7 Best Practices for Building an Online Presence
Daisy Whitney, author of THE MOCKINGBIRDS, explains six ways writers can blog and develop an online brand to sell more books and market their novel.
Order a copy of Daisy Whitney's The Mockingbirds today.
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.
Daisy Whitney is the author of THE MOCKINGBIRDS, an NPR Best Book of 2010 that also got a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It is released in paperback on Jan. 2, 2012.Daisy is a new media producer, reporter, and internationally-known Web show creator, and The Mockingbirds is her debut novel. She believes in shoes, chocolate chip cookies, and karma. She lives in San Francisco, and you can follow her writing blog and new media adventures at DaisyWhitney.com.
