For everyone jumping into the social media water, the pool is crowded. No reason to get back on the beach, just lots of motivation to find your own voice and work it.

As a digital content writer I’ve watched this explosion. In late 2009 for a graduate project I researched the electronic presence of three dozen writers who represented a cross section of genres and career maturity. About one-third relied on their publishers to provide a generic website and a handful had none. The others really owned their websites, including Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner, Jonathan Safran Foer, Margaret Atwood, Nick Flynn, and Todd Boss. These sites invited readers to stay for a few minutes with frequent personal blog writing, games, interesting graphics and such. Of course book promotion also wound through their sites, but in a support role versus the main attraction. Take a look at their sites.

What do you need your website or blog to do for you as a writer? Stay focused—does the world need to become aware of your prose, your poetry, your teaching expertise? And how do those screens about your pottery or dog breeding or state fair award winning pickles support that image? It’s tempting when spending so much time to ask your website or blog to do too many things.

I don’t have anything against pottery or dogs or pickles and once I get to know you as a writer, I’d love to have you share something about you as a person. But for those of you beginning social media involvement today, I’d recommend writing yourself a ten word description of what you want your audience to know about you, or why someone should visit you online. Today I’m interested in finding a few new writing bloggers. Let’s get to know each other.