to know you better. You can get as detailed and controversial as you like, but what's fair is fair! If you ask your friend some tough questions, expect the same in return.

Your exchanged interviews can focus on your path as a writer, on a short story you recently published, on your  career as a professional wrestler. Make it fun with a few great quotes!

11) Want to feature one work, book, song, poem, or product?

Create buzz around a special project, product, story, book, etc by creating a unique username and profile for that one item. Remember to fill out the profile page for your new username. Your book can join groups, your song can post an article about the singer who is recording it, your product can post updates and a list of features and colors.

12) Let your community help you grow in surprising ways.

Invite your audience to ask you or challenge you to do something in your area – answer a question, customize a product, write a poem in a form you've never used, music in a genre you have never attempted  – in a way or about something that you have never done before. What better way to expand your product line or writing ability, etc, than to meet a new challenge that you haven't heard of for something that someone actually wants. What if you asked Bach to write a Reggae song? Imagine how cool and interesting that would have been!

13) Serialize to create suspense and continued readership.

Some of the best writers (and television shows) over the years have used the power of the cliffhanger to hold a reader's interest. Break your longer stories and articles into several parts, and post just one portion at a time. Captivated readers will return to find Part Two, Part Three, etc.

And on that happy note... stay tuned for Part Two!


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Birdie Jaworski lives in rural New Mexico with her two young boys. Birdie is a freelance writer and philosopher. She recently completed a memoir of her time as an Avon Lady, and is working on a novel. You can interact with Birdie, live, each Thursday when she moderates the Writing Essential at Gather.