It feels great to be liked – but it’s also good for your career. Just ask Sally Field!

I couldn’t help but recently recall Sally Field’s “You like me!” speech from her 1985 Oscar acceptance (yes, they had Oscars “way back then”).  I was working with a client on her “likes” at the World Literary Cafe and musing on the value of being “liked” because WLC has two fun links/tools on their site to help you get liked more:

1. Facebook Likes:  Where authors sign up and then agree to follow other authors on the list to build the “Likes” on their Facebook author pages
2. Twitter Follows: Ditto – you sign up with your Twitter URL and follow others and they can follow you on Twitter!

It’s easy and FREE to sign up for both, so we won’t go through the step-by-step here (shout if you get stuck), but what I do want to mention is WHY we want to get listed and agree to follow fellow authors (and have them follow us):

• Most obviously, this helps establish more fans on your Facebook and Twitter pages, helping each of you (those you like and those who like you) to build their platform.
• You’ll find some good books along the way — I saw several intriguing authors/books while going through the Twitter and Facebook lists.
• Readers at this site are also encouraged to “like” and “follow” authors listed on these lists. (You’ll see the links provided to them under the reader tabs).
• You’ll find fellow members of your author “tribe” with whom you can share writing, promotional ideas, perhaps even exchange blogs.
• You’ll be building a ready-made audience of qualified writers/readers with whom you can test new ideas.

So, think of this exercise as not only building up your “numbers” but building a serious “team” of like-minded writers with whom you can brainstorm. The “group-think” aspect of social media is discussed less, but it’s a critical component of the value of exchanging information in cyber-space.

And what better way for us as authors to interact with other authors when we finally do crawl out of our writing caves after a long, solitary day’s work… Enjoy!