I was delighted to give a presentation for the Dallas Area Romance Authors last month. I talked to them about blogging and even a little about social media.

Here are some snippets of what we talked about:

What is blogging? – Blogging is just writing/journaling in a public forum

Why is important? (Specifically why is having an online presence for writers
important) – Writers need to have a community. Meeting in person, having a review group is great but having you work always available to lots of different sources is only something you can do online.

Where to blog: Deviantart, other writer communities, Facebook, actual blog. There are lots of writing communities but its also great to start your own, more eyes can see you and also you can connect and form your own community.

How to blog: Etiquette – the golden rule still stands. You like comments? Give them. You want links? Link to others.

Wordpress: I suggest starting with a free wordpress blog to get started. You can always get a personalized domain later and lots of snazzy add-ons but for basics Wordpress is the most SEO and user-friendly.

Fears: Other people taking your work – A couple of ways around this. First of theft does happen online. Fortunately it doesn’t happen terribly often. If you’re really concerned, don’t post anything you plan to publish, or post just sections. Little bread crumbs about your work can really get people intrigued.

Blogging can help you

*         Gain an audience – one you didn’t previously have access to

*         Improve your writing skills -  Just like journaling you are exercising those writing muscles. Also you have plenty of critics to help you improve!

*         Help you stay on track with your goals – it helps to be accountable. Having readers will force you to connect on a regular basis and stick to what you promise.

*         Promote your published works – Once you’ve written something feel free to shout about it on your blog! Publish reviews or cover art. Tell people where to buy it. Create a splash page promoting it if you are using wordpress.

*         Getting involved in an online community – Once you start updating regularly find some other writers you trust and connect with them. Create a little circle of people helping one another.

Paid blogging – Paid gigs exist out there. They don’t pay a lot (some time $10 an article) but it can be a great way to earn a little cash doing what you enjoy.

We also talked about social media, specifically about how Twitter works and how to connect better using it.

This is the list of blogs and Twitter handles that I have. If you are part of DARA feel free to email me or put your information in the comment to keep the list updated.

Non-DARA people: These are wonderful, talented women. If you enjoy romance take a minute to check them out!

• Raquel Rodriguez: http://raquelrodriguezauthor.blogspot.com/
• Kathy Ivan: http://www.kathyivan.blogspot.com/
• Sandy Wills: @sandy_wills http://sandy-wills.livejournal.com/
• Sally Felt: @Sallytex http://sallyfelt.com/
• Wendy Q: http://wendyquest.blogspot.com/ http://wendyquest.wordpress.com/
• Nile Landry (Dren James): http://nilelandry.wordpress.com/
• Jennie Bryant: http://www.jenniebryant.blogspot.com/

Which superhero would each platform be?

This post is inspired by the mobile superhero post from Big in Japan and by a conversation with @Jax989 about what 3 superpowers I’d want (in case you’re curious, they are teleportation–to avoid traffic, telekensis–also to avoid traffic and telepathy).

Facebook: Superman

Who can leap building in a single bound? Facebook can. Its the all-performance, all powerful social media platform of choice. If you need to connect with someone Facebook is the first choice. It also offers every app imaginable (for great justice!). It exists in every time and place, it allows you to tweet, blog and show pictures. It is the website of steel. However, like Superman, Facebook has its kryptonite: privacy. Unfortunately all the awesome things that Facebook offers can be instantly over-shadowed by a single brush with its single Achilles heel. Privacy issues have continued to plague Facebook’s massive growth, threatening to strip the social media giant of its powerful grasp on the internet. Hopefully Facebook will overcome this evil (or it might be reduced to MySpace’s social media superhero persona: Aquaman—in other words, still have followers… they’re just fish.)

Twitter: The Flash

Need to connect with others at the speed of sound? Find Twitter and find it fast. Always on the go, always getting the most news and conversation in quick bite-sized servings, Twitter has all the powers of the famous Flash. It also latches on to some of The Flash’s best and worse qualities including witty sarcasm and a sense of arrogance (its okay Twitter users, we all know you think you’re better than other platforms). Most serious Twitter users converse in real time with a application like Tweetdeck or Seesmic. Or they connect on their phone. Either way they except all their news and conversation right now. The problem is, Twitter as a company might be too caught up in how wicked fast they are to notice their need to catch up with their users.

Linked-In: Professor Xavier

Solid, thoughtful and constantly in your head, Linked-In keeps all your contacts in line so you don’t have to. If a social media platform could be psychic, this one would take the cake. Professor Xavier had a much tamer ability than other X-men, but was the leader and the most powerful. Linked-In offers the same, while not offering the same robust social atmosphere, Linked-In calmly offers professionals what they need most, tools and connections. It does this without forcing you to log-in every day, and allows you to download or interact as needed. While often overlooked, Linked-In is an immensely powerful networking tool. It certainly leads the charge for unruly mutants.

What super powers do your social connections give you? Tell me in the comments!

The overall message of this video is find where your audience is and go there. More and more young people, Gen Y, Gen X and rapidly even babyboomers use some kind of social media. So charities need to be on these sites if they want to reach people. The old ways just aren’t good enough and its not enough to rely on Word of Mouth to reach the younger generations.

If you already love social media, or technology, help out the causes you are passionate about. They need volunteers to help them utilize new technology and get with the trends!

Finally, if you don’t have a cause that speaks to you yet be sure to check out Captain Hope’s Kids here in the Dallas area.

Captain Hope’s Kids Blog – NEW

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Want to know more about how to have better followers, the kind you can have personal relationships with? Many people get on twitter looking for a business solution. Some realize its the personal touch, really connecting with people. But then how do you find people to connect with on Twitter?

One way is through conferences.

1. Start a hashtag (#) – If you go to an event, a seminar, a conference, a meetup, whatever, start a hashtag about it. Make sure that hashtag is simple, short and easy to remember. Tweet on that tag, tell others about the tag and give good vital information from wherever you are. (Note: Check and see if this hashtag already exists.)
2. Get added (+) – If you’re giving good info about your hashtag’s subject, people will add you. (Might be a good idea to add other people who tweet on this tag as well.)
3. Start Talking (@) – Once you’ve established the hashtag, and used it, start talking to other people who use the hashtag, or tag conversations that relate to the hashtag. Commenting and conversing with people is the only way to personal relationships on social media.

Extra links:

#Boobquake: Create awareness about women’s rights in Iran. (Yes, I’m wearing a #boobquake shirt in the video.)

OpenCa.mp: Instead of Wordcamp, we’ll be having all the different open source platforms come together for one awesome weekend. (I will be there!)

Many companies now see twitter as an integral part of their social media strategy. They log on, start a feed and immediately start posting into an echo chamber. No relationships, no responses, just waiting for their customers to find them while they tweet away about what they think sounds good.

Like all brands of social media, twitter needs to have a personal aspect. There should be conversation, interaction and relationships forming on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Twitter does not really lend itself to the high-level of personal interaction that Facebook does. You have to remember to regularly log-in and check your replies, it often takes time for people to respond and its even harder (despite “lists”) to read comments from the people you want to regularly check in with.

Twitter is Nothing without Apps

If you’ve tried Twitter and found it frustrating, welcome to the game. If you’re considering giving up on Twitter, but haven’t downloaded an app, hold your horses. The difference between Twitter and other social media sites is that Twitter doesn’t allow you as many options. This keeps Twitter simple, but not always effective.

That’s when Apps step in. You can download them to your phone or to your desktop. They can run live in the background or send messages to your phone. The take your entire Twitter experience to a truly interactive place.

My favorite, by far, is Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a downloadable desktop app. It allows me to follow multiple twitter accounts, direct messages, hashtags and lists. I can know when the people I want to respond to are talking and when someone’s talking to me. And the communities I participate in, I get those updates in real time. Other examples are twitter apps for your phone, Hootsuite, and Seismic.

So if you’re not sure about twitter, make sure you try an app. Simplify your user experience and make sure you stay in touch with all the right people at the right times.

Have you tried an app? Which one do you like?

Apparently everyone who doesn’t use it.

A good friend of mine who follows me on Twitter and Facebook suddenly says, “I think I’m going to stop following you.” So say, “What? Why?” And she says, “I’m so sick of those FourSquare updates. I could care less. They are annoying. No one wants to know you’re ‘mayor’ of your church.” And then Edward says, “Tell me about it. Its even more annoying when you’re with her and she’s checking in every 5 minutes.”

Of course I immediately defended myself saying, “I use it to let clients and other tech people know where I am. Or to connect with people in the same place. Or to find out more about a particular area of town.”

But they both just rolled their eyes at me. And then it occurred to me, before I started using FourSquare, I hated it too. I would see all these updates from FourSquare on Facebook and I’d be like, “Who care?” Until I got in on the fun. Then I forget about how irritating it was.

Of course the more I thought about this, the more I realized its true of almost all social media. If you don’t use it, you HATE it. People who aren’t on (or want to be on) Twitter can’t stand that other people use it. They say its stupid and pointless. Same with Facebook. Non-facebook users feel that Facebook is a waste of time. Before that it was IMing, or web-surfing.

I’m not saying the FourSquare isn’t just a little bit silly. I’m not saying it will last forever. But I will say, to the people who don’t use it: don’t knock it til you try it.

And to the people who do use it: if someone just doesn’t “get it” don’t worry. They’ll either catch on or just be grumpy and neither effects you. If you lose a follower or two, you might want to re-evaluate, but I say so what? If you know them in real life, connect there. If you know them online and a FourSquare update offends them, forget about ‘em. Be yourself online! (Even if that person is a trend-obsessing, constantly-updating, tech nerd, like me.)

I’m doing a series of workshops for the Center for Spanish Language Media at UNT.

Register

Facebook Event
Linked-In Events
CSLM Facebook Page

Contact Denisse Olivas (denisse.olivas@unt.edu) to attend multiple sessions.

There are some marketing efforts that just fall into the category of Gimmicks. Marketers use these cheap little “tricks”  to get an action out of people (purchase, share, whatever). These tricks range from taste-testing products to sappy stories made for a few heart-string tugs. Most of us are aware of these gimmicks. We allow them work on us occasionally, but usually we ignore them.

However, there’s a reason that these marketing tactics have endured. Sometimes, they work.

Twitter gives us a great example of a gimmick not only used by marketers but by parents of four-year-olds as well. You’ve probably even said it to someone in the pas month. It goes like this, you tell someone “don’t” when you actually mean “do”. In other words you tell people to do the opposite of what you want them to do, in hopes that they’ll do it just because you said not to.

Twitter hopes by saying don’t do it! More people will tweet and blog about their new Lists.

I’m sure you’ve gotten this little message on your twitter page. I’m not going to talk about lists because Twitter got exactly what they wanted, there’s a million blog posts covering it. But do check out the little highlighted section on Twitter’s notice.

Yeah, Twitter, way to use the oldest trick in the book.Oh and congrats, since its apparently working.

So what DO you think of Twitter lists? If you blogged about it, feel free to share.

Your brand is not in your hands anymore.

The internet possesses powers that can turn you into a celebrity overnight. But the great god that giveth, doth also taketh away. In other words, deal with your business honestly or you won’t own a business anymore. Think this sounds dramatic? It’s true.

Take the example of Brian King. Brian is media editor (video mostly) and also a podcaster. He’s a freelancer. He lives in LA and does great work. Brian had the opportunity to help someone who needed, more-or-less, a quick and dirty video done. Cheap, fast, you know the drill. Brian had some connections and offered to work on the project. After multiple editing rounds, the client paid. Well… kinda. Brian got a letter from Bank of America saying the client in question had stopped the check. It wasn’t for a whole lot of money, but Brian had paid out of pocket to use facilities and now he was in the hole. Of course, the amount isn’t what matters, its too small of a check to bother hiring a lawyer, but its the principle of thing. So Brian decided he wanted payment, and he was going to do what it took to make that happen.

Brian turned to the internet. First he bought a domain. It just so happens that his client does not own his-name.com: philconti.com Then he promoted the page to his blog. Then he posted it to twitter. Within 2 days he had over 100 retweets and dozen of people making comments on their own blogs and personal websites. If you now google performers Phil Conti & Marlene Arden, mostly negative press shows up.

I found out about Brian’s plight from a webcomic I read: Candi by Starline X. Hodge. She posted about it in her daily update because,

“He’s a good friend of mine, so when he posted it on his blog, I decided to help. I just didn’t like hearing that he got ripped off. Figured if more people knew about it, then maybe they’d pay him for his work.”

I contacted Brian and asked if he’d tell me a little bit about why he chose this course of action (putting pressure on the client through the internet). He said

“They’re entertainers, and I know that entertainers’ web presence is extremely important. If they realize that the internet dislikes them, and their google/twitter/whatever search results are negative, they’re going to have problems.”

Which I agree, it’d be a problem for anyone! I asked Brian what kind of outcome he hope for. He said he’d just like to make up the difference, if they pay in full, he’ll pull down all the pages he wrote mentioning them.

Brian is just one freelancer in California and he completely changed the personal brand of Phil & Marlene. So the next time you deal with a customer or hire a company, be above board. Make sure you hold the keys to your company’s image. Never underestimate the power of the internet and what that means for your brand.

So what do you think? Do you think smearing someone’s brand is justified? Is it too much? Not enough? Have you seen the internet eat another business alive?
If you agree with Brian’s approach be sure to spread the word, ReTweet, blog, link on Facebook. Show his site some love. And Starline too!

Image by AndYaDon’tStop

Twitter made some subtle design changes recently and I couldn’t help but comment on them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about sleek designs. Except the new bird is kinda weird. But here’s my problem: why is Twitter spending money on a redesign when they could put that cash towards greater/smoother functionality or finding a monetization strategy? Or, you know, adding a “ReTweet” button, like other apps have (TweetDeck, Tweetgrid, so on…). That’d be cool. Hello?? Twitter? Are you listening?

What awesome feature would you have spent Twitter’s money on?

(Also, go rate that video. I lost the password to my YouTube account and I can finally get on it after a year! I need some love.)