1.  Build a cyber sales channel.

Blogs are actually quite flexible in terms of content and functionality. For example, you can integrate e-commerce so that blog readers can purchase books directly from your site. You can tie-in your blog sales outreach to services like Clickbank and even Amazon.

2.  Connect with your audience.

You audience is much broader than just readers and fans. Through a blog you can meet publishers, literary agents and other authors to exchange information and build a social network to support your book.

3.  Boost book sales.

As an author you have the advantage of never running out of great ideas for blog posts. You can use our book to generate hundreds of topics for posts. Try using an excerpt from you book and expanding upon it, touch on something unique about one of your characters, discuss plot or print out a teaser page to encourage sales. Endless opportunities exist for blogging authors.

4.  Become search engine friendly.

The primary search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing, continually crawl the web looking for new content that is regularly updated. Every time you submit a post a search engine bot will come along and index it on the internet. That makes you more searchable and increases your exposure. People will have an easier time finding you and connecting with the material that you’re producing.

5.  Develop conversations with readers.

Blogs aren’t a one-way street. Commenting systems enable readers to share feedback and thoughts and regardless of whether they’re positive or negative, participating in a dialogue is an excellent way to learn how to improve and expand on things that are disliked or favored.

If you don’t have a blog, there’s no time like the present to start one today. Give your fingers a run for the money and start typing.

Technorati Tags: author, authors, blogging, blogs, book promotion, book sales

There are quite a few ways that you can measure how your readers are interacting with you in the social media sphere. Some are costly, but they deliver robust data that can be used to adjust your campaign as needed. On the other hand, there are some fantastic free tools available that do a fair job delivering snapshots of your fans and their sentiment toward your book, or brand. Do some digging to find the tools that will work best to meet your needs and fit your budget.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the data that you start pulling. If you’re a writer, words come easily, whereas numbers may seem more challenging. Focus on identifying trends in your data and ignore  information that isn’t relevant. Spot increases and decreases over time to give yourself a benchmark to help gauge whether your social media efforts are succeeding or failing.

Make sure to overlay sales numbers with your social media data. If you’re using Google Analytics to measure conversions on your book’s landing page, check for spikes and dips and then compare how specific social media efforts may have effected those outcomes. Watching sales and measuring the ROI through social media will be determined by the set of metrics that you define. For example, if you are more concerned about sales instead of site registration then you’ll need to shift your measurement and focus accordingly.

However you choose to evaluate your book’s or brand’s social media investment just remember to be open-minded about the numbers. They can be your friend and help you find opportunities, identify mistakes and tell you what to continue or abandon.

Technorati Tags: ROI, social media marketing

FourSquare is a website that really used for letting your friends, co-workers, family or whomever, know where you are. Using your smartphone, you login to FourSquare every time you arrive at a destination. You can ‘check-in’ to a grocery store, the Starbuck’s on the corner of Broadway and 5th Avenue, your favorite French restaurant and even a fun clothing boutique. The gaming aspect happens via check-ins by assigning points that allow you to earn ‘badges’ that can be used toward just about anything a particular merchant can think of.

The more you check-in and interact with a location or business, the more points you earn. Points can earn you the position of “mayor” of a specific location. Eventually, you can become ‘mayor’ and most companies will offer special discounts and offers to the mayor. So there really is a payoff to “hanging out all day”.

In terms of promoting your business, these new sites are a marketing dream with unlimited potential. Some of the more notable ways that companies and individuals are utilizing these social media sites to drive traffic include:

Starbucks. For all FourSquare participants, each store has extended a local offer to the mayor of each location. Starbucks provides a $1 off frappuccino coupon to mayors nationwide.

Kentucky Derby and Courier Journal. This famous sporting event and largest local newspaper united forces to develop a city tour and bar crawl on Gowalla. Users could check-in to specified locations to earn points and even a badge for successful completion of the tour. This was a great revenue generator for the businesses and bars who were involved.

St. Edward’s University. This is a great example that shows you don’t have to be a retail location in order to benefit from location-based social media. The university used Whrrl to have more than 180 students, parents, staff and faculty to check-in and exchange photos and experiences during a graduation ceremony. Instead of having individual Facebook and Twitter updates, people collectively contributed and connected through Whrrl that created a sense of community on a very special day.

Put on your creative caps and try using these social media platforms to build some buzz for yourself. Lots of possibilities with nothing to lose. How can you use this to market your business or book?

Technorati Tags: location marketing, Social Media, social media marketing

The question that many authors ask is whether social media advertising actually works? Sure it’s great to set-up your Facebook Page, but will promoting it with pay per click ads do anything for you and your novel? Actually, it can. It’s important to understand your social media channel that you’re using. This means if you’re going to advertise on Facebook, educate yourself on the process. Same thing goes for LinkedIn DirectAds. Know the channel before you dive in.

As an author, keep in mind that social media is about connecting with people who want to read your book and who enjoy what you’ve written so far. They’re your target audience. Advertising via social media should be focused on bringing more of those same potential fans to your book’s social media profile. Target these users with advertising messages that will resonate with them, not with the general populace.

You’ll also want to make sure that the social media ads that you’re creating build on the social media content that you’re creating. For instance, if you’re sharing a chapter from your upcoming book on your blog then make sure that you’re teasing readers about it through your ads. As buzz is generated don’t forget to take part in the conversations. Traditional advertising methods no longer work in new media. It requires interaction on your part so be prepared to jump in and discuss what you’re promoting.

Advertising and social media can work well together as long as you’re taking a planned approach rather than haphazardly throwing dollars into a random click campaign. Take the time to get learn about your audience and how they typically respond to ads on each channel. Your diligence will pay off.

Technorati Tags: Book Marketing, Pay Per Click, Social Media

When you visit someone’s blog, take the time to read it and get to know what the blogger’s content and focus is about. Familiarity will give you better insight when it comes to leaving a more profound comment rather than commenting just for the sake of it. Avoid ambiguous comments like, “This is a great post. Thank you for writing it.” Try to leave something of value. If readers of your book simply stated that your book was a “nice read” it would be frustrating to you as an author. The same thing goes for blog comments. Make each one count.

Don’t shamelessly self-promote you or your book right out of the gate. Instead of appearing as a resource, it looks pretentious and arrogant. Add value to the blog and the conversation of others. Consider sharing other resources that are relevant to the topic of the post versus linking to your book’s website just for the sake of slapping a link into the comment.

Be considerate when you comment. If a blog post is focuses on an opinion or perspective that isn’t in tune with your own you don’t have carte blanche to verbally berate the blogger. It reflects poorly on you and it can generate a whopping size of bad publicity that will make it difficult to recover from as an author. Be a gentleman and a lady and politely agree to disagree or avoid commenting at all. In cyberspace, biting your tongue is more aligned with taking the high road than not.

Blog commenting isn’t an art, it just takes some common sense. Think before you post your comment. Once it’s out, it’s out for good.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Social Media, social media marketing

Understanding the transformation can provide you with some insight on how to take your own video trailer to the masses successfully. First off, the video wasn’t exorbitantly long, just more than four minutes. Although most video attention spans rank at one to two minutes, Socialnomics has a fast paced format that keeps the visuals coming quickly and creatively.

The content is condensed into eye-raising statistics that leave viewers feeling surprised and mesmerized at the same time. Each fact relates back to the book and a specific social media reference. Regardless of whether you’re a social media novice or a guru, the content that Socialnomics shares is exceptional. Plus, it’s set to a trend Fat Boy Slim song that creates a sense of urgency and movement.

So how does this factor into going viral and what can you do to tap into its power? Truth be known, most people want to be entertained. There’s a time and place for being conservative, but if you want to grab someone and shake them into a response, you’re more likely to get it done with something amusing.

Think about compiling tidbits and pieces in a unique way so that viewers will want to discover more. If that seems challenging, consider adding a bit of controversy by taking an opposing view point through your video. Anything clever is sure to get noticed and that’s what can bring you epic numbers of viewers.

Once you’ve accomplished what you want with your video, don’t rest on your laurels. Take a cue from Qualmann. Instead of deciding ‘mission accomplished’, he has created a reloaded version of the video to continue driving and building its momentum. Guess what? It’s working. Once you’re satisfied with your own video trailer, test it out and don’t be afraid to make adjustments and release fresh versions. There’s no right or wrong way.

Use Qualmann’s video as inspiration to craft your own and see where it will take you. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Technorati Tags: Book Marketing, book publicity, SEO, Social Media, social media marketing, Video, video book trailer, viral video

In Hawaii, our islands are separated by water, lots of it. Further, we are separated from the mainland by miles of open Ocean. Since our physical location isolates us, facilitating communication and community is crucial for our progress. Recently, our communities have begun to explore the role of social media in our own social progress, city to city, island to island.

Taking Social Media to the next level in Hawaii was the focus of the event held at the Hawaii Convention Center this past weekend. Graced with exceptional speakers, including our own Oahu resident Roxanne Darling, the conference touched on many subjects that intersect with social media including branding, start-up capital, privacy, Facebook, blogging, WordPress, customer service, fans, followers and the democratization of publishing.

Chris Pirillo communicated the importance of not trying to get creating community “right” if it means that you sacrifice creating any community at all. Perfectionism doesn’t belong in your social media strategy.

Chris Pirillo on using social media

Geoff Livingston presented his ideas about publishing content and creating branded networks. Using the example of Lady Gaga, he spoke about her ability to enthrall her community. She is not afraid to let her community use and contribute to her content. It has moved every one of her past six singles to #1. (Click on his name to read his presentation).

Check out Geoff Livingston

Andrew Hyde shared strategies and insights on using social media for start-ups, from getting funded to finding your audience and market share.

Andrew Hyde on start-ups and social media

Aaron Brazell showed us all of the trends and upcoming changes happening in WordPress (my favorite blogging platform). WordPress is about to release the highly anticipated WordPress 3.0 and Aaron explained how companies should look at the latest developments.

Aaron Brazell on WordPress trends

Jesse Stay took us on a tour of Google, Twitter and  Facebook in his presentation From Fishers To Farmers. The main idea he wanted us to adopt is to “fish where the fish are” meaning that with the number of people on the internet and using social platforms that you ignore social media at your own peril.

Jesse Stay is Social Too

Roxanne Darling rocked the use of video in social media in her presentation on Online Video For Business. Explaining the power of video to communicate, convince and convert, she detailed many different types of video and using them to market your business powerfully.

Roxanne Darling\’s video tips

Clearly, we are beginning to see this kind of education as paramount in the adoption of these technologies, philosophies and strategies to bond communities and bridge gaps, physical or otherwise. In the case of technology and society in Hawaii, I would think we would be early adopters – since we like to “talk story” so much. Sharing is part of the culture here. It is our Aloha.

And for many, the Aloha is why we live here.

So how do you think we will be effected by social media?

Technorati Tags: hawaii, Social Media

A Facebook application count from 2008 shows the current directory at 33,000 strong. That’s a heap of apps to choose from. Just because there’s an app doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good one. Here are a handful that we consider to be the best of the bunch.

DivShare

If you’re tired of being limited to the types of things you can with friends from your status box, like links and photos, then DivShare is the app for you. DivShare lets users share MP3s, images and any other type of file up to 200MB in size with no cap on storage space. This is great for exchanging large files.

Marketplace

With more than 9.7 million active users, this is definitely one of Facebook’s more popular apps. Marketplace is like Craig’s List for Facebook. You can sell, buy or search for anything you want. Plus, you can support charities by selling for a cause.

RockYou Live (formerly Super Wall)

This application lets you share videos, cards and even draw graffiti. Depending on what peeks your interest, you can easily share your favorite media item of the day, like a popular video from YouTube or a home movie of your dog’s silly pet trick. Discover new and interesting content from the web right from your Facebook wall.

Weekly Schedule

A wonderful application for anyone who has friends that don’t require Blackberry’s to manage their time. Use Weekly Schedule to keep tab on your pals and let them know where you are straight from Facebook. This is a convenient way to coordinate meetings, events or conferences.

weRead

Writing and reading go hand and hand. Show off your literary prowess with a this handy app that helps you catalog, track and share all the books that you’ve read, are reading or planning to read.

Whether you’re interested in getting organized, traveling or marketing yourself, Facebook seems to have an app that will suit everyone’s needs. Explore to find more.

Technorati Tags: applications, Facebook, Social Media

Beyond profiles LinkedIn offers quite a few handy applications that allow its members to integrate into their profiles. This enables members to use their LinkedIn accounts in a variety of ways and it takes the profile for a static page to an interactive hub for professionals. Take a peek below to learn about some of the applications available and how they can elevate your LinkedIn profile.

WordPress

From the name of the application you can probably guess what it does. Use it on LinkedIn to incorporate your existing blog feed into your profile. It’s fuss free. Install and done. The application automatically pulls new posts from your blog and populates them to your profile. It gives your blog added exposure and shares blog details with your LinkedIn connections.

Events

If you’ve ever wondered what professional happenings are scheduled in your local area or region, you need to install Events. Conferences and seminars are recommended based on your industry and job function, plus you can see what events your friends are attending too.

My Travel

If you’re a road warrior then this is the app for you. Track your travel and find out when your connections will be in the same city or location as you. Great way to meet-up and catch-up with out friends and it’s great for organizing travel details.

Google Presentation

Sometimes words from a profile need the support of images and pictures. Using visuals makes it easier to convey thoughts, ideas and showcase achievements. With Google Presentation you can upload a portfolio or show off projects. Upload a Powerpoint file and you’re finished.

Huddle Workspaces

Everyone knows that sending attachments via email can be challenging. Depending on the size of the attachment, servers can kick-back and make it difficult to share. With Huddle, you’re able to collaborate online through a private workspace. Documents are safe, secure and best of all, you can choose who gets to see what.

Visit LinkedIn for more great applications to add to your profile and make it stand out from the pack.

Technorati Tags: Linked In, LinkedIn, Social Media, social media marketing