Networking

[Mima]

So, I'm on myspace. I find out that they've censored the links to liquid silver. I'm pissed, so I join Facebook. It's totally dead there. all i've heard is that facebook is where everyone moved to, and myspace is "old." is anyone else on facebook? live journal?

[Darragha Foster]

I just joined facebook and have not yet tooled around with it.

[Nina Pierce]

Mima, my CP did facebook. She says it is pretty dead over there and much more difficult to work with. She also has a LiveJournal. She went there because she was continuing the Phantom of the Opera and they had quite the following. So she had an automatic audience. She says LJ is a lot like MySpace. But mentioned there is some censoring going on over there as well.

When you say MySpace is censoring links to Liquid Silver what do you mean? I haven't had any problems with my pages.

[Mima]

Thanks Nina. I had a link to the main page at LSB, and each of my 2 books' detailed pages. Those have all been removed so that the link goes to myspace's main page.

[Celine Chatillon]

Ooo--I didn't know that My Space was censoring links. I've not the time this week to check mine out, so if that's the case--thanks for letting me know!

How do you get on "Facebook"? I thought you had to be a college student.

[Shayla Kersten]

So that's what happened! I went to add some stuff to my MySpace and all my links to my website were changed to MySpace. I tried to correct them but they automatically changed back to MySpace.

[Nina Pierce]

Originally Posted by Celine Chatillon

Ooo--I didn't know that
How do you get on "Facebook"? I thought you had to be a college student.

Facebook opened up awhile ago like MySpace. College kids weren't too happy. But you make an account like MySpace. I haven't tried as I seem to be juggling enough online corners at the moment. (And college daughter said she'd just "die" if erotic author mother could friend her friends on facebook!)

[Mima]

Facebook was a matter of signing up. I had a page set up in a matter of 10 min. I thought it was easy, it's just kind of dead. i'm thinking i have to take the plunge and set up an actual webpage. that way i can keep things at least relatively simple instead of 4 diff pages.

[Rowan McBride]

MySpace spammer software now censors a lot of what it perceives as sales links. I just found out about it recently when I was updating my page and found out all my LSB links no longer worked. An artist friend of mine on MySpace had her ebay links blocked the same way.

sigh.

[Michelle Hoppe]

I joined Facebook a while back and find it much easier than Myspace and it's been a lot of fun. I don't know about the 'dead' part because with the adult content on my stuff people have to send a request to become a friend and I haven't really promo'd the page yet. If you decide to do Facebook and want to link up here is my profile addy http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=617145582

[Celine Chatillon]

My teenage daughter says that I can't join Facebook since I'm not a "student". And if I did join, I couldn't be one of her "friends" either, because you can only befriend others from your school. Sooo--is it worth the trouble and effort promo-wise if this is the case?

[Mima]

Celine, I joined, I have friended people on facebook, and I'm live. (and i'm not a student!) The author community definitely seems to be smaller than myspace. I wouldn't really bother with it, personally. It was an experiment. For readers to find you, they mostly have to know you. They can type in "romance" etc but that search, for example, nets budding lotharios, marissa, and myself. I found a few "groups" interested in romance books, but there's a few dozen people in each, except for one that's larger. It's just a younger crowd there. As in, most wouldn't get past our 18 yrs requirement~lol. Marissa has amassed 46 friends- she seems to be doing well with it. But to make it another page you maintain just doesnt seem to be a payoff.

[April Martinez]

Originally Posted by Celine Chatillon

My teenage daughter says that I can't join Facebook since I'm not a "student". And if I did join, I couldn't be one of her "friends" either, because you can only befriend others from your school. Sooo--is it worth the trouble and effort promo-wise if this is the case?

Not true about the student part. The people who invited me haven't been students for years and years. There are other networks on there besides schools. There are also companies and regions. One of the people who invited me has all of his co-workers on there at a huge advertising company. Most of my other friends just have their close friends on there.

Still ... I don't know that it's any good for promoting books. Until a couple of authors friended me, I never even thought of it that way, and I never saw anything other than actual head shots for profile pictures and people's real names for their, well, names. I think of it mostly as a personal networking system showing how people are related to one another.

Hell, I have a childhood friend and three of my actual cousins on there as friends, and suddenly I'm accepting book cover photos and pen names as friends, lol. It's surreal. I have the fake with the real, people I've grown up with and people I've never in my entire life ever met, people who are on there to hang out with friends and people who are on there to promote their books.

If you really want to reach a lot of new people on Facebook, my advice is to join a lot of groups, add a lot of apps, and stay active and vocal. If you can't do that, there's really no point to joining at all, unless it's under your real name so you can find the real people in your lives ... because it's a really great personal networking tool, but not that great a promotion tool.

[Mike]

Celine, your daughter is trying desperately not to have you show up in her circle. Be wise, don't befriend her if you join

It's unlikely the current crop of SocNet sites will survive as is, they're proving far too worthwhile for the scam guys with all the personal info being freely given out by people. Then there's all the 'legit' but spammy marketing which is popping up as well, on top of the sites' own ads. Wait for SocNet 2.0

They're fine as is if you keep your group to well known friends--but that's not much use for promo.

[April Martinez]

Originally Posted by Mike

Celine, your daughter is trying desperately not to have you show up in her circle.

My thoughts exactly.

[Mima]

Launch like there's nobody watching:

MimaWithin.com

[Darragha Foster]

Nice website! Who did it por vous?

[Mima]

me and dh, darr.

[Nina Pierce]

You did a nice job Mima.

[Jennifer Leeland]

That's a great website Mima!!!
I've never had trouble with buy links on MySpace probably because I've always linked it to my webpage and my buy links are there.

I've been on Facebook for a couple of months but find it.....sedate. Which is very nice sometimes.

[Savanna Kougar]

Looks good!

[April Martinez]

Originally Posted by Jennifer Leeland

I've been on Facebook for a couple of months but find it.....sedate. Which is very nice sometimes.

It doesn't have to be sedate. Most of the action in Facebook happens within added third party applications, like Flixter (sp?), Scrabulous, etc. There are games, groups, activities, quizzes, and review apps. It's a great way to, say, play Scrabble or Boggle with your grandmother who lives on the other coast.

It's not really designed for advertising though, unless you buy ad space on the pages; it's really more for keeping in touch with people you know and spending some quality time with them via some shared activity.

[Mima]

I blogged the secret to my success today at EREC.

[Nina Pierce]

Wow. Nice piece Mima. Thanks for sharing.

[Mima]

bumping this.
i have a yahoo group i only use for announcements:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mimawithin/

[Roscoe James]

I belong to both MySpace and Facebook. The biggest limiting factor with Facebook is how you find friends and who you have access to. I also find the presentation pretty much crap. Not much you can do with it.

On Wednesday I searched the MySpace faq list and finally sent an e-mail asking why some external links are blocked completely with the goofy - this site has been bad - message and other external links only receive an are you sure you want to leave message.

I received three replies - none of which had anything to do with the question I'd asked.

Another thing I came across on MySpace the other day was a page with an over 18 confirmation to get in. This wasn't to leave... this was to get into a specific MySpace page. I'm trying to find it again. I just glanced. But that may be the key to getting our links to work.

I very seldom go to my facebook page.

[April Martinez]

I go to my Facebook page everyday -- sometimes for the entire day, lol. I recently found a bunch of my middle school classmates, and I've enjoyed seeing their photos and updates. I also use a lot of third party applications.

Still not getting why people don't like Facebook; even regular Facebook users hate the new layout. Yet, I've always found it easy to navigate, and it's a great way to keep in touch with people you already know and organizing reunions with them.

It's just not a good promotional tool for selling your work to strangers.

[Mima]

an interview:

http://makebelievemondays.blogspot.c...with-mima.html

[Nina Pierce]

Mima, that's a great interview. This line cracked me up:
"Then you get to play in the world of Let’s Make Shit Up"

I'm still laughing ...

[Savanna Kougar]

Mima, that was a *deep* interview...yeah, I agree with Nina too. But to me, that's the beauty of it. Making it up within the confines of the world you've created. Of course, creating the confines can be interesting, too.

[Mima]

i have a guest blog article up at The Raven's Happy Hour on elemental magic.

[Jeanne Barrack]

I went to your link, saw your title and couldn't find the article!
Did it disappear like magic???
Jeanne

[Savanna Kougar]

Me too! Great looking site.

[Mima]

it does not appear for explorer. i believe it is a java issue. it is there for mac and firefox users. bummer, huh?

[Savanna Kougar]

That is a bummer. I've heard of people having more than one, but I wouldn't have a clue how to do both explorer and firefox together.

[Jeanne Barrack]

UNFAIR!!
Jeanne

[Rachel Fox]

Saw it and read it. Good job, Mima.

And who's blog site is this? Mandy Pillow's? I could not read the covers on the side bar all that well even in Firefox. But I made a giant leap in my conclusion. Since they looked like her covers.

Rachel

[Mike]

It's not you guys, that site is pretty crappy, needs a lot of work.

[Mima]

awww, Mike. I feel all defended. thanks!

yes, it's mandy roth and michelle pillow.

(whisper)
but michelle is giving me shared blog time, even if only 5 people can see it, so i'll keep your sentiment on the downlow.

[Mike]

Tell 'em to hire our April or Ce

[Tina Burns]

Nice blog post Mima, and very true.

[Tracey West]

Originally Posted by Savanna Kougar

That is a bummer. I've heard of people having more than one, but I wouldn't have a clue how to do both explorer and firefox together.

Savanna;

I have both and there's no conflict. I have an icon on the taskbar for both open them separately. Most days I have both open, since I do other things and use more than one gmail acct, having 2 separate browsers, I can open another gmail acct without logging out of the first one. And comes in handy for things like Mima's interview - which I could read in firefox but not explorer *g*


GR8 Interview Mima.

[Mike]

<aside>

Originally Posted by Tracey West

having 2 separate browsers, I can open another gmail acct without logging out of the first one

Just guessing, but that might work with two tabs in the same browser too.

[Savanna Kougar]

Thanks, Tracey!

Mima, maybe you could post in your author room?

[Mima]

I am chatting tonight at Mary Winter's yahoo group. Rune readings and prizes. 7-9pm EST. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marywinterchat/

[Nina Pierce]

Oh, I love your rune readings Mima. But a Yahoo group? I couldn't join another. I hope you have a wonderful time.

[Mima]

http://tinaholland.wordpress.com/

Tina very kindly interviewed me on her blog! Thank you Tina!

[dawnab19]

i have facebook and myspace.......I use facebook more these days than myspace though

[Nina Pierce]

Originally Posted by Mima

http://tinaholland.wordpress.com/

Tina very kindly interviewed me on her blog! Thank you Tina!

Very nice interview ladies. I love your description of your heroes Mima. (And the man who inspired them ... awww, loved that too!)

[Mima]

i'm being interviewed Thurs 9/27 at noon EST at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BooksBeyondtheBoundaries
this in relation to the AADPW conference i'm going to in Oct.
you can chat with me there, or just listen to it after the fact.