GalleyCat is MediaBistro.com’s publishing blog. In a post I found today, thanks to a Twitter update from @selfpubreview, blogger Jason Bloog revealed some ‘unscientific’ results on the amount of writers on Twitter.

Bloog used TweepSearch to nail down writers by a variety of classifications - and he found there are almost 100,000 of them/us. His ‘Twitter Census’ also shows there are more people that consider themselves authors (28k) than novelist (about 2k). For the full results, check out Bloog’ post, Literary Twitter Census. Keep in mind  this post is from December 2009 - with the rate Twitter is going, there could be hundreds or thousands more writers on Twitter today! Are you?

The TweepSearch spiders keywords  used in user profiles so these numbers, of course, only reflect those who dub themselves a writer publicly.

This week is bittersweet. My final semester in the MFA program at Wilkes University is coming to an end. For our MFA internship, we could take either a teaching track or publishing track. I chose publishing because I felt it made more sense given my background in marketing; I wanted to blend my two loves. So, my publishing internship was with Etruscan Press, a small, non-profit literary press housed at Wilkes University’s creative writing offices. This was a perfect match, as it allowed me to take my professional experience in eCommerce and social media and put it to use in the literary and publishing world.

The Etruscan Press website was outdated and the small press was very eager to learn the ropes of blogging and social media for itself and its authors. So, I presented a project plan which included a redesigned website and blog, a social media guide for Etruscan Press authors, and a social media plan for the press itself. This week, a half-year of work comes to a close: the new website will go live the week of January 11. All parties are thrilled with the new look and feel of the website. Have a peek:

Screen shot of Etruscan Press' redesigned website. Shown, the homepage with cascading navigation.

Which brings us to the point of this post.

This blog is focused on social media, but I really feel I should write something regarding website design. After all, Twitter and Facebook are just a few strategies to the overall marketing plan for writers and publishers. One of the higher level goals may be to get traffic to your website and that means how your personal or professional website looks matters. You don’t want Facebook to be your sole web presence. And, when you link to things from Twitter, your site should look presentable.

While investigating how to set up the website, we looked to other small press websites for inspiration.  And, while editing the former Etruscan’s links page to make sure all links still worked, I came across dozens of other literary websites. What I found in my travels left a lot to be desired. There was so much room for opportunity on many of these independent press websites. I don’t want to be critical of an industry I love, but I guess this is just some tough love. I’ve been told often I am too nice, so this post is a way for me to also show that I can really be a critic, too! And, lots of types of people read this blog, so while small press websites were the inspiration for this post, the information is useful to anyone with a website. In fact, literary magazines are another area I see that could overall use an overhaul in the website department.

Feel fresh, new and more professional

As a small press, you are likely seeking out the newest book that, in addition to be a great piece of literature, will look great on store shelves. The same care should be taken with your website design. Think of your small press website as the book cover for your small press. Would you want to be published by you, solely based on the way your site looks? And, when old classics get reprinted, don’t the covers often get a fresh look? The average website should be designed every 2-4 years, depending on your industry. If you were early to the websites game and started with a free Geocities or Homestead site and then let it go, you’ve let a whole world pass you by.

The times, they are changing (Thanks, Bob!). Think about what image you are portraying to your audience, who could include writers, agents, editors, critics, and other consumers of literature who visited your site for a reason. Let your site convey professionalism.

There are general industry guidelines for submitting queries, right? The same could be said for web design. There are best practices to follow, no matter what the industry. By day, I work in eCommerce, and am often asked to do mini-deconstructions of online stores. That said, I am always in that mode whenever I land on a website. I may be a bit more critical than some, but for good reason – you have less than ten seconds to captures someone’s attention when they land on a website. And, the eye looks at a website a certain way. Now that the Internet has been a part of our everyday lives for some time, trends have emerged. These trends have trained us to know where to click and if your site’s layout and navigation ignores the norm, you could be turning people off.

What are some key signs your small press website may need a redesign? Here are some of my observations:

• Cookie cutter templates – I still see some small press websites that look like they were designed with a default Microsoft Publisher web page template – the one with the ovals and bars. You are different; your publishing house website should be, too. From simple color tweaks to a fully custom design, don’t slack on the originality department. You don’t for your books, do you?
• Animated graphics – these are so outdated. In the early 90s, they were cute. Today, they are laughable. Not talking flash here; that can be very tasteful. I’m talking about the Send us an Email graphic where a note folds itself up and pops itself into a mailbox and similar .gifs.
• Left justified and/or sites – best practices deem sites should be centered and widened. Monitors have grown in recent years.
• Cluttered menus or poor navigation– Do you have a very long menu, or do people have to click many times to get where they are going, perhaps to find hidden pages? All higher-level pages should be linkable from the homepage menu, and ideally, some kind of expanding or cascading navigation to show subcategories. There should be some clear structure to point people where to go so they don’t have to guess. The navigation menu should also be global, meaning the menu doesn’t disappear or change when you are on a certain page. This may happen if you create your site in a program where you make each page individually. If you are one of those who are still creating your website one HTML page at a time, good news. Those cumbersome days are over! Wordpress is a fantastic platform that will save you a ton of time because it dynamically generates a lot, and at its basic level, its free.
• Image-based navigation -text-based navigation is best for SEO and just looks better than big graphics everywhere
• Gobbledygook – so many sites had no consistency in branding or layout from page to page. When you design a book or lay out a literary magazine, there is a set of fonts and rules you use. (A Colophon?) But, I see websites with one color and font here, another over there. I see big fonts, small fonts, everywhere a new font, font. I see cluttered images and just no consistency with page flow.
• Hidden information – no one wants to be overwhelmed with queries, but you also shouldn’t bury contact information. Chances are, a good chunk of people are visiting you to find submission guidelines. Link directly to that page from your homepage. Also, is your phone number and mailing address on your website? People often use your website as a source for information. Make your contact information available easily so that people can contact you. Maybe a bookseller wants information about buying books or booking a reading. Maybe an agent wants to contact you about a potential author. Maybe the media wants to talk to you. Don’t make this information hard to find.
• Website missing – If you are a small press that used to have a website, but no longer do, listen up. That website address may still be out there and it may come up when people are searching for you. What is there now? I don’t want to embarrass the press in case they still do exist, but one small press link I clicked on went to a site for Hot Russian Brides. The domain had expired and someone new took it. Curious, I Googled the name of the press to see if there was a new domain for it. I didn’t find a new website, but I did find a ton of market listings that linked to this publisher as well – with the site that goes to the Russian Bride site. So, watch your domain name! Don’t let them expire. (For more tips on owning your brand in the search engines, read this post.) If you moved your site, contact everyone you know of that is linking to you so they can also update accordingly.
• Google Ads - Google ads are a fine way for some to generate revenue, but I strongly feel it cheapens a professional organization’s website. It’s one thing to have on a personal blog or hobby website, but for a true company that makes its money selling books, I think Google ads just look in poor taste. If you do want to find ways to make money from your website, perhaps partnering with companies as an affiliate with literary-related or other companies that offer products/services valuable to your audience makes more sense. Besides, unless you really customize your adsense account, you have little control over what ads show.
• Social media missing - there were so many sites I came across that did not list Twitter, Facebook, a link to a blog It could be very well that a lot of these small presses are active in these spaces, but have not updated their websites to reflect this. Bridge the two. That’s what it’s all about!
• Piece-mealed sites - sometimes, just by looking at a site, you can see that it’s just pieced together. Maybe the original webmaster/designer is no longer in contact, so whoever took over did the best they could, with what they had. Over time, this leads to sloppy code on the back end, slow load times, and on the front end, a lot of the gobbledygook I discussed above. A redesign is often needed to wipe all that out and start fresh.

I realize as I write this, this this is turning into a very long post, so I will stop with those few. I just am so passionate about a properly-designed, professional website that I can’t shut up about it sometimes! Based on the length so far, I just decided to make this a two-part series, so stayed tuned for the second part on social media and small presses. But real quick, here are some reasons some small presses may be outdated:

It’s too hard to redesign a website for a small press
It’s not hard at all! Sure, there may be a learning curve, but when you use a platform like WordPress, which is what I used for Etruscan Press, it’s so user-friendly. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use Wordpress. It’s what is known as a WYSIWYG editor - what you see is what you get. Although, you can edit in HTML, too, or go back and forth. Wordpress has free themes you can use, and for more customization, you can host your own site and purchase and modify templates to match your branding, or have a custom template designed for you. The most important thing is to get on a new, updated platform, so if you need to take baby steps, at least get on a clean platform that will give you room for growth.

It’s too expensive to get a redesign for a independent press website
If you take the nearly-free route of using WordPress, it won’t cost you much. You may want to have someone make custom graphics or a custom header. You may want to buy some stock photos to use. You may choose to host the site yourself. So, there could be minimal costs, but as you can see, there are cost-effective and even free ways to get a small press website redesigned. Of course, my full-time job is for a web developer and therefore I am a huge advocate of totally custom design. That’s the route I’d ultimately suggest, but working with a small press, I understand the budget limitations many may face, especially if they are non-profits. On the other hand, see what types of grants are available. Technology is so huge right now in the arts. Having a quality website can help you take your press further, attract more readers, attract more writers, etc. Use that to your advantage. Use that to justify the cost. The long-term benefits of a professional design are worth it.

There’s not enough resources to build or manage a redesign project
Small presses are often that: small. Look to MFA programs and find design interns. There are folks, like me, who are getting MFAs and need internships who are more interested in the business side of writing goes where the internship is concerned. Interns can work as project-based interns. That’s how Etruscan got their new website! Once the site is created and the main pages are added, there really isn’t much maintainence. You may want to add new books as they are released and keep events updated, so there are few key pages you may regularly update, but it’s managable. If you have a blog along with your website, that should be updated several times per week. For help with that, enlist guest bloggers or create a bunch of posts ahead of time and preschedule them.

I don’t know how to find a good designer
There are freelancers and professional companies alike that can come to your aid if you do want to leave it to a professional to build and design your site. Start with your local area. Contact me privately if you want some recommendations, as I enlisted a programmer I know to help with the Etruscan site. I would also highly recommend Solid Cactus, and not because I work there, but because I’ve seen what my colleagues have done to transform websites. (Especially if you are looking for a way to sell books online - you will also need a secure shopping cart solution.)

>>Want feedback on your website? Whether you are a independent press, an author, a bookseller, or whatever type of site you have, please comment below with your website and I will, within a week of your comment, provide some feedback on your site. I would love to help you find an opportunity to get your site up to date! Notate if you want me to send your comments to you privately, otherwise I will write them in the comments so that all can learn. It’d be great to start a nice dialogue!

In closing, here’s another screen shot of the new Etruscan site. The homepage features rotating banners. The image above showed one, and here’s another:

New Etruscan Press homepage, showing another view as the banners rotate through to show new titles, and other messages

Blogging is indeed crucial for authors. It’s great for building a personal brand, enhancing SEO, and for getting more personal with an audience. When it comes to using a blog to help a writer get published, blogging can help build an audience and a platform. That’s what Brooks writes about here.

Brooks’ blog post discusses how having a quality blog can help writers get a book deal, but he first demystifies that this is not a shoe-in or overnight solution. Rather, getting published as a result of a popular blog is something that takes time and something that is just part of the process, not an alternative route to being discovered. Not everyone can be Diablo Cody or Tucker Max, after all. Brooks leads his post with this valuable blogging advice:

“First, let’s get one thing out of the way. A blog alone, no matter how popular, isn’t enough to score you a book contract. It’s not quite that simple. In other words, it doesn’t quite work the way it does on television.”

I encourage you to check out the rest of this post and learn how blogging can help you build an audience and platform, and perhaps, add Copy Blogger to your list of writing and social media resources.

My blog post on social media and blogging covered five main points:

1. Twitter Lists Have Organized My Life - this tool has maximized my Twitter usage.

2. Paying Attention is Key to Fresh Content - just as writers should always be reading books, bloggers should be keeping up with other blogs for both technique and trends.

3. Trend-Spotting is Not Done at the Mall - use social media to find out what people are talking about or are searching for.

4. Sharing is Caring - Tweet, Retweet, post, repost, or summarize and share in a new blog post. Learn from being shared with; teach from sharing what you’ve learned.

5. My iPhone is My Savior - inspiration is everywhere. Having a smart phone with a camera allows me to share something immediately, or at the least, take a quick picture and jot down notes for later.

For this post, I will focus on how creating Twitter lists can help maximize your time on Twitter. I will show you how writers can use Twitter lists, how to create a Twitter list, and how to add people to your list.

What are Twitter lists?

I liken Twitter lists to cable television: specialized viewing channels when you are in the mood for a certain type of content. You could also think of them as iPod playlists where you can hone in on a specific area rather than the global shuffle. Simply put, Twitter lists are a genius tool to organize your social media life. Once your lists are created, you can view the lists one at a time, allowing you to focus on the people and/or topics you care about. Creating and using Twitter lists can

• Consolidate your Twitter stream
• Organize your contacts (people you follow or your followers)
• Expand your base of followers
• Help you find new people to follow
• Help you to better network

How can writers use Twitter lists?

For all the above reasons, and then some! If you are a writer using Twitter, chances are that you are using Twitter for several purposes (and, if you still need help finding uses for Twitter, by searching the Twitter category here, you may find some new ideas). You may follow writers in your genre for help with craft. You may keep up with agents on Twitter to find out what is happening in the industry or for sound advice. You may follow editors and publishers on Twitter to see what books are forthcoming. You may keep up with writing resources or literary magazines on Twitter that may be announcing contests or submission deadlines. And, if you are like most people and have a day job, you may also be following people in your industry and personal friends and family. Wow. With all that, how can you keep things straight?

Enter Twitter lists. Twitter’s list feature allows you to add users to lists, even multiple lists, to keep things organized. Then, by selecting a list, you can view only tweets from people on that list. Creating lists on Twitter will allow you to more efficiently manage Twitter, especially when you begin to follow hundreds of people.

As a writer using Twitter, you may want to create lists for specific areas. maybe your genre or based on profession. Every writer is different, so to give you an idea, here are the lists that I created for the Twitter account I use most often for writing:

• Memoir Writers
• Blogs About Writing
• Writing Resources
• Magazines
• Bookstores
• Wilkes Writers (writers in my MFA program)
• Editors
• Agents
• Publishers
• Authors (these are the “famous” writers I follow for fun.)

My lists are pretty straightforward. I could probably add a general writers category and add more genres, but I wanted to keep it simple. Your lists may be more numerous than mine, or more simple. In the orange graphic above, you can see how the lists are shown on my Twitter account. I just need to click on one of those lists to see the tweets from people on each list.

How do I set up a Twitter list?

Setting up a Twitter list is pretty easy. In the right hand menu column on your main Twitter page, you will see a section for lists. Simply click on “new list.” Then, a window that looks like this will pop-in:

1. Give your list a name and, if you wish, a brief description.

2. Then, select if you wish your list to be public or private. (A public list means that people can see where they are listed and also that your followers can look at all of your lists. A private list means that it’s only viewable by you. The nature of Twitter would lend very well to making your list public because by sharing lists, you can help others form their own lists and become more connected.)

3. Repeat if you’d like more lists.

4. Add people to your list, which I will discuss next.

Adding People to Your Twitter List

Once you’ve created a list or two, you’ll need to populate those lists. This is easy to do.

1. Go to your Followers or People You Follow page. You will see three icons to the right, under the Actions column. Click on the middle one, the one that looks like a list.

2. A pop-up will appear with checkboxes for each of your lists. It will look like this:

3. Just mark each list for which you want that person to be added. You can add the same person to multiple lists. For example, a few of my classmates write memoir, so they go on my Memoir Writers list and my Wilkes Writers list. Some agents I follow, such as Nathan Bransford, also have a blog about publishing, so he goes in both.

4. You may also create a new Twitter list right from this window.

Other thoughts and considerations on Twitter Lists

• Be mindful when creating your list names. Agents Who Rejected Me or Writers Who Can’t Write probably aren’t good names for lists. Also, for my day job, I almost made a category for clients. I realized that certain people may not wish for their competitors or customers to know who does their marketing and creative work, so I found other ways to categorize them.
• Explore Twitter lists of those you follow. You can actually follow a whole list that someone else created, which is pretty neat. Or, you may just wish to check out individual members of someone’s list to find new people to follow.
• Creating Twitter lists and adding people to them can be time-consuming if you’ve already rounded up hundreds of followers. But, as you add new contacts, you can add them to a list right away. That said, it can become second nature. Once the lists are set up initially, it’s a piece of cake to keep tabs on them.

Have fun creating your lists and, if you are considering a writer’s resources category, please think about adding us, @smforwriters. Enjoy!

Finally - how are YOU using Twitter lists. Please share your ideas here.

Another active blogger and Twitterer, Inky Girl (@inkyelbows on Twitter), wrote a great blog post highlighting some of these Twitter discussions for writers, as well as a comprehensive list of their scheduled days and usual topics. If you scroll down more, you will see she also offers some tips on chatting in general. She highlights regular hashtags writers use daily while writing, like #amwriting and #writegoal, as well as more targeted chats that occur on certain days or sporadically like #writechat, #scriptchat, #yalitchat, and my two personal favorites, #askagent and #memoirchat.

AskAgent

One of the coolest Twitter chats for writers is #askagent, first started by literary agent Colleen Lindsay. There is no scheduled time for this chat, so if this is something you are interested in participating in, do a search for “#askagent” and then save it in your saved searches menu on Twitter. Then, each evening you are on Twitter (or whenever you feel like it), click on “#askagent” on your menu to see if there is anything happening. Lindsay and now a few other literary agents on Twitter graciously give their time to answer burning questions writers have about agents, queries, manuscripts, the writing process, and other publishing questions. I highly recommend looking out for this one. It’s not every day that you can ask an agent a question.

Memoirchat

My favorite writer chat on Twitter has become #memoirchat. The first #Memoirchat was organized by blogger/writer, Alexis Grant who, of course, is at work on her travel memoir. I’ve attended three or four of these and have found them incredibly helpful. The last #memoirchat on Twitter was last week, and you can read a transcript here to see just how engaging the conversation was. During this chat, we talked about our what memoirs we were reading, our current projects, obstacles we were facing, and also had some discussion about how to format a memoir- narrative vs. collection of essays. That either-or topic was very eye-opening for some. Even though it was a chat, I could see people eyes sparkle! Definitely a good place to exchange thoughts and ideas.

A few things to keep in mind when chatting in Twitter:

• Twitter is public. Anyone on Twitter can see your tweets during that chat, either live in your stream or in a  search the hashtag for the chat. Additionally, many Twitter chats are archived. This means, don’t vent to your writing chat on Twitter about how horrible an experience you had with someone — they may also be following you or the chat.
• Use proper etiquette just as you would in any other professional setting. For the most part, people are going to be using Twitter chat for help, advice, inspiration, or to just talk and meet each other. But, should a disagreement arise, keep things civil. Remember that tone is often hard to tell in online communication, so remember to use emoticons.
• If you are on a chat where you have access to agents or editors, remember they are there to help; not to be pitched. Do that privately in the terms that agent or  editor prefers, as outlined in their submission guidelines. This is not to say that a relationship or mutual interest cannot be spawned from a chat; just use common sense.
• Remember to always use the Twitter chat hashtag after your chat so everyone can follow along. If you are using a service like TweetChat, it does it for you, so remember not to use the hashtag there, otherwise, it shows up twice.
• You only have 140 characters, but try to address the tweet you are replying to if at all possible. Sometimes the conversation can change or there may be a few questions happening at once. I don’t just mean reply to the proper person, but also somehow mention the tweet to which you are referring.
• Use TweetChat to follow that chat in real-time, or use a desktop program called TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a must-have tool if you are a Twitter addict anyway, so organizing your Twitter writing chats is just one more bonus!

Happy chatting! And, if you don’t see a Twitter chat for writers that fits your genre or goals, why not start one?!

Several months ago, Shelli also gave Social Media for Writers a shout out when she linked to an early post, SMO Etiquette Advice: When is it okay for a writer to follow an agent/editor on Twitter? Thanks for the link, Shelli, but more importantly, thanks for writing your blog!

There was a blog, Laptop Guy Unplugged (www.laptopguy.blogspot.com) which has a post about me, “Google Analytics and Finding Smart Friends“! I mean, about me, as in Donna Talarico not about this blog. First, flattered. But why I am sharing this is because it’s a perfect example to illustrate how ranking well for your own name helps people find you. I blogged about that just a few days ago with the post, How Writers Can Dominate Search Engine Results: 5 Steps to Owning Your Personal Brand. (Of course, this is only a good thing IF you want to be found, I suppose.) Audrey, who wrote the post, was searching for “social media for writers” and she found the blog. But then, she was curious about me, and well, I’ll just let her post tell the story:

This post just fascinated me. See how you can just get a little lost online making connections? It’s incredible. I also LOVE that she gave a shout out to The Office. I also take comfort in knowing that I am not the only Google Analtyics nerd who loves to not just look at data, but follow it, too.

For tips on how writers (or anyone) can rank better, please see my post. And, the funniest thing of all, is that her post is about Google Analytics. That’s exactly how I found out she wrote about me and Social Media for Writers. Perhaps my next post will be on how writers can use Google Analytics.

Evans’ post provides solid advice to writers using Twitter and sprinkles in links to other important blog posts with even more tips on how not to use Twitter. My favorite of all her tips, though, is Thou Shalt Forgo the Hard Sale. This is not just true for authors using Twitter, but for anyone in any line of work. In my day job, I have to remind clients and coworkers that blogs and social media are supposed to be more conversational in nature. Same goes for a writer on Twitter. Don’t abuse this personal tool, as I also discussed in a previous post about social media etiquette, to pitch to literary agents on Twitter or to tell your followers to buy your book now. Instead, by being engaging and friendly, you will sell yourself and your brand which in turn will help you reach your goals.

Give Evans’ post a read and see how you may measure up at those pearly social media gates.

This article stresses the importance of ownership of your brand. When someone is looking for a certain brand online, the top results should be official sites or supplemental sites for those brand names — not “garbage”. Imagine if the top link for a brand or individual was a bad review? Try searching for Wal-Mart. There’s plenty of “hate sites” about that monster of a store. (For that I am actually thankful, but I digress.)

As a writer, what does this mean for you? It means that if people are searching for you online, that you should not just be showing up, but appearing high. If you are not a household name, a public figure locally, or have not written heavily for the Internet, chances are there are very little reasons your name would show up in the search engines. After all, the spiders can only find information that exists. This was something someone asked me at the talk I did Monday. Her name turned up few results. But, the reason why? She had no online presence. It’s seems obvious, but for some, a reminder of this is needed.

If the only results that are showing up when you type your full name into a search engine like Google are links to newspaper articles that you were included in, old school rosters that have made their way online, sports scores, or other tidbits, you need to do some brand building. In the article from Vertical Measures, you will see that the author took a screen shot of the first page of Google search results when “vertical measures” was searched for. I followed their lead and did the same for me to demonstrate how, over time, I was able to own my name and my brand.

Search Results When You Search for Donna Talarico in Google

Here, you can see that when you search for Donna Talarico even without the quotes, I own the whole first page. (As of this writing anyway.)

1. My writing blog

2. My facebook profile

3. An article I wrote for a site, Associated Content, a content site which ranks very well

4. The Barnes and Noble page for a book of essays

5. My LinkedIn profile

6. My personal, more candid, blog Daily Dose o’ Donna

7. My profile at Amazon.com

8. My profile on a private social media network, through Ning.com

9. My Twitter account for my work username, @cactus_donna

10. My MySpace page (Wait? I still have one of those?)

Bonus link - My Google profile

What do I think about my search engine results?

Overall, I am happy with what I see. Anyone looking for me can clearly see what I do professionally - eCommerce and writing. The results show that I am social media savvy in that Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and even a Ning profile all show up. While I think the article I wrote in 2007 about me not being domestic is cute, I’d rather it not show up on Page 1. I’d rather my profile on the Ning site not show up in the results. And, since the book available on B&N is something I self-published in 2005, I’d rather that not show up either. But other than that, I feel comfortable with what is displayed. There’s no doubt in my mind that since this post mentions my name so many times, that this will eventually make its way to Page One.

I hadn’t Googled myself in a while, so I decided to see how deep I could go before another Donna Talarico showed up. On Page Two I still own all the results, with links to newspaper articles I’ve either written or have been interviewed for, or to other blogs, forums, or websites I frequent. It isn’t until Page Four that another Donna Talarico shows up. Then, all the other results are still related to articles and other mentions of me, and then, it’s all me until you hit Page Eight. Now, I have been online so long that my GeoCities page (RIP) used to show up first, until Yahoo! recently laid GeoCities to rest. I have been producing content for print and online publications since the late 90s and have jumped on board every social networking site early, so I’ve had time to develop this. Any social media expert will tell you that building rankings does take time, and since my profiles, articles, and such have been around for gosh, nearly a decade, I am fortunate that I rank well. I share this here to demonstrate how, over time, you can totally capitalize on being all over the Internet to help create and control your personal brand. (Attention future husband: I will probably keep my maiden name.)

What if I have a common name and want to stand out in the search engines, too?

The best advice I can give is, since you are likely a writer or in publishing, add your personal tagline to every web entity you have, such as Joe Smith, freelance writer or Lisa Jones, literary agent. This way, when people are searching for your name with some other keywords, you will be more likely to show up. It should be understood that people with common names are going to turn up a lot of results, so users will naturally use some type of identifier to go along with that name to dig deeper. So, use some extra keywords to define who you are, in addition to just your name.

To get starting building your personal brand as a writer:

Step 0: Find out where you stand
Google yourself. What comes up? Who comes up? Do a lot of other people have your name?

Step 1: Start with a solid, branded foundation
Create a blog and/or personal website and have a custom domain name with your name. This will serve as your hub. When you utilize your other social media tools for writers, such as Twitter and Facebook, you will link back to your personal blog/website.

Step 2: Be sure to create as many profiles as you can.
If you are not on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, sign up. If you feel other networks also suit you, consider them too, perhaps Flickr, YouTube, or writing-related profiles such as Publisher’s Marketplace, AuthorAdvance, etc. As you can see from my results, the popular social networking sites and blogging platforms have some pull in the search engines. Use that to your advantage.

Step 3: Don’t make croutons out of your search results
The key to tip two is also keeping up with them. These profiles you create are also most effective when they are fresh — not stale. That’s right. Don’t make croutons outta your search results. This means that if these results are showing up and searchers are clicking on them, you will want to keep up them and make sure you are maintaining them. People often tell me that they won’t have time to write if they get sucked into all of this. You don’t have to get sucked in. I admit that I do. But once you get everything set-up, the hard part is done. Check in a few times a week. Create a schedule you are comfortable with. But, do keep updating, because search engines like fresh content. This is why you see rankings change all the time. You must not let things go, or down those listing go. But, you don’t have to update hourly either. Find the balance that works for you.

Step 4: Big brother yourself
Set a Google alert up for your name so you can be made aware when you are listed somewhere. This helps you monitor your brand, as well as let you know when search engines have spidered your name/sites/profiles.

Step 5: Get out your megaphone
Promote. Share your links with others. Friend people. Follow people. Comment on other blogs. This will help you grow, and also help you build links, which is another key to getting a higher ranking.

Those are some tips for how social media can help enhance search engine rankings and how, as an author, you can begin to manage to own your personal brand. Good luck! And please comment with any other ideas, or any other strategies you may have, as well as RT this post if you feel some of your network would enjoy this.

By the time the session was over, I think I was able to inspire this fine group to take the next step. Wheels were turning. Notes were being jotted down. Hands were raised, and great comments made. It was a successful event. And, if a dozen writers in Eastern PA feel this way, then I know others do as well. I think the tech-savvy writers need to act as patron saints of social media and help our writer friends realize the potential they have.

Let me address those fears. There is nothing to be scared of just by having a presence on the Internet. Phone books have been around forever, and they lists names, addresses, and phone numbers . Ads in the newspaper, on the radio, on television publicize the location of businesses. A website is really nothing more than a calling card for your business. I mean, it really is SO much more than that, but in simple terms, that’s what it is. If your website is personal, as it probably is for a writer, you need not furnish your address, and with cell phones, Google voice, Internet phone service - people can’t trace you. In short, you have the luxury of putting only information you want on your site. Nothing to be afraid of! About Facebook only being interested in collecting demographic information? That’s silly. I mean, do they? Yes, they do. They offer advertising which can be targeted a good deal because of information Facebook users provide. That’s no different than the magazine industry, which has forever shared mailing lists with advertisers.  It makes sense because the most effective marketing happens when there’s a highly targeted audience. But, Facebook was not started with that intent; it grew into that. And there’s way more positive things to consider about Facebook. Besides, new studies show that most people ignore Facebook ads. Ignore them, too. People really want pictures, status updates, and to interact.

I understand their fears. I, too, am a very tangible person.  (I actually blogged about this on my company’s blog today!) I like to hold my books and turn real pages that smell like ink (or a musty basement if it’s used) as I read. I like to shop from mail order catalogs. I love shiny, well-designed consumer and literary magazines. I like that intimacy with whatever work of art I am enjoying. However, you truly can have both. And, as a writer today, you must embrace technology or you will fall behind. So many of the successful books I’ve read as of late are multi-media of sorts. The books have accompanying blogs (or in some cases, like IGNORE EVERYONE! AND 39 OTHER KEYS TO CREATIVITY, they started out as blogs) and/or the authors are so transparent through Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts that I feel MORE connected to them.I don’t think print will go away. In fact, I think that social media and technology can help! After all, the more you market yourself, the more books you will sell. But, this post isn’t about print vs. digital. It’s about writers using social media to help.

This whole blog was started with the intention of helping writers learn social media, but this particular post is a reminder that it’s okay to be afraid, but as with anything, ease your way in. There’s a lot of cool things you can do; but guess what? You don’t need to be there yet. You can start simple, perhaps with a free blog from Blogger or WordPress (my pick) and Twitter. Or, maybe you even need to start more basic my getting e-mail - sign up for a free web-based e-mail through Gmail or Yahoo! You’ve got to start somewhere.

When you embrace social media (and the Internet) as a writer you can:

• Build your personal brand
• Ensure you show up in search engines when people search for you, the writer
• Ensure your projects show up when people search for them
• Connect with your audience
• Connect with other writers
• Connect with publishing industry contacts
• Find blogs, articles, and other resources that provide up-to-date information on publishing that is almost exclusively online.
• Have some fun!

Chances are, if you are reading this blog post, you are not scared of the Internet or social media and, in fact, may already be embracing it. But do me a favor. Share this with a friend who isn’t, even if you must print this out and pop it in the mail. : )