Social networking – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. – is probably the greatest time suck ever invented, but I’ll admit it, I’m addicted. At least to Facebook, which I have to say isn't a total waste of time because it's actually brought a couple of notable changes to my life.

First, I’m suddenly keeping way more in touch with old friends and even family who I previously emailed or called only occasionally. So that’s been fun. But on a daily basis now I feel that I’m part of a greater community of writers and readers, and I can’t stress enough how much it means to me to see that I’m not the only author who has days when it's almost impossible to concentrate, or who struggles to make a deadline or gets lengthy revision letters from their editor. And it isn’t that misery loves company (really, it isn't!), it’s that it helps tremendously to see that the creative process is a universally difficult and labor intensive pursuit. It’s never easy, and Facebook provides a forum where we can all cheer each other on, as well as announce our releases and reviews and all of that.

And Myspace is fun because of all the creativity that goes into people’s pages. Loads of pretty pictures and music and personal ponderings. A page can reveal a lot about a person’s personality. I recently redid mine to reflect the upcoming series. It's sort of transtional. The background represents the female driven stories of “Her Majesty’s Secret Servants,” while the boxes retain the spooky flavor of the Blackheath Moor books. And I'm rather proud of myself that I figured out how to do this.

 

HOWEVER, when it comes to Twitter, I seem to be a hopeless twit. I managed to create a profile and all that, and I do post occasionally, although not as often as I should, but when it comes to all those "Twitterisms," I am lost. For instance, there’s RT, which at first I thought pertained to Romantic Times magazine, but, silly me, it actually means Retweet – but how does one retweet? Then there’s @ and # - symbols that both mean something important. But what? Last week I saw my name tweeted a couple of times along with another name or two and this: #followfriday and #romanceauthors. I was gratified to see my name mentioned, but what did it mean? Was there some discussion going on about me? Where? I tried clicking on the links but seemed to go round in circles and never did find anything approaching a conversation. And I wondered if I was being rude in not responding, but I didn't now how, or to whom.

 

And yet I do grasp the power of Twitter in terms of the instant spread of information. I just haven’t learned to harness that power and use it to my advantage. I guess the next time I’m in the bookstore I should see if there is a Twitter for Dummies. Odds are there is, because surely I’m not the only clueless twit out there. Right???

 

Is this real??? Can I buy this? But think about it - a whole book to teach you how to frame your thoughs in 140 characters. Kind of nuts.

You're ahead of me; I'm fond of Facebook but haven't ventured on Twitter. Here are some sites that offer tips: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/twitter-why-so-many-people-dont-get-it or
http://www.twitip.com

I can't tell you how many times I have referred to my "Dummies for.." books I enoyed watching the trailer for Dark Obsession

Thanks, Joye! Not sure if I'll do trailers again for my releases. They're fun, but I'm not sure if they actually sell books. :)

LOL Allison. I'm actually lost with Twitter and I do need that Dummies book! I'm just having a hard time figuring out if I'm emailing to everyone or just one person and how to make a shorter link and so on. I mostly just read alot and I comment and no one replies. I figure that I must be posting wrong, LOL. I'm figuring out, I think, more about Facebook. Too I love GoodReads! I can find alot more readers and authors there because its all about books! Which for me its mostly all about Romance Books (and Urban Fantasy and Historical Mysteries) but mostly Romance! So I do find more to recommend for me over there. And I love having a blog. I love to post about what I read and put up some reviews. Its like just a bit I can do to thank the authors for this joy reading. I then had readers finding me that loved the same and then I found their blogs. I'm not good keeping up with it all but when I can get on, I love it!

But I still can't figure Twitter out and what Tweets is