The Renegade Writer Blog

You’ve found an editor on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Should you ask to connect? Will the editor think you’re a stalker? If you connect, do you have to reign in your free expression, lest the editor sees photos of you with a lampshade on your head on Facebook, or catches your Twitter post about a PITA magazine? I spoke with editors and social media-savvy writers to give you the do’s and donts of networking with editors on social media.

Should I friend my editor?

Editors are fine with writers connecting with them on LinkedIn since it is a business network, but when it comes to their Facebook profiles, many editors have a “keep out” attitude. Here’s what three of them have to say:

“To me, my personal Facebook page is just that — my personal Facebook page. LinkedIn is another matter — that’s where professional interaction/online Rolodex-keeping should occur.”
— Editor at a national health magazine who asked to remain anonymous.

“I feel that Facebook, is my ‘private fun’ networking site. While I’ll occasionally (and that’s very occasionally) post a clip there, it’s mainly to stay in touch with family, friends, etc. I rarely even friend a coworker on Facebook actually. So if a writer was trying to network professionally with me via Facebook, I would likely not be too receptive to that.”
— Dennis McCafferty, Senior Writer (and an editor) at USA Weekend

“I view LinkedIn and Facebook differently. LinkedIn is a business site, and thus it makes sense to ‘link’ to writers. I use it as a tool to keep good writers in my network; I’m starting to use LinkedIn like a Rolodex. However, Facebook is more personal — I don’t like mixing business and my personal life. If a writer I don’t interact with on a social level tries to ‘friend’ me on Facebook, that to me is crossing a boundary. I’d certainly not recommend using Facebook for job or assignment hunting.”
— Michael Berg, Managing Editor at the custom publisher McMurry, Inc.

While you shouldn’t friend an editor you’ve never written for before, or who you have only a business relationship with, it’s fine to friend editors you’re, well, friendly with. Take Michelle Rafter, who owns the WordCount blog and writes about how businesses and consumers use social media for clients such as Inc.com, Workforce Management and YourSecurityResource.com. “I’ve friended several of my editors on Facebook,” she says — but those editors have all been colleagues of Rafter’s at some point in her career; for example, one was a fellow staff writer at a newspaper where she worked. “Before I’d friend any of the other editors I currently work with, I’d have to work with them for a while first to get to know them,” Rafter says. “My true test: being as comfortable chatting about non-work stuff as I am discussing my next assignment.”

Twitter seems to be a better platform for connecting to editors than Facebook — for your own privacy as well. “I’m probably following thirty editors, mostly on Twitter,” says Lola Augustine Brown, a freelancer who writes for Canadian Family, Pregnancy, Fashion and “anyone that wants to pay her a decent wage.” “On Twitter editors can’t see pictures of my exes, my kid, or that awful video of me drunk and singing ‘My heart will go on’ at a karaoke bar, so I think its preferable medium to do business on. I think that 90% of the editors I’m following are following me back, and some of those are at dream markets, so I’m pretty happy about that.”

Zachary Petit, managing editor of Writer’s Digest, gives this advice for figuring out whether an editor is receptive to connections from writers: “Does the editor use the sites for his own private use, or professionally, as more and more publications are mandating? If an editor is using Twitter or another network to promote her publication, career or platform — and in that case the profile won’t restrict viewing access — she’ll be glad for any added friends. But if there’s no public photo, access is restricted or she’s buried herself deep in the digital folds of the Web, chances are she doesn’t want to be found by just anyone.”

Do I have to watch what I say on social media if I connect with editors there?

Now you’re connected with an editor, and you’re frozen with fear. Will you never again be able to post about your hot dates, your one-too-many drinking sessions, or your PITA writing assignments?

Well…yeah. “My view is, if you wouldn’t say it in a crowded elevator, don’t put in on Facebook,” says the editor of a custom business magazine who asked to remain anonymous.

When corresponding with editors on social media, keep it professional unless you have a friendly relationship with them. “I expect people to be professional and respectful, as I try at all times to be to them,” says an editor at a parenting magazine who asked to remain anonymous. “That doesn’t mean overly formal, but ease of communication doesn’t mean we’re best buds.”

That’s not to say you have to be all business. Social media is, after all, social. “I like to connect with people on a personal level, especially those that I work with,” says Victoria Everman, a writer for Yoga Journal, Boho, and ReadyMade. “Though I don’t know if I will ever have the chance to meet some of my editors in-person, I do want to understand them more of a personal level; it feels like much more of a meaningful business relationship when you can share the usual ‘office chatter’ stuff online.”

Above all, be yourself, says Rafter. If you’re normally the class clown, for example, let your humor show. Don’t be so afraid of editors that you repress your natural character.

Michelle Rafter offers these tips for keeping your Twitter tweets professional — these can apply to Facebook and LinkedIn status updates as well:

• Don’t tweet about the minutiae of your day: I’m not a chef or food blogger so nobody cares what I had for breakfast.
• Don’t discuss the details of current projects: Lord knows my editor wouldn’t want me gabbing about some hot story with their direct competitor listening in.
• Don’t gripe about problems with a particular assignment or editor. This is a tough one, because Twitter was practically invented for public whining. A little whining is OK, if you can make it so anonymous nobody can guess exactly what you’re talking about.

Whatever you do, be sure not to abuse the social nature of social media by hounding an editor for an assignment. “One time, a writer friended my personal account so they could query our magazine via Facebook messages,” says Petit. “Ack! Don’t ever do that.”

Okay, I’m ready. So how do I connect with editors?

Everman searches for editors by entering their name into the keyword search, or finds them through mutual connections. She also notes that to find magazines’ Twitter tags, you can usually search Google for “twitter” and the magazine’s name. This way you’ll end up following the magazine’s official account, but you may not know which editor is behind the tweets. Brown trawls through the lists of her writer friends’ followers to find editors.

Once you find an editor, introduce yourself when you’re asking for the connection (on Facebook or LinkedIn) or when you start following her (on Twitter): Tell her who you are, what you do, and why you’re connecting with her (for example, you’re a fan of the magazine).

Using social media is a great way to connect with your editors on a more personal level. Using these tips from writers and editors, you can get a behind-the-scenes look at your editors’ lives and jobs, and they can get to know you as more than just an anonymous writer.

Do you follow your editors on social media? What are your tips for keeping it professional while keeping it real? Please post in the Comments below! [lf]