Social Networking is one of the best ways to meet new people that share your interests and values, including your love of creating and sharing stories. After you’ve established a base author website and it’s set up and you’ve optimized it, it’s time to go out into the world, meet interesting people and invite them back to your place for a party.
Take some time first to construct a standard “Profile” for yourself. This is the “about me” page that you’ll use in every online social situation. You’ll want to chose just one author photo, icon, or avatar and use it consistently throughout the Internet. Most people are very visually oriented and they’ll begin to associate your picture with your written voice quickly. Your “face” will be familiar to them and that familiarity lends credibility to your posts.
Outline some basic info to use on all your profiles: picture, bio, blurb, location, website address, email (use your author email--not your personal email), etc. Have all that info handy first, perhaps in a separate folder on your computer to help you stay organized, so when a new social forum opens up, you won’t have to scramble to take advantage of it. Call it your “networking” folder.
One of the first places you want to set up profiles is in authors’ communities. Authors are usually friendly types and like to help each other out, share contacts and promote each other. If you’re not already a member, check the following communities out and set up an author profile. Make sure you keep track of your login name and password. Keep them in your Networking folder.
Communities
Writers Communities
http://www.pw.org/
http://www.fictionaut.com/
http://www.absolutewrite.com/
http://www.poetryspeaks.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/
http://www.bookbuzzr.com/
http://www.redroom.com/
Book Lovers Communities
http://www.shelfari.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.booksneeze.com/
http://www.librarything.com/
Newsgroups/Discussion Groups/Forums
Join newsgroups, discussion groups and forums for fans of your genre and set up your sig line to promote your author website and your book sales page. There's still plenty of active ones on Yahoo Groups, Live Journal Communities, Usenet, Topica, Delphi Forums and EasyNews.
Author Pages
Amazon's Author Central https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home
GoodReads Author Program: http://www.goodreads.com/author/program
Library Thing Author: http://www.librarything.com/librarything_author
Author HobKnob: http://www.librarything.com/groups/hobnobwithauthors
Consistent and regular participation with positive and helpful post and response, as well as live and active back-links to your author website, will help bring more exposure to your work and your author brand.
Happy Networking!
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