Filed under: Writers, writing tips, films, Kevin Smith, writing
07/08/2010 • 9:02 AM 0
Twitter Followers versus Facebook Friends
A guy had hundreds of Facebook friends and decided to throw a Facebook party. One person showed up and that was a stranger. Facebook friends don’t equate to real friends. Real friends don’t tell you they might show up to your party even though you’re in Toronto and they are in Vancouver.
Facebook is useful, but, just like your regular friends, not all of them are such good friends they will help you move. Your posts to Facebook are like posts to a message board. Twitter, by contrast, is a conversation. You can have Facebook friends and never visit their home pages. On Twitter, your followers get your 140-character messages pushed on their Tweet deck. Eyes are on you as opposed to Facebook’s Friend ’em and Forget ’em.
But from a purely marketing perspective, quantity isn’t really important. It’s about the quality of your friends and followers. Do your interests dovetail? If you’re marketing a book, your business or service, what’s your ROI? (ROI stands for Return on Investment.)
That’s what many businesses miss: a cost/benefit analysis. Are you spending too much time on your blog and not enough time writing? What time and money efficiencies can you find? Do you need to revamp your approach to social media marketing? Do you need to bring in a guest blogger or refocus your content and search engine optimization to get eyes on your page?
Think of your social media approaches as pipes that lead people back to your website. Your web presence is a package. Twitter is a conversation in which you can sell your services after you sell yourself. Facebook has more personality, but first you sell yourself before your services. Your blog isn’t a diary. It’s a magazine.
On your website, the pitch is still somewhat buried in that your provide value and interesting stuff first. Your call to action has to be there if you’re trying to sell something, but don’t come on too strong because people may find you through your website first. For special promotions or straight ads, consider a mini-website (one page dedicated to your hard pitch or a linking to a separate business website for more of the straight dope on your services and products.)
For instance, my separate (business) website is at the click of the happy pic at www.chazzwrites.vpweb.ca.
Filed under: Publicity & Promotion, Social Media, Twitter, Facebook, promotion, selling, Twitter
07/08/2010 • 8:27 AM 0
Stephen King on Stephenie Meyer Controversy
Filed under: Writers, controversy, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer
07/06/2010 • 9:10 AM 0
The Proper Use of Examples
i.e. means that is.
e.g. means for example.
THUS:
I dress like a bad immortal from Highlander (i.e. all in black) therefore I am cool as far as I’m concerned.
My daughter says things that are apparently cool (e.g. “Cool beans” upon seeing or hearing something exemplary of its kind and wonderful) though I don’t know what such phrases’ origins could be.
Filed under: grammar, writing tips, eg, examples, grammar, ie
07/06/2010 • 9:09 AM 0
Today’s Blog Marketing Secret
There’s a simple trick to making it easier for the world to find you and your blog. It’s so simple, many people neglect it. You aren’t going to like it, but it’s key, and no, I’m not going to go on and on about keywords (today.)
Make your blog post titles simple because simple is searchable.
Yes, I’ve fallen into temptation for the clever title that makes you feel oh, so smart. Forget it. Put in a title people might actually type into a search engine.
Do not make intellectual allusions to Marcel Marceau in a blog title when the content is about Parisian fashion. Do not mention Henry Miller in the title when the content screams Amish barn bee. Clever is great. I love clever. Keep it on Twitter, Mr. Noel Coward. Be searchable on your website. If your titles are too obscure, no one will find you to find out how clever you are!
Filed under: Social Media, Twitter
07/05/2010 • 9:23 AM 0
Twitter Etiquette
I recently had to unfollow someone on Twitter, and it wasn’t because the information they were linking was bad. The problem was there was way too much of it.
Do not post too often.
I post in spasms of joy when I can, but I try to hold back from doing too much at one time. People love me in small doses. That’s the same way I love people. Some robots on Twitter are relentless and–even if they’re providing some solid links–too much at once pollutes your Tweet Deck and feels like spam. Don’t stand for spam. Don’t sit down and allow yourself to be force-fed spam, either.
BONUS:
Twitter is a conversation. You can talk. You have to listen, as well.
Filed under: Social Media, Twitter, social media, Twitter etiquette
07/04/2010 • 9:30 AM 1
Five Tips for Better Blog Posts
In my last post I wrote about the time it takes to write a blog post. (More accurately: I wrote about the time it shouldn’t take.) There’s a faster way to add content to your blog and keep your readership happy. Here’s how:
1. You don’t have to spill your guts with every blog post. Save some expertise for the work your clients pay you for and make sure you don’t spend more time marketing than doing your actual writing (i.e. the writing that is your legacy.)
2. Every post doesn’t have to be deadly serious. Blog posts can be a (short) rant and funny stuff. too. Make sure you provide value and information to your readers, but vary the tone so you don’t come off as relentless.
3. Link to other blogs, videos, and information you find useful, funny or helpful. You do not have to write something fresh for your blog every day. Yes, establish yourself in your web presence. When your readers scan your blog, the voice in their heads should be yours. However, your readers will appreciate your use of your blog as more than a soap box. You are also a filter for information you think would tickle their brains. Link freely when you run across someone else’s brilliance. (And help your search engine optimization in the process, too.)
4. Link your Twitter posts to your blog. This blog has something fresh on it throughout the day as I find things on the feed that makes me laugh or think. Show your appreciation to your fellow birds with friendly tweets. Twitter is a conversation. Let your blog readers in on it and hope they’ll follow you there, too. (Look to the right for a taste. Find me on Twitter @RChazzChute, please.) And no, it doesn’t take long. I scan Twitter during commercials or at night when I struggle with my racing insomniac brain.
5. That’s four to-dos. Here’s a to-don’t. When you don’t have anything to say, don’t. Resist the urge to fill your blog with drivel. Because the word “blog” comes from web log, some people still think of it as a diary. If you’re Kevin Smith, you can do that, but, like Highlander, “there can be only one!” Don’t think of your blog as a diary. Think of it as a magazine.
BONUS:
In the words of one epublisher I met recently, “As soon as anybody tells me what they’re having on their bagel, they’re gone!”
It’s true. Not even Kevin Smith could get away with that. Probably.
Filed under: writing tips, better blog posts, writing tips
07/03/2010 • 9:40 AM 0
Marketing Your Work with Social Media
I’ve spoken with many authors who are reluctant to make the jump to social media to market their work. Often, the concern is that the marketing aspect will take too much time. “When will I find time to write?” they ask. These people might have a time management problem, in which case, make a schedule to which you will commit.
Good news: If social media is taking up that much time, you’re probably thinkng too hard. Some gurus advise that each blog post should take an hour to write. No way. Think in terms of writing an email to a friend. You are the expert. You can come up with lots of information in a quick post that will be helpful and encouraging. You don’t have to sweat it too much. The work you really have to sweat over is the work for which you are paid directly.
Truism: To live in this world, you have to market. Get over yourself, Butch.
More good news: Marketing with social media is the most fun you’ll ever have.
BONUS:
And if you are committed to long blog posts–sometimes we must and do–break it up with subheadings and graphic elements, or I swear to you, it will be unread.
Filed under: Publicity & Promotion, writing tips, promotion, publicity, social media
07/02/2010 • 9:09 AM 0
Three Tips on How Writers Build Platforms
You need a platform, preferably a big one. You need a website that’s all about the magic that is you and what you have to sell. (Hint: that’s the same thing. You sell yourself first and all your products are secondary. If they don’t like you, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling.)
1. Be nice. (And if you can’t be that, go work on that. It is possible to succeed without being a decent human being, but I’m not going to be the prick that encourages that sort of nonsense.)
2. Your Facebook page is not the center of your empire. Social Media is a moving landscape. Facebook might not be there five years from now. You scoff, but people who poured their hearts in their Friendster and MySpace pages are scowling about it now. Your website is the center of your empire-to-be.
3. Have Oprah owe you her life, be a world-famous expert on the next hot thing, be a reformed-junkie celebrity or be born to famous abusive parents. If you can’t manage these things, you’ll have to grow your following the old-fashioned way: provide value and help people with their problems.
There’s plenty more to say on this subject. Read it in Christina Katz’s Get Known Before the Book Deal and read How to Become a Famous Author Before You’re Dead by Ariel Gore.
Filed under: Books, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, web reviews, Writers, Books for Writers, How Writers Build Platforms, Writers and marketing, Writers and promotion
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