To continue the theme of what the heck to do with all that Web 2.0 social media junk when you really hate some of the services (like MySpace and Facebook), here’s my take on what you can do with Facebook.
First off, reserve your name. Then the idea is (again, if you hate Facebook like I do) to set up feeds from the services you do use.
For your Twitter stream, check out the instructions here. Same deal as MySpace. Twitter rocks.
For your blog, this nice gentleman has explained how to pull your blog posts into Facebook.
This ensures that you’ve got some updates and new content streaming in from the sources you do use, even if you’re not constantly on Facebook.
Next up (and I certainly haven’t done this yet–I have my limits on what I can do in one weekend), set up some basic information in your profile. Interests, personal info, etc. This makes you, well, more interesting, and searchable (I think). After that, it’s important to snag some friends. I went through and found a lot of my favorite authors and writing pals. I suppose the hope is that some of their followers will eventually follow me (though since I am not active, this hasn’t happened yet).
I know this is totally lame and bare minimum, but until someone proves to me that this stuff is REALLY valuable as a marketing tool without sucking up ungodly amounts of time away from my writing, then I think it’s a comfortable level for me.
Oh, and as an aside, Why You Need To Make a Facebook Fan Page. Here’s mine.