Networking For Wusses

Here's a casting call to post your networking hangouts!

I'll admit, I'm a wuss when it comes to social networking sites. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy rubbing virtual elbows with old and new friends, but I am such a troglodyte. I'm afraid I might end up offending someone by not responding with the proper codes, handshakes and virtual martinis.

For the most part, I limit my socializing to blogs. I like blogs. I like visiting other blogs, and I love the comments I get here.

I promised myself from the beginning that I'd either reply to every person who comments here or visit their blogs and comment there. Sometimes both. I think if a person takes the time to comment, the least I can do is reciprocate. (That's where the social part of networking comes in.)

But recently, I've been called to task that my efforts are puny compared to other people. Geez! I didn't think anyone noticed my absence at these other places.

I'm still a newbie at Twitter, and I'm not on Facebook (yet). The last person who shook her finger at me for not being on FB said that publishers EXPECT me to be on FB. Oh noessssss!

Is that true?

I was on the fence about FB for a long time, and apparently Mark Zuckerberg must have gotten my memo because FB has once again reconsidered its privacy terms.

If you want to see how insane the privacy issue is, check out this org chart of options. I did some sleuthing and found All Facebook, the unofficial Facebook resource, and they gave a nice cut and dry list to check on your privacy controls.

Okay, so this has helped make me a little less paranoid about FB, but what about Twitter?

Twitter is a little less intrusive than Facebook, but I'm still trying to figure out how to word each message so it makes sense in 140 characters.

And how do you keep up with replies and @whoever messages? I feel like I'm eavesdropping, reading someone's personal message to somebody else.

I love the Retweet function though. This way, I can spread good intel without having to retype the message. Brilliance!

But I have no idea what a Tweetdeck is, or what people mean when they tweet '#amwriting', or any number of similarly cryptic hashtags.

Reading sites: Goodreads is still my reading site of choice. I still love that place. I belong to several groups where I just lurk when I have time. I love reading the threads there. It's the least stressful networking site I know.

Writing sites: This is one area where I am indeed negligent, so I decided to choose one site and dedicate myself to it. I had several to choose from, places I liked, but I think I am going to hang around Absolute Write Water Cooler. I've gotten a lot of good information from them over the years and it's time I reciprocated.

This year, I am writing more, and I FINALLY have the time to actually participate at some of these sites. No more excuses. I am going in the water this time.

It might take me a couple of weeks to join Facebook, but I'm already on Twitter. And if you see MariaZ at the Water Cooler, that's me!

If we have the same interests (and we should if you're here) would you follow me on Twitter? I will surely follow you too.

And if you're not already a follower of this blog, join up. The nice thing about following a blog publicly is that YOUR link is shown on my profile page. I've found quite a few new blogs by following the trail on someone else's follower's list, so this really is a good tool for all of us to use.

The only thing that bugs me about the Follower list is that it doesn't tell me when someone joins. I have to scan the list to see where the new person is so I can follow him too. Maybe they'll modify that in some future version. Meanwhile, don't hesitate to let me know that you're following, so I can follow you too.

For those of you playing at home, you can follow me here:

Blogger
Twitter
Absolute Write Water Cooler: Find me as MariaZ
Goodreads

So tell me, where do you all rub virtual elbows? Leave me a comment with your hangouts and links so people can find you.

Let's get social! Spread the word, guys.

Addendum: Good to her word, Brokenbiro has posted a new article explaining the mysteries of Twitter. Go over and take a look.