10 Things You May Not Know About Me

It’s been pretty frigid here the past couple of weeks, and I spent a lot of time embracing Twitter and Facebook moreso than I had in the past. Part of that “social media” hug was to keep up on the tools since I’ve been using them for work. The other part to that online touchy-feel goodness, was because I needed a boost in this post-holiday slump.

Since there’s so many new people that I’ve come into contact with through various channels, I thought I’d offer ten things you may not know about me, as a way of “breaking the ice.” (So to speak.) Without further ado, here they are in no particular order:

    1. I don’t have a favorite color. Meh. So many to pick from, why choose just one?
    2. My cats are named after ancient Mesopotamian gods. Zakar (god of dreams) was a rescue cat. He’s a manx, orange tabby with lots of toes, very sweet and VERY spoiled. They were going to put him to sleep because he “wasn’t perfect.” Needless to say, he’s got a great life now. Rimmon (god of storms) is just like his namesake. He talks pretty much non-stop and enjoys following Zak around, causing trouble. They both like jalapenos, though. Go figure.
    3. Typically, I only read a book once. I read pretty fast, to the point where I inhale books. If the book is fairly complex, I may pick it up again to ensure I didn’t miss anything. Otherwise, I just read it the one time.
    4. Growing up, I wanted to be the female version of Indiana Jones. World-wide travel? That massive compendium of knowledge about ancient cultures? And a cool hat?
    5. I don’t believe in astrology. As part of my writing, I’ve researched a lot of different unusual topics that range from ghost hunting to astrology. I know some people really believe in it, but it’s not something that really resonates with me.
    6. Haven’t run a mile in years. *sob* Yeah, so I’m on a program right now. It’s called the “couch potato to 5k” program. Just when I was getting started, I had to get new running shoes. Then? I made the mistake of working through my lunches instead of taking that invaluable “off” time. So getting back on the wagon and hope to change this shortly.
    7. I’m actually quite shy around people I don’t know. Hard to believe, eh? I practiced like crazy for my last interview and — whenever possible — I’d prefer to know people at a “new” face-to-face outing. Kind of glad a few conventions are coming up; since I spend a lot of time writing and with my loved ones, it gets harder and harder to be outgoing and bubbly every year. ‘Course, this frigid icy winter might have something to do with that.
    8. I have a background in music. Played piano, choir and flute for a number of years with a strong focus on classical. My favorite composer was/is Mozart; I used to memorize (on average) 15 pieces every quarter for performances, contests and such.
    9. I don’t really like roses. Roses are not my preferred flower of choice. I like really brightly-colored, sweet-smelling flowers like carnations and wildflowers.
    10. The first horror writer I read was Edgar Allen Poe. Most people might respond with “Stephen King,” but not me. I remember “The Telltale Heart” very vividly. Oddly enough, I didn’t read Lovecraft or understand his influence until about five years ago. Strange how pulp and literary worlds don’t collide, but should.

What about you? Have anything to share?

January 19, 2009
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Social Media Uses and Usefulness

2008 has been the year of social media for me. Embracing Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, LinkedIn and other networks, I’ve finally gotten my personal social media usage down to less than a half an hour a day. I spend more time trying to haul my sleepy head out of bed in the morning than I do on social media, yet all my accounts remain updated and my followers know where I am and what I’m working on.

How I Use Social Media Tools

How do I use social media tools? Simple! I use the tools to integrate my online content and help keep my friends, readers and network up-to-date. My Twitter account feeds into my Facebook and LiveJournal accounts. I’m also currently looking into a plug-in that will update my Twitter account when I post here, on my blog. For Facebook and LiveJournal, I have email notifications set up for things that are important to me, so I know when someone is trying to get a hold of me. From all outside appearances it looks like I am extremely active in the “social media” space, spending hours upon hours on these networks.

I use social media to stay on top of trends, knowledge and people for my professional position during the day, and for promoting my writing at night. I do not use it for creating content or for wasting time. Yes, my tweets can get a bit random, but that’s also because it’s a great way to keep links you find in one place and share them instantly with other people.

What is Social Media?

While my story about how I use social media is not a very glamorous one — other people may have a different take on what social media is and how the tools apply to their lives. The key word here is “tool.” Although social media is about being social, it’s also about how different people interact with the tools. Make a social media tool that allows for better interaction with other people, and you’ll get more people using it. Which is one of the reasons why Facebook continues to do better than MySpace.

On Facebook, a user can more easily get involved with a niche community by helping others on a particular topic, and making e-friends organically – instead of simply spamming the entire Facebook universe. “Fan” pages have created a great way for businesses or products to setup a way for users to keep up-to-date on related events. All-in-all, Facebook is a much more usable TOOL, which has caused people to migrate.– Quote by Elliott Kosmicki, GoodPlum.com

As Elliott had pointed out, Facebook is more usable than MySpace, which is why people are flocking to the tool. I haven’t logged in to Facebook in weeks, yet because it acts as a content aggregator for me (i.e. Allowing me to add all my RSS feeds and other social media tools) it appears as if I’m on Facebook hours each day.

Just like author’s intent matters, whatever your intent is for using a tool matters because it’s your preferred method to connect with the world at large. It’s what “personalization” is all about.

Social Media Opinions Run Rampant

The drawback of this personalization, is that there are thousands of opinions out there about social media and what it may or may not be. Like this prediction Twitter will die in 2009. Put the idea of monetizing social media aside for a second, because that’s a whole ‘nother conversation. This writer has a few beliefs that I’d like to share with you, and my counter-points.

# Content – “If ‘content is king,’ as even entry-level marketers know, then Twitter’s limit of 140 characters doesn’t even get you started. It’s not possible to present an emotionally compelling story in just one or two sentences,” Garber notes.

    MLV: I have a hard time understanding how anyone would think Twitter would be used to create meaningful content, though writers have embraced Twitter as a new form of writing. Read How to Start a Twitter Novel to learn more.

    Remember that you can, however, push out that great content you are writing to your network and the world at large. With one Tweet, you can update all of your friends and readers on MySpace, LiveJournal and Facebook at the same time!

# Rapport – Twitter doesn’t facilitate the bonding that’s needed to stand out among all the buying options in today’s marketplace. “Rapport comes from getting to know someone on a more intimate level than ‘Who likes chicken?’ or ‘I am the Lord of cats,’ and all the other inane comments that make up the lion’s share of communication on Twitter,” Garber argues.

    MLV: Not sure I agree with this one, either. I’ve made several networking connections, made one-on-one connections with our customers via Twitter and have found that “rapport” has more to do with “intent.” I’ve heard this criticism before, usually spoken by someone who doesn’t use the tool and has just heard about it anecdotally.

# Trust – Effective marketing happens when rapport develops into relationships. “With skepticism at an all-time high, it’s critical to focus on credibility and believability,” says Garber. “This requires sharing meaningful information and having dialogue over time. The trivialities shared on Twitter do not build into anything else.”

    MLV: Twitter has been used to promote acts of giving like Tweetsgiving, contests from companies that have included Starbucks, ThinkGeek and HARO guru Peter Shankman, deal-of-the-day announcements from places like Amazon.com and in my case, exclusive coupons.

    I absolutely agree that trust is important for branding, but in my opinion trust is a luxury that many companies may not have right now because of the economy. Why is it Walmart and Amazon.com had their best retail holiday ever while dozens of other stores are feeling the pinch? (Hint: Perhaps it’s because Amazon.com offers both new and used products and Walmart is “known” for low, low prices?)

Is social media a tool to build trust in a company or a brand? Potentially, but it again depends upon what the tool is used for and when it is being used. Social media can be a very effective, timely tool but — like attracting visitors to your blog or website — it takes time to build a network and it doesn’t happen overnight. In our case, social media is one aspect that we are building for our overall marketing approach online. Creating great content is just as important as reaching out to people for us; social media allows us to share our content and interact with others.

In the end, social media is really all about you. What do you want to get out of it? How do you need to use it? It can be very powerful but — like attracting visitors to your blog or website — it takes time to build and it doesn’t happen overnight.

When it comes to social media, it is hard to get a clear and direct view regarding its future because (as I mentioned earlier) some of these tools are “free.” One of the reasons why MySpace ended up extremely ad-heavy is because MySpace needed to pay for what it was offering. As any developer will tell you, hosting, maintaining, developing, and promoting a social media platform isn’t cheap.

My prediction for 2009 is this: social media tools that are able to monetize their efforts wisely and can keep on top of web development trends without alienating users will be the social media tools that will come out on top.

Agree? Disagree? Love to hear your comments and ideas.

December 29, 2008
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How to Create a Facebook Page on the New Facebook

Do you have a profile on Facebook? Have you seen those pages circulating around Facebook where your friends can become a fan of authors, movies, books and more? You can create a Facebook page as a way to promote your book or game, too. I’d like to help show you how.

    STEP ONE: NAVIGATE — Click on the Create a Facebook Page link. If you have an existing Facebook account, I recommend not logging in to Facebook until the prompt appears.

    Please note that as of April 14, 2009, you will have to “verify” your account via an electronic signature. It appears that Facebook is trying to ensure that a live person is behind the page in a profile, so businesses can no longer appear anonymously.

    Here is what Facebook is looking for, in their own words from their “Help” section: “The name you enter as your electronic signature should match the name on your account. If you have a business account with no name or profile, or are trying to create an account when you create your Page, please enter your legal first and last name as your electronic signature.”

    STEP TWO: CHOOSE YOUR PAGE TYPE — Choose what kind of a Facebook page you want to create. The choices are: Local (For a company or business), Brand or Product (Self-Explanatory) or Artist, Band or Public Figure (Band, Musician, Writer, etc.) for a personal profile. For this example, I’m going to choose the third option.

    STEP THREE: NAME YOUR PAGE — If you’ve chosen “Writer,” you’ll want to type in your author name. I don’t have a pen name, so I’m going to create a page for me. Once you’ve put in what name you want to be referred to and searched by, click on the blue “create page” button.

    STEP FOUR: LOG IN — Log in to the prompt here, or create your Facebook log in.

    STEP FIVE: CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE — Now that you’ve created your Facebook page, you have the ability to customize it in a number of different ways, specific to the page type that you’ve chosen. Here are a few of the ways that you can choose to customize your Facebook page.

      Add a Picture: The maximum filesize for an image is 4 megabytes. I’ve found that a good picture size to use is 250 pixels wide by 250 pixels tall because there is a lot of white space on the page.

      Pull in Your RSS Feed: To pull in your blog or website’s RSS feed to ensure there is current content on your page, you’ll want to click on the “Add a Note” feature. On the right hand side in a small, grey box you’ll see “Notes Settings” where you can import your blog.

      You will see your full expanded posts in the “preview,” but this is not how the RSS feed will show up in your Facebook page. Once you confirm the import at the bottom of the page, your RSS feed will display in the “Notes” box on a per post, per title basis.

      Add Information: Underneath your profile picture is a place to add information about you, your brand or your product. I recommend adding one or two paragraphs of text written in a style appropriate for people who don’t know anything about you, your company or your product.

      Add Video: If you’re playing around with video, I’d like to mention that there is an extra “verification” layer to use that option and the upload is not immediate. One option would be to have a shorter video in the “Video” box, and offer a link to your existing video by posting it on your wall.

      Favorite Other Facebook Pages: If you are a company and have a product, you can add your product’s page as a “favorite” and vice versa. This is a good way to help your customers and fans become familiar with what you’re offering.

      Rearrange Content: You may be looking at your page wondering where you can find photos or videos to add. If you don’t have content for every box, I recommend rearranging the elements on your Facebook page so the boxes that you do have content for show up first. I also recommend posting on your wall with a personalized message so the spot doesn’t appear to be empty.

    STEP SIX: PUBLISH — After you’ve customized your Facebook page, you have to “publish” the page to make it live.

    STEP SEVEN: PUBLICIZE — Now that you have your new Facebook page, you’ll want to publicize it and get “fans.” You can do that either through word-of-mouth advertising, through a Facebook ad or by adding a Facebook badge to your website.

      Adding a Facebook Badge: To add a Facebook badge to your website once you’ve created your page, refer to the “Help” section of Facebook. In this series of articles about How to Create a Facebook Badge, you’ll be able to read more about it. If you’re logged in to Facebook, you can also click on create a Facebook badge and follow the customization instructions.

For an example of a recent Facebook page that I had created, take a peek at Musicnotes.com on Facebook. Remember, that getting fans and people to interact on your Facebook page will take time. Regardless, it’s a good idea to know what Facebook promotional tools you have out there not just because this page creation is free — but because Facebook continues to be a popular social media outlet that you may want to consider branching into.

Hope you found this article helpful in your quest to promote you and your work. If you have a Facebook page you’re looking to promote, either send me or post the link in the comments below and I’ll follow up later this week with a list!

November 3, 2008
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Usability: The Good (and Bad) of Facebook

Whether you’re a freelancer or an author, online marketing is key to making sure you’re putting yourself out there in cyberspace. One of the ways that I’ve done this is through Facebook.

The Good

What I really like about Facebook is that it’s pretty easy to set up and get Facebooking. Here’s my Facebook profile page. If you have LiveJournal, you can easily copy and paste your interests and other info to set up your page. Very easy to find and friend folk, just like in other arenas. My number one reason for using Facebook is the ability to share blog posts with your subscribers. I really like how Name of the Wind author, Pat Rothfuss, is using Facebook. See his Patrick Rothfuss Celebrity Profile Page, personal page, and the Pat Rothfuss Facebook group of fanatical minions. Online marketing at its finest, Pat’s personality really shines through.

The Bad

For me, Facebook can be a big time sink. Every app you put in you have to, or are prompted to, share with someone else. Groups are a great concept, but I’ve found that posting can be intermittent and not as successful as the ability to message within Facebook. Some of the apps are truly addicting, like the (fluff) friends application and can waste a lot of time if you’re not careful.

The Conclusion

So if you manage your time and use it right, I think Facebook can be pretty useful as long as you minimize your apps and choose the right applications to integrate with your blogging efforts. (That reminds me, I should probably scale back a few apps myself…) On a networking scale, I’ve made a few great connections and have generally found people to be very friendly, accessible, and fun.

March 26, 2008
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