photo by technicolor76.

For many authors and aspiring authors, social media can be an abstract goal. You know it’s important for building your platform, you know your publisher or agent or writing group is encouraging you to do it, and you probably know there’s a difference between personal social media, and professional. But you may not know how to actually go about finding your audience, and engaging them.

My first, most important piece of advice is: relax, and try to have fun with it. Find the sites you like and that you feel comfortable with, and if a site doesn’t work for you, it’s ok. Move on. Focus most of your energy on the sites you do enjoy being on. Social media is meant to be a way of connecting with your audience and your fans in a fun, genuine way; if you’re not having fun with it, your audience will pick up on that, and it won’t be worth it in the long run. It’s hard to keep doing something if you’re not enjoying it, and frequent use is important with social media. Experiment with new sites, but when you find what you really like, run with it.

I find that my clients have the most fun with their Facebook Pages and their blogs.

Twitter is the online equivalent of walking into a room full of people, and mingling. You’ll see some familiar faces and meet some new people; maybe you’ll jump into a conversation, or maybe you’ll just listen politely and enjoy the company. Physically, it’s Facebook boiled down to just status updates, and gives you a place to connect with new people, instead of just networking with the people you already know.

How you use Twitter depends drastically on who you are, but it can be very useful as a networking tool for authors.

Use Twitter to:
-meet other authors
-network with bloggers
-keep tabs on your favorite authors or public figures
-promote yourself and your book

Facebook is an important networking tool, but how you use it depends entirely on your comfort level, and the nature of your book. As with your website, you’re going to need to decide whether you want to build your brand around your name, or your book’s. You can even decide to do both, but the important thing to remember is: don’t use you personal Facebook account for your book persona. Facebook allows you to make “pages,” separate sub-accounts, which focus on you as an author or your book as a piece of media, and allow you to keep another level of distance between your personal life and your public life. Because if you’re an author, you’re an entertainer, and just like any actor or musician, you’re going to want to protect your privacy.

Use Facebook to:
-network with your fans
-promote your book
-centralize your social media efforts

We got into some great discussions, and as the only non-author there, I was really thrilled by how much the other panelist reminded me of the golden rule of publishing: know your audience.

No matter what you do as a published author, you need to be aware of who your audience is. Gothy teenagers? Budding chefs? Cat-lovers? If you don’t know who your audience is, it’s hard to connect with them.

This doesn’t mean your audience has to be one thing. You can have many audiences. For instance, if your book is YA Fantasy with a touch of romance, you’re going to hit YA fans, Romance fans, and Fantasy fans. And depending on the actual nature of your story, you may have some other audiences as well. The m0re you know about your audiences, the better.

With social media, you have the opportunity to connect with different audiences in different places. That’s why it’s important to have accounts on different social media sites. For instance, Twitter is used more by 20- and 30-somethings than teenagers. Myspace is used almost entirely, at this point, by music fans. By embracing different social media, you’re able to connect with different aspects of your audience.

Once you figure out who your audience is, it makes things like blogging much easier. It gives you a focus. You know that your Romance fans might want to see you try your hand at relationship advice, and your fantasy fans might want to hear you discuss world-building or maybe do a post on your favorite fantasy films. Knowing your audiences takes some of the guess-work out of blogging  regularly.

If you’re already published, chances are you know your audience; but if you’re still unpublished, or just starting out as a writer, you may not be sure yet. It’s fine not to worry about audience when you’re writing. Focus on your story, not on the niche you’re trying to fit it into. But once it comes time to start sending your work out to publishers, and building your platform as an author, knowing your audience is an important step towards being published.

Write to Publish is unlike any writing conference you’ve previously attended. Instead of focusing on the craft of writing, we explore the process of getting published. Throughout the day we will host twelve workshops highlighting the basics of publishing with relation to our conference theme: Step into Genre. Workshops are 50 minutes long and cost $35 each. Discounts are available for students and for those attending four workshops (a full day pass also gets you free entry into the author stage).

The author stage will host a variety of authors who will speak about their own experiences in publishing. Entrance is $10 (or free with a full day workshop pass). These presentations are intended as an “industry mingle” rather than a series of readings. The authors will focus on the ups and downs, challenges, and triumphs they experienced in their careers. Local vendors from the publishing industry will also be present, sharing their knowledge and services with conference-goers.

First off, we want to wish a fond (and tearful) goodbye to Steph, who has just started her new job as an Assistant Marketer for Scholastic. We’re sad to see her go, but she’s going to be taking NYC by storm, so we really can’t blame her. Here on the West Coast, though, we’re making our own waves.

Eliza, reading Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why

We’d like to welcome Eliza Lane aboard. She’s savvy when it comes to social media, and a big fan of YA to boot, so she’ll fit right in here. Eliza and Lucy have worked together on projects before, so teaming up for Whirlabout is just the next logical step. And while no one will be able to replace Steph, it’s nice to see our Whirlabout family grow.

Currently we’re working with our first round of beta-clients, and we’re hoping to start taking on new clients as early as February. In the meantime, our blog is getting more active. We’ll be bringing you information as changes and updates occur to common social media sites, and addressing some typical problems or confusions that people have with Facebook, Twitter, etc. We should also being doing our first conference appearance in April, but more on that later.

Once again, Happy New Year!

]]> http://whirlaboutnewmedia.com/2012/01/05/2012-here-we-come/feed/ 0 whirlaboutnewmedia eliza_book http://whirlaboutnewmedia.com/2011/12/24/facebook-cover-images/ http://whirlaboutnewmedia.com/2011/12/24/facebook-cover-images/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:59:10 +0000 Whirlabout New Media http://whirlaboutnewmedia.com/?p=102 Continue reading →]]> —What is Timeline? Check out our article explaining it.

One of my favorite features of the new Facebook Timeline profile is the cover image. It’s a great opportunity for anyone to feature their unique personality, but it’s an especially good opportunity for authors. Of course, I still recommend having a Facebook author page or book page, so you can keep your personal life and professional life separate. But even if you have a designated author page, you can still make good use of your main profile’s cover image.

This is a great opportunity to show off your personality. I think the easiest use for the cover image is display a travel photo—finally, an appropriate way to show of the places you’ve been without sacrificing your profile picture! But there are other ways to use your cover image.

As an author, there are basically two routes you can go to make the most of your cover image.

The first is to pick a picture from your collection that really captures your personality. Maybe a picture of you hiking, or wrestling with your puppy, or hugging your kid. Maybe even a picture of yourself as a teenager, if your readers are mostly teens. I really recommend this for unpublished authors. It’s  good way to start building your image, even if you don’t have a product to show off yet.

The second involves actually showing off your book itself, and this is where things get a bit trickier. There’s a lot of potential here, but you have to be careful.

Facebook has the following message pop up when you change your cover image:

“Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline.

“Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.”

You can see from this that Facebook has a specific aim for what it wants from your cover image, and specific guidelines for what you can and cannot do. Basically, they want something that represents you, not something that represents a brand or product. This doesn’t mean you can’t show of your books, it just means you have to be careful about it.

Some publishers have started providing promotional pictures of their books for people to use on their timelines. While I expect a lot of readers to jump at this chance, I highly warn against authors using them. You want to be professional with your profile, especially if you’re using it instead of an author or book page. Time will tell if Facebook starts banning these images, since they seem to technically violate the terms outlined. Maybe Facebook won’t care. Either way, I’d recommend staying away from these images.

Instead, I recommend using an image of yourself posed with your books. If you’re a previously published author, you must have some pictures from events. Find one that’s flattering a fits your personality, and use it.

Facebook seems clear about wanting a “unique” image that is not “already in use on other people’s covers.” So you can’t just use your book’s cover image itself. However, you can use a picture of your book, maybe posed in front of a landmark or sitting next to your adorable puppy. Have fun with it. Grab your camera and see what you can come up with. After all, these cover images are supposed to represent you and your personality in a new and enhanced way, and your books are definitely part of what makes you, you.

—Lucy

First off, Timeline makes your profile look different, but it doesn’t alter your content any, so don’t worry about losing things. It arranges all your activities (status updates, photos you’ve uploaded, games you played, etc.) in a timeline, with the most recent activity at the top. You can also go down your timeline and hide activities you don’t want everyone seeing, and make some activities feature more prominently.

It’s important to realize that Timeline makes all of your past status updates and activities (from whenever you first started using Facebook) visible again. Here’s a good article on how to make sure your privacy settings are in order.

Timeline will be more appropriate to social users of Facebook than professional users. It sort of naturally organizes your profile in a more casual way. That isn’t a bad thing for professional users, but it’s something to be aware of. If your profession involves crafting a personality (say as an author or actor), then you can have a lot of fun with Timeline.

Overall, only time will tell if Timeline turns out to be cool or annoying, but so far I really like the fresh feel of it. Ever since Google+ launched, I’ve noticed Facebook trying to modernize the way their site feels, and I think Timeline is an impressive change.

Here are some of my favorite features so far:

The “Cover Image”

Your new Facebook profile now shows two pictures. Your normal profile picture, which also appears when you comment places, and a new “cover image” that takes up the width of your profile. This is a great place to highlight a wonderful photo you have from traveling, or show a picture of you with your family, or anything else. Authors, I recommend using a picture of you at a reading or author  event, posing with your book.

The best part about this feature is that it’s optional. So if you don’t have the perfect picture to feature there, you can forego it, and your profile will still look really clean. If you do have a picture that would work well there, by all means use it! It’s a great way to show your personality.

Early Activity

I’ve had a Facebook account since 2005, so it’s really cool to go back and look at my early status updates, old photos, etc. Timeline lets you jump from year to year, or you can just keep scrolling down to see earlier points on your timeline.

Customizability

It’s really easy to “hide” status updates and the like that you don’t want appearing on your profile, without actually deleting them. I like this because it lets you choose what other people see, without limiting your actual activity. Good for someone like me who uses Facebook both professionally and socially.

—

Have you started using Timeline yet? If so, what do you think of it? Any specific question we can answer?

—Lucy

Business cards hot off the press!

Armed with shiny new business cards and bottomless enthusiasm, we’ll be heading up to Seattle tomorrow for KidLit Con, a conference for the online children’s literary community. An entire weekend hanging out with techie YA fans and talking about blogging and social media is kind of like a trip to Disney Land for us. Lucy and I are all about online communication, but the whole reason why social media works is that there’s a wonderful community of readers, writers, book bloggers, and publishing professionals out there, and we’re excited to meet some of them face to face. That, and Scott Westerfeld is giving the keynote address, so we couldn’t pass it up.

A lot of really interesting people are going to be there, such as Sara Gundell of Novel Novice and The Hunger Games Examiner, who is fabulous at promoting literacy and YA book love. There’s also going to be local YA authors, including Sara Ryan (she has librarian powers too), Karen Cushman, and Suzanne Young. Plus, we’ll get to see some old friends: Leah Brown and Mary Darcy, the acquisitions editors of RainTown Press,and  Eliza Lane of The Book Tramp.

Hope to see you there!

Lucy, reading PINK by Lili Wilkinson

We really believe in the power of new media to connect the reading community. We believe, because we’ve seen it in action. Many of the most successful and influential YA authors right now have very active online lives. They maintain blogs and websites, are constantly interacting with their fans through Facebook and Twitter, and are paving their own way through the internet with sites like Youtube, Tumblr, and Goodreads. We also know that everyone is different, and not every website appeals to every person. We take a goal-oriented approach to social media. We aim to work directly with YA authors (established, new, and even prospective) to help figure out what strategy works best for each of them.

You’re probably wondering, why YA?

Steph, reading GRACELING by Kristin Cashore

First off, most teenagers spend a lot of time online. If they’re not physically at a computer, they’re checking Twitter or Facebook through their phones. Technology is integrating into daily culture—even daily reading culture—and teens are at the forefront. It’s just natural for YA authors to be out there in the trenches, getting to talk to their audience directly.

Secondly, social media works best when you focus on a specific niche. It’s impossible to hit everyone directly, nor should you try—the whole point of embracing social media is finding where your specific audience is, and hanging out with them there. To that end, you need to know your audience. Having worked for a young adult press, and being active readers of young adult books ourselves, we know the market. We’ve studied it, we’ve tested it—hell, only a few years ago we were it.

We’re still not fully up and running yet, but if you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or through this blog, you can stay abreast of all the upcoming Whirlabout news. We looking forward to getting to know you!