Repeat after me: know me, like me, trust me.  This is the key to selling anything, including books.  If you have this, you don’t need to promote your book, you just wave it in front of their faces, flash your pearly whites and they will want it.  If they don’t know [...]]]>

Stand out in the crowd

Repeat after me: know me, like me, trust me.  This is the key to selling anything, including books.  If you have this, you don’t need to promote your book, you just wave it in front of their faces, flash your pearly whites and they will want it.  If they don’t know you, like you and trust you yet then you need to start making that impression.

It’s all about me me me.  Don’t wait for your book to be published to self-promote.  Start standing out from the crowd now and you will get noticed more quickly later.  But remember: be self-promoting, not self-centered.  Being generous, even in the littlest ways, makes a more memorable me.

Think big.  Publishers will want you to focus on your book, because their biggest concern is all those stacks of books they just printed. You plan to write more than one book though, don’t you?  Your books will come and go.  The only constant will be you! Do promote your book, but not at the expense of promoting yourself.

Don’t wait for fame, make it happen. If you give people reasons to know, like and trust you then they will tell their friends (people who know, like and trust them) and soon your name will buzz about on tongues and in ears.  Your know, like and trustability will circle the globe like a giant tsunami.  Fame can be created by one huge fluke of greatness or built upon many small relationships.

The choice is up to you: sit around and wait to win the fame jackpot or start making your own fame.

There are several useful Google Apps for writers, especially if you have a blog.  If you haven’t already, you need to check out: Google Friend Connect, Google Reader, Google [...]]]> Google has an App for just about everything–if you need something Google probably has a thingy that does it.  If you want a stock tip: buy Google. Seriously!

There are several useful Google Apps for writers, especially if you have a blog.  If you haven’t already, you need to check out: Google Friend Connect, Google Reader, Google Analytics and Google Docs.

Google Friend Connect is a great gadget for a writer with a blog. It is that neat little gadget on the left that lets you follow my blog in an instant if you have a Google account. Its great for a blogger because it let’s them know their writing is appreciated, let’s them see who appreciates them and let’s them show it off so others can see.

Google Reader is essential for the writer who likes to read.  Using the Google Friend Connect or simple RSS to follow blogs will feed all the posts from these blogs into your Google Reader page where you can read them in a format that is similar to reading e-mails.  You can see what posts are new and you read them all in one place.  This saves you time and eliminated the need to bounce around to various sites.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for a writer who has a website of any kind whether you blog or not. Analytics is traffic tracking on steroids.  You track every detail about the visitors to your site right down to how long they stayed and where they came from. If your trying to build a platform or sell a book or do anything with a website you can decide what is working on your website or in your promotions and what is not.

Google Docs has one very important advantage for a writer–off site backups! How many writers are as paranoid as I am about their computer files.  I have my writing backed up on 3 hard drives and a USB drive.  I know another writer who e-mails her writing to herself so that she has a copy “out there” in case she loses her files.  What better way to have your files “out there” than to use Google Docs.  You could use it to actually write or you could just use it to upload your files.  Either way it is a useful little App to have in your pocket!

Don’t stop with just these Apps either. There are plenty more that are just as useful.  Explore the world of Google and you are bound to find Apps that will be useful to you; for your every day life as well as for your writing.

Make them want it!

There are a lot of ways to market a book on the Internet: Press Releases, You Tube, Facebook and Twitter etc. These methods can be expensive, both [...]]]> Tired of pumping out the regulation 5 Blog posts, 2 dozen Tweets and10 hours of Facebook per week and getting nothing in return? Get Creative!

Make them want it!

There are a lot of ways to market a book on the Internet: Press Releases, You Tube, Facebook and Twitter etc. These methods can be expensive, both in terms of money and especially time.  The reality is that you could spend a fortune of money and time to promote your book and end up with little to show for it.

It’s not that these things don’t work, but that everyone is using them and nobody is using them creatively. For most people going viral on Twitter is an exciting possibility, but it might take an alignment of the planets to achieve. They end up posting the same old thing, day in and day out, hoping for a break.  What you need to do is make your own break.  What you need to do is to get creative and stand out from the crowds.

Here is my fool proof, 2 step guide to marketing your book creatively.  I know most people give steps away in packages of 3 or more but I have broken it down into the absolute simplest form.  Yes there are other elements you will need to flesh out, but I will leave these up to your imagination.

1. Pick a specific audience
2. Give something that your audience craves

That’s it! The rest is up to you and your creativity.

Who is your Marketing Audience

By marketing audience I mean the group of people you want to market to.  The group of people you wrote your book for is much too broad of an audience for what I am proposing. So pick a specific audience.  Specific enough that you can target them.  If you have written a Fantasy novel, do you really know anything about the people who might want to buy your book other than that they like Fantasy novels? OK I am simplifying a bit here, but the truth is you just can’t market effectively to everyone you intended your book for at once.

Do some brain storming and think of as many sub-groups within the larger group of Fantasy Fans.  Several possible target audiences spring to mind: Medieval re-enactment groups, fans of Xena: Warrior Princess, Roleplayers and Aspiring Authors.

Let’s look at the target audience of aspiring authors because, whatever genre you are writing in, you are bound to have a group within your larger audience whom identify themselves as aspiring authors.  What kinds of things do aspiring authors want?  They want to know how to write better and how to get published.  Now you have something!

Something for Nothing–Better than something for hours on Twitter!

Once you know what your audience wants you are in a powerful place.  This is the place where you can get fans and book sales with almost no investment.  Instead of Tweeting to yourself and Blogging aimlessly through the Internet, you have purpose and direction.  You knew where you wanted to end up, the “City of a Million Booksales,” but now you have a map to get there–or at least get to the suburbs in the general vicinity of the City proper!

If you can give people what they crave they will look up to you, be interested in you, and trust you.  Logically if you can give them one thing they enjoy or find useful then you must have other worthy things to offer.  Think of your giveaway like a gateway drug and you are the dealer.  Once they have sampled it, they will want to know “what else you got.”

The thing you give away can’t be crap either.  If it’s just some fluffy blog post, the same as 20 other blog posts on the subject, people will bounce right on through as if you were the pavement to their rubber ball.  Make it unique and something that answers their needs.  Give it unselfishly with no obvious benefit to yourself for doing so. Remember that giving is the road to success not getting.

I found a great example when I happened to be looking at the free writing software  ywriter5.  The program’s creator had, of course, promoted his own book in the product description, but what stood out to me most was the YouTube video on how to use it.  The creator and narrator of the video, author K.M. Weiland, described how she uses the program and also used elements from her book as examples for using the software.  She also mentioned her website URL.  Once I was done watching the video I checked out her web page, blog, YouTube Channel (where I watched the trailer for her latest book and made a mental note to add it to my reading list) and followed her on Twitter.

Here is the kicker: Her video for the software, which isn’t even her creation and which she gains nothing by promoting, has been viewed almost 30,000 times.  How much time did she invest in it? The video is just under 9 minutes long.  Even accounting for all the fussy little things involved in posting a video, the entire project couldn’t have taken more than an hour.  So for less than an hour she just increased her exposure by 30,000 people.  Even if only 10% of those people were interested in her book that is 3,000 potential book sales and that is a pretty good return for less than an hour of time.

OK “fool proof” is a bit of a fib.  It isn’t fool proof.  Not much in this world is.  If you are so much of a fool that you cannot put one step in front of the other then 2 steps is too much for you!  Stop fooling around! Start thinking of creative ways you can give a target audience something they crave! Just be creative, specific and generous and you will soon find yourself on a fast train into the City, rather than sitting there stuck in the traffic jam!

As good as your content is sometimes people just don’t share it.  [...]]]> Social Media is all about sharing. You need to create something worth sharing and you need to put it out there so people can find it. Who are the people that share it though? How do you make sure they share it?

As good as your content is sometimes people just don’t share it.  You have created something very worthwhile and its extremely shareable.  You even put a lot of work into getting it out on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit and all sorts of different places.  You watch with your various means of tracking and you know people read it.  Maybe even a few people were kind and commented how great it was, so you know they enjoyed it.  But still you didn’t get any retweets or shares or anyone passing the link along to their friends.  What went wrong?

Think back to the last time you found something you enjoyed and appreciated on the Internet? Did you share it?  If you did bravo! If not, why not?  If you want people to share your content but you don’t go to the effort of sharing theirs where does that leave us?  We are just a bunch of people working our arses off to make quality content but we are all to stingy to do the favor of sharing for each other.

Sharing doesn’t take a lot of time.  Most places have easy share buttons theses days.  Just sharing it in one place, like Facebook, is good enough.  It’s a few clicks.  Not only are you helping the creators of that content know they are appreciated and valued but you also might show them the value of a person sharing their content.  If enough people realize how important sharing is and decide to pay it forward then we will all benefit.

Next time you find something you enjoy and appreciate on the Internet, be a responsible Social Media citizen and share it!

The biggest and, to be honest, quite valid complaint about Social Media is that it’s a time-sink.  Especially for someone like me, who works at home on her computer.   If you have plenty of time left in your day, there is no surer way to sap it [...]]]> …Or How not to Waste all your time on Facebook

The biggest and, to be honest, quite valid complaint about Social Media is that it’s a time-sink.  Especially for someone like me, who works at home on her computer.   If you have plenty of time left in your day, there is no surer way to sap it all away than logging in to check Facebook for “just a second.”

By now everyone is aware of the importance and power of Social Media as marketing tools. I know that I need them to promote both my businesses and myself as a writer. But the question is: how do I use it all without getting caught up in that time sucking vortex?

The advice everyone gives for making media manageable is: “only spend so much time on it per day.”  What nobody admits, is that they have no better idea how to do this than they know how to use their Twitter account for marketing.

Recently, I spent some time plotting and planning how to best use Social Media, without getting caught up in the great big sticky strands of the Web.

And yes, I just broke away from writing this blog post to check Facebook.  I lost about 20 minutes.

Sometimes it’s like one of those bad movie depictions of a person with multiple personalities. One minute you’re working along happily.  Then, blink. You’re suddenly looking at a completely different window on your monitor and you have no idea how you got there or how long you have been there.  You look at your watch.  Its what time?

Ok, maybe its not quite that scary, but it isn’t far off for some people.

Tricks and Tips

If you have a flexible schedule like me, and you work from home, all these Social Media accounts can put a real dent in your productivity.  You are the boss so there is no fear factor to keep you on the straight and narrow.  It feels so natural to just start the day by checking your Facebook account, only to find that its noon before you even start working on anything.  So, the only way to get anything done is to start using some Jedi mind tricks on yourself.

One old standby trick is to have a day of the week that you devote only to Social Media.  You can call Monday “Media Day” and spend the entire day devoted to checking in with Facebook, Twitter and the gang.  The rest  of the week its time to work.  If any time is wasted, it’s on a day you weren’t going to get anything else done anyway!

The only trouble with this method is that Social Media is a creature of the now.  If you are waiting for 7 days to respond and interact to people on your Facebook page, they are not going to know what you are talking about. It’s so “last week” by then.

Of course there are always those Social Media accounts that you don’t check very often. These are perfect to relegate to a certain day.  This way you touch base with them regularly, and they don’t become lost and forgotten in favor of the accounts you frequent every five minutes.

A favorite trick of mine is to wait to check any Social Media accounts until the end of the day.  It’s something I often lack the willpower for but, when I manage to do it, makes for a remarkably productive day.

The key to remember here is that Facebook breeds more Facebook.  And it’s the same for Twitter or other Social Media accounts.  It’s a social activity and humans are a social animal. It’s natural! Unfortunately, most of the things we consider productive require us to be isolated and unsocial. It’s a terrible crime, but unless we are all going to abandon our computers to live on the local Commune that is just the way it works.

You could try setting a time limit on your activities, but make sure to set a really obnoxious alarm clock.  Time has no meaning for someone in a Twitter trance. Always keep in mind, before you click that bookmark to your favorite Social Media outlet, that it could be quite some time before you get back to work.

Finally, the thing you must never do is have a way for your Social Media accounts to reach out and touch you while you are supposed to be working.  All those little computer programs running in the background need to be shut down.  If your phone gets emails about Facebook notifications, turn it off!

Do your best to divide the time you spend “working” and the time you spend using your Social Media tools. Keep them separate.  Yes, those accounts and pages are tools and using them counts as its own kind of work.  But that sort of work and the sort of work where you need to get things done just don’t mix well.

The plan of attack when you are just one person

All the various Social Media accounts you may have can seem a little overwhelming when they are just some big nebulous mass out there.  You signed up for all these accounts and you can barely remember what they are, let alone the passwords.  This can lead to a great deal of inefficiency.

You need to know what you have, and what you want to do with it, or you will never be able to keep up.  You need make use of all of your accounts in the ways you intend them to be used.  If you don’t, your day is over and all you managed to accomplish was to level up on Farmville.

I am not saying games are bad, but there is a time and a place for them–when you are trying to work is not that time!  I know! Admitting that all those big mean ex-bosses of yours were right is as hard as admitting your mother was right. But you need to be honest right now and say it out loud: Playing Facebook Poker when I am trying to work is counterproductive! It is the only way you will ever be able to utilize Social Media tools and still get some work done.

It is not enough to just have all those accounts either.  You need to get organized. Make a list of every account you can remember. Then make note of how much you need to use each one and what activities you need to use them for.

You will find that most of your activities will consist of:

• Status Updates & Posts
• Interactions
• Content
• Design and Maintenance

Seeing it laid out like that helps it seem more manageable.  Especially since a lot of those things overlap.  Content you provide on a blog also becomes content for Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo etc.

You may also find that you start prioritizing.  I used to fret about not logging onto MySpace enough.  When I created my own plan of attack, I realized that I am only one person.  MySpace and a few other accounts became “set and forget” pages and my life got a whole lot easier.  As long as there are a few that you use more frequently, there is no harm in letting a few be somewhat static.  Make sure they guide people to the places you are more active, like your blog or your Facebook page, and keep the information current.

Once you have your list of accounts you can set up bookmarks for them in your toolbar or wherever you keep your most frequented bookmarks.  Making them accessible quickly and easily helps to increase your efficiency.  It also provides a handy list when you have something to promote, like a blog post.  You can go down the list, one and a time.  If you find yourself dawdling on Facebook you can look at your list and know where to go to next in your little Social Media tour.

A little organization goes a long way here.  Once you get organized you will find that Social Media transforms from a time-sucking-Internet-vampire into a powerful and friendly set of marketing tools.

Hopefully I have given you some information and inspiration that will help you in your quest for making media manageable!

courtesy of www.dontfeedthegeek.com

Go do some Twitter!  Get on Facebook!  Where is your blog?  When are you going to have your website up?  Have you ever noticed how everyone has plenty of advice about how you should be using the Internet, but nobody really seems to know how?  After years of popularity, the Internet [...]]]> Part 1: The Setup

Go do some Twitter!  Get on Facebook!  Where is your blog?  When are you going to have your website up?  Have you ever noticed how everyone has plenty of advice about how you should be using the Internet, but nobody really seems to know how?  After years of popularity, the Internet and Social Media remain this huge untapped resource that everyone knows they need to take advantage of but have no idea how.

Writing, whether fiction writing or non-fiction, is a business that requires self-promotion.  Social Media a very useful tool for self-promotion but few people ever use it properly. As a writer and an Internet marketer I realized recently that writers are no exception.  I also realized that the writing community was in real need of a good article about Social Media for Writers.

During an e-mail correspondence, Randy Ingermanson the author of Writing Fiction for Dummies, said to me: “A lot of authors are being told by their publishers to Twitter. No explanation is given on how or why this should work. A lot of time is being wasted.”  He was “appalled” and at a loss for how a writer could use Twitter effectively.

Then I attended the Writers at the Beach: Seaglass 2010, a writer’s conference in Rehoboth Beach, and I came away with an even greater sense of the need for this article.  The  word on the street was that writers are being expected to do their own marketing more and more.

The first thing to keep in mind when some publisher just tells you to go Twitter, with no explanation and no guidance, is that they probably don’t know how to do it any better than you do.  They have just heard the hype and are hoping you can figure out the secret.

To the publisher it makes perfect sense.  There are people out there making low budget films into blockbusters using free Social Media tools.  Logically, they don’t need to put any money into book promotion anymore!  The one thing that everyone always forgets is that where you don’t spend money you have to make up for it in time, and time is not exactly a luxury when you are trying to write your next novel!

So the publisher has left publicity and promotion in your hands.  Do not panic!  Everyone else is in the same boat when it comes to Social Media and Internet Marketing.  I have searched for some authors and found virtually no web presence, others have some web presence, but its haphazard, disorganized and incomplete.  If you are worried because you think all the other authors are doing better than you at tapping the resources of the Internet—don’t be.

If you want to learn, and are willing to listen, I will give you some basics on how to quickly and easily manage a key set of Social Media and Internet marketing tools.  Yes I said quickly! Quick enough that you can do it between one chapter and the next!  Not only that, but it will be an enjoyable and rewarding experience.  Unheard of, unthinkable but entirely possible!

There are far too many Social Media outlets for me to go into detail on all of them.  I am going to focus on just three things which I believe are the foundations of a good Web Presence: Website, Facebook and Twitter.  If you can master these, the rest will be easy.

Part 2: Your Website

Get a dot-com, not a dot-info or a dot-net. “Yournamehere.com” is one of your best choices. Do I really need to explain what I mean when I use the phrase yournamehere? A dot-com is just easier to remember.  If you can’t get the exact dot-com you wanted, think of another.  For example, if your name is John Smith and johnsmith.com is taken maybe you can get johnwilliamsmith.com or jwsmith.com.  The product you are really selling is your self. So you need to brand yourself, not your book.  People will feel more connected to you and they will be more loyal fans for it.

Don't let this be your website!

Can you make an organized and professional looking website? If you answered yes, are you being honest or just cheap?  The cost of hiring someone to do it for you is not as much as you think, and it’s the only thing you really should spend money on when creating your web presence.  Make sure you can maintain it and make changes to it easily yourself. For an easy to maintain and professional looking website try a WordPress blog.

Links, Links and more Links! Have links to all the various websites where people can find out information about you, including your Twitter account and your Facebook Fan Page. Link to other websites if they are worthwhile, relevant and you want to share them. Get “backlinks” wherever possible (links to your website on other people’s websites).

Put good content on your website!! I will say it again because it is so important: Put good content on your website! And keep adding fresh content daily, weekly or at the very least monthly.  Blogs are great for this. This makes both your fans and the search engines happy.  Content can be news about your book, the list of stops along your book tour, events you are attending, or anything you want to share with your fans and potential fans.

Pictures make a thousand words more bearable. Pictures break up the monotony of text and create anchors that keep people on a web page longer.  A picture of yourself somewhere on your web page is crucial.  Pictures of you interacting with fans are great.  Pictures relevant to your content are helpful.

Don’t forget video. Video is an increasingly popular way to get your message across to those people who don’t have the patience to read every blog post on the Internet.  Remember you are competing for the limited number of minutes which are willing to commit and attention spans are short these days.  Video can give you an edge that few others are taking advantage of.

Create ways for people to interact with you on your website. Interactions are what make Media social.  Allowing comments, feedback and rating systems are all simple ways to encourage interaction on your website.  Do not be afraid of ratings and reviews.

Learn some basics about keyword and SEO optimizing. Its not hard! This is how you make search engines your friend.  You don’t have to be an expert, or hire an expert, to take advantage of them.  Just be aware of some of the tricks and keep them in mind when you are adding to your website.

Part 3: Effective Facebook

Get a personal account and keep it personal. Make it only for your friends, family, colleagues and one or two of your really special fans.

Keep the number of friends under 175. It is my magic number.  I read once that this is the number of people that a human being is capable of keeping up with socially, and it has served me pretty well.  If you have more people than this then it becomes overwhelming and you are not able to interact with everyone effectively or quickly.

Have fun, chat, be friendly. Or don’t. It’s your personal account, use it as you like.

Next, create a Fan Page with your name. Not a group, a Fan Page. The whole point is to have Fans right? You need to use your name, this is your brand! You can create separate ones for each book, but make sure you have one for you as an author.  Think of it as a way to keep from having to re-invite people to be your fans every time you put out a new book.

Fill in some of the info details. Please include your website, and add a picture of yourself!  The picture of you again gives that personal touch and if you don’t add your website, what the frog is the point!! There is a little box, just above the “Information” box and below your profile photo, use this to add a brief one line bio.

Be shameless about getting fans even if you haven’t published a blessed thing!! Invite your friends and family to be your fans.  Remember I said no shame! If any of your close friends and family don’t become your fan, then harass and heckle them until they do, and hope they don’t disown you for it.  Post the link to your fan page on your website.  Ask your friends and family to invite their friends to be your fan.  Do whatever it takes!  There is no magic number limit to having fans—you want to have as many as possible. My Facebook Fan Page. Shameless!

Put Good Content on your Facebook Fan Page!!! I don’t need to say it again do I? Post new things once a day if you can but at least once a week.  Post links to blog posts.  Post news about yourself as a writer.  All the things you want to share with your fans.

Interactions are your goal. If your fans interact with you then reward them by interacting back.  The more people post comments or “like” your posts the better.

Part 4: Twitterverse, The Final Frontier!

Create a Twitter account using your name. Your name is your brand.  Your name makes you a person!

Fill in your information. Add a picture of yourself and add your website address.  Fill in your bio with the same brief bio you used on your Facebook fan page or something similar.  Are you starting to see the common steps that can translate to all Social Media?  Each one will have differences in how you use them but the basic setup is always the same.

People to follow: friends and family, agents, editors, publishers, fellow writers, people who interest you and a few special fans.  Remember, keep it under 175.

Visit once a day or every few days or at the very least once a week. Skim through the most recent posts of others in your feed.  Send them little @ replies or retweet what they say if you think its worth repeating.

Interactions and getting exposure are your goal. If someone sends you a message or retweets you, then reward them with a reply or a thank you. A retweet is a powerful thing.  It’s like a referral or a recommendation.  It makes it possible for your Tweets to reach hundreds of people who aren’t even following you.  Every person has a sphere of influence (people who know, like and trust them) and every person in that sphere has their own sphere.  When you use Twitter you are tapping into the exponential power of influence.

Having followers is not your greatest concern, but don’t worry, they will come.  When they do, you are under no obligation to follow back, so don’t do it unless they really interest you.  If they all interest you then you are going to have a hard time keeping it under 175.

Tweet good content when not interacting with people! For the love of all you hold sacred, please do not interpret “good content” as “quotes by famous people.” Be original even if it means telling people what you are cooking for supper!

Things to Tweet: Things that make you a real person.  Things you feel the need to communicate to your peers, colleagues and fans. If you are going to have a book signing, not only should you Tweet about it but you should also @ refer to the bookstore or venue if they have a Twitter account.  This will give them the opportunity to promote themselves, and you, by retweeting it.  Have conversations with your fellow writers, publishers, agents and other colleagues keeping in mind that your fans and millions of potential fans can listen in.  This adds a slightly different experience for your followers than on your Facebook fan page.  When a fan gets to see your chit chat with your agent they feel special, and making your fans feel special makes them more loyal.

Things not to Tweet: Do not Tweet Quotes by famous people, unless its infrequent and something that has very special meaning to you personally. Endless, bare links are unappealing.  Keep your links to a minimum and make sure you tell people what they are or why you are recommending them.  Never Tweet your website, unless you have something new, which you are pointing your link to directly, like a blog post.  Please keep in mind the risk for spam!  There is more to say on Twitter than just: “buy my book”.

Use keywords.  Learn to use #channels.  Twitter search is your friend! Twitter is more that talking at people and getting followers.

The whole is greater than the parts

Where Facebook is a way to keep your fans informed about what you are up to, Twitter is the best way too increase your fan base and expose new people to your brand—i.e. you!  Your website is the center of it all. When they are all working together they create a powerful web presence that will increase your fan base and your exposure and ultimately the sale of your books!  You just need to remember a few simple things:  You must brand yourself and show people that you are a real person.  Provide good content, interact with people and make your fans feel special. These are the foundations of good Social Media marketing. So what are you waiting for? Go do some Twitter!

I hope you have found this article helpful.  People write entire books on these subjects, so I couldn’t possibly cover everything you need to know, but my goal was to give you brief introduction and get you pointed in the right direction.  I welcome questions in either e-mail or comments on the blog.