GSWC- Day 14, 15 &16

Hey Everyone!

I'm back again for more Get Started Write Challenges!

Day-14 Today's challenge is to set up a Facebook account. I'm not exactly sure if I should do this one or not. I know that Facebook is a good marketing tool and I will probably make one in the future, but for right now I am going to hold off on it. I already have a personal Facebook account that I use, and I think that it would be weird having a Facebook account that is under my pen-name. I don't know. For right now though, I am on twitter and I have this blog and to me that is plenty enough. I think that I can look into it later when it comes time to start getting my book out there. However I am still in the beginning stages and I don't want to overwhelm myself. However, if you are looking on here and interested in that, then here are the tips that he has given to get started:

• Go to facebook.com to sign up. It’s free.
• Complete your profile. The more you add, the more you human you make your profile. That’s a good thing.
• Make everything public. This makes it easier for folks to find you, but with that said…
• Be aware that you've made everything public. Think before you post or share.
• Include a profile pic. Again, it makes you human. Again, think twice about which picture(s) you share with the world.
• Update your status regularly. It lets others know that you’re actively using your account. If you just watch others with the lights off, they assume no one is home.
• Be selective about your friends. There are writing groups, reading groups, and other types of groups on Facebook. Use these to help you connect with people who share your interests–and be aware of spammers.
• Communicate with your friends. Connect and communicate, that’s the way to rock social media. Quantity is not as important as quality.
• Join relevant groups. Like the ones mentioned above, but there are also groups (and fan pages) set up for literary journals, magazines, book publishers, literary agents, and more. These can be helpful for staying abreast of calls for submissions, writing opportunities, and more.
• Bonus tip: If you have a blog, be sure to share new posts on your Facebook profile. Just mention each post once, but it’s a good way to update your status with relevant information.

- See more at: http://blog.writersmarket.com/whats-new/2014-get-started-write-challenge-day-14#sthash.rTgZU6yo.dpuf

-He also had a sub-link to this page which is about Social Media. I think this is something to check out and I will probably come back to it when I re-visit the social media idea. So here is the link: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/author-social-media-kit?lid=RBwmblog01 

-Lizzy

Day 15-  Since these challenges are all along the same lines, I figured that I would go ahead and group them all together. It makes it easier since I am pretty much saying the same thing for each post and I don't want to repeat myself on 3 separate posts. So the task for today is to join another social media group, if you haven't already joined one. Like I said above, I am going to look through everything before I join and see the best way that they can benefit me. Then, I'll think about joining and probably might, we'll just see. So here are the links that he posted for the social media sites that he suggested:

• LinkedIn. A great professional social network.
• Google+. Like Facebook, but run by Google.
• Goodreads. A social network for readers.
• StumbleUpon. A network for sharing fun stuff.
• Pinterest. Image-based social network.
• Red Room. Subtitled: Where the authors are.
• Reddit. Another network for sharing fun stuff.
• BlogHer. Subtitled: Life well said.
• There are more, of course, but these are some of the more popular ones. One tip: Any time someone I know personally suggests I should check out a particular social media site, I do.

Day 16-  The challenge for today is to go and join the twitter chat. Seeing as I am a month late to that party, I will not be doing that, however I will go back and read what people have said via the hashtag #gswc. I think that will help some and maybe I will find something useful. I also read a post that he had linked to, connected to some sort of old blog of his. It talks about websites that are useful for Twitter and these are two that he mentioned that seemed interesting to me and I will more than likely use them in the future:

http://wthashtag.com/   (This allows you to keep track of the hashtags that are currently trending and follow the convorsations)

https://bitly.com/  (This allows you to shorten any url that you tweet, allowing you to save space in your 140 character limit)

Both of these are definitely helpful! So, there you have it. My responses to the days challenges. Sorry that it is so long, but I hope that it is useful to you. Thanks!

-Lizzy