My Primary Social Media Sites and How I Use Them as an Author

There are so many social media sites, and it can be overwhelming. I heard some good advice at a conference a while back -- "You can't do it all." Authors feel they need to be everywhere -- all the time. And sometimes, that takes me away from writing and editing.

Here are the sites that I'm more active with and how I use them.

Facebook - I have a personal page, an author page, and a group page for superfans. My personal page has information that I share with friends and family. I share book things on my author page, and my fan group is for previews and early review requests.

I like to use Facebook to keep up with people, learn about new events, and see what everybody's reading or writing. I probably post more to my author page than I do my personal one. I also occasionally boost posts about look launches and sales on the author page. I also create events for meetings or signings that I like to invite people to.

Make sure to tag people that appear in your photos or posts. 

Twitter - I use Twitter to keep up with the book world and all my mystery reader and writer friends. I like to share others' information and celebrations. 

I use Tweepi to manage my Twitter followers. Often there are accounts that follow you, and then they drop you shortly after. I use TweetDeck to schedule posts. I also make lists to keep up with different groups of people. The lists help me organize groups of folks that I'm interested in, so I can see their tweets.

I tweet links to my blog posts and announcements about my books. I also try to share good content from others. If you tweet about events or post pictures, make sure to tag those who are with you.

Instagram - I love looking at and taking pictures. I can spend hours flipping through Instagram. I post pictures of what I'm doing. My dogs get a lot of face time on my account. I always try to take pictures at all the events I go to. Make sure to tag anyone with you in your photos. 

Pinterest - Did I mention that I love looking at pictures? I have Pinterest boards for all kinds of things that I want to see again. I create boards for all my books and stories. I save pictures of what my characters and settings look like. I also have a board of blog posts. I also have boards for crafts and recipes that I want to try.

LinkedIn - This is my "professional" social media site that has my key jobs and skills. I use this for business networking. I have also started to post links to my blog here. 

My recommendation is to find the sites that you like to interact with and try to focus your time on those. You should have a presence on the others, but I would concentrate on a few. I try to schedule my social media time throughout the day. I catch up at breakfast. (Yes, I tweet at 5:30 AM.) I try to check on my sites at lunch, and then I scroll through my sites after dinner.

Let's Be Social:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Goodreads

Amazon Authors

Pinterest

LinkedIn

BookBub

GooglePlus

AllAuthor

YouTube

19 Things I Learned about LinkedIn

This week, I attended a seminar, "The Power of LinkedIn" by Bridget McGovern, Senior Nonprofit Relationship Manager for LinkedIn. She provided a good overview of the platform and a workshop for us to improve our sites. Here's what I learned...

1. Your profile is your professional brand. How do you want to look to others? Your brand is your promise of what others can expect of you.
2. Your LinkedIn profile is not your resume.
3. Follow organizations and causes you care about.
4. You are the brand ambassador for you and your company.
5. Networking is key. Make connections.
6. When you send a connection request to someone, make sure to personalize it (e.g. Hi, John Doe. I enjoyed meeting you at the ABC Conference in Atlanta.). I sent one recently from the mobile version, and it didn't let me personalize the request.
7. Your profile should show where you've been, where you are now, and where you're going.
8. Seventy-five percent of hiring managers use LinkedIn to look for and at candidates. Hey hiring managers, candidates look a your company and profiles too.
9. Make sure you have a professional looking headshot. It can show your personality. Just be careful with selfies. Profiles with pictures get 21x more views.
10. Your photo should be from the shoulders up, and you should smile.
11. Your summary should be short - no more than two paragraphs. This should be your elevator pitch about you. What do you bring when you walk into a room?
12. Add a custom headline under your photo - not just your current job title. This allows you to be creative in your description of yourself. State the essence of what you do.
13. Keep your experience concise (about two sentences). Highlight the value of what you brought to the team.
14. Think about publishing content, photos, and videos. This increases your reach.
15. Your skills tell your story. If someone endorses you for something, and it doesn't fit, you don't have to accept it.
16. Make sure to include your volunteer experience.
17. Connect with people you know, people who belong to similar organizations, and your alumni groups.
18. Look at groups and join what interests you. This is another way to network.
19. Be creative and don't be afraid to show your personality in a professional way. You don't want to look like a robot. Sometimes, we're too formal in our descriptions, and when others read it, it's bland or boring.

I learned a lot from Bridget McGovern. I've had a LinkedIn profile for a while, but I don't do that much with it. I have noticed over the last year that I'm getting more and more recruiters send me information on jobs they think I'm a fit for. It's nice to be noticed. I'm off to revamp my profile.