Do writers have to have a blog?
Well, I’m not one to order people around, but I will say having a blog is a great way to help start your social media presence. Blogs also help establish your readership. This does not mean you should put your creative work on your blog. You can, but I don’t suggest it because it’s like my mother said, “why by the cow when you can get the milk for free?”
Your blog should certainly be your voice and your writing style. Think a bit outside the box. Do you like to travel? Blog about that. Do you like to cook? Blog about that. It worked for the chick who cooked her way through Julia Childs’ cookbook, right? You want to create a blog you want to continue updating. Blogging does take time and it needs to happen often, so you want to make sure you talk about things that really interest you. Also, consider scheduling your blog. Most sites will have a place for you to schedule your blogs. I do this all the time and it helps a lot.
Should I have a twitter account?
Again, I’m not one to boss people around, but having a twitter account is a good thing. You can quickly gain followers and find new friends. A lot of literary magazines are on twitter and they like to update their followers with contests, new blogs, deadlines, and other writing information. Twitter only gives you 140 characters so it is a quick burst of information. If you haven’t already, join twitter. Follow me @michellewittle if you want and @philastories is on twitter, too. I will tell you twitter is a bit addicting (in a good way).
Twitter is also a way for you to promote yourself. Tell people when you have a new blog up. Let people know you see something funny. Or retweet other articles you find helpful.
What about facebook?
Well, yes, as a writer you should be on that as well. Basically, the same reasons you are on twitter, you should be on facebook. It’s another place to find other writers and talk. Besides, who doesn’t want to find old high school friends…just to look at their photos?
While this seems like a lot of work, it really isn’t. Schedule your tweets, posts to facebook, and your blogs. Spend one day working on your social media stuff and have them scheduled for the whole week. If you can, have everything point to your own website. You want to make things easy for people to find.
The Internet has changed the publishing world. Writers need to change with it.
Philadelphia Stories 
I have all three, even though I’m not published yet. I’ve read, though, that it’s helpful to get started in social media even before you’ve published anything. That’s why I went ahead and made a FB page for myself as a writer. I didn’t want to seem pretentious or entitled, but I wanted people to know this was at least how I identified with myself and what I was aiming towards.
Well, some people would consider you published for having a blog. You are not being pretentious or entitled at all. You are a writer because you write. Being published is the buisness side of writing and it doesn’t always play fair. I am glad that you have all three social media connections and I encourage you to keep moving forward with them. Continue writing and continue networking. Know that you are doing all you can for your writing.