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| What's the Key? |
This week, my friend Karen Cote' and I talked about what a new author should do to get started in social media. We feel there are several important places to start. Just who are we to give advice? I'm a multi-published author, founder of Marketing for Romance Writers and Romance Lives Forever (two active Yahoo groups with well over 1200 members each) and owner of nine blogs. Karen is the best selling author of Erotic Deception, creator of a unique talking website, a Twitter maven with over 5k followers, and the Promotions Director for Marketing
for Romance Writers.
We recommend that before you jump in and start joining social media everywhere, you take time to read MFRW member Cassandra Carr's guides for Twitter (there are two). You can download them on our resources page. http://marketingforromancewriters.org/resources.htm
Then, do the following things to begin your journey.
To me, the top thing to do is join Marketing
for Romance Writers and stay actively involved. After that, start here:
1. Make a Facebook page, and start friending the members of
MFRW Authors https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
2. Get a Twitter account and follow people who use
these hashtags: #mywana #mfrworg #amreading That will make more sense after you read the Twitter guides.
3. Create an Amazon Author page https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help
4. Blog at least three times a week. Use Networked Blogs to gain readers, plus, when you
post a blog, it will automatically feed to Facebook, saving you time.
You can pull your blog post automatically into Goodreads, and other
sites as well.
5. Join Goodreads, post your books on your page, and link your blog. http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
6. Shelfari is a good spot. http://www.shelfari.com/help
7. Get social by joining WANA Tribe http://wanatribe.com/ (we are not alone - authors helping authors)
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| Marketing for Romance Writers |
Above all, be open to learning new things. Take them one at a time, and don't try to do everything at once. Have a daily schedule. I start my day by checking email, then check my Facebook account, Twitter page, and jump over to my blog, and then stop by my other accounts. I repeat that round of visits during the day. Sometimes, depending on what else needs to be done, I'll do it again in the evening. We need time for writing, a social life, and family. Social media is important, but if you don't have a new book -- what good is it?
Remember, balance doesn't mean that everything is stable. It means you are always in motion, making the fine adjustments to keep your career and life on track.
When you decided to take the plunge and join a social media site, which one was it? Why that one? Would you recommend it to a newbie?
MORE ABOUT MFRW
Group site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
Facebook https://facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MFRW_ORG
Newsletter http://issuu.com/MFRW
Facebook https://facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MFRW_ORG
Newsletter http://issuu.com/MFRW
