Category: social networking

WWWW: I’m Here! Now What?

One of the main reasons I log on everyday is to promote my writing. In that spirit I try to be as up to date on social networking and what is going on in the vast world web. So, when Triberr appeared, to my eyes, I took a look at it…and didn’t know what the fuck I was seeing. Another author asked me to join her tribe and gave me a list of rules about posting and promoting and tweeting my little heart out. Not only was I confused, I was exhausted by the time I finished looking into it. So, I politely thanked her and said I wasn’t interested at the time. That was in December. Now another author brought it up again (without the list of rules and an already established tribe), so I took the plunge. I’m now a Triberr member in a tribe for Ellora’s Cave authors. What does this mean? I still have no earthly idea, but at least I know my fellow author is new at it too. If I totally screw things up, maybe she won’t notice.

I Tweet, Therefore I Am

          At one point in time in the not so distant past, Myspace was a novelty to me. I never considered it a waste of time or child’s play. I thought it was amusing and served a purpose, but not necessarily something I needed. Then an out-of-town friend told me I should create my profile so we could keep in touch on a daily basis. Ok, I was all right with that. He said everyone was on Myspace. Never one to let a little peer pressure pass me by, I caved and logged on. A few months later Facebook was all the rage and I thought I didn’t need it because I had Myspace. Again I was proven wrong by another friend who claimed everyone was on Facebook. Ok, fine.

            I spend a lot of time online, writing, reading, playing around. Social networking is not exactly a chore for me. In reality I talk all day long at my “day job” so having conversation via text is not a problem. It’s actually a bit relaxing to be able to respond at my leisure, however when I heard of Twitter I’ll admit I was perplexed. I had to have whole conversations 140 characters at a time? I talk a lot in person and my emails and posts tend to drone on. 140 characters? Really? That’s not even limited to the alphabet. My spaces and commas had to fit into that restriction as well. I proofread my text messages before hitting send. How on earth could I leave good grammar behind and learn to write messages with numbers?  
            Amazingly no one called, emailed, or otherwise coerced me onto Twitter. I found it all by myself and discovered not everyone tweets. That’s all right because now I do. My first few attempts were nothing to brag about but I think I have it down now. I’ve learned abbreviating doesn’t hurt and how to cut my thoughts short. Like Wheel of Fortune I need my vowels and seeing messages without them is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. My hubby doesn’t get it, co-workers look at me funny and a friend said they’ve lost respect for me now. Because I tweet? Yup. Well, I told them what I thought of that ridiculous statement. And it took less than 140 characters.
            Do you Twitter? Facebook? Myspace? I know there are many more out there, but there are only so many hours in a day I can dedicate to being online and only so many variations on my password I can think up. For now I’m happy with these venues.
-Missy Jane
*make reading a guilty pleasure…*