Daily Archives: July 16, 2012

emaginings: Social Networking Baby Steps

I’ve been avoiding much of the social network sites for a while now, mainly concerned about being so overwhelmed by it all that I won’t get any writing done. But this year, I’ve been taking baby steps to get involved. I have joined Shelfari, Twitter and now Goodreads, though I am still resisting Facebook.

Now seemed like a good time to join, with RWA Nationals coming up next week and featuring workshops like:

• 360 Degrees of Promotion: Integrating Social Media, Mailing Lists and Websites
• Hook a Reader in 140 Characters: How to Promote Using Social Media
• How to Get the Most Out of Goodreads

What I’ve learned so far:

Twitter intimidates me. It’s such a simple idea, but with so many people tweeting all over the world, how do you not get lost in the shuffle? This one is going to take some time and patience, and it will not come before my writing time. It can’t. I can’t let it.

I’m more comfortable with the reader sites, Shelfari and Goodreads and wish I’d joined them sooner. Do you need to join both? No, many people pick one and stick with it. Goodreads is most popular, I believe.

As a consumer, what I like about Shelfari is that it’s owned by Amazon and you can sign in using your Amazon account username and password, which is why I used my real name instead of my pseudonym. Amazon ownership also means it’s very easy to fill up your bookshelf in a matter of minutes with the books you’ve bought from them. I’ve apparently been an Amazon customer since 1997, so I had a full bookshelf in record time. At Goodreads, I will have to add the books one at a time.

As an author, I like the fact that items added to the Shelfari pages, like character descriptions, will also appear on the Amazon pages of your book. I’ve done a little of that already, but there is a lot more to do. I have yet to set up my Author Page at Goodreads, but I will get to that. Then I can make a better comparison between the two sites.

In the meantime, I will be following the #occrwa12 feed on Twitter during the conference. (I’m taking my iPad so I can check anywhere.) I’ve joined the OCC/RWA Virtual Reading Lounge at Goodreads set up by Deanna Cameron, and plan to check out the OCC members pages.

Any tips for effective use of any of these sites would be appreciated. Use the comment section below or tweet me @LyndiLamont. Leave a comment and I will follow/friend you at any of these sites.

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/LyndiLamont
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/lindamclaughlin
Twitter: @LyndiLamont