GET PUBLISHED NOW! Social Networking for Authors

Get Published Now! with Beth Barany

You're an author, or an aspiring one, and you want to get the word out. Build a following. Make sales.

But, your budget is small, your time is limited, so where do you begin?

With social networking. It's free, fun, and perfectly suited for writers.

This article goes into the what, why, and how. The rest is up to you. (As in you take ACTION.)


WHAT is SOCIAL NETWORKING?
A tool. That's all it is. As a tool you get to decide HOW you want to use it. Also remember, that your writer's meetings and luncheons are social networking too. Social networking , both online and off, share several traits in common:

• it's chatty
• it's about building and maintaining social connections
• it's a conversation
  

Yes, I do mean Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Plaxo, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, etc.

Ultimately, social networking is about interacting with others. It's about having a conversation, like the ones you have with your neighbor, standing at the fence line with a cup of coffee in your hand. From there, you can invite people over (to your site or blog), or simply say, "See you tomorrow!"

Social networking is NOT: (IMHO)

• sales
• marketing
• a waste of time

though all three of those things sometimes occur a direct or indirect consequence of social networking.

WHY?
Why bother with learning about and doing social networking? The online kind. Really? This is a viable and important question to ask. I encourage you to decide whether or not social networking is right for you. Because maybe it isn't. Right now. You can always come back to this world of Twitter and Facebook, and whatever else we've dreamt up, later. But do let yourself off the hook in believing that you "should" learn social network, and consider giving yourself a few weeks or months to explore, play, adventure out into unknown territory. If you feel scared about what you might encounter, just put on your tourist glasses, ask lots of questions and be entirely curious about this world of social networking.

HOW
This is the core of any work. And the place I love to play in. So let's dive in!

To answer HOW, you need to start with your purpose.

Purpose
In all my work with authors we start here. We start by asking some fundamental and perhaps familiar questions. Let's dive in, for reals.

1. What would you like in your online social networking?
2. What is important to you about that? (Ask this a few times until you come to the heart of the matter.)
   
3. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you like to accomplish by the end of this class?
4. What is the most challenging aspect of social networking for you?
5. Why is social networking important to you?
6. What do you like about the online world?
7. What are you good at in this realm?
8. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you like to accomplish by social networking?

Some examples of what other writers have said about social networking:

"...to inform and invite interaction..." -- Carolyn Jewel

"One of my favorite things is meeting and hanging out with other writers. ... Apart from increasing name recognition and selling more books, I think it's really fun." -- Bella Andre

"... sites like these make it easy to reach out to people..." -- Shelley Adina

TAKE ACTION HERE
Answer the above questions for yourself, and share them with us! And if you're curious about learning more and setting up a social networking game you can win, go here for an article on my blog.

PS. I Twitter here, and hang out on Facebook here. Come on by and say, "Hi!" (Yes, friend or follow me, if you'd like. Thanks!)

C. 2010 Beth Barany

For more information, please visit Beth's TNNW Bio.





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GET PUBLISHED NOW! Social Networking for Authors