Why Follow these 3 Top Rules on Social Media?

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No one joins Twitter, FB, Google+ or Pinterest to constantly read about your book. That’s not very entertaining or interesting at all. Some writers don’t buy books from other writers, they want to sell their own. If ALL writers are doing on Twitter, Google+ or FB is self-promoting they are not only NOT attracting readers, but turning potential book buyers away.

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Yes, famous writers may attract attention for what they have to say – not normally related to their books – but rather to their writer’s life or ideas – and they are often interesting or funny. It’s called social networks not selling pages… Authors should rather focus their promotional efforts on trying to get people to talk about things and yes, even about their fellow writer’s books:

• by reviewing them,
• reading and recommending them,
• taking them to their book groups,
• writing articles or blog posts about their friends books

instead of constantly trying to get people to sell their own books.  Great places to do this is on some of the hundreds (if not thousands) of reader forums for each type of literature can be found, such as Goodreads, Shelfari, Bibliophil, Biblio Connection, BookTalk and the like.

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1. Choose your following carefully:
You want to interact mainly with READERS, NOT writers. The question is: How to find readers?  All Social Media sites have a search function on top of the page. Type in: book bloggers, read, reading, book lovers, book club, love reading, book worm, love to read, mystery book reader, science fiction reader, or YA readers, YA book bloggers, readers, word nerd, non-fiction book blogger, reading books, reviewing book… and even librarian.  Click on “people” or scroll down a lot, as the first names that appear are often publishers and other commercial accounts. How to get more (reader) followers on Social Media sites is also explained in another blog post.

You can also type in the names of very successful books in your genre and find readers there, talking about this very book. Follow those readers that you feel belong to your book genre, based on what they say in their tweets.  Re-tweet their posts, engage in meaningful conversation, be funny or refer to blog posts you wrote, but don’t mention your book. They will find out about it soon enough. A subtle way to build your network and to promote your book…
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2. Be professional
Set-up your bio with a studio portrait, the same you use in your book(s) and create an inviting avatar. Use key words that will attract the type of people that you want to connect with. This bio (or an avatar, or “about me”) can be used for all your presences, for your Amazon website, your blog etc. Same as with your photograph: once established you can use it everywhere, even if you have to shorten it on some places, such as on Twitter. Use lots of keywords and add abbreviated links to your web site or Amazon page. And choose your username wisely!  More tips how to act like a professional are explained in a former article.
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3. Understand the meaning of Social Media
Being SOCIAL and NOT constantly talking about your book!
I noticed one writer on Twitter who writes 100% only and only about his book. He seems to use automatic tweets, as he never, ever engaged in any conversation with others. Kind of autistic … For sure, I was not the only one who un-followed him.

• Write about interesting things that are happening
• Give valuable advice
• Engage in a humorous way with your readers

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Following these three basic rules for your online platform: Finding the right followers “readers”, be “social” and have a professional appearance on Social Media is the key to successful promoting your books.

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To get more book marketing help, see what we can do for you in individual sessions. If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 179 for 3 months of one-on-one instructions. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Social Media: The Secrets of Success

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Word of Mouth Marketing
If you are in the midst of developing one of the more than one million books that are published every year, it’s time to start thinking about how you are going to market your book … because in today’s publishing environment, it’s up to you to build momentum for your work.
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It is All About Relationships
Social media marketing is the darling of the marketing world. However it is NOT about selling – rather about building relationship with your readers, educating them about your writing and then making them love your books. Avoid that all you do on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook is to hawk your book or try to interest agents and editors in your manuscript. This is not to say you can not ever talk about the interesting things you’re doing.
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People on Social Media Want Content
Sharing content has become an important aspect of these networks. Create content that your readers love! Social sharing signals to Google’s Search Engines which content is high quality while Social Media provides networked, word-of-mouth publicity for your writing.
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10 Commands of Social Networking

…. such as Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, websites…

• Schedule tweets in advance to gain time for interacting with your followers
• Use Hootsuite to schedule your posts at the best times and also to several sites at the same time
• Don’t expect fast results. Readers need time to become familiar with you and your books
• Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it one Social Network at a time.
• Treat connections with respect. Followers and friends are important.
• It’s not about the most connections when it comes to Social Networking, It’s about having relevant connections.
• Be comfortable in the network(s). Be able to be your authentic self.
• Ask your readers to refer you to their friends and acquaintances.
• Ask questions and share, share, share. Everyone has questions, some have answers. Get a dialog going…. After all, Social Media is about sharing.
• Set-up your bio for keyword optimization. Use key words that will attract the type of people that you want to connect with.
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How Social Media has changed word-of-mouth marketing is shown in this slide-share.  Read also an article on Forbes: “7 Social Media Tips You Can Learn From Richard Branson”, who is still tweeting most of the content himself.
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Ask yourself ”if I go to a party will I listen to people who constantly talk how good their business products are, or when I turn on the TV, do I prefer to watch the movie or do I rather watch the commercials?” Compare this with Social Media…
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You will get really frustrated if you think it’s an immediate fix. Social media is important, maybe even crucial for writers today. Don’t forget: customers always buy from those they know and like. Create posts and tweets that are worthy, start by developing attainable goals, learn what your audience likes, create content that is useful, and make it easy to share.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/  to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 980 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/

Home

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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3 Top Rules to Follow on Social Media

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Are you promoting your book like crazy on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook or Goodreads … but nothing seems to happen, no book sales? Are you competing with other writers in “buy my book, buy my book, buy my book… Are you choosing to follow other writers, hoping they will buy your book?
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1. Choose your following very carefully:
You want to interact mainly with READERS, NOT writers. The question is: How to find readers?
All Social Media sites have a search function on top of the page. Type in: book bloggers, read, reading, book lovers, book club, love reading, book worm, love to read, mystery book reader, science fiction reader, YA readers, YA book blogger, readers, word nerd, non-fiction book blogger, reading books, reviewing book… and even librarian. Click on “people” or scroll down a lot, as the first names that appear are often publishers and other commercial accounts. How to get more (reader) followers on Social Media sites is also explained in a blog post from January.

Another method is to type in the name of a very successful book in your genre and find readers there, talking about this book. Follow those readers that you feel belong to your book genre, based on what they say in their tweets. Re-tweet their posts, engage in meaningful conversation, be funny or refer to blog posts you wrote, but don’t mention your book. They will find out about it soon enough.
.

2. Understand the meaning of Social Media
Being SOCIAL and NOT constantly talking about your book!
I noticed one writer on Twitter who writes 100% only and only about his book. He seems to use automatic tweets, as he never, ever engaged in any conversation with others. Kind of autistic … For sure, I was not the only one who un-followed him.

• Write about interesting things that are happening,
• Give valuable advice
• Engage in a humerous way with your readers

No one joins Twitter, FB, Google+ or Pinterest to constantly read about your book. That’s not very entertaining or interesting at all. Many writers don’t buy books from other writers, they want to sell their own. If ALL writers are doing on Twitter, Google+ or FB is self-promoting they are not only NOT attracting readers, but turning potential book buyers away.
Yes, famous writers may attract attention for what they have to say – not normally related to their books – but rather to their writer’s life or ideas – and they are often interesting or funny. It’s called social networks not selling pages… Authors should rather focus their promotional efforts on trying to get people to talk about their books (review them, read and recommend them, give them awards, take them to their book groups, write articles or blog posts about them) instead of constantly trying to get people to buy their books. A much better place to do this is on some of the hundreds (if not thousands of reader forums for each type of literature can be found, such as Goodreads, Shelfari, Bibliophil, Biblio Connection, BookTalk and the like.
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3. Be professional
Set-up your bio with a studio portrait, the same you use in your book(s) and create an inviting avatar. Use key words that will attract the type of people that you want to connect with. This bio (or an avatar, or “about me”) can be used for all your presences, for your Amazon website, your blog etc. Same as with your photograph: once established you can use it everywhere, even if you have to shorten it on some places, such as on Twitter. Use lots of keywords and add abbreviated links to your web site or Amazon page. And choose your username wisely!  More tips how to act like a professional are explained in a former article.
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So, following these three basic rules: Finding the right followers “readers”, be “social” and have a professional appearance on Social Media is the key to successful promoting your books.

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To get more book marketing help, see what we can do for you in individual sessions. 
If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 179 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Use the Dog Days of Summer to Meet Readers

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Nova Scotia South Shore Beaches

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July and August are not the best months for book sales – at least not compared to November and December. Quite a few authors are feeling the summer slump. Author Marla Madison wrote a great blog post about it and gave seven useful tips, how you can overcome the Dog Days of summer.
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Starting with “Take a break without guilt.” to “Try something new to market your writing.” and five more ideas, how you can improve your writing and develop plans for fall. Read the whole article and all the comments here.
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Today I received an email from a client who worried about dwindling book sales and lower rankings on Amazon. My suggestion: “Don’t stress yourself with rankings and sales – what is needed first, is a wide and strong basis in terms of establishing quality connections with readers and – very important – potential reviewers. It is much easier to receive reviews from someone you “know”, such as “real” people – or through solid Social Media connections.
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Social Networks
Authors need more followers, especially READERS (not fellow writers) on all Social Media sites. I am talking about at least 2,000 on each of these sites! Those who do not follow, even when you re-tweet them, un-follow after one month. Un-following 25 people per days is free. See Just Unfollow.
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On Goodreads for example, it’s even more easy: you can load Facebook, Twitter and Google+ followers over to Goodreads with one click. No matter which campaign you create – Book Giveaways on Goodreads or free KDP days on Amazon – it is crucial to have lots of followers first, who know you and will help you to let your message go viral.
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I just read recently an article by a publicist “Are you ready for publicity?” who does not accept any customer who has not at least 5,000 followers on all Social Media sites.

Do you use Hootsuite.com?  Or any other site to automate part of scheduling tweets, thank you notes, welcome new followers etc.? This frees up time to interact personally with more of your followers.
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Reader Communities / Groups
There are quite a few communities / groups on Google+ and on Goodreads, where you can make connections and later! offer reviews of THEIR books – you might get the favor later reciprocated.

Let’s assume you are the author of children books, you could join these GOOGLE+ Communities:

• Children’s book lovers – Google+ http://bit.ly/17NMxho
• Books for EDUCATIONAL learning – Google+ http://bit.ly/13pUC7w
• Readers Meet Authors And Bloggers – Google+ http://bit.ly/13S37g1

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How to find Goodreads Groups:

Click on the link Groups, on top of the site.
Type into the search function: children or young readers for example, and there are hundreds of pages!!! with groups to join, such as these:

• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/188-children-s-books
• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/109753-matching-kids-to-books
• http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/71883-great-middle-grade-reads

Write and then copy/paste a friendly introduction and even include a link to your website or blog. You don’t need to spend so much time on these groups, just a nice introduction and from time to time peaking in, or exchange some thoughts and see what people are talking about.
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To invite more friends on Goodreads:
click on Explore (top right), you will see “People”, click on it, then you will see:

“Meet People”
top users
top readers
top reviewers
most popular reviewers
best reviews
online now
most followed

Invite from these sections people to follow or friend.
You can send out 25 invitations a day according to Goodreads, which means per month 750 invitations! And each one is just a click! If only half of them follow, this means more than 300 new reader friends per month. However, usually 95% become followers/friends on Goodreads, when you invite them.
Once you have more than 1000 followers/friends you can relax and just sit back, as people come to YOU! I get about 20-30 friend-offers from Goodreads every week, sometimes lots more and don’t have to look for new followers anymore. You can just choose and pick : )

Being busy during the slow summer months, working on your author platform gives you an advantage for your higher book sales in fall and winter. That’s happening for sure, when days are getting shorter and people are more at home, reading. and the holidays are rolling in.
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 815 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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The Secret of Success with Social Media

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Word-of-Mouth Content Marketing

If you’re in the midst of developing one of the more than one million books that are published every year, it’s time to start thinking about how you are going to market your book … because in today’s publishing environment, it’s up to you to build momentum for your work.

However, if all you do on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook is to hawk your book or try to interest agents and editors in your manuscript you are probably not going to get anywhere.  This is not to say you can not ever talk about the interesting things you’re doing, this just can’t be all that you’re doing.

People on Social Media want content, and sharing content has become one important aspect of it. Create content that your target audience loves! The true allure of content marketing is in building an audience.

Social sharing provides signals to Google about which content is high quality; but more than that, social media provides networked, word-of-mouth publicity.
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10 Commands of Social Networking

Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, blogs, websites…

1. Social Media is instant communication.  Managing time for  requests, connections, and comments is important.
2. Be upfront and honest.
3. Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it one Social Network at a time.
4. Treat connections with respect. Followers and friends are so important.
5. You have a great reach across the internet? People want to connect with people.
6. It’s not about the most connections when it comes to Social Networking, It’s about having relevant connections.
7. Be comfortable in the network(s).  Be able to be your authentic self.
8. Automate posts – in order to save time you can spend individually with your followers
9. Ask questions and share, share, share. Everyone has questions, some have answers. Get a dialog going…. After all, Social Media is about sharing.
10. Set-up your bio(s) for optimization. Use key words that will attract the type of people that you want to connect with.
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Ask yourself “how am I truly adding value to my networks today?”  Start thinking about Social Media as a conversation not a transaction.  You will get really frustrated if you think it’s an immediate fix. Social media is important, maybe even crucial for writers today. Don’ t forget: customers always buy from those they know and like.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 730 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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2 Basic Rules To Follow for Your Books Success

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… on Social Media
Are you promoting your book like crazy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook … but nothing seems to happen, no book sales? Are you competing with other writers in “buy my book, buy my book, buy my book… Are you choosing to follow other writers, hoping they will buy your book?

.
1. Choose your following very carefully: You want to interact mainly with READERS, NOT writers. The question is: How to find readers?

All Social Media sites have a search function on top of the page. Type in: book bloggers, read, reading, book lovers, book club, love reading, book worm, love to read, mystery book reader, science fiction reader, YA readers, YA book blogger, readers, word nerd, non-fiction book blogger, reading books, reviewing book… and even librarian. Click on “people” or scroll down a lot, as the first names that appear are often publishers and other commercial accounts.

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Another method is to type in the name of a very successful book in your genre and find readers there, talking about this book. Follow those readers that you feel belong to your book genre, based on what they say in their tweets. Re-tweet their posts, engage in meaningful conversation, be funny or refer to blog posts you wrote, but don’t mention your book. They will find out about it soon enough.

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2. Understand the meaning of Social Media – being SOCIAL and STOP talking constantly about your book!
I noticed one writer on Twitter who writes 100% only and only about his book. He seems to use automatic tweets, as he never, ever engaged in any conversation with others. Kind of autistic .. For sure, I was not the only one who un-followed him. Write about interesting things that are happening, give valuable advice or engage in a humerus way with your readers. No one goes on Twitter, FB, Google+ or Pinterest to read constantly about your book. That’s not entertaining or interesting. Many writers don’t buy books from other writers, they want to sell their own. If ALL writers are doing on Twitter, Google+ or FB is self-promoting they are not only NOT attracting readers, but turning them away.

Yes, famous writers may attract attention for what they have to say – not normally related to their books – but rather to their writer’s life or ideas – and they are often interesting or funny. It’s called social networks not selling pages…
.

Authors should rather focus their promotional efforts on trying to get people to talk about their books (review them, read and recommend them, give them awards, take them to their book groups, write articles or blog posts about them) instead of trying to get people to buy them. A much better place to do this is on reader forums, such as Goodreads, Shelfari, Bibliophil, Biblio Connection, BookTalk and the like.

So, following these two basic rules: Finding the right followers “readers” and be “social” on Social Media is key to successful promoting your books.

To get more book marketing help, see what we can do for you in individual sessions.

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Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks  http://about.me/ebookPR

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Social Media – Which One Do You Like Best?

Jeff Bullas wrote in the foreword for his brilliant infographic:
“Social media is spreading knowledge globally at the speed of a “Tweet” and provides us all with tools that can enable us to follow our dreams, if only we can capture and heighten that curiosity for knowledge that drives humans to succeed.”

From Jeff’s post on social media networks:

Google+
Google+ now both a personal and business social network after launching Google+ brand “pages” on November 7, 2011. Google plus enhanced the visual aspect of social networks by making its images significantly larger (think book titles!) than the photos on Facebook.

Pinterest
This social network is a place to organise and share online images that you find interesting or inspiring and continues to reinforce the trending growth of an increasingly visual social web. Pinterest has grown 4,000% in the last 6 months, with more than 4 million unique users.

Tumblr
Tumblr is a multimedia rich microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their short form blog. It is about ease of use.
•900% growth in the last 12 months
•90 million users compared to only 10 million a year ago

Slideshare
Slideshare is the “YouTube of  Presentations” and allows you to upload PowerPoint into globally accessed slideshow and again is a highly visual social  media platform.
•It is one of the top 150 websites in the world
•60 million visitors a month
•Has 500% more traffic from business owners than any other professional website
•3 billion slide views per month

Facebook
Facebook is a “must have” to keep tabs on, as its 800 million plus users means it is the defacto social network platform of choice for nearly one in two of the world’s web users.  Its ecosystem with easy to install “apps” and burgeoning commerce and marketing power continue to attract business and marketers. Essentially you market on facebook first and then consider other platforms.

Twitter
Its simplicity and immediacy as an open texting service on steroids continue to keep it  top of mind in popular digital culture. Its embedding in the new Apple iOS5 mobile operating system  has stimulated growth and increased sign-ups by 300%.

See his superb post here:
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/01/03/6-social-media-networks-to-watch-in-2012-plus-infographics/

 

 

 

Working for Glory – or the Digital Feudalism

Do you remember a recent Google image?  Tom Sawyers friends painting the picket fence?  It reminded me to look for an article I read a while ago: “Facebook is now valued at $50 billion, Twitter at $10 billion and The Huffington Post has been sold for $315 million to AOL.

Most of the value was created by people working free for Facebook, Twitter and Huffington Post. We are being played to feed the beast, to create content that ends up creating value for others.

The Huffington Post, most social networks and traditional media have all one thing in common: low-cost and no-cost content is becoming the norm. But writing for an upstart blog is a little different from cranking copy for AOL, a large American media company with a market value  of $2.2 billion.

For anyone who is making a living by writing, it’s becoming somewhat scary. The growing perception is that content is a commodity, and the companies can have it for the price of zero. Content websites, such as Demand Media, paying up to $15 per article raised the price only slightly.

It reminds me a bit of Tom Sawyer: “Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?” he asks his friends, and soon they are lined up for the privilege of doing his chores. That’s a bit like how social networks get built.

Nowadays Sawyer would say “You’re building an audience around your personal brand.” Audiences became publishers, essentially painting the fence for the people who own the various platforms.