The Social Media Shuffle

You know how, try as you might, you can't do everything? The same applies to social media. Last month, I wrote about the power of saying no. This month, I'll share how you can say yes to stress-free social media.

A balanced social media strategy is like a going to a dance. You have a main partner - "the one who brung ya" - but you should also spend time with others. You want to hang out with your BFF of course, and then visit with friends and acquaintances whose company you enjoy.

The one must social media platform that everyone should be on - that one "partner" - is LinkedIn. 

Here's why:

- Great First Contact. Since it's a professional business network, when you meet new people, that's usually the first place they want to connect. 

- Made for Intros. If you want to get into a certain company - whether you are applying for a job or a want to submit business proposal - you can look to your contacts and get either a direct or secondary connection intro.

- Less Noise. Since fewer professionals are using LinkedIn to share their expertise, it's more likely others will see your posts and engage with you. Try posting several times a week, and you'll see what I mean.

Being on the platform is not enough. You also need to stand out. For your LinkedIn profile, use a recent picture, a branded background image, and an intro that shows your personality. And make sure your experience sections are filled out, complete with media and links. This will give others an fuller picture of who you are, how you can help, and why you would make a good friend, business partner, or connection.

Choose a Social Media BFF 

On which platform is your audience? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube? Which interface is most appealing to your personality type. If you are not a fan of video, than YouTube should not be your secondary platform choice. 

The more you like a site, the more often you will engage, and others will engage with you. Choose a truly "social" media site to develop a community. And post on it regularly. 

Make Other Social Friends

Regardless of your favorites, you should have a presence on all of the other main social sites. These are "friends" you visit once or twice a week, sharing links, videos, images. You are basically reminding people you exist in case they need you, your product, or your services.

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In this day and age, social's the thing. But to be truly social. you need to enjoy it the way you would a party. Dance with your partner, catch up with your best friend, and have a quick visit with others. You will be happier than if you try to talk to everyone at the same time, while juggling a large plate of food and your dance partner.

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What is your favorite social media platform? Why? Please share in the comments.

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Debra Eckerling is a writer, editor and project catalyst, as well as founder of The D*E*B Method: Goal Setting Simplified and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. Like the Write On Online Facebook Page and join the Facebook Group.  Debra is the author of Your Goal Guide, being released by Mango in January 2020, as well as Write On Blogging: 51 Tips to Create, Write & Promote Your Blog and Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages. She is host of the #GoalChat Twitter Chat and the Guided Goals Podcast, and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

Social Media SOS

Whether  you love social media - or you view it as a necessary evil to promote your business products and services - some times it takes on a life of its own. 

Take today, for example. Facebook and Instagram were down for most of the day. There was widespread panic on the social platforms. I do some work in social media, and have many friends in that realm, so I probably know more affected people than most. 

Here's the thing. Like any actual - or non-emergent - emergency, there are a few things you can do to stay calm and stay in touch with your clients and prospects in the event of a social media shutdown.

1. Don't panic. If social media management is your business, email or call your clients and let them know what's up. Being proactive - and reminding them that technology isn't always perfect and sometimes, there are glitches out of your control - is much better than ignoring the problem and hoping your clients don't notice. You may even want to remind them that it's likely everyone is affected - including their clients, prospects, readers - so you are all in this together. Treat yourself to a cup of coffee by facing the problem up front.

2. Be present on other social media networks. Seize this opportunity to step up your skills on other social media platforms. For instance, Facebook and Instagram may have had issues today, but Twitter and LinkedIn were doing just fine. A good social-media strategy is a well-balance social media strategy; that means utilizing multiple platforms. If you are not already posting on the main four, use this reminder to step up your game.

3. Unplug. Frustrated by social media? Walk away from it. The problem isn't going away quick enough, so move away from the problem. Here's an idea: Take the time away from social media to embrace being offline. Write an actual on-pen-and-paper thank you note to your clients, jot a note to an old friend. Use the time wisely and surprise someone with a thoughtful act of kindness.

For more on the power of social media platforms, check out the recap from my #GoalChat on this topic.

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How do you balance your social media efforts? Please share in the comments.

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Debra Eckerling is a writer, editor and project catalyst, as well as founder of The D*E*B Method: Goal Setting Simplified and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. Like the Write On Online Facebook Page and join the Facebook Group.  She is author of Write On Blogging: 51 Tips to Create, Write & Promote Your Blog and Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages, and host of the #GoalChat Twitter Chat. Debra is an editor at Social Media Examiner and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

10 Ideas for Social Media Posts

Social media marketing is a must in this day and age. It's important to have an online presence in addition to your website to stay on top of the minds of your readers and clients.

I am frequently asked which are the best social media networks for writers. The easy answer is: whichever sites you are most active on. If you spend time on a social media platform personally, you are more likely to drive conversations on it professionally.

For those who want a tangible answer, I say, LinkedIn is a must, since it is a professional network. It's also less cluttered, so it's more likely your posts will be seen. Second is Facebook. It is hugely popular, continually evolving, and prioritizes the user experience.

Now that we have the where, here are 10 things you can post on social media.

Links:

1. To A Blog Post

2. To Relevant Industry News

3. To Media

4. To Your Upcoming Events

Images:

5. Where You Are and What You Are Doing

6. A Relevant Quote Graphic

Videos: 

7. A Quick Tip

8. A Live Video of You Speaking or Teaching

Text:

9. An Update of Your Latest Project

10. Questions for Your Audience.

Here are some author-friendly options:
- What are you reading (fiction, non-fiction, or both)?
- What are you writing?
- Where is your favorite place to read (or write)?
- How do you find inspiration?
- What is your favorite piece of advice?

Whether or not it's an question post, whenever you share something on social media, include a question at the bottom that encourages them to comment (see below).

One more thing. Unless you have a a huge news site (and unless you are referring to Twitter) you really don't want to publish on your social media platforms more than once or twice a day. The idea is to stay active, so you are on the minds and in the feeds of your friends and fans.

What do you think? Where do you posts and what do you post?Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

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Debra Eckerling is a writer, editor and project catalyst, as well as founder of Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. Like the Write On Online Facebook Page and join the Facebook Group. 

She is author of Write On Blogging: 51 Tips to Create, Write & Promote Your Blog and Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages and host of the Guided Goals Podcast.

Debra is an editor at Social Media Examiner and a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

An Uncle in the Marketing Business? ~ Part 1

This past week I’ve been doing some fresh thinking around the topic of marketing. As Terri said yesterday, it can be a full-time job. On the other hand, if we allow it to be full time, we won’t ever get more writing done.

At times I feel as if I’m banging my head against the fridge—-but no food is coming out. So what am I doing wrong?

The other day, I had a light-bulb moment. I haven’t finished processing the topic, and would love to hear from you, but I do believe I’m on to something.

Let's start off by asking five questions.

1. Where are we marketing? As writers, we like to hang together, after all writers are really the only people who understand writers, right? We rejoice with each other when we have some sort of break-through moment. We encourage one another. And we share our links. This is a great idea. But it’s not marketing! Marketing starts to happen when those people, whether they are writers or not, share your links and your information.

2. Who are we marketing to? Here in South Africa we have a chain of furniture stores called “Joshua Doore”. They have a catchy advertising jingle that first appeared in 1970. It says, “You’ve got an uncle in the furniture business: Joshua Doore!” (You can listen to the original version here.) It really is a brilliant piece of advertising, and the fact that the main slogan is still played daily on our television sets proves this to be true.

It’s great to have friends in the business, and I’m sure the staff of Joshua Doore take advantage of specials on their floors. But imagine if you will that the advert only plays in store, outside of shopping hours, so the staff are the only ones present.

Kind of silly, don’t you think?

Yet, is that perhaps what we do as writers? We belong to writers’ groups, we create an author’s page on Facebook, and we invite all our writer friends to follow the page. After all, our “personal page” on Facebook is just that. It’s personal. We create one or more Twitter accounts, and we “follow” other writers and ask them to follow us. We retweet other writers’ messages—to other writers (of course, because those are the ones following us) in the hope that they will RT ours. We join LinkedIn, and we link to other writers’ groups. We may enjoy the fellowship, and much of this may be helpful, but it’s not marketing! Marketing starts to happen when those people catch the message and share it, together with your links.

3. Do people really follow our marketing attempts? A friend was a missionary teacher in a primitive country. Her small daughter was one of her pupils. One day the mommy was busy making supper and the little girl was trailing her, chattering endlessly. All of a sudden the child called, “Teacher! Teacher!” The mommy stopped and looked in astonishment. The child had worked out how to get her mommy’s attention. She had realised that Mommy had tuned out from her incessant chatter.

Don’t we all do that? We tune out to voices or other people who are not interesting us. That leads to another question. In our marketing, are we perhaps trying too hard? When people see our posts, do they switch off? I confess that I have a few such contacts. I know any link they share will be self-promotion. I know nothing about them except that they are writers. And they know nothing about me. They're not interested in me—and I don’t know enough about them to know if I'm interested in them. I hardly ever read their tweets, their Facebook pages, or their LinkedIn comments.

4. Are we missing the point with our marketing? Not other writers (unless of course we’re writing for writers, like this blog). But are we reaching the ones who want or need to read what we have written? Sure, we're interacting on various social media sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus . . .   But think about it. These all fall under the category "Social Media".

My dictionary defines “social” as “Marked by friendly companionship with others.”  We're not talking about Marketing Media. It is called Social Media. Social. Friendly. 

5. How can we be social and still market? Is it possible? We're already complaining that we don't have time to both market and write. How can we now stop to have "friendly companionship with others"? Surely that will take up even more time? "I don't have the time for this!" we wail, as we carry on furiously using up time on ineffective methods of marketing.

I don't believe it will require more time. I think it calls for a smarter use of our time. But I've already taken up enough of your time explaining the dilemma, and I hope I've given you something to think about. Next month we'll look further into this, and hopefully come up with some easy ways to become an uncle (or aunt) in the marketing business.

OVER TO YOU: Do you have any thoughts about how we can develop our social skills without frittering away time we don't have? Please share your suggestions below.

More Reading on Making Friends on Social Media

Making Twitter Friends
Some Old Facebook Friends

SHIRLEY CORDER  lives a short walk from the seaside in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with her husband Rob. She is author of Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer. Shirley is also contributing author to ten other books and has published hundreds of devotions and articles internationally. 

Visit Shirley on her website to inspire and encourage writers, or on Rise and Soar, her website for encouraging those on the cancer journey. 

Follow her on Twitter or "like" her Author's page on Facebook, and if you tell her who you are she'll be happy to be your friend and follow you back.

When it the best time to build an author platform?

There seems to be differing opinions about when or even if authors need a platform.

I cannot stress enough that with today’s digital world, the state of publishing, and the number of books written per year, the time to build a platform is before you begin writing your book.

Disagree if you wish, but publishers ask authors about their following, promotion, and willingness in helping market their book.

How do authors accomplish this? By the use of platforms, such as blogs, websites, social and network marketing, book signings, and the author finding bookstore shelf space on their own.

Publishing is no longer, as it was in the past. It is up to the author to be a publicist, marketer, and promoter for their book; or hire someone for all of this. Hiring someone is the easy way out for authors, but also expensive. Most authors cannot afford the cost of an agent, publicist, salesperson, and marketer, which would run thousands of dollars.

This leaves the author to do it all. Build a blog about your book project keeping the potential reader up to date with how the book is advancing. Build an authors page, use social media, make regular updates, and make a trailer for your book.

I may repeat this information, but it is only to stress that in today’s publishing environment, more is up to the author than ever before in publishing.

Many authors are opting to self-publish for more control over price and format. The author’s ability to create digital books for readers, and having their book edited by publishers in ways that go against ways the author intended the book. There have been title changes in publishing houses, changes from book to movie, and more.

Authors should have their book published the way they wrote it.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Reviewer/Marketer

http://www.authorsden.com/robertmedak

http://rjmedak.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/freelancewrtr

How to get more people to notice your Facebook page

Today, I have the pleasure of featuring Jo Linsdell and her new rhyming children's picture book OUT AND ABOUT AT THE ZOO.

But, first Jo has some great information on using Facebook.

How to get more people to notice your Facebook page

By Jo Linsdell

Facebook is one of the giants of social media and as such is the perfect place to reach out to your readers and build a following.

First you need to decide on the type of Facebook fan page you want and set it up. Once that's done you need people to notice it.

Creating a large and active community for your Facebook page isn't an easy task and usually takes quite a while to build. Here's a few tips to get people to notice your page:

•    Personalise your page for a professional look. Add a Timeline cover image, make sure your description is filled out in the 'About' box and add page tabs with personalised images.

•    Post everyday if you can. This has recently been made easier by the introduction of scheduled posts which allow you to plan status updates in advance.

•    Post content that is likely to go viral. The more people share your posts the more people will find out about your page. Images are content gold! Post some pictures for high impact. Quotes tend to go down well too. Just make sure you stay on topic. All content must be relevant to the page.

•    Share the page link everywhere you can. Post it to your website and other social media profiles encouraging people to drop by.

•    Interlink your social media profiles. If you have a blog, set it to automatically post to your page and then link your page to your twitter account so it posts there too. If your twitter account is also feed to other networks like LinkedIn, Myspace etc... each one then feeds back to the others helping increase traffic. This one thing saves loads of time as you just need to update your blog for it to post to all your accounts.

•    Use the' invite' feature to let your contacts know about your page and ask for a like.

•    Interact with people on your page. Encourage them to post to your wall and ask questions.

•    Highlight a fan of the week to show appreciation to active page users. There are application you can use that will automatically select a frequent user at the same time each week or you can just pick one yourself from those that have posted, shared, liked and commented during the week.

Obviously you want to let your followers know about your books but instead of going in for the hard sell, post about things related to your book. Share recent guest posts you've done and articles you've written or links to interviews. They want to know more about you and what you do not just see a spammy 2buy my book message".

How are you getting people to notice your Facebook Page?

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Now onto Jo's new book, which she wrote and illustrated. We'll start with the details:

Title: Out and About at the Zoo
Author and Illustrator: Jo Linsdell
ISBN/EAN 13: 1477446591 / 9781477446591
Page Count: 32

And, here are two wonderful 5 Star reviews:

Its all Happening at the Zoo!

I review many books. When I see a children's picture book, I tend to savour the artistic way the writer and the artist tend to mesh. Sometimes it’s the blending that makes a simple child's book something really worth reading.

Out and About at the Zoo is a combination of the artist and the writer being the same person Jo Linsdell. She crafted a very cute and adorable children's volume. This simple children's book with bright colors of animals from the zoo is crisp in it poetic delivery. The art sparkles in its simple characters of the zoo animals.

Ms Linsdell seems to know her target audience and gives them a bright a images for them to enjoy. These young children will delight in this books rhythms that come from its verses and art. It is a good book to give for those young and young at heart".

By Bennet Pomerantz

***

This is a fun, short book for the grandkids! If you love reading to your children or grandchildren, this book will become a family favorite quite fast. The simple wording and bright interaction of characters makes it easy for very young readers and exciting for toddlers still listening.

Jo puts some serious thought into toddler reactions and includes those in the book. My favorite part was the last page, because my toddlers decided immediately that we needed to take a trip to the Denver Zoo. "Yay!!! I get to see the elephants!" (Okay, that part was ME not them. But they get to go too.)"

By Jan Verhoeff

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You can get your copy of Out and About at the Zoo at: Amazon.

About the author:

Jo Linsdell is a freelance writer, author and illustrator. Originallyfr om the UK, she now lives in Rome, Italy with her husband and their two young sons.

Jo's website: http://jolinsdell.com


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To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars - signup for The Writing World newsletter on the right top sidebar!

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012
http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com

How to Promote an Interview with Another Author

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by. Today’s blog reflects upon last week’s interviews between members of the Writers On The Move I’m associated with in Yahoo! Groups.

Last week we paired off, one member hosting another member of our group, posting a background on one day and interviewing each other in the second. I had a lot of fun interviewing my guest Margaret Fieland on my blog site while being interviewed by Harry Gilleland on his blog.

The purpose is to give exposure to other authors. I have an audience that is new and unique to Margaret while Harry has an audience that is new and unique to me. The end result: exposure of our books to a new group of people while providing a forum to express our successes and failures that will help other authors become successful.

For Margaret, it wasn’t enough that I merely hosted her for two days. I needed to take the initiative to promote her and her books. So this was my strategy:

* I leave her interviews up for three days
* I advertised to the other three Yahoo! Groups I belong to
* I promoted her interview via Facebook
* I promoted her interview via Twitter. What I do is take advantage of hashmarks. For example, * I advertise to my followers as well as other groups such as #write, #authors, #and poetry two or three times a day for the three days. This way, Margaret will receive exposure to literally hundreds of new people.

Harry did an absolutely awesome job interviewing and promoting me and my book Breakthrough. For those who need a model of hosting a guest blogger and doing it right, please take a few moments on click on Harry’s blogs dated September 1st and 3rd.
http://harrygillelandwrites.blogspot.com

Let’s take a moment to look at what Harry did right (in no particular order)

* He uploaded a picture of me
* He formatted the interview questions so they are easy for the visitor to read
* He included links to purchase my book Breakthrough
* He included links for my blog and Web site
* He posted reader reviews from Barnes and Noble and Amazon
* He posted the book synopsis
* He posted the book description
* He posted a picture of the book’s dust cover

This is a model that you could certainly save to your favorites, not because my book is being promoted, but because this is an excellent example of how to host a guest blogger Harry, thanks again for a most awesome interview and bringing new traffic to my site.