by Sherrie Wilkolaski
Professional social media site, LinkedIn is an incredible tool for authors to connect with other authors and publishing professionals. One of the great resources LinkedIn has to offer any registered user is its “groups” feature. You can connect with different professional groups in your favorite niche and contribute to discussions, find resources and keep up with trends. You have the luxury of picking and choosing what groups you want to join. Another thing about LinkedIn that is luxurious is that once you have your profile established, it will help to automatically make recommendations on who you may know or want to reach out to, based on your email address and work history. It’s like having your own personal assistant out there, networking for you. You can grow your professional network virtually, barely lifting a finger.
What is LinkedIn?
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 135 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the Internet.
How should you use LinkedIn?
Once you've created your account, you will need to build your profile. As an author there is no harm in partnering your career history with that of your work as a writer. In most cases it should make sense to do so. Simply list your job as a writer and include in your profile. Make sure it is your most recent position, so it shows up at the top of your profile. If you have a resume on file, it will make it easy to create your profile, you can import it or cut and paste your work history into the online profile builder within your new LinkedIn account.
If you are writing under a pen name or in area that you do not want to have associated with your day job, then create a LinkedIn account under your pen name, or create your author profile. You can have more than one LinkedIn account.
How to connect with writers groups and publishing professionals?
One your profile is set up in your LinkedIn account you can start searching for groups. Use the search box at the top of the page to find local writers groups, or groups in your own niche (i.e. romance, fiction, etc.) and join those groups. You should also look at joining a few publishing groups to keep up with trends and what is going on in the industry.
What NOT to do as an author on LinkedIn?
Don’t push your book directly. This site is a professional networking resource. Use it to make connections. When it makes sense to talk one and one about your book to other writers and professionals, do so. If you’re launching a new title, there is no harm in sending out an announcement to your connections. Just keep the direct book marketing via LinkedIn in check.
How to set-up your author account at LinkedIn?
LinkedIn provides detailed instructions on their site, so we’re going to direct you right to that page: http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/
Today’s social media challenge task of the day.
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Create an account at www.LinkedIn.com.
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Set-up your profile in your LinkedIn account. Be sure to add your author photo and a link back to your own personal website. http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/
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Follow the instructions to set-up your author account as provided above.
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Once you have your account set-up, connect with Infinity Publishing and become our friend. www.linkedin.com/in/infinitypublishing
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Post a link to your LinkedIn profile page below in the comments section so you get added exposure.
Infinity Publishing’s gift to you. We will friend you back on LinkedIn!
Tomorrow we’re going to have fun with Squidoo (Challenge #11).
by Sherrie Wilkolaski
Let’s get real about social media. It’s like exercise, right? We’ll be the first to admit that we have not been as focused on our own social media footprint as we would like. There, we said it. It’s a new year and we are ready to make some viral waves in the world of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and whatever other medium that makes sense for us to better build our brand, to support our authors.
So we’ve decided to challenge the entire Infinity Publishing team and all of our authors to join us for a Lucky 13 Social Media Challenge. 13 days of social media fun.
Are you ready to ma
ke your mark?
Here is the challenge, to increase your social media footprint and build your online platform via a variety of social media and online resources. Each day for 13 days we’ll post the “challenge” of the day on our blog and you can work along with us. If you don’t know how to use Twitter, Facebook, etc. we’ll walk you through the process.
Say, “YES!” to the Infinity Publishing Lucky 13 Day Social Media Challenge! We’ll work together to support each other in this simple and fun marketing experience. Great way to market your book and all you need is less than 15 minutes a day to make it happen.
Here is how the Infinity Publishing Lucky 13 Social Media Challenge works:
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Register for the Infinity Publishing Lucky 13 Social Media Challenge here. Let this be your New Year’s gift to yourself! A great way to kick off book sales AND you’ll be positioning yourself for long-term online exposure.
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Follow our blog each day, starting tomorrow, Friday, January 13, 2012 and stick with us for 13 days. We'll give you simple instructions on what your social media task is for that day. It’s going to be super easy and if you’re not social media savvy, don't worry. We’ll give you step by step instructions. Everything you need to bring in the New Year with a viral marketing edge and be better prepared to market your book. So what kinds of things will be doing? We may ask you to simply send out a Tweet on Twitter to promote your book, or post a message to Facebook to promote your book.
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Enjoy your new found social media skills, exposure AND the cross-promotion that Infinity Publishing will be giving back to you!
Infinity Publishing’s gift to you for participating in the Lucky 13 Social Media Challenge…we will give you the same amount of exposure that you give out. If you follow-us on Twitter, we’ll follow you back. For every Tweet you send out, we’ll send out one to promote your book. For every post you put on Facebook, we’ll give you one post back. It’s all about exposure.
It's much more fun if we work together. Join us here on the Infinity Publishing Blog, tomorrow, Friday, January 13, 2012. Are you up for the challenge?
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Photo courtesy of Alex Hinds.