Web Presence for Writers Revisited

Wow, I’ve been learning so much about how to establish a web presence on the internet. A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t even know what the phrase meant. Now, I has one. (It’s small, but it’s growing)

This post is to show you what I’ve learned and to provide me with a bit of a reminder about what I should be doing.

I’d suggest that before you get started in building your web presence, you think about a few things:

1. What name do you want to be known by? I’m Marie Cachet Beausoleil, although I often don’t use my middle name. If you do a search for Marie Beausoleil, it’s likely that it’s me. If you find Marie Cachet Beausoleil, it’s almost definitely me. Don’t dilute your name recognition by using a bunch of different aliases. Use the name you want to be known by.
2. What are your goals? Mine are simple – to build name recognition and to expose people to my writing ability. If you saw my name elsewhere, will you remember that it’s me? I hope so.
3. How much time do you have? Sadly, this stuff takes time. Budget your time.

So here are the things that I think are most important.

Twitter
If you’re a writer and you’re looking to establish a web presence, the first thing you should do is sign up to Twitter and then add me. I’m @mariebeausoleil and I’d love to have you follow me. I almost always follow back. That’s a good habit to get into. People do not want to follow you if you’re not following back. There are a lot of ways to use Twitter, from your phone to the web to an application. I use Tweetdeck because it lets me group people, and it keeps “all tweets”, “@mariebeausoleil” and “direct messages” separate. That can be handy when you’re chatting regularly with dozens of people.

Social Media Sites
Oh, there are so many of these. I’m trying to develop myself at Facebook and Myspace. Some of my Twitter friends tell me that people are working on making all of these sites work together. That’ll be nice when it happens. Until then, I’m going to keep slugging away at trying to figure out those two sites.

It is apparently possible (and a good thing) to have a Myspace and Facebook page for your book(s). I’m still working on figuring that out, although I can tell that it’s something different than your personal page. As soon as I understand this, I’ll let you know. I promise.

It stands to reason that you should work on developing your list of friends and contacts on both of those sites. Since it’s much easier to do that on Twitter, build up your contacts on Twitter and then let them know you’re on Facebook and Myspace. Of course if you already know a million people who are on Facebook and Myspace, reverse my suggestion. And please — add me as your friend and tell me where you found me.

Website
I know we’re supposed to have a website, although I have to admit I’m not sure what I’d put there. I told you – I’m still learning. I know that, personally, I’m going to much fewer websites and much more blogs, because I can subscribe to blogs in Google Reader. A website will be much more important later, I think. For now, I’m working on developing my website, but it’s not public.

Blogs!
If you’re writing today, and you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out. In fact, many people have several blogs. After all, someone who is interested in me as a writer may be less interested in me as a homeschooling mom. I’ll admit that I’m using free WordPress blogs but I’m not sure that there’s as much stigma against that as there used to be. Eventually, when money is flowing a little more freely, it will be an easy matter to switch my blog over to being hosted on a paid server.

Of course, it stands to reason that you should be updating your blog regularly. Try to make interesting posts. Include ways for people to refer your blog to sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, etc. and make sure to burn a feed at Feedburner. That way, people should be able to subscribe to, or follow, your blog. The goal here is to develop a following of people who enjoy your writing and recognize your name. I’m working on this one.

And the correlation to that is – subscribe to the blogs of editors, agents, publishers, and other writers. Make a daily habit of scanning your blog reader (I use Google Reader because it’s easy) and leave comments as often as possible.

I hear that it’s a good idea to create a Second Life avatar. My laptop, unfortunately, does not have a graphics card that can handle Second Life.

The idea, I think, is quite simple. Get your name out there. Develop yourself as a brand, and make sure that people know your name. Of course, you want them to associate you with happy good feelings, so be polite, helpful and interesting. Don’t spam. Don’t be crude and vulgar, unless you know very well that that’s your target audience.

Any other ideas?