It may feel like an enormous time-suck, but investing a few minutes to complete your profile, including a photo, on EVERY social media site where you have an account, will pay off.

First, for the reader, there is nothing quite so discouraging as to find their favorite author (you) and click their profile or bio on a site, only to come up empty-screened and empty-handed, with the sorry graphic of an egg or a question mark in the tiny box where your mug should be.

Second, you’re missing a huge opportunity to increase your social footprint. When you search your name via a search engine like Google or Yahoo, the goal is to see a little bit about you on all those sites that come up in the search results.

If you haven’t completed your profiles yet, or if you think they may need a bit of updating or sprucing up, here are a few tips to make your time invested productive:

1. Use the same profile pic for every site. Some writers would rather use a photo of their book — and if it’s a Twitter or Facebook page specific to that title, that’s fine. But for everything else, use your own face – people connect to people, not covers.

2. Make sure the bio info on your own website and/or blog matches what you’re putting up at other sites – you want the info to be consistent across every platform.

3. All roads lead to Rome, which in this case if your own website/blog, so make sure there’s a link to your own site in your profile! Some sites have separate “fields” to enter your site URL; others just have one big bio box, so double check that readers have a place to click right through to YOU!