Now I Have to Network?

So, I made the decision to self-publish.  After agonizing over that for weeks, I finally stuck to my decision.  What now?

Now, I enter the wonderful world of promotion (important for self-pub and traditional alike).  I already started this blog (and if you are thinking about starting your own blog, I've personally been happy with Blogger--and it's free)  and then I bought the domain name for my web site.  What did I have left to do?

Boy, it's a good thing I've found a few friends along the way to clue me in!

My first stop was World Literary Cafe.  This web site includes a lot of information for the aspiring author or the published.  It is a place for readers and writers to connect.  Mostly, I've been trying to build my network, so I became interested in the follow programs for both Facebook and Twitter where you follow other authors and they follow you back (or like you in the case of Facebook).  Sounded good to me.

Next, I started a Facebook page.  Honestly, my blog seems much more useful to me than this.  I have some followers though, so I'll keep trying to figure out what to do with the Facebook page.  I would suggest this be the last thing you attempt, as I've found it to be the least useful.

After that, it was time to move on to Twitter.  Now, this was actually a bit fun for me, and I've been meeting some really interesting people.  In addition to that, I've connected with both readers and writers over the last few weeks (and even other people who watch Ghost Hunters!).

The real power comes when you combine your blog with Twitter in a newer media called triberr.  It is best if you don't join this web site on your own, but ask a friend who is in triberr to invite you into their tribe.  If you get invited, it is free.  If you join on your own, then to get into a specific tribe with people you know it causes what they call "inbreeding," and it costs money (bones) to get into the tribe of your choice.  Basically, we all share our blog feeds with triberr and with a simple click to approve posts, we share each other's blogs over our Twitter feeds.   This has really increased the number of viewers I get to my blog each day, increased my blog followers, and is helping to spread the word about information I'm sharing... hopefully it is all interesting enough to keep people coming back!

Just a cautionary tale... do not commit one of the Seven Sins of Social Networking as detailed by the vastly entertaining Rachelle Ayala on her blog Rachelle's Window.

Do you have any great networking tips I've overlooked?  Anything else I should be doing?

Thanks so much for reading!  Have a wonderful weekend!