Hey everyone, in case you didn’t already know, we have a Facebook fan page you can follow in order to keep up with our posts and to hear a little something extra from the three of us. Check it out at: http://www.facebook.com/lifeink.
Also, expect some big changes coming soon to our blog. Keep reading to find out what they are!
I’m quite proud of my most recent technological accomplishment – publishing a Facebook fan page! The page is for published author Patricia Strefling, who I’ve been working with lately on some editing projects as well as computer projects, such as setting up this Facebook fan page and her Etsy shop (she makes and sells beautiful crocheted baby afghans).
Creating the fan page took me back to my days at Davenport U as a marketing major, as we discussed ways to drive traffic to the page, links to other authors and sites, and choosing photos and blurbs for different areas of the page. The fan page is really all about marketing, but on a “grass roots” level – focused on connecting personally with your target market (your “fans”). The end goal, however, is still to drive sales/traffic/readership/etc. I think it’s a great idea and I’m excited to build my editing business to the point where I need a fan page!
I wish Facebook would build more customization capabilities into their fan pages. For example, I’d love to put up a sidebar box with all of Pat’s favorite links – to fellow authors, her publisher, etc. The link box available now will only show 2-3 links and I don’t think there’s a way to choose which ones are displayed (although I could be wrong).
I think the Discussion board area has great potential especially for the creative arts people like Pat. She can create a post for each of her books, and hopefully get some thoughtful discussions going and ideas for future stories! Check her out – her inspirational romance books Edwina and Cecilia are available now!
If you have any sort of business I encourage you to create a Facebook fan page. Seems like everyone is on Facebook nowadays, and it’s a great way to touch base with your friends and clients, and hopefully reach new ones! If you have a page already, would you mind sharing it with us in the comments? I’d love to see how you’re using this great feature!
So now I have a question for our LifeInk readers – do you think LifeInk needs a Facebook fan page? Would you be our fan? If we do launch a page in the future, what would you like to see on it? Besides, of course, blog post updates (because I know you never want to miss an episode 
)!! How about additional links and info about posts? Updates on past posts? We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
PS – Of course, you can always find the three of us on Facebook! We are all on pretty frequently posting insightful and witty status updates (HAH!) and we love to chat!
I was supposed to post on Friday or Saturday. But I figured I might as well get the inevitable late post out of the way at the beginning. So from here on out (at least until the next time I forget and post late), you can expect to hear from me on the weekend!
I joined Twitter a couple weeks ago. As a salesperson in a technology business (cell phones), I feel the responsibility to keep up on new stuff, especially where it intersects with cell phones. And Twitter seems almost custom-designed for the mobile world. An update, at 140 characters max, is the perfect text-message size.
So I twitter my tweets (what a friend calls her fellow twitter-ers, maybe related to “peeps”?), and tweet my heart out, and follow friends’ twitters, and retweet the cool stuff, and complain about Tweetdeck, and all of a sudden, “twitter” sounds a lot like the poem “Jabberwocky,” in which the words are completely made up, but sound oh-so-close to being real. To give you context, here’s the first two stanzas of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
The words sound so close to real – they’re even grammatical! But it’s not real. The words are just empty noises. And it occurs to me that social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and so on, can sometimes be just so much “slithy toves.” Sometimes they’re about as real as reality TV. The illusion of truth and transparency, of a glimpse into our lives, but upon closer inspection, it’s all empty noises. Who ever says what they’re truly thinking and feeling? We say whatever will get us retweeted, followed, and friended.
So will I shut down my Facebook and muffle my tweets? Will I stop wasting time in the smoke-and-mirrors world of social networking? Nope. Because at the end of the day, who doesn’t love saying (tweeting?) “gyre and gimble in the wabe”?? It’s fun! It’s an amusing, relaxing, interesting-in-a-social-experimentation-way method of killing time. Plus you can learn interesting things about your friends (or your tweets). And about people who aren’t your friends. And about people you’ve never heard of in your life.
Just beware the Jabberwock, and watch out for the snare of the frumious Bandersnatch.
Oh, and be sure to friend me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter (editorialdragon)! 
Michelle Huegel
lifeink
michellehuegel
ashleybarrett
Erin Joy
