by Alice Anderson

Learn how to build your brand by organizing your online profiles and keeping them updated.

Some would say it’s no longer enough to write a good book. Now an author must promote, not only her book, but herself. The latest buzzword is “author platform.” Evidently, “author platform” is what editors and agents are looking for these days. Authors who come with a built in following via a blog, newsletter, or website. In other words, a ready made star. Or a star that’s about to explode onto the scene.

Do you have an author platform? Believe it or not, if you have a website, blog, facebook and/or twitter account, you’re well on your way! Everything you do online, at conferences and workshops, and book signings builds your author platform. That’s why being professional is so important.

But how do you maintain that web presence that agents and editors are looking at?

1. Get organized.
2. Pick accounts and services that you can manage. Don’t have time to tweet every single day? Write an article a month and submit it to newsletters, writing websites, blogs, and article directories.
3. Keep your profiles updated.

Today is the perfect day to update your user profile on the various sites you’re a member of. I recently logged into one of the social networks I’m a part of and realized I had listed my old website address in the profile. That’s not helping me or anyone who’s trying to find out more about me by clicking on that old link. Luckily, I have that old link redirecting to my new one, but still, it’s important to keep these things updated. I also realized I never included a brief biography in the About Me section. Oops. So I fixed that too.

It’s a good idea to check your user profiles once every six months to make sure your information (name, URL, email, bio, booklist) is up to date. Once you’re organized this shouldn’t take long at all.

Where should you update your profile?

Start with myspace, goodreads, facebook, twitter, yahoo, shelfari, and work your way down through all the sites you’re a member of. Don’t forget your chapter website, national writing organizations, message boards, and writing groups.

How to Get Organized

1. Open Notepad or Wordpad and start jotting down the sites off the top of your head. Save this to your desktop so you can update it frequently.
2. Next, list the URL (web address) to each of your accounts next to the Site Name. IE. Twitter – Example

   October & April

   Twitter – Myspace – Facebook – Goodreads – —–