7 Best Practices for Building an Online Presence
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1. BE CONSISTENT ONLINE
- Blog every day or once a week or not at all. Establish the schedule for you and then stick to it.
- Decide what you want it to be about - Writing, querying, kids, family?
2. PICK AND CHOOSE WHERE YOU WANT TO BE ONLINE
- You don’t have to be on all platforms. Do you want to blog, tweet, Facebook? All of them? Have them connected?
3. DECIDE ON A PERSONAL CODE & STYLE
- I have a list of things I will and won’t tweet about and I keep that as a draft in my e-mail.
- Minimize tweets about book itself.
- Don’t tweet while you are drinking, don’t overshare.
- Be positive.
4. DEVELOP A BRAND: THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO BE KNOW FOR AND FOCUS ON THAT
- Your reputation online is real! It matters. It lives and breathes and you need to figure out what it is. Treat it delicately and carefully like you would a resume for a job and always put your best foot forward.
- Do not complain about editors, agents or other writers.
- Avoid negativity.
- If you don’t have something nice to say don’t say it. (Save it for texts or emails with friends or families!)
- Avoid chronicling your rejections.
5. BUILD A COMMUNITY THROUGH REACHING OUT AND MAKING FRIENDS
- Comment on other blogs.
- Read their blogs.
- Find like-minded friends on Twitter.
- Reply to their tweets.
- Interact.
6. BE AUTHENTIC
- At the end of the day you need to be yourself. But your best self. And your most authentic self. Inauthenticity can be spotted a mile away! Do your best to be true to who you are and to convey that in your online presence. You need to enjoy it!
7. KNOW YOUR LIMITS
- I had to pull back on blogging as it was impacting my day job and my writing.
- Writing is more important.
- The best thing for your online presence at the end of the day is writing your book.