 | 6 Mar 09 |
I swore I would never get a MySpace page. I succumbed last year. I swore I would not do the Shelfari or Goodreads thingy, and well, I have something set up, I just don’t know how the hell to use it. I swore I would not do the Facebook thing. I have changed my mind. Not sure when or how I’ll do it, but it will be done. I swore I would not jump on the twitter train. I did it. Last night. I’m clueless. Would someone please explain this to me? How do I make my little icon unique? How do I track people down when they use a weird name instead of their own? Why do I even care about who twitters and who doesn’t and what they’re twittering about? And what if people I don’t like follow me? Can I hide from them?
I know I need to do all of this to keep up with what’s going on and who’s doing what, but I find it a huge time suck! How do I manage it all? And is it really worth it?
PS, if you would like to friend me on MySpace my MySpace addy is www.myspace.com/KarinTabke and my twitter name is KarinTabke.
© 2009 Karin Tabke. All rights reserved.
A Cop’s Wife Writes the Cop’s Life:
Award winning author, Karin Tabke isn’t just another author with steamy stories to tell, but a cop’s wife who has “seen it all and heard it all.” Some of the hottest stories come from behind the blue wall of law enforcement rather than from in front. Married to a street cop, now retired, Karin is intimate with both and proves it with her sizzling tales and hot cops. Not only are her cops hot, but so are her sexy knights. Karin’s Blood Sword Legacy series is a must read for anyone who loves tales of yore when men were men and women were women, and love did conqueror all!
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I did the friend request thing. I’m not sure of the value of all these social networking sites. I did MySpace ages ago, and all I do there now is mirror my own blog.
A friend insisted I get a Facebook page. At least it’s a lot more user-friendly than MySpace. All the bells and whistles people seem to put on their MySpace pages are a turnoff to me–all they do is slow down the page load time. Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD. All that music and graphics, and text you can’t read because it’s on some crazy background? Not for me.
I’ve resisted Twitter.
Is it worth it? I don’t know. I’m just a small-press newbie author, but I’ve had people find me and tell me they’re going to look for my books. At my level, a single book sale is a major uptick. I try to inclue the time I spend on Facebook to my morning blog-hopping time, over coffee.
by Terry Odell March 6th, 2009 at 5:53 amHere’s author Jan Brogan’s take on social networking and Twitter. I have a myspace page under the pen name and use it only for updates and announcements on the writing career. Facebook (which I long resisted) is under my real name and is a bit more personal – a way to catch up with far-flung friends (and to play Mafia Wars – lol). I had to get my daughter to set up both of them. I’ve been on Live Journal for years. LJ is now a mix of personal, locked entries for close friends and public posts for writing thoughts, marketing and announcements, etc. I’ve resisted Twitter. Texting is not my friend or forte. I’m http://www.myspace.com/silverjamesromance if anyone wants to friend me. Karin, I’ll friend you but I promise I’m low maintenance. LOL.
by Silver James March 6th, 2009 at 7:01 amI did myspace for about a minute, but the interface is kind of clunky so I don’t really post anymore. I find facebook much easier. And I don’t even want to think about twittering – too much pressure to update.
I signed up for goodreads too, except I couldn’t avoid the temptation of looking up my own books and let’s just say not all reviews are raves, so I stopped going.
But I’ll friend you on Myspace Karin!
by Jami Alden March 6th, 2009 at 8:13 amHello Karin,
I have myspace account but, I don’t use it that often. I enjoy using facebook. Sorry, I have a clue about Twitter. I haven’t gotten that far in my computer skills. I’m still working on blogging. No help in this corner.
Have a great day.
by Roberta Harwell March 6th, 2009 at 8:27 amHi Karin! I love facebook. Elisabeth dragged me into it in January and I was instantly hooked. I’ve touched base with 2 dozen people from high school-who I truly liked-and old boyfriends I haven’t seen in eons. I’ve completely clicked with some writers. We email back and forth and have made plans to meet up at conferences.
I’m staying away from the twitter thing. It’s simply too much. At first I had a lot of the FB stuff sent to my phone and it was overwhelming. I get enough email as it is.
by Kendra March 6th, 2009 at 8:53 amHi Karin. I followed you on Twitter. I am resisting FaceBook. Heaven knows MySpace site is worthless. I never do anything with it.
by ArkansasCyndi March 6th, 2009 at 9:03 amTerry I heard facebook was difficult. You give me hope.
Silver, I’m low maintenance too! and thanks for the add!
Jami, I don’t mind, MySpace, and have figured out the very basic communication aspect. The page itself? No way.
by Karin Tabke March 6th, 2009 at 9:50 amOh and goodreads? Hmm, maybe I won’t go see what’s being said about my books.
Karin: It took me 3 days to do a MySpace page. More like 3 minutes on Facebook. I found some old high school contacts (at least we all know we’re old!) as well as hooking up with some readers.
Family has pages for keeping in touch, but you can control who sees what. So I can see grandson toddling his first steps on my son’s page, but he restricts who else has access.
Heck, if Arlo Guthrie has a page, why can’t I?
The trick (for me) is to turn off all notifications and ignore or block a lot of the add-ons like sending virtual “stuff” to everyone. I’m low key there. Hubby and son are more likely to do the Mafia thing (whatever that is). I just plod along (and feed my blog there, too)
Twitter seems to be the new thing, but I’m holding off. I’d be so boring. Doing laundry. Waiting for the mulch delivery. Staring at “Chapter One, Page One.”
by Terry Odell March 6th, 2009 at 9:58 amOkay, what the hell is twitter? I assume it’s like Myspace and facebook, but then you know what happens if you assume.
by HollyD March 6th, 2009 at 9:51 amHi, Roberta! If I can twitter, you can twitter. I figured it out all by myself. and i am really challenged in that department!
Hey, Kendra, another facebook lover? it does seem much more grown up than myspace. hmm, I’m getting closer…
Yo, Cyndi, I’ll go look. I did twitter a wee bit this morning. I’m kind of diggin’ the little glimpses into what everyone is doing.
by Karin Tabke March 6th, 2009 at 9:53 amI’m liking facebook. All sorts of people I’d lost touch with are friending me, my sisters post photos, so I can keep up with the nieces and nephews. ANd, of course, I’m loving all the Rockyou.com apps. Especially Pieces of Flair.
by Poppy March 6th, 2009 at 10:43 amMySpace skeeves me out, but I love Facebook! The user interface is completely intuitive and simple, and it’s a great tool for informing large groups of people about events like book releases.
Twitter is tougher, I think, because it requires multiple visits per day to be fruitful. Sure, each visit is only about thirty seconds, but it’s hard to remember to do it, at least for me.
by Louisa Edwards March 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pmMySpace is a horrendous mess. My page is mostly static. I, too, set MySpace up with a pen name.
Facebook has some potential. I use my real name for that account. I configured the Twitter app on Facebook, so my Twitter updates automatically update Facebook. If I don’t want something on Twitter (wider audience), I enter it on Facebook. Consider setting up a fan page on Facebook, and that may divert your fans there so you wouldn’t have to Friend them if you didn’t want to. Then you can be more judicious in who you give access to your personal page.
It’s worthwhile to explore Facebook’s permissions capabilities. By default, it’s a talkative little beast. You can turn off a lot of the announcements it makes to the world about what you’re doing. You can lock down a lot of your content if you’re so inclined. That’s one of the things I like — flexibility in what is available.
I’m noticing several groups becoming active for more than just being there. The Suspense/Thriller Writers group is one example. To me, this means there’s the potential for one-stop shopping for networking, publicity, and learning something.
Then, of course, there’s Mafia Wars. Who could not become addicted to that? But seriously, with a little discipline, the game plays itself, and you only have to stop in every now and then to make some purchases or do some jobs. Or Fight and Rob other mafias. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
As far as someone you don’t like following you on Twitter, you can block anyone with a mouseclick. I usually don’t worry about followers much. I have some who follow me, and I can’t figure out why.
For your personal icon, got to settings and click on the picture tab. You can upload any picture you like as long as it’s less than 700k.
For a unique background, that’s on the Design tab in settings. Most people will never see your background unless they click to your page. When they do, remember that what they see will mostly be covered by your block of text. The image you upload is best if whatever you want people to see is along the left margin of the image or if the image is something that doesn’t matter if the center of the image is blocked.
Whether it’s worth it or not, I can’t say. I see a Facebook/Twitter blend the most potentially useful thing going today. Wired magazine declared blogs dead last year, and I was surprised, but now that I’ve begun to tap into Facebook and Twitter, I understand what they meant. The blog is still the most flexible of all, and I haven’t abdicated that format yet. Facebooks recent TOS flap highlighted the value of having a place where you own your own content.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
by Jean March 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pmKarin, I got dragged kicking and screaming into it JUST TODAY! No idea what I’m doing. Hope it goes well for you!
by Jen Lyon March 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pmI sent you a friend invite, Jen. Did you see how many Jen Apodocas there were?
by Kendra March 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pmKendra, I got the invite! I listed up Jennifer Lyon, I didn’t even look at Apodaca…my head is still spinning from the whole process!
Thanks Kendra!
by Jen Lyon March 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pmFWIW, Dooonesbury has been featuring Twittering this week, mostly pointing out how trivial it is, yet how compelling. At least that’s my take.
Still haven’t signed up.
by Terry Odell March 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pmNatalie drug me screaming and kicking into Myspace a year or two ago. I am resisting Facebook.Twitter.and the next new thing on coming up on the block. It is all sucking my free time in to a massive black hole.
Good luck.
by Cele March 6th, 2009 at 9:29 pmthanks for the help and words of advice everyone. i am successfully twittering! and am following some interesting folks. i even figured out how to put my pic up but it was too big, so now i have to figure out how to size it down.
i have to say, i rather enjoy this particular time suck.
by Karin Tabke March 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am