© Copyright Paul O'Farrell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License

My family doesn’t have a drop of Irishness in our blood — that we know of, anyway. But that never stopped my dad and me from wearing green on March 17th. Dad went the extra mile by wearing a dark green suit to work with some silly button like, “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” Obviously, he liked to have fun and I am sure some folks today would say the button is harassment. No matter, count on my wearing green.

Brain food…

• 8 Must-Have Twitter and Facebook Add-Ons: Oh yes, add-ons go beyond browsers and blog apps. The article forgot to point to the scripts (all use Greasemonkey), which can you find by searching userscripts.org. Facebook Purity explains how to install scripts for other browsers.
• Synopsis Tips for Writers: Excellent short post. [Link: BubbleCow]
• 10 Turnsoffs Keeping Readers from My Blog: These are the unwritten rules I tend to follow… at least, I hope I am.
• 10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn from Albert Einstein: Not a single one has anything to do with relativity.
• 33 Writing Terms You Should Know: When WIP on an ms, be sure to stick to DL while following GL [Link: BubbleCow -- awesome resource... follow @bubblecow!]
• Research Tip: Finding Crutch Words: Do you keep using some words repeatedly? I try not to, but with all that I write… it can be tough. Current challenge is to avoid that and which. Not easy! [Link: @elizabethscraig]
• Top 100 Sites on the Internet: Very cool interactive graphic. [Link: @kirstinbutler]

Image from jimbowen0306 / CC BY 2.0

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Coolest Foosball Tables: Aww… My husband just has an ordinary table.
• 70+ Examples Of Beautiful Night Photography: Breathtaking… [Link: Ruhani Rabin]
• 40 Outstanding Mascot Designs: I’d love to have one… but not sure it would fit this site’s brand. Or what. My favorite mascot: Fort Worth’s TCU Horned Frogs. I found many horned toads in my backyard while growing up. [Link: bkmacdaddy]
• Junkyard steampunk Yoda: Serious, I am.
• 5 Browsers and the Modes of Transportation They Resemble: Pretty darn accurate.
• Top 10 Japanese Etiquette Mistakes: I love reading about cultures and etiquette even though I never get to try them (or avoid them). I learned about #2 from my husband and I have used it.
• Friday Funnies: Words Shape Your Existence: Great way to kick off weekend (and Spring Break for some of us). [Link: @alexkaris]

Can you guess what happens in Diner Dash 5: Boom!? Diner Dash Flo indeed sees her diner go ka-boom! in Flo decides to provide a health conscious menu, so she posts a sign that says, “Fat-Free Breakfast.” Someone removes the “Fat-” on the the sign to show “Free Breakfast.” Naturally, when her diner opens, the whole town rushes in and destroys the diner. The nasty Mr. Big comes in and announces he has a standing contract with the city that any lot that goes unused for a week becomes his.

Hal, a contractor and huge Flo diner fan, offers to help her rebuild her diner within one week. While he gets to work, Flo goes from neighborhood to neighborhood running outdoor diners to help Hal with the rebuilding. As he progresses, he’ll ask you what design and color you want for the diner. The diner you customize will appear near the end of the game.

The game play remains the same in that you fill in as Flo. You’ll take orders, deliver the dishes, clean up, fulfill customer requests for special snacks and fix problems that pop up. You’ll met new customer types as well as some from past Diner Dashes. As usual, customer personalities can drive your strategy. Lawyers and working women have little patience, so you probably want to serve them first in a chain. One customer type takes his time. Librarians and bookworms like the quiet while the working men make a lot of noise talking on their cell phones.

Gain bonus points by matching customers’ colors with the seats and doing a bunch of the same activity in a row (chaining). For example, deliver the check to as many customers as possible ready to check out. The more you chain the same task, the higher your bonus.

For each level, you need to earn a minimum amount to advance. Those who like to challenge themselves can work toward the expert scores. After all, the more money you earn, the more you have for shopping for power ups before starting the next level. Power ups let you speed up activities whether it’s Flo getting around or Cookie cooking faster. But there’s one new type of power up — the kind that’s only good for one level, if you can afford it. You can hire Quinn of Wedding Dash to fill up the salad bar, get another set of hands for carrying things or a hostess to keep the people in line happy.

Oh, that’s right, we have the salad bar element. Sometimes diners choose to go to the salad bar instead of ordering from the menu. You need to drag the salad folks to the salad bar while ensuring the salad bar remains full. If one column of food is empty, the diners can’t move on.

Another new feature is Facebook. Diner Dash 5 can send your game updates to your Facebook page. You don’t have to use the Facebook feature. You can also win virtual gifts that you can give to a Facebook friend. While a cool feature, I didn’t know anyone who is a Diner Dash fan. If you send it to someone who doesn’t have Diner Dash 5, it’s useless.

One big improvement in Diner Dash 5 is that it’s easier. I could never get far in past games because they were very (yes, I am using this modifier) hard. This one, I did. Diner Dash pros — don’t fret… believe me, there are challenges in the game. This game does a great job of easing the challenge while retaining it for advanced players.

I still have problems with chaining at times. I’d be running all over, click, click, click only to find something failed and that failure can mean the difference between standard score and expert score. Plus, snacks break the chain. I don’t think that’s fair.

You get a lot of game value for the time. Once you play through the game, you can replay levels to reach expert scores. As of this time, only the Collector’s Edition is available and it requires a Big Fish Games Club Membership. The regular one — read: cheaper and no extras — will be available later. Extras include:

• Advanced levels: Extra game play for those who love a good challenge.
• Strategy guide: Walkthroughs to help you conquer levels and reach Expert scores.
• Story comics: Review the story, which is divided into scenes. I wish it came with fast forward, previous and pause. The game plays the whole scene and repeats.
• Wallpapers: Six screens for your background.
• Screensaver: One animated screensaver, but it doesn’t let you preview how it looks.
• “Flo Over Time”: Looks back to the history of Diner Dash.

The extras may or may not be worth it. You can get walkthroughs from forums around the web. You can review the story by going back to previous levels. I rarely change screensavers and wallpapers, so these had no value to me.

Download iner Dash 5.

FTC disclosure: Review based on expired review copy received from publisher.

Google has already apologized for some of the problems with Google Buzz. One of those being Buzz automatically followed some users, a big no-no. The company may have said it was limited to people you emailed frequently, but that wasn’t the case for most of us.

Aside from that, Buzz has mixed reviews and a long list of things that need changing. I’ve listened. I’ve participated. I’ve complained. Yet, Buzz still has my attention. Like an infant, it has cute moments and messy ones. It still needs nourishing before determining what it will be when it grows up.

Using Buzz

Because I always have Gmail open, the growing number of new Buzz is distracting as it grows much faster than email even in spite of my being very selective about who I follow. I’m organized when it comes to my email and maintain inbox zero. It’s easy to see why the new Buzz messages annoy and frustrate people especially when the number climbed to 100.

It took a week to get used to that in the same way I let my newsletters and alerts labels sit with over 100 new messages. Those two labels have hundreds of new messages because those messages are “as needed” messages. So I applied the concept to Buzz and the annoyance factor dropped. Or I click “Buzz” and the number starts over.

Although some folks said they turned off Buzz soon after trying it out, I haven’t written it off because it’s new and evolving. First, I want to understand it better and figure out how to use it efficiently should it find its way. Twitter wasn’t a smash hit in the beginning. Neither were blogs. Facebook was limited to college students. Second, I’m stricter about the people I follow in Buzz than I am in Twitter. If I find someone I follow is Buzzing a lot of useless content, then I stop following without regret.

I haven’t decided if it’s a good idea to funnel my tweets into Buzz. I don’t blog daily, so tweets keep me out there. I’ve created new Buzz a couple of times and comment on Buzzworthy items. I haven’t tried using Buzz for any articles I write.

One-way Interaction

Buzz can import your blog entries, tweets and other content. However, if you reply to any of these, they stay right in Buzz. Well, when I see a tweet from Twitter in Buzz, I go in Twitter and reply there instead of within Buzz. Google lost an opportunity here. What if Google adds a checkbox that asks if I want the reply to go to the original source. Hence, if the source is from Twitter, the reply shows up in Twitter.

Google likely did it this way on purpose to keep people in Buzz. But some will go around it like I did. I hardly think I’m the only one to think of this.

Yes, Facebook lets you import the same information and keeps replies right inside Facebook. I just expect more from Google because many of Facebook’s users don’t use other social media applications.

Twitter Fail Whale = Buzzportunity

Recently, Twitter experienced serious fail whaling. People asked if Twitter was failing in Facebook and Google Buzz. Buzz was a better place to find out than Facebook. Again, so many people in Facebook don’t touch Twitter or any other social media. Those of us in conversation mode buzzed about other things knowing Twitter whaled out.

Multi-communication Integration

I don’t think Google, Facebook and Microsoft are onto anything in combining status/buzz with email. (Facebook is trying to build up email to become a powerhouse like Gmail.) When I want Twitter updates, I go receive them and nothing else. Not email. Not trivia. Not games. Nothing. Just short status updates and direct messages (DM). Of course, I could be wrong about this.

Buzz integration with email doesn’t work for many. It creates more noise and people haven’t come to the point where they want multi-communication opportunities thrown at them. They would rather have a choice, but a choice that goes beyond turning off Buzz. Perhaps, a way  to access Buzz outside of Gmail.

I remember when Newsgator would deliver feeds as Outlook email. I never liked that idea. When I tried it briefly, it overwhelmed me more than Buzz because it took more effort to delete those messages.

Social Media Expert: Is There Such a Thing?

Buzz demonstrates exactly why no one can be an expert in social media. Social media evolves and fast. New things pop up. You can’t become an expert on what works and doesn’t work as soon as it comes out. You have to see how people respond to it as they learn their way around.

Nonetheless, Google has accomplished one thing for itself — Buzz keeps people in Gmail longer as several have admitted this.

What do you think lies ahead for Google Buzz and unborn social media?

Related articles

• 10 Things You Should Know About Google Buzz (eweek.com)
• 30+ Google Buzz How Tos, Tools and other Resources (SEOptimize.com)
• Google Buzz No Facebook , No Twitter Killer, Google Exec Says (eweek.com)

Howdy, all! Thanks for sticking with me. I know I have not reviewed a game in a while — for a good reason. I’ve had eye pain that interferes with playing games on top of the regular work I do on the computer all day, every day. So for now, I’m bringing you updates and what I think are good games. Does that work for you?

Social Gaming Survey

PopCap Games shares the results of a social gaming survey [pdf file]. I admit I used to be hooked on Facebook’s Bejeweled Blitz, but finally kicked the habit. It’s a great game to play when you need a stress break or can’t think. That is the only social game that has sucked me in. I avoid discovering new ones as I do not have time for this stuff! It’s easier with downloadable PC games because you generally have a start and finish.

The survey says that a population of about 100 million in the U.S. and U.K. play games on social media sites like Facebook and MySpace. And the cool news? The average social gamer is a 43-year old woman. That’s good news for PopCap Games because it’s the company behind the addiction of many of my friends: Facebook Bejeweled Blitz.

New Releases from Big Fish Games

Black Circle: A Carol Reed Mystery: Summer arrives and a neighbor asks English private detective Carol Reed to look into the discovery of a dead body that mysteriously disappears. In this hidden object game, Carol interviews suspects and helpful residents to get to the bottom of this stranger’s death. What starts as a routine investigation quickly becomes something more as Carol uncovers broken alliances and a cult long thought to be inactive.

Aveyond: The Lost Orb: Continuation of the popular Aveyond adventure game series. Mel’s wedding day isn’t going according to plan. Her worst enemy stole her man, and a mysterious ghost appears to tell Mel that her evil ancestor, Mordred Darkthrop, has passed down his most precious possession to her: a magical orb with the power of death. Wanting nothing to do with her wicked ancestor, Mel must now seek out the orb and destroy it, before someone else with the power to use it discovers its location.

Ancient Rome: In this time management game, you help grow the ancient Roman Empire by setting up cities and providing valuable resources throughout the land. Produce goods, construct new buildings and attract new workers as you expand the reach of the Roman Empire, a fast-paced strategy game. Meet your goals and accept valuable rewards from the emperor to set up your own piece of land and carve your name into the annals of history.

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle: After awakening in a mysterious castle it’s up to you to collect clues and valuable items needed to solve perplexing puzzles and escape. Listen to the fairy as she guides you towards the exit. The game comes with minigames and lock puzzles that lead you to the next room in the castle. In this hidden object game, you search for the next hint and discover a young Princess’ destiny.

Play anything good lately?

Image credit: Zsuzsanna Kilian

I avoid in-person events as much as possible. It’s not because I’m an introvert. It’s not because I look hideous. (Although we should know better than to let our looks get in the way of meetings.) It’s because I’m deaf. Most people understand me when I speak. It’s the other side — the more important part– of the conversation that’s a problem for me: Listening.

It’s true that the average lipreader catches only one-third of what people say. Try reading every third word in this post or another and see how much you understand. I can usually fill in the gaps, but not always. “My name is [mumble]” is a biggie. I might ask the person to repeat once, but no more. In a book club meeting, someone mentioned that reading the book and seeing the movie version was not a good movie. I asked the name of the book. Missed it. Repeated once and missed it again. Gave up.

While this sounds innocent and no big deal, it is. People judge you when you don’t catch things because it makes a person look obtuse or not smart. With online marketing, I don’t miss a single thing and I catch every name and title. What you see of me online is all me without the barriers or presumptions. Writers can do more than just publish content to market themselves. These work well and take up whatever time you put into it.

1. Create a web site with a personal URL. It’s easier and cheaper than ever to build and update a web site. Using blogging applications like WordPress and Tumblr work well. They also have a lot of free and low-price templates available. A customized design adds a personal touch to your brand, but sometimes people don’t have the funds available right away. You can work it out so the only cost you incur is the yearly fee to buy your own URL. writer.blogspot.com hurts the professionalism. You have a lot of options for creating a web site using a blog app. Whether you should blog or not is a different discussion.

2. Set up social media profiles. The web site and blog is your home on the Internet. Social media sites give you a meeting place. Many, many social media sites exist. Forget that. Don’t let it faze you. Pick two or three and completely fill your profile on those sites. Currently, the biggies are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. That can and will change. Remember MySpace was hot? I have a page that receives updates from my blog and Twitter account, but I don’t visit it. I’ll set up accounts on other social media sites, but only on a “come across it” basis. Usually I get an invite from a colleague and join up then. I fill in the profile as much as I can.

3. Join conversations. It doesn’t matter where. I go to blogs and leave comments, participate in scheduled Twitter chats, respond to people’s Facebook messages and reply and retweet tweets. Some people love to talk in forums. Notice this says “join conversations,” not “give soliloquies.” People who talk to no one in particular or don’t acknowledge other people’s existence are not listening or becoming a part of the community. The only folks who can get away with this are celebrities.

4. Do the guest thing. Invite and ask. Invite others to be a guest in your blog or community, and ask if you can do the same for others. You’re reaching two new audiences: the other person’s audience and the other person. The other person has a following and will ask people to check out the guest post in your community. Most guest posts come with a byline, which means link juice for your site and getting your name out there.

5. Link to your site and accounts. On your web site, link to your Twitter and other IDs. In your email signature, link to your web site and important IDs. Make sure everything points everywhere else. Do you have an email newsletter? Put your links there, too. This covers all your bases. Those who prefer email updates, RSS feeds and social media IDs.

These five I do on an almost daily basis. It works because I have a comfortable workload. You can do much more with online marketing, but other online marketing tools take more time. Some people do videos. Some do podcasts. Some do webinars. Some do email newsletters. Doing a video or podcast requires thinking about the goals, writing the script, recording and editing before you can publish. With social media, you have control over how much time you spend.

What online marketing tools work well for you?

Growing up in Fort Worth, we always had a day off from school at the end of January and received a free ticket for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Radeo. You didn’t have to go or use the ticket. I went a couple of times to the cattle and sheep barns to see the animals and to watch the rodeo in Will Rogers Coliseum.

Vote for your favorite books on writing.

Nominate a favorite social media book.

Brain food…

• Tools to record what is on your screen: Screenr is good, too.
• What Twitter Lists Say About You: Replace my name with your Twitter ID.
• Interview: Lauren Moran, Yankees’ Media Relations: Fascinating insight into working for pro baseball team. I’d love to work for a sports team.
• How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’: I still dislike the use of “fans” and would like to see this change to “members” or something similar.
• Myth Busting: Write what you know? Maybe… maybe not. See what Lori says.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Creative Shower Curtains: I love these! But I like my glass shower door better.
• 12 Most Realistic Lego Sculptures: Incredible. Legoclick gives Lego artists a place to share their work. The web site will blow you away. Check out the film — no words.
• Sleep Talkin’ Man: What a guy says when he sleeps.
• 12 Most Bizarre Things Ever Listed on eBay
• Leaf Carving Art
• 8 Unbelievable iPhone Stories

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. I wish I could come up with some other way to say this, but it’s true though cliché. I’m lucky to have him in my life and that we grow together as we encounter new phases in our lives. We enjoy spending time together in simple ways such as our recent discovery of Gilmore Girls. What more can a gal ask for? Oh, and he remembers our special dates, too.

Please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Brain food…

• The 20 Best Productivity and Personal Development Blogs: Glad to see Web Worker Daily on there.
• 7 Ways to Integrate Facebook into Your Online Platform
• Five Ways to Comply with the New FTC Guidelines for Bloggers [Link: Christina Katz]
• 52 Tips for Writers, from Writers [Link: Debbi Ohi]
• What Does Future Hold for Writers? Predictions for 2010 – 2020
• How I Sold 10,000 Copies of my Self-Published Book
• How to Make the Most of Your Social Media Time: By me.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Bizarre Japanese Candy: No, thanks. I’ll pass.
• The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog: Really.
• First-Person Tetris: The rotate feature drives my eyes crazy, but it’s a unique take on the oft-copied game.
• When Gamers Marry: The cakes you might expect.
• Forbidden Words à la Matt Groening: The Simpsons and Life in Hell creator’s view of tired words.
• Support Details: Anger management resource for tech support.
• Found him! OK, so White Snark and Reddit helped.
• 10 of the Dumbest Gadgets Ever Made: We’ve always dreamed of being able to carry remote controls on a headband… I don’t think so.

Most folks use Facebook for one or the other, not both. However, many freelance writers and I use Facebook for both personal and business. After all, when you hire us, you get our personalities and styles. I take care to watch what I post by remembering a future client, a former boss and family member could read it. Although I use Facebook’s settings to limit what some contacts can see, you never know what leaks from one realm to another.

If you’re not sold on Facebook for business, here are 50 writer uses for Facebook.

Ready to create an effective Facebook profile? Don’t worry about doing it in one sitting. Quality is more important than speed. Besides, I still tweak mine. It helps to do a review of all your bios at least once a year as you gain experience and new clients.

Facebook Profile Bio

1. Use your full name. This is especially the case for women writers. They might write under their maiden names or both maiden and married. Mine says “Meryl Kaplan Evans” because some knew me before I married and I used that name when I first started freelancing as a writer. If you have other names — past or present — include them in a logical spot such as your Info page under “Personal Information: About Me.” (See screen shot.)

2. Complete your profile as much as possible. The four sections in Facebook’s profile include Basic, Personal, Contact and Education and Work. Add publications, writing types (white papers, case studies, etc.) and other relevant information. Also ask yourself, “Do I want the client to know this?” so you don’t share too much.

3. Select an ideal profile photo. Remember you can share lots of photos on your Facebook photo page. For the profile photo, it’d be wise to use a professional one or a photo that shows you wearing clothes that fit your personality and style. BitRebels has great tips for looking good in photos.

4. Add your blog. You can import your blog entries into Facebook with several Applications like Networked Blogs, which I use. Not everyone is into reading blogs and Twitter, and you can find a new audience this way. What’s cool is getting comments from my local friends who didn’t read my blog until I fed it into Facebook.

5. Skip your Twitter feeds. At first, I sent all of my Twitter tweets to Facebook. However, after seeing others doing the same, I realized it would probably bother more people than not because even I was bothered by the frequent updates. If you don’t use Twitter much, then it might work for you. But status updates aren’t meant for frequent updates like Twitter. Besides, we all know that Facebook attracts people from all walks of life including those whose only social network is Facebook. Now I just send relevant tweets to Facebook through Selective Tweets by adding ”#fb” to a tweet for posting in Facebook.

6. Capture writing career information on profile home page. A paragraph appears beneath your photo on your profile home page. This is your chance to tell people the most important thing about what you do as a writer. Keep it simple and to one or two key things otherwise people won’t remember you for anything. Questions to ask: What do you want potential clients to know about you? What do they get from working with you? Other things to consider: industry, client type, writing type. (see “Facebook Profile Bio” screen shot.)

Privacy Settings for Profile Information

7. Review your profile information privacy settings. Click some of your friends’ friends links. After looking at a few, you’ll notice some have almost empty pages while others reveal more. This is the information people see when they search for someone not yet connected. Understandably, some set profile settings to very private that we only see a name when we search for them. However, they might not be the only one with that name and you can’t discern if you have the right person. I open my profile photos and “Education and Work” to everyone. This way they know if they have the right person and learning about what I do. (See “Privacy Settings” screen shot.)

8. Manage privacy settings. I assign “limited profile” to people I only know on a professional level or through another contact. This assignment allows them to see specific parts of my profile based on the assignments I set. You can do the same for every photo album: open one to all, open another to everyone except those on “limited profile” and another that exempts certain people.

If you need help with your Twitter bio, here are tips for creating a Twitter profile for writers. It’s unbelievable how many people use a shortcut service URL for their URL instead of the real thing.

How do you manage your Facebook profile for business?

Image credit: Shlomit Wolf

Yee haw! (I’m a Texan, I can do that.) Happy to do another Middle Zone Musings “What I learned from…” project. This time, we share our favorite posts of 2009. I put this together based on what I thought were most valuable to you based on your feedback.

7 Traits of Bad Twitter Followers: The things to do if you hate Twitter.

50+ Writer Uses for Twitter: Who knew there were so many things you can do within 140 characters?

50+ Writers Uses for Facebook: Facebook can do more than connect you with friends and family.

Short, Powerful and Favorite Books: If you crave reading a book without a lot of time, these are the ones sure to fulfill your reading desires.

How to Join Twitter Chats: And videos to help. One of my favorite things to do… connect with intelligent individuals and participate in conversations without barriers.

How to Manage Your Time with Social Networks: Writing is a lonely business and it’s very easy to fall under the hypnotic trap of social media.

Twitter Success Means More Than Numbers: Stop asking, “How can I get more followers.” It defeats the purpose. I know plenty of folks with about 200 followers who are great tweeters.

40+ Writer Uses for LinkedIn: You can do more than just connect with people.

Watch What Your Blog, Post and Tweet Online: Many times I’ve thought about tweeting something and then I’d back off.

27 Most Used Applications in a Writing Business: I was surprised how well-received this one was. I guess we all like to peek into people’s work.

10 Commandments for Writers on Using Social Media: I had fun with this one. Wish I were inspired more often.

How Muscle Memory Affects Writing: I found some old English papers from college. Eww! It does show me I write faster and better thanks to years and years of practice. And I am still practicing!

Applying the Pomodoro Technique in Writing: This technique can range from simple to full-blown. What I like about it is that you can just focus on the 25-minute, break, 25-minute aspect. It works.

How to Create a Twitter Profile for Writers: A couple of tips that some of us experienced users may not think about.

Facebook has done a great job of attracting the masses including those who don’t do much social networking. For goodness sakes, my mother uses Facebook! That gives you a hint of Facebook’s enormous reach, one that you should capitalize on as a writer.

Whether you’re a published author or freelance writer, Facebook offers many opportunities to keep your name out there and connect you with prospective clients, agents, publishers and editors.

If you worry about how much you share online, don’t. If you need tips on this, read How Much Should You Reveal About Yourself Online at Web Worker Daily. Your time on Facebook counts as marketing. Yes, even when you play games. If you score high, your name shows up in the high scores list — which others will notice and remember you.

Facebook status updates

Now for the tips of what you can do with Facebook…

1. Read the Facebook rules.
2. Create a complete profile. Mention that you’re a writer so it appears in your “Education and Work” section of your profile and link to your web site and portfolio.
3. Set up your notifications. Review email notifications so you don’t miss out on any Facebook action. Facebook can let you know when someone wants to connect, leaves a comment on your wall, leaves a comment on another person’s wall where you also left a comment, etc. You can also receive notifications from Pages and Groups. (Settings are for all Pages and all Groups, rather than per Page or Group.) Some are too active, so you can set the notification to be once a week instead of daily.
4. Add applications to enhance your profile. NetworkedBlogs, for example, feeds your blog entries into your Facebook account. Selective Twitter Status lets you control which tweets you want on your Facebook updates. Remember many people who use Facebook don’t know anything about Twitter and they don’t care to. If you Twitter regularly, you can select which tweets show up in facebook by adding “#fb” to your Tweet.
5. Create a Facebook page related to your platform. I wish Facebook would drop the “fan” references because the connotation bothers many of us. But when you create a page focused on your platform’s topic such as “Technical Writing,” it’s less annoying than “Become a fan of Meryl K. Evans.” (That’s what shows up when you invite someone to join the page. Ick.)
6. Become a fan of writing-related Facebook pages. Search for pages with “writing” and other related keywords. Note that “Groups” and “Pages” are two different things.
7. Become a fan of pages related to your platform and topic.
8. Join writing-related groups. Facebook pages and groups are not the same thing. Search groups for “writing” and similar keywords.  Facebook explains, “Groups are meant to foster group discussion around a particular topic area while Pages allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans. Only the authorized representative of the entity can run a Page.”
9. Join groups related to your platform and topic.
10. Join Networks. These tend to connect colleges, schools and workplaces. These are limited and tend to require an email address for the network. For example, my local school district has a network. To join, you need to have an email address with the school district’s domain like john.doe@school.edu.
11. Post requests for experts and sources for a story.
12. Link to your stuff. This includes blog entries, stories, videos, newsletters, podcasts and more. Add a brief description about the story from the readers’ perspective. In other words, tell them what they gain from checking it out.
13. Share an interesting fact related to the topic you cover. Remember the platform!
14. Reply to other people’s status updates. This helps with networking and keeping your name out there. It also makes you accessible. Even just clicking “Like” instead of “Comment” is fine.
15. Link to interesting articles, comics and information related to your topic. That’s right — link to stuff to you didn’t write.
16. Ask for help. Yes, it’s OK to ask for help for things not related to a story. It builds relationships. When my husband got laid off, I mentioned I was helping him find a job. People responded with connections and useful resources.
17. Find guest bloggers.
18. Advertise your services. Facebook has targeted advertising.
19. Help others without expecting anything in return.
20. Discuss books. A friend asked for book recommendations and many of us swooped in with suggestions.
21. Discuss publishers.
22. Discuss agents and agencies.
23. Discuss self-publishing and digital publishing.
24. Discuss copyrights and other legal issues.
25. Discuss the business side of writing.
26. Discuss reputable and not so reputable sites.
27. Discuss grammar usage and language.
28. Discuss writer organizations.
29. Discuss the blurring lines between work and personal lives.
30. Stay connected. When I had surgery to repair a torn ligament in my hand, I couldn’t type much. I stayed connected through status updates. They don’t require much typing.
31. Tag people. If you mention someone in a note, video or a photo, tag ‘em. Connections, baby!
32. Report news. Your own or breaking news.
33. Visit connections’ sites and blogs. Facebook provides a good reminder. You see someone’s update and think, “Oh, yeah! I need to visit the web site.”
34. Post urgent queries. Twitter is also good for this, too. Again, not everyone is sold on Twitter.
35. Connect with other writers. We support each other. We meet on Facebook and other social networks for a friendly chat to fill the void.
36. Announce conference plans. This way you can try to set up meetings with others who will be there or live in the city where the conference occurs. Some people worry that posting this is an invitation to thieves. If you control who can see your content with Facebook’s privacy options, strangers won’t see this. Besides, you may not live alone.
37. Receive feedback on writing. Share your writings and people might respond with suggestions on how to make strengthen your piece.
38. Connect on other social networks. Mention your blog, social network IDs, etc. so you can connect with people outside of Facebook.
39. Search for gigs. You can create a new list titled “Gigs” or whatever and add contacts who provide job listings to this list.
40. Find local writers. It’s an opportunity to meet and find out about local writing-related events.
41. Find speakers for local events.
42. Ask about other locations. Planning to attend an event or researching a city for a story? Find people who live and breathe that locale for hot spots, secret places and more.
43. Look for local events. This could be under groups, pages or somewhere on Facebook.
44. Discover inspirational quotes.
45. Have fun! You deserve a break.
46. Play games. I love Bejeweled Blitz (BB) and Word Challenge. Beware, BB is addicting.
47. Post photos. Share your photos from conferences or places and things related a story you wrote.
48. Reach goals. Post your goals in your status updates to pressure yourself to meet them.
49. Kick start your day. Checking in Facebook boosts some folks.
50. Refresh your day. Feeling sluggish? Visit Facebook for a pick me up.

What else can you do with Facebook?

You might also like 40+ Writer Uses for LinkedIn, 50+ writer uses for Twitter and the other Twitter articles.