Social Networking.
Two words that can make your stomach hurt or make you shout, “Woohoo!” And they can do both in a span of nanoseconds.
Being a big believer that, “Words Have Power” I have to say I LOVE SN! Which is really weird, since a lot of my friends from school and in my life wouldn’t be caught dead there. I understand their reasoning. It’s a time suck. (A HUGE TIME SUCK if you aren’t careful). It takes time away from other things you should be doing. It’s just one more thing for me to have to do.
But I’m flabbergasted when I meet a writer who doesn’t at least Facebook.
Image via CrunchBase
When I first heard about FB, it was through my college kids, and it sounded like f-u-n! I wanted in! But they told me I had to have a college email address to do it. Before I could devise a sneaky way to get one, FB opened up to the world.
Why would anyone want to get into Social Networking?
- To stay in touch with friends and family in this crazy/busy world.
- To find old friends.
- To make new ones.
Why would a writer want to waste what little writing time she has SNing? 🙂
- Get to know other writers
- Learn from other writers
- Encouragement from other writers
- Build your platform.
- Learn who your audience is.
- Build an audience.
It’s easy to do. Go to Facebook dot com or twitter dot com. And there’s a way to set it up so your FB comments go to Twitter, and vice versa. (If you have them set up both ways, will your comments echo back and forth forever? I. Don’t. Know. LOL.)
The one thing I haven’t done is set up a Facebook Author’s Page for myself. I know a lot of writers do that, but since I don’t write using a pen name, and I’m not in any real danger of going over 2000 friends any time soon, I haven’t bothered with it.
I did, however, set up one for my writers group. Kind of accidentally. 🙂
We’re called, SMART WOMEN WHO. And I thought there might be a way to set up the FB page for only the members of our group. So I picked out a picture that had most of our group in it and set up a page.
Then I added a few pictures from our retreats and meetings over the years.
I didn’t realize right away that it was open to the public. If I wanted privacy, I had to go back to a friends page. But with a friends page, you can only have one administrator. (I think.) I got ready to delete the silly thing, when I realized, this might be a great tool for our group.
So I asked if anyone objected to the thing, and when they didn’t, I told everyone to send me their book covers. Most did, and you can go over and see them. (Okay, not all of Marilyn Pappano’s books, but one or two of them.)
If you FB, come on by and say hi. (I popped over to look up something just now, and got lost in the fun. I was reading a cornbread recipe on a friend’s blog before I realized I’d drifted away.)
If you don’t FB, Twitter or Pinterest (my newest way to lose myself) why don’t you? It’s fun!
If you haven’t yet, come by Smart Women Who, like us, and say hello. We love our friends!
Smart Women 
SN = crack without the potential jail time. (Although, Twitter does have twitter jail….)
Twitter has jail? Whoa! Who knew? I learn so much from you guys! But you’re right, it is kinds of crack like. Addictive to the max. 😉
What do you have to do to get into Twitter Jail?
I ❤ Facebook and Pinterest. I try to be Twitter savy, but mostly I feel lost. I think FB and Pinterest are a great way to get the word out about my writing, beyond my family and friends.
It is a good way to get the word out, Jennifer. You’re so right. Good place to learn things, too, for me, anyway.
Nice to meet you, btw. Welcome to our world! I hope you’ll come back.
I love the new site! Thanks so much for doing this…actually for even thinking of it. I just love how your brain works. 🙂
I’m so glad you like it, Linda, and that I’m not in trouble for just doing it. If my brain had been working, I might not have done it in the first place. I love it, too, though!