Facebook has been in the news recently, with the company announcing groups, downloading and several other new features, the opening of Social Network, the semi-fictionalized account of how Mark Zuckerberg started the service, and Malcolm Gladwell’s piece on social networks in the latest issue of The New Yorker.

I didn’t know any of that would be happening back in early summer when I asked social media expert Trish Lawrence to be my guest for the Sept. 29 Word Count Last Wednesday to talk about how writers can use Facebook to promote themselves and their business.

Coincidences aside, Lawrence has great information on how Facebook can fit into a writer’s promotional efforts. She should know. She’s the owner of real/brilliant, a Seattle company that helps authors develop social media platforms to build their online presence, brand them as experts, and ultimately, sell more books. You can read more about what Lawrence does on her blog.

Here’s a summary of Lawrence’s advice on using Facebook from the chat. The questions came from me and other writers on the chat. The answers are all from Lawrence, though I’ve added some links and other details.

On Facebook, what’s the difference between a page and a profile?
There’s not much of a difference technically. They have the same options, but the perception about who will read it is different. A page establishes you as a business, as an expert; a profile is the same as any other Facebook user.

If you’re already on Facebook, should you have a separate page for your business?
It depends on your goals for the page. Are you looking to be seen as an expert? Of course! A page takes you to that level. Facebook is #1. More people get on Facebook than check their email first thing in the morning. Every company that you can think of is on FB.

If you’re a writer and you have a blog about a specific topic, should you have a Facebook page to support that?
Yes, a blog needs to be seen on Facebook. You can post to a profile, but if you post to a page, it is a different way of promoting. At some point soon, Facebook users won’t even leave to read blog updates or to chat or interact. It’s a big point of contention right now.

So do you put your blog posts in Facebook?
Yes, I funnel all my blog posts into Facebook as a content aggregator. This helps the Facebook page to have new content every day. That is what all the experts say: new content everyday. And it has to be good, helpful info, not promos every single day, info your readers and followers can use. I use http://dlvr.it/ to funnel my blogs to my social network. It’s all automatic. You can see how posting to your Facebook page affects your blog traffic and your interaction with your audience. Do they like coming to your blog? If you find that your audience doesn’t like to leave Facebook, than you may have content on both Facebook and your blog.

Is it possible for writers to keep a private area on FB, or at some point does it become a problem?
Yes, it is possible with a profile. If writers want to have something private, they should have both page and a profile. That way writers can limit their friends for their private life and still maintain promotional activities. A lot of authors and agents are stalked on Facebook, so a page is the way they’ve decided to control it. Facebook is actually encouraging it. Not only are they making it super easy to set up a page, but they also encourage customized pages.

So all the friend requests I get from work colleagues, I should funnel to a page for my writing business, not my private page?
Yes, if that is important to you. I crowd everything together myself, but this is a great way to keep your private and public (business) separate. If someone wants to read my private stuff as well, more power to ‘em.

Where does the new Facebook groups feature fit into all of this?
I’m not a big fan of the new Facebook groups feature actually, although I haven’t yet seen it in action. From what I’ve read, I think the new Groups feature defeats the purpose of social media networking. I would recommend that writers not take advantage of their friends on Facebook by adding them to groups unilaterally. I actually think Facebook will have to change reverse this wacky decision in the next few weeks, if not days.

Have you followed Anne Rice on Facebook? She’s fascinating. She’s also on Twitter.
Yes, she is an interesting person to watch. Great for experimentation purposes! I also watched Steven Pressfield get on Facebook. He was not going to do it, but he has had a blast. Don Miller is another author who has harnessed social media to really push his ideas out to the world. Tracking famous writers is a great way to find out what’s working and to be inspired. The world of social media for authors is really still being created. As we watch people become more active, we can see what works. To get other ideas, you might take a look at my Facebook friends list; most are authors/agents. My FB page is: facebook.com/realbrilliant.

Are there other apps or add ons that make publishing content to Facebook easier?
There are so many ways to spread content around that whatever you can do to make it easy for people, the better. I love AddToAny for my WordPress blog, which makes it easy to send my content to the social network. I also love a WordPress plugin called Scribe that allows me to find other blogs and Twitter users talking about my key words to link to. Scribe does cost a monthly fee, however. Networkedblogs is a great one too.

People used to differentiate between how they used LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, but does it matter? Should you use all of them and all the same way?
I think it still matters. Authors tend to answer questions on LinkedIn, post updates on Twitter and chat with friends on Facebook. Facebook is a great traffic builder. It is so important to do what works best for you and to test, test, test. But the most important thing across all social networks is to have a strategy. What are you trying to accomplish? Expert status? Are you going to be a publisher? (of ebooks, ecourses) Are you going to be a consultant? You use them all with a main strategy, but for different purposes.

What’s the biggest mistake people make with Facebook pages?
Starting a page and leaving it there alone. Even if you only post one news item a day, that helps the page to stay alive.

Any other words of wisdom?
A great book on this subject is Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day by Chris Treadaway and Mari Smith. It has great information to help your decisions with Facebook. Here are a few other  action items: Research five authors for what you like about what they are doing on the social networks. Create a page for yourself separate from your profile and begin to play with content such as blog posts, pictures and conversation. Try to drill down to the purpose for your page and your presence on Facebook. What are you trying to accomplish with all this content? As authors, we provide solutions through our words. That’s the ultimate purpose of a Facebook profile or page. It’s important to think about what you are sharing so you will have a permanent social record to be proud of.

If you’re interested in learning more, Trish Lawrence will be teaching a course on social media for authors through Writer’s Digest University in late 2010 or early 2011. The course is titled Social Media 101 for Writers: 4 Core Competencies for Building a Meaningful Online Presence. Visit Lawrence’s website, http://www.realbrilliant.com/blog, and sign up for her e-newsletter to be notified when registration opens.

Got your own advice to share about using Facebook to promote your writing? Let’s hear it.

It seems  the wife of Sir John Sawers, next in line to run England’s super-secret spy agency MI6, had been using Facebook to share pictures of her husband and family and post updates on their whereabouts – not the kind of behavior covert operatives normally go in for.

As you can imagine, the British tabloids are having a field day, though as one British government official put it, how important to national security can it be to know Sawer wears Speedos.

But the incident points up the potential trouble of using social networks.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have gone out of their way to make it easy to update your status, so the world can know “What are you doing now?”

That’s a great way to keep colleagues and potential business partners apprised of your blog posts, projects, business ventures, convention stops or speaking engagements. But it’s also easy to end up mixing your business life with your personal life. In fact, social media gurus encourage you to devote a small portion of what you share on Twitter or blogs to real-life stuff, the better to make you sound human, not just a robo-pitchman for whatever it is you do or sell.

But as Mrs. Sawers found out, mixing things up can lead to trouble. So can providing so much about your business life you end up sharing details better left unsaid.

Major news media outlets have begun addressing this issue by crafting social media policies that, among other things, spell out what their writers can and can’t do on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The Wall Street Journal published guidelines in May with requirements that, among other things, reporters should avoid discussing articles before they’re published, meetings they’ve attended and “friending” potentially confidential sources.

Freelance writers aren’t normally beholden to a client’s social media usage requirments – unless they’re written into a contract, which is something I have yet to see.

So it’s up to you to decide what you should and shouldn’t share. Some suggestions:

* Don’t share specifics of an assignment. Crowdsourcing has become a popular for finding story sources, but there’s a way to share the general nature of what you’ll be writing about without giving everything away. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.

* Remember everything you say online could be there forever. In the heat of the moment you may feel like sharing the ugly details of an assignment gone wrong, names and all. But in an industry where editors and writers move around almost monthly, so much openness can come back to haunt you. If you simply must vent, call a trusted friend, or use the writers’ message board you subscribe to, but consider not actually naming names.

* Use some social networks for work and some for fun. Some writers use Twitter and LinkedIn for work and Facebook for fun, so they can shield all of the personal stuff they share about their families, vacations and leisure activities from the potentially prying eyes of editors, readers and other nosy types. If this is how you want to roll, use the appropriate Facebook settings to keep your info private, and don’t feel bad about saying “No thanks” when business associates ask to connect with you there and redirect them to the networks you use for business.

If you’re on social networks, how do you keep your business and private lives separated?

Is it OK to post a link to that killer story you wrote for Ladies Home Journal on Twitter more than once – an hour?

Does memorizing the LinkedIn profile of an editor you’d like to pitch constitute stalking?

Is it OK to friend your editor on Facebook?

All humor aside, since social networks have become such an integral part of freelancers’ daily work life, it’s easy to forget some people – including editors – still use them just for fun.

When it comes to social networks, it’s important to look before you leap. And when it comes to connecting with editors or potential editors, that means looking at how they’re using social networks and acting accordingly. If an editor you’re dying to work for is on Facebook but only uses it for friends and family, don’t go there. But if the same editor is on LinkedIn and has specifically listed “Career opportunities,” “Job inquiries” or “Getting back in touch” in their LinkedIn profile, it’s a clear sign to use the service to introduce yourself.

Linda Formichelli has lots more to say about this in a post called Connecting with editors on social media on The Renegade Writer blog for freelancers. If you read closely you’ll see yours truly is one of the writers interviewed in the piece.

That’s not all the panel discussion covered – to track everything that was mentioned do a Twitter Search of #ss09. But productivity is definitely one of the main things small business owners worry about. That and creating a social media strategy in the first place, which can be intimidating. The key, according to the dozens of small business owners, consultants and industry experts I’ve interviewed, is to take it one step at a time.

As promised, I’ve compiled a resource guide to stories and blog posts I’ve written on social media basics and how small business owners can use it in various aspects of running their companies.

If you were at Shop/09, be sure to say hi or leave a comment. If you weren’t, I’d love to hear what social networking issues you’re grappling with. And don’t forget to find me on Twitter at @michellerafter and on LinkedIn at michellerafter.

The tools

• The secret to my LinkedIn success – Advice on using the business network aimed primarily at writers but applicable to any solo entrepreneur.
• There is no such thing as a dumb Twitter question – After avoiding the Twitter phenomena for a long time, I figured out how to start making it work for me.
• A writer’s guide to getting the most from Twitter – More basics applicable to any small business or sole practitioner.
• How to start a business podcast – 10 rules to create an podcast that will attract listeners and boost business. From IncTechnology.com

The strategies

• Michelle’s social media maxims – Compiled for a recent Willamette University MBA Program First Thursday presentation. No. 1 – Everybody’s doing it, but not everybody knows what they’re doing.
• My TwiTip guest post: When one Twitter account isn’t enough – Use different accounts for different aspects of your business, work and life.
• LinkedIn’s corporate play takes aim at recruiters – A new suite of prospecting tools LinkedIn hopes will appeal to the recruiters and HR professionals among its 35 million members. From Workforce Management
• Turn social networks into your recruiter – If corporate headhunters can mine Facebook for job candidates, small businesses can too. From IncTechnology.com
• Sex sells, and other blogging lessons learned – Good headlines attract attention, especially on blogs. That’s just one of the things I learned in my first year as a blogger.

The problems

• Taming Twitter: Did they really just say that? – Forward-thinking companies are mitigating the risks of social networks by designating Twitter reps and updating electronic communication guidelines. From Workforce Management
• Tech security forecast for 2009 – Experts predict more malware and attacks from mobile devices and social networks. From IncTechnology.com
• Social network scams – Welcome to the latest online hustle. From YourSecurityResource.com

But I can’t do Twitter. At least not yet.

There’s only so many hours one person can devote to online social networks, and only so many social networks to keep track of, and right now, I’m drawing the line at Twitter.

Call it social network overload. Using social networks is a great way to stay connected with friends and colleagues. And as I’ve written before, it’s helped me find sources and led to writing assignments. But it’s easy to cross the line from awesome productivity tool to awful time suck.

A lot of writers I know have joined Twitter, the micro-blogging site where you write “tweets” about work or life in 140-letter increments and sign up to read other people’s posts. Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist blogger, is a fan. So are a couple dozen of the freelancer writers I hang out with at Freelance Success, the subscription-based message board for professional writers. Some writers use it to help promote their books or blog. Jen Miller, a New Jersey freelance writer and author of The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide: Including the Wildwoods explains how she’s using Twitter to promote the book in this article on Mediabistro.com, the Website for freelancers (NOTE: You need to be a Mediabistro member to read the story).

I already spend at least an hour a day on my social networks and this blog. I can’t see how I could add Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, GoodReads, RedRoom, or any of the half-dozen social networks people have invited me to join without cutting into the time I spend doing other work, like researching and writing articles.

Researching this, I found posts dating back to 2004 from blogger complaining about social network overload. The names of the social networks may have changed since then, but it’s the same problem. It’s also an issue some of the best-known minds in the business are grappling with. If you have 55 minutes and $15 to spare, you can hear what Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson thinks about the future of social networks and the media in this video clip from the recent Mediabistro Circus conference.

No doubt there are tools out there that could help me streamline my social networking activities – if anyone knows of good ones, let me know. Eventually, I could change my mind and join Twitter or GoodReads. For now, call me a Luddite, Twitter challenged or just plain behind the times. I’m happy with the social networks I have, but no more.