When I moved, I threw out 350 of the 500 business cards that I printed when I first set out as a freelancer, 14 years earlier. So how should I be marketing? Editors and authors often wonder (with me) if social media deserves the hype it gets, and if it is something they must learn to use. Here’s the truth about social media:

1. It is the real world.
2. Promotion is about being top of mind.
3. Do it well, or not at all.
4. E-whatever is for-e-ver.

There are fruitful contacts to be made through social media. Go where your clients are. Go where you like to spend time. And for the love of humanity, if you are in a place where there are people and colleagues and clients, spend time with them. [And hand out those business cards.]

More in this series: strategies, reviews, defined

Further reading

Survey — There is still time to weigh in on the use of SM by editors. Click the “survey” link at the top of the home page. You can browse the results after taking the survey.

Why You Should Be On Twitter If You’re a Writer (or literary agent, editor, publisher, book publicist), by Cheryl Rainfield

Writer’s Guide to Twitter, byDebbie Ridpath Ohi. Debbie has some insightful and sound advice (or perhaps it’s a manifesto) she called How I Tweet.

Basic Twitter tips for beginners: an easy read with key info.

How Much Time Mobile and Social Media Require Pick what you can handle, but do it right or don’t bother, IMHO.

The 10 Commandments of Social Networking for Writers, a blog post by Jason Pinter.

Twitter Twits: Tweets that got people fired, by Elizabeth Bromstein on Workopolis

How to Facebook your way into a job, by Jenna Charlton on Workopolis pretty much concurs with my conclusion: social networking is about making connections, not about spamming your friends and loose connections. CBC’s Spark has done a number of spots concerning social media:

• Episode 127: Workplace Social Media Guidelines and a public discussion
• Episode 115: Full interview with Mary Madden who advises to think of your attention to social media as reputation management.
• Episode 124: SM Screening—a service provided to employers that will weed through the stuff that is not their business, but highlight what they should know when hiring: good and bad.
• Is social networking is destroying solitude (Ironically, a question posed in a SM venue.)

CBC’s White Coat, Black Art devoted the Social Medicine episode (Oct. 1, 2010) to how medical professionals can and should not use social media. Their cautionary tales and advice can be useful to all professionals.

Social Media in Plain English, a short video that uses hand drawn illustrations to sort of show how networks work.

Guide to Connecting with Me on Social Networks, by Joe Chernov. An interesting manifesto.

If You Build it They Won’t Come: a guide to author websites, by Laura Hazard Owen in the Publishing Trends blog contains advice and insights on using social media.

What the Past Can Tell Us About the Future of Social Networking, by Mark Suster. Let’s not forget AOL, bulletin boards, and chat rooms. Mark Suster will remind you of all those services and show you how today’s media, while wildly more popular, are just like song remakes: the kids think it’s something fabulously original and don’t know why their parents recognize all the words.

Statversations — Summary notes on the idea of status updates as conversation, by Queen’s media prof Sidneyeve Matrix. Bit of an overview, bit of insight. This is a slide presentation worthy of your four minutes; answers some questions, and introduces new ideas. Part of TEDx Queen’s U 2010.

[Photo by me, showing our illustrious EAC K-Twig members.]