Just don't do it. Don't use your Facebook personal page for business purposes. Get a Facebook business page instead. For many of us, social media is the way to get our businesses out there and make them known outside our own neighborhoods. For this reason alone, social media is great. But, we have to be careful not to take advantage of our friends and relatives, on any social media site, by inundating them with ads for our business. Having a Facebook business page is best for a number of reasons: * Your audience is choosing to be there when they "like" your business page. This allows you to single them out with ads because they've already shown support and interest through their choice to "like." * You can be specific in your ads without fear of offending people who are not interested. * You avoid the awkwardness of people unfriending and/or blocking you. When someone chooses to like a business page, they are letting you know that they suppor...

I found this story circulating around Facebook and thought it was so interesting that people are just now trying to get to the real truth of this story. You might remember, without much of a reminder, because it was an unusual story. A woman bought hot coffee from McDonald's, spilled it in her lap, received 3rd degree burns, then sued McDonald's and was awarded $2.7M. Sounds absurd, doesn't it? Much in our lives would sound absurd if reduced to a few summarizing sentences. I hope you'll take the time to watch and listen to this full report . It's amazing what we learn when we listen. It's amazing how a person can be perceived based on the writings of others, whether true or false. Write truth. ~Tricia

If you take a look at this article by Nina Amir, you might think I'm guilty of plagiarism even by the title of this blog post. In the article, titled Blog an eBook So You'll Get Read As You Write , Nina quotes a speaker from the New Media Expo as saying just that...."Every blogger is a published author." This is not new information to me. I have been telling my writing students this for several years now. Publishing is easier today than ever before. I tell my students that if they've so much as written a Facebook status update, they have published. Their update might be read more than a long article in the New York Times. Smart writers have learned to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and other social media outlets to advance their writing, their product or service and generate not only business, but a following. If you are not blogging, what are you waiting for? It's easy, quick and can have a huge positive impact on your writing. ~Tricia

Are you successfully working the social media scene to your advantage as a writer? It can be a great resource, but it can also be a great hindrance, depending on how you use it.  I recently read this great article, Practice Good Facebook Etiquette , by Real Simple magazine and it has excellent pointers for using social media successfully. While the article is specifically about Facebook, it can apply to all avenues of social media.  In addition to this article, I have a few reminders which will help your social media experience work for you and your writing. What you say in social media stays in social media.  In other words, don't say it if it's not to your advantage because once you write it down out there, you can't undo it. Even if you delete something, it's still "out there" somewhere in cyber space.  Nothing ever truly goes away.  Facebook has recently extended their timeline system to go back even further than they did before and people are up in arm...