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This is one of those posts that by the time I'm done and some person smarter than I am comments on it, then I will have a better understanding of the topic--at least that's what I'm hoping.
I recently signed up for the social networking site, Klout. Yes, Klout means exactly what you think it does--who has clout or influence over other people on different subjects from blogging to business? Basically it takes all your social networking accounts and puts them together and assesses how active you are and how people interact with you and then you get a score for your "Klout."
I've been using it all week, and my Klout score is rising, and I've added new sklls, and I've earned Klout Perks (which are like coupons to use at businesses for things like business cards), and I'm still asking myself: Who cares? How is this not a waste of my time?
Does it matter if my score is 17 like it was when I first started or 59 like it is today? Am I selling more books with an above average score? Is WOW! getting more hits because my Klout score went up? Am I getting higher paid freelance writing assignments? The answer to all these is no. I, for the life of me, cannot figure out why having a high Klout score wil really help you--except maybe if it helps your self-esteem.
If you are on Twitter, you've probably seen tweets that say things like, "I gave +K to @womenonwriting for blogging expertise." Here's what Klout's website says about this program, "Anyone can recognize you for your influence by giving you +K. You can do the same for others by visiting their profiles and clicking the Give +K button by the topics they influence you about."
Okay, so again, my question is, "So what? How do I use this? How do I use Klout to gain more readers for WOW!? How do I use Klout to sell books?""
I've played around with Klout and read some. I know very few people worrying about Klout. So here's my question: if you are a writer, blogger, published author, or editor/publisher and are using Klout, what do you do with it? How does it benefit you?
Thanks for sharing, and here's hoping you have a high score on Klout!
Post by Margo L. Dill; Margo is the author of the newly released middle-grade historical fiction book, Finding My Place: One Girl's Strength at Vicksburg(http://margodill.com/blog/finding-my-place/).
6 Comments on Whose Got Klout? Another Social Network, last added: 12/11/2012
@gwenstephens: yes, I suppose my bias came out--the fact that I don't see the value in it either. That's why I was hoping someone, somewhere used Klout to gain readers or something. . .:)
I don't see any value in it. One of my friends from Twitter jokes with me because according to the site I have "klout" when it comes to tequila, microbreweries, wine, and writing.
Who cares? It's a marketing tool to get you to use their coupons. I did qualify for a free photo book from Shutterfly from it one time, so that was nice, but I don't see the need to check in all the time.
That is so funny, LuAnn, now I want Klout in wine. :)
I never thought about the coupon idea. I earned some free business cards; of course, those are easy to get without spending time on Klout, too. So, maybe it's good to go on every week or so and see what free offers there are. . .:)
LinkedIn seems to still be a mystery to many writers on how to use it effectively. In one of WOW!'s issues, we had a LinkedIn expert write an article for us about the best way for freelance writers and published authors to use LinkedIn for marketing and networking purposes. If you missed that article, you can check it out by clicking here.
If you are a published author--traditional or self, print or e-book--you are looking for readers. So, how do you find readers and connect with them on LinkedIn? It's not as hard as you may think. It will be easier for some authors more than others--depending on the type of book and the subject matter. But all in all, authors can take these few strategies below to help find an audience on LinkedIn when their book comes out.
Who is your perfect audience? For example, if you are writing a memoir about being "an army brat" and traveling the world with a father as a colonel, you have a lot of different possible reader-types. Make a list: memoir writers, army brats, military wives and moms, and military enthusiasts. Now go to LinkedIn and go to the "Groups" choice in your tool bar across the top. Click on groups directory and start doing searches for the different perfect audience members. Some of the groups are open to everyone; some are closed. Decide which ones will accept you and what you have to offer and join. One word of warning: Don't join a group and start a hard sell. NO ONE wants to be pitched to. Build relationships in this group. Mention your book if it comes up casually. Make connections with others in this group. Writers tend to join groups of other writers on LinkedIn. How many writers groups are really going to help you sell your book? You need some for networking purposes; but other than that, you need to find readers!
If you have a nonfiction book, you should be in the ANSWERS section of LinkedIn often to become an expert and meet people who have questions about your subject matter. To find this section, go to the tool bar and click MORE. You will see ANSWERS appear underneath it, click on this. Next, you will see several categories listed on the right-hand sidebar such as finance, human resources, and management. Click on one of these fields to read questions other LinkedIn users asked under this category. If you know the answer, you can comment. You can then connect with the person who asked the question. You can answer several questions in one category several different times to get to know more people in this section. Again, this is not a place where you are going to make a hard sell. If your book comes up naturally, great! If not, then you need to connect with others, mention your book in passing, and so on.
You can do a general search for a type of job or skills on LinkedIn. I have a middle-grade historical fiction novel coming out soon. To look for readers to connect with on LinkedIn, I can do a search for elementary school teachers. There are tens of thousands of teachers on this site, so I might want to narrow it down. Plus, LinkedIn does not allow me to spam and contact all the people on this list. But if they are a 2nd or 3rd connection to me or in the same group as me, but I haven't "met them yet," then I can contact them as a friend and/or ask another one of my connections to introduce me. (There is a limit to how often you can get an introduction or send an "INMAIL" to someone you don't know with a free account. All of those details you can find on the site.) Anyway, if I wanted to connect with some of these teachers, who I want to read my book, I can start with this search. Then I can narrow it down by looking at the left sidebar, and clicking one of the choices, such as: GROUP MEMBERS or 2ND CONNECTIONS, and start sending connection requests. Then when I get more teachers linked to me, I can update my status or e-mail about my book.
Two of the worst things you can do is hard sell your book to your connections every time you communicate with them and/or only join and connect with other writers. Writers are supportive. Writers know a lot of people, but they also know a lot of people who already have books. Find people interested and needing your subject matter on LinkedIn. And always, always get involved in your alumni groups if you have some on LinkedIn (or Facebook, too). A lot of these people will support you because you went to their high school/college!
For more tips like these for using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, (and possibly Goodreads and Pinterest, too, depending on the students' needs and desires), consider taking Margo's ADVANCED SOCIAL NETWORKING CLASS (online). It starts 8/13 and goes for 6 weeks. For more information, a syllabus, the fee, and to sign up, please go here.
0 Comments on Using LinkedIn to Find Readers as of 1/1/1900
You've probably heard on the news that Facebook has made Mark Zuckerberg a ton of money. I used to always wonder HOW? I mean it was free to sign up for an account--for personal and business reasons--free to play a lot of the games and chat with friends. SO, how did he make money?
I soon learned about Facebook ads. And now, Facebook is even going so far as to allow pages to pay to promote their status updates to reach more of their fans. So, as an author trying to promote a book or a freelancer selling copywriting or editing services, what does this mean for you? What do you need to know about Facebook ads?
1. You can spend as much or as little on Facebook ads as you want each month. Most of them are pay-per-click. This means that if people see your ad on the sidebar and they click on it, you will be charged. This could be scary for some budgets! However, Facebook allows you to put a cap on how much you want to spend. If you have a budget of $25 for this type of ad, then you put that limit on your Facebook account. Once you hit $25, your ad will not show up. This is a pretty safe way to try out if a Facebook ad brings you any more book sales or any clients without spending a lot of money.
2. What does Facebook mean that you have to pay to promote your status updates? If you have a business page, you will notice that when you type in a status or a link or even post a photo, Facebook will let you know how many of your fans that information has reached. It's usually a pretty low percentage like 15% of your fans had your status update turn up in their News Feed. (As much as we would like to believe that every single person who has LIKED our page sees everything we post, that's just not realistic.) Next to this low and sometimes sad percentage will be the word PROMOTE. If you click on the arrow next to PROMOTE, you will be able to set a limit for how much you want to spend and how long you want your status to be promoted. If you are paying to promote your status, then you should expect a higher percentage of your fans to see it.
With any advertising dollars, it's often good to start out small and observe what other authors and/or writing services companies are doing. If you set a budget of $20 a month and you notice your sales are increasing or you have two new clients, then great--your ad is probably working. If not, then re-think the ad you created OR the budget you set.
How do you know what to say in your ad? Look on the sidebar when you are logged in to your Facebook page and observe the ads. Which ones make you want to click on them? Use those strategies to create your ad.
It's super easy to create an ad, too. When you are on your business page, look at the sidebar, and you will see where Facebook has already created a mock ad for you and a caption that says something like, "Get more likes." Click on this to get started on your ad.
Now what do you do on that Facebook page once you get people there. . .that's for another day.
If you find that you want to learn more about social networking and how you can use it to promote your career, then consider taking my beginning social networking class, which starts on July 16, or the advanced social networking course, which begins on August 13. To view both syllabus,
I wanted to say this morning after thinking about this post that there are also cost per impression choices for advertising on Facebook, too. If you have a specific question, please ask away or consider the advanced social networking class, where we get into this more in depth. :) Thanks, everyone!
I got the idea for this post after a listserv discussion with some other children's writers. A couple of them were thinking about doing Facebook ads because you can easily set a limit for any budget. But how much does one have to spend to get the word out on Facebook? And does this equate to sales? I am actually going to do an article about this topic and other marketing ideas where money is spent for the July issue of WOW! So hopefully, I'll have some real answers for you then. :)
Social media is a great marketing tool. It's a chance to connect with writers, readers, publishers, editors, and agents like never before. It's easy, and it's fast; but in order to use it effectively, you still have to follow old-fashioned, pre-social media rules of networking and building relationships and connections. You have to give before you can take. You have to be personable, and you have to share something of yourself. If you forget this, in your quick use of social media to promote yourself, then you will not be as successful. You cannot constantly ask people to do something for you without sharing yourself and giving to others.
Joel Comm, author of Twitter Power,which is a book I highly recommend, states on his website, "Whatever your industry, make sure that you're not just building followers but building those relationships and networks, too."
So, how do you do this? How do you stop ONLY promoting yourself and start interacting?
On Facebook, you can visit other writers' pages and leave comments. You can follow your writing friends' links to their blogs and or book pages. You can leave encouraging words on their walls. Respond to their book signing and blogging events, even if you cannot attend.
On Twitter, you can retweet a friend's interesting tweet that links to her bog. You can recommend another author's book as a holiday gift. You can get involved in a hashtag chat and share your opinion and ideas with other writers.
On Linked In, you can recommend friends whom you have worked with personally or whose books you have read. You can answer questions in the QUESTIONS section of the site. You can also participate in group discussions in the groups that you are in, especially if someone is asking for people's advice and/or experience.
I know what you're thinking. This is going to take more time, and you're right--you could spend hours on this. But you have to limit yourself, and you have to look at it as marketing/networking time, which in today's publishing world is as equally time-consuming and important for the author as creating new work.
Devote thirty minutes a day to social media for a couple weeks, and make sure you are sharing and building relationships--not just promoting yourself. See if you notice a difference. Are you gaining more followers or fans? Has your blog traffic increased? Have you sold any more books? Be honest with yourself. Are you being as consistent as you can? Are you sharing bits of yourself while also selling your work?
A final note--if all you do is constantly put up links to your blog and your books on the three major social networks, people will stop reading your tweets and status updates. They gloss right over it--at le
7 Comments on The Big Social Media Mistake, last added: 12/9/2011
I love the interaction that comes from Twitter. I put links up to my blogs, of course, but I tweet them a maximum of three times. While I'm eager for people to read, I don't want to alienate anyone if I can help it. The thing about Twitter is that it's a *social* network. You shouldn't be using it if you don't want to communicate with people. I've come across numerous writers and readers thanks to Twitter and I thoroughly enjoy using it.
Margo, this is great advice. I am just a novice at using social media, but I have seen a difference in the traffic to my site since I started using it in earnest.
@CharmedLassie: I am a big fan of Twitter, too. I think it is important when you have an especially good blog post to tweet it more than once as you mentioned to catch people at all times of the day. But each time you tweet it, you probably want to change your "headline" so that you are not tweeting the same exact tweet.
@Linda: I am so glad to hear that! You have an important message to share with the world. You will also meet so many great people and network with them. :)
I'm not the kind of person who generally worries about security or fraud. I always think, That will never happen to me. I listen to authors who are afraid their work will be stolen when they send it in and wonder how I can get that kind of confidence. They are basically saying, "My work is so good, people will want to steal it and claim it as their own." WOW! That's a statement. I know this kind of stuff does happen, but as I said--not to me.
But then. . . the other morning, I got up at 5:00 a.m. to write; and instead of writing, I spent my time dealing with an iTunes mess. Someone used my iTunes account to purchase $80 worth of video game crud. My iTunes was connected to my PayPal, and there weren't enough funds in my PayPal, so my back-up method was used to charge these items. I was LIVID. I was SICK. And I was basically watching it happen right in front of my eyes because the person just happened to be hacked into my account, while I was also on the computer. He/she had changed my address to theirs and my security question and my password. LUCKILY, everything worked out--I was reimbursed almost immediately, and now NO payment method is connected to my iTunes. (By the way, I suggest if you have an iTunes account, that you do this immediately--have nothing or an iTunes card with a low balance connected to your account--lots of people are a victim of this iTunes/PayPal fraud right now.)
Then I read an interview with a screenwriter (that will be published in the next issue of WOW!). In the article, she discusses how to protect your screenplay or play with the U.S. Copyright Office before you are submitting it. I never really thought that was important until what happened to me the other morning. Once you've had anything stolen--money, words, Facebook password, ideas--you become skeptical--and maybe that is a good thing for me. I have changed my passwords to all my accounts and made them more secure with capital letters and numbers. I have checked my privacy settings on Facebook, Twitter, and my e-mail accounts. I will make a note to be careful of the kind of information I post on my blog. I will consider registering manuscripts with the copyright office, depending on what it is and where I am sending it. Basically, I plan to be more secure in my writing life and personal life--and especially my social networking life. When I teach the social networking class for WOW! (starting September 14) , I always bring up ways to protect your privacy with social media, and I plan to do even more of this now.
How do you make sure your writing and personal lives are secure in an insecure world? Any tips to share?
Working in IT for my day job, and living with a computer scientist, I am intimately familiar with multiple ways to steal a person's identity. Hacking is a lot easier, and hackers are a lot more ubiquitous, than people believe. You should always use different passwords for everything. If that's too difficult, at least create a tiered password system, so the simple ones go on easy targets like Facebook and Twitter accounts, which are bound to be compromised eventually, while the more complicated ones are on your credit cards etc.
Also, make sure your wireless Internet at home is encrypted. Avoid logging into ANYTHING sensitive from a public computer if you can help it. The library, your workplace, or your school may seem safe, but keyloggers and sniffers are everywhere. Change your passwords frequently, check your bank and PayPal statements regularly, and always use credit online, not debit. You can dispute charges through Chase or B of A, but once they get access to your checking account, it's over.
As a multi-victim of identity theft, I say the more secure- the better. Play it smart, especially on the web where things are always out there floating around.
No need to be scared to death, but being a little paranoid about your privacy is a useful thing.
A note about copyrights on MS's though... I think, if I understood right, as long as you have an original, unopened MS either snail mailed to your home or by e-mail with an origination date (to prove you wrote it way back when) it's automatically protected. The trouble is tracking it down once it's out there.
I have always heard with copyright that it is your copyright as soon as you write it down. You don't have to register it in order to claim it is yours. But I guess it is the proving or protecting-it-is-actually-yours part that the U.S. Copyright office helps you protect. And in the case I was talking about in my post, the writer was dealing with screenplays, which I think are a whole different ballgame. :) (And I know nothing about!)
Yes, it's my understanding that writing it gives you copyright, but in order to prove it if a dispute should arise, you will need evidence. Mailing it to yourself is one way. A friend just told me she posts all her new writings to Google docs, which automatically establishes date.
I don't have time for another social networking site!
That’s what I thought when I heard about Goodreads, a book social networking site that allows users to add books to their virtual bookshelves, share what they read, see their friends’ bookshelves, read and write book reviews, and connect with readers around the world with similar literary interests.
For authors and avid readers like yourself, this isn’t just “another social networking site” – it’s a site designed with your needs in mind.
The Goodreads mission? “To get people excited about reading. Along the way, we plan to improve the process of reading and learning throughout the world.”
The initial goal of the site was to allow friends to share and recommend books with each other, but shortly after its launch in 2006, Goodreads creators added the Author Program, which, according to the web site: “is a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books.”
In an interview with Patrick Brown, the Community Manager at Goodreads, he says, “the best way for an author to build a presence on Goodreads is to be an active Goodreads member. That is, they should write reviews of the books they read, participate in groups, and generally use the site as a reader might. In addition to this, they can do some very simple things to get the word out that are not intrusive. If the author is already writing a blog, they can sync that to their author profile. If they aren’t writing a blog, they can start one. They can post videos, ebook excerpts, polls, etc. All of that will end up in their friends’ and fans’ update feeds.”
In an interview with Jeff Bennington, Jeff lists Goodreads as one of the top ways authors can promote themselves. He says, “Goodreads "giveaways" are an incredible tool to publicize your book. I also like what my ad on Goodreads is doing. The thing with Goodreads is not how many clicks or sales you get, but how many folks "add" your book. When they do that, they are more or less planning on buying your book when they get to it, and they will, because most readers on Goodreads are avid readers and love talking about what they read, so they will also rate and review your book, which is another benefit of that site.”
The NoSpinPR blog lists “Ten tips for authors taking the Goodreads plunge” and blogger Phoebe Nort
You won’t believe how much time you can spend on a social media site if you don’t set a time limit, say 30 minutes a day at the most. One of the problems is you can easily get distracted by personal messages, tweets, and status reports. For example, you might spend 30 minutes commenting on your best friend’s photo album of her daughter’s 4th birthday party instead of finding links about writing and posting them to your Facebook page. I agree that Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends and family, but you can make it a point to do these personal interactions on the weekend IF you have a limited amount of time for writing during the week.
So, what are ways to use your time wisely on Facebook?
• Set up a fan page—this would be a page on Facebook where people could join and become a fan of your work • Invite people to an event—events can be real world events such as book signings or conferences. They can also be cyber events such as blog giveaways. • Update your status to say something about your writing career. • Find other writers and comment on their statuses or "like" their fan page. • Post links of writing articles or blog posts that you find helpful. • Write notes about writing contests, issues you are having with your novel, or a hot topic such as book covers.
What are ways to use your time wisely on Twitter?
• Take part in one of the groups/chats such as #amwriting, #writegoal, or #kidlitchat. • Tweet about your recent blog post. Make sure to write a headline with your link that catches people’s attention such as: “Here’s a book that kids will talk about long after they’re done reading it” and then attach the link. • Find other authors’ and writers’ promotional tweets and retweet them. If you know writers personally, then do an exchange. Ask them to retweet information to their followers, and you will do the same for them. • Go to people’s links that you see on Twitter and leave comments on blogs. Always, always, always leave either your blog’s URL or your Twitter ID, so these people can find you and repay
2 Comments on Using Your Time Wisely on Facebook and Twitter, last added: 6/30/2011
Are you an author who wants to build your online following?
Or perhaps you're still working on your book and want to build a platform to attract an agent or publisher?
If so, you're in luck! We invited social media expert Leili McKinley to answer a few questions about social media marketing for authors. She also shares a special deal with WOW readers at the end of this interview that you'll want to check out. Enjoy!
Leili McKinley is an award winning entrepreneur, social media coach and branding architect for authors and writers. Utilizing her expertise in social media, branding, search engine optimization (SEO), and e-commerce, Leili empowers her clients to sell more books, get more speaking engagements, build platforms and increase their overall profitability. She is the branding expert for Bob Proctor and social media marketing expert for bestselling authors like 6 time award winning Auriela McCarthy. In her 15 year career she has been engaged by top companies Saks Fifth Avenue, Starwood Hotels and has a host of international clients.
WOW: Welcome to The Muffin, Leili! We're thrilled to be chatting with you today about social media for authors. Let's start at the beginning. How did you get started in social media training?
Leili: I have been involved in Internet marketing since 1997, when I built a website for my first company. To my great surprise, people ordered stuff off my site! I mean it looked like a child did it because it was my first try at selling anything online. But, after orders started coming in overnight, I realized I could make money in my sleep. I was totally hooked!
So I devoted myself to learn everything I could about Internet marketing. It was intrinsic to my success as an entrepreneur. After I built and sold two companies, I retired to Maui. Then I started focusing on teaching social media. I knew it was going to be a fundamental shift in the way we did things online and I wanted to help people get it right. So about two years ago I started to teach it to my favorite people--authors!
WOW: Wow...I love Maui! That's where my hubby and I went on our honeymoon, and I always thought it would be fantastic to retire there. So why is it important for authors to engage in social networking?
Leili: One of the things that I'm seeing in this hyper-competitive book market is that publishers are turning down (or hesitating on) books they would have jumped on in the past because, even if the author has something of a reach already, it's just not enough of a platform. By platform, I mean how many people they reach on the Internet and through traditional means like traditional media and speaking.
The value of a platform becomes the leverage it gives you to create new business for yourself. You know that you hav
3 Comments on Social Media for Authors: An Interview with Leili McKinley, last added: 12/16/2010
@Trisha - yes please come take a look at the videos. If you want to skip directly to the ones about Facebook or Twitter you can! Jump around to what works for you ;-)
Anyone who’s overwhelmed by social networking, raise your hand.
I know my hand’s in the air!
I'm on facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I have a blog, and I recently signed up for Digg and Stumble Upon. I joined a site called LiveMocha to learn Chinese and realized afterwards that even that came with its own international social network.
It’s important for writers to learn social networking tools and skills because it helps us connect to a writing community and market ourselves as writers. But it can be very time consuming, a little confusing and sometimes overwhelming. Not only do you have to maintain your own sites and profiles, but you have to read other people’s posts and status updates, comment on them and find other ways to interact online.
Who has time to do all of that?? Although I enjoy social networking, I often become so engrossed in it that I don’t realize two or three hours have gone by.
I have found a very useful tool that has helped me by allowing me to organize all of my social networking venues on one screen…which saves so much time. With all of them on one screen, I don’t have to keep switching from site to site to post and/or search for new information. It’s all there in one glance of my computer.
iGoogle is Google’s customizable homepage on which you can add all of your favorite social networking tools and RSS feeds as well as other applications like news and games. I have Twitter, facebook and Blogger lined up beside each other at the top of the page, followed by the RSS feeds of major blogs I follow. It’s great! It saves so much time and I'm staying better informed of the happenings of other writers, agents and editors.
Here’s a short video by Google explaining how easy it is to use iGoogle:
If you check out iGoogle and like what you see, you can start organizing your social-networking life today!
What are some other methods you’ve used to organize your social networks?
Written by: Anne Greenawalt is blogging, facebooking and tweeting.
2 Comments on Organize Your Social-Networking Life, last added: 5/27/2010
I use HootSuite to organize my FaceBook and Twitter posts, and set them up in advance, so I can keep my day job!
Writing content for the web has its challenges, as I've found over the last year! For resources on writing for online audiences, check out http://bit.ly/aefomn Email me if you want to chat about writing!
I find writing is really rewarding in so many ways and it's probably why I'm willing to stay up so late doing it!
I've tried iGoogle, Netvibes, Twitterdeck and a few other things and find that I dislike them all. Mainly because I'm a bit allergic to having too many information sources blinking at me at the same time. I like to find information when I want it, not get it pushed at me. (The main reason why I left Google Buzz in a huff after two days). What I've done is setting up my web browser to always display the 8 tabs I depend on on startup. This way I always have what I need but avoid the cluttered window of iGoogle. I use Bloglines to keep up with most online things I read on a regular basis (woe you if you don't have a feed going, I'm not going to read you). I have tried a few other feed-readers like GoogleReader and Alesti, but prefer Bloglines.
This was the first year WOW! branched out into social networking by creating Twitter and Facebook profiles, and it's already done so much for our site. We get to interact with our readers, really get to know them, and obtain feedback instantly. Our traffic has increased from links coming from the networks as well, and it's also a lot of fun!
At the head of our social media campaign is WOW! contributing editor, columnist, and instructor Margo L. Dill, who launched our campaign from scratch. She knows a great deal about using these sites to your advantage, so I caught up with her to ask her a few questions about her upcoming e-course Social Networking for Authors: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more!. If you want to learn how to effectively use social networking platforms for self-promotion, there's still time to sign up for her course, which starts next Monday (February 22nd).
Welcome, Margo! Who should take your social networking class? Is it only for authors?
Margo: My social networking class can help anyone who has something to promote--a blog, a website, a book, a magazine, or a newsletter. The class will give tips on how to find other writers on social networks; find clients, customers, or readers; and how to interact on these sites so people get to know the "real" you. This means, you are a real person with a personality sending out tweets or promoting your Facebook profile or fan page--not a marketer or a spambot!
That's great to know. It sounds like it would be useful for freelance writers and small businesses as well. You teach your students how to use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Why is it important to use all three platforms? What are the major differences?
Margo: In my opinion, each social networking site offers writers, or anyone really, a different audience, format, and way to connect with others. On Twitter, you can follow almost anyone who has similar interests as you, provides useful information, or makes you smile and laugh. In turn, anyone can follow you. People expect you to share information on Twitter about yourself and your work as well as share other useful tidbits you come across on the Internet and on Twitter itself.
On Facebook, you can connect with people who you once knew, that you met at a conference, or through an online group as well as your family and friends. You can belong to writing groups on Facebook that provide information and where you can network with other writers such as on the WOW! Women On Writing Facebook Fan Page. On your Facebook wall, you can promote your latest blog post or book just like you can on Twitter, but you do it with posts on your wall or status updates or fan pages. I get a lot of response from my family and friends on my blog from my Facebook page. These people wouldn't know what I was up to if I didn't have Facebook to tell them. I am reaching a different audience here and on an even more personal level than on Twitter.
LinkedIn is a completely different network all t
1 Comments on Social Networking for Authors: Tips from Margo L. Dill, last added: 2/18/2010
I'm into social networking. I love FaceBook. I can connect with my family and friends, other drivers, other writers and even hook up with a few people who have nothing in common with me.
Thanks for your blog. I see I need to expand on LinkedIn. Thanks
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I hope others chime in on this because I have wondered the exact same thing! Seems like just a cyber ego booster, but maybe I'm missing something too.
Monette: I was hoping the same thing, but either it's quiet because it's the weekend OR no one quite knows. . .:)
Maybe it's just the way you've written the post, but I fail to see the value in it. I'll be interested to see what others think.
@gwenstephens: yes, I suppose my bias came out--the fact that I don't see the value in it either. That's why I was hoping someone, somewhere used Klout to gain readers or something. . .:)
I don't see any value in it. One of my friends from Twitter jokes with me because according to the site I have "klout" when it comes to tequila, microbreweries, wine, and writing.
Who cares? It's a marketing tool to get you to use their coupons. I did qualify for a free photo book from Shutterfly from it one time, so that was nice, but I don't see the need to check in all the time.
That is so funny, LuAnn, now I want Klout in wine. :)
I never thought about the coupon idea. I earned some free business cards; of course, those are easy to get without spending time on Klout, too. So, maybe it's good to go on every week or so and see what free offers there are. . .:)