Are You Blogging?

Authors are seeking for new tools to promote and market their products (books, CDs, etc.). Today, many authors are turning to social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Blogger or WordPress.

Each social media networks have a purpose and reason for joining them. Twitter allows 140 characters (including space, numbers, words and symbols) as a multi-blogging tool that is readily available online and add links for your followers to click on to be informed. You can also use on your I-Phones or Blackberry phones and laptops that has the compatibility to post your comments on Twitter. Facebook is a social networking page to find friends, family members, and colleagues, authors, and musicians pages. You can join fan pages to see photos, book covers, information on the person or artist, and other website links. You are also able to see all the fan clubs and networking clubs they have joined, including their friends. This is also a site that is available on most phones that has Internet service and compatibility options. You are able to respond and text from your mobile. LinkedIn was primarily used for professional social tool to help employers or small businesses to find potential employers or networking tool to partnership with other businesses or professionals.

The next best things for writers and authors are Blogger, WordPress, and other online sites that allow the writer to blog. What is blogging? What is a blog? A blog is an online URL or site, where writers, professionals, and authors can post articles for the public to view and post comments. Blogging is a place where authors can post their articles and journals, other marketing and promotional aspects such as videos, web links, logos, and photos of events or special occasions they would like to share with their audience, and continue to post articles on this multi-media medium. This is usually more than one article or blog posted daily, weekly, or monthly. Your public audience is able to also view the archives or past blogs you left on the site.

Why blog or create a blog site? There are several legitimate reasons to create or blog. An author or writer is building a readership, which is having a following audience. This determines also a target audience that is well-needed for authors, to see who enjoys their work and create a fan base. Second reason is that an author or writer loves writing in their free time, where it allows an author to freely express their artistry and creativity. Their following audience will read their work and can give positive or negative feedback on how their work may evoke, engage, or engross the reader. Third reason is that a published author can alert their readers and new people who stop at their blogs by promoting and marketing their books, sites, and conferences/seminars that they are featured in. Free advertisement for any artists is a great tool. Another reason is the writer has fun sharing passionate, eerie, and dreadful moments with their audience to inspire or educate their readership. Overall, most authors or writers who blog find blogging to be entertaining and fun. This is another way to brand your products, your name, and to get exposure beyond measure.

There is a large percentage of people online, using the Internet and reviewing your other writings online and offline. This is another way to network and connect with your audience or other professionals in the field.

Some authors use it as a method to promote virtual book tours and author features or spotlights (interviews). Moreover, these blogspots are free and able to share with other networks after you post an article or review on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Ads or Reader.

There are literary professionals such as agents, publishers, and fellow authors who wonder if the author has a platform, writes articles or blogs, and has an audience. These people are watching to see what you are using to get your work to the public. They also will review the responding audience who leave comments, feedback, and fans you have drawn to your blogs or websites.

Overall, these sharing sites to link your articles, blogs, 140-characters, and emails to Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. There are other affiliated sites that are also linking to these social media sites and your blogs. Get to blogging today! The advantages are limitless.