December 26, 2012 · 10:23 pm

How to Use Hashtags for Market Research on Twitter

image

Use a tool such a Hootsuite to create a dashboard of relevant hashtag streams

Let’s say you’re writing a vegan cookbook. Wouldn’t it be great to understand what your target audience of food-loving vegans are buzzing about at this exact moment?

Hashtags are one of the keys to Twitter success. Their value is twofold; they help you to (1) discover the tweets that are most relevant to you, and (2) ensure that your tweets make it in front of those who they are most relevant for.

For starters, a hashtag is simply a keyword that is preceded by a “#” sign. For example, #book.

When you see a hashtag in a tweet, it is a live link which, when clicked, will reveal a feed of tweets, across all of Twitter, that include that hashtag. These feeds are what make Twitter so valuable, not to mention, manageable.

Discover the Right Tweets:

You’ll want to use a tool, such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck, which allows you to organize Twitter streams in a dashboard. Create a collection of streams based on hashtags that are most relevant for you.

How do you find relevant hashtags? Use the search function within Twitter itself, or any of the management tools. Type in a hashtag and see what kind of results you get. If the last mention of that hashtag was three days ago, it won’t be a very active stream. However, when tweets are only a few minutes apart, you’ve tapped into a community of other twitterers who are passionate about that topic.

If you’re working on a vegan cookbook, for example, create streams of keywords that will allow you to get a taste of the market and do a bit of research. Try tags such as #vegan, #recipe, #health, #nutrition, and #cookbook.

With such relevant streams on your dashboard, you’ll begin to pick up on other hashtags that this audience uses. After a few weeks of tweaking your feeds, your dashboard can become part of your newspaper-coffee routine, providing you with the latest updates on the subject(s) you’re most passionate about.

What are some of your favorite niche tweets?

Leave a Comment

Filed under Social Media

Tagged as , ,

October 17, 2012 · 3:55 pm

5 Steps to Begin Measuring Your Social Media Efforts for Your Book

Are your social media efforts helping to spread awareness of your book? Do you keep track of how many clicks you are driving to your book’s retail page on Amazon.com or BN.com? Here’s a simple way to help you measure your impact.

1. Set up a bitly account. Bitly is a URL shortener and bookmarking tool that allows you to measure the clicks on the URLs that you share.

2. Create a shorted URL for your book’s Amazon.com page. After copying the link of your book’s page on Amazon.com, paste it into bitly. Your long link will be shortened into a bit.ly/ link, which will appear in a popup box.

3. Customize it. By hovering over the bit.ly/ link, you’ll see the option to “Customize.” Now you can add a word or two that represent your book title, or your name. Remember, the shorter the link, the better, especially when using it in tweets.

4. Copy it and share it. Once you’ve created your custom link, use it in your book-related tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, etc.

5. Measure it. After you begin using your custom link, you can keep track of how many users are clicking on it. In other words, you’ll know how much traffic you’re driving to your book’s Amazon.com page or the page of any other retailer you create a custom link for. Simply go into your bitly account and click on the “i” for info under the link you’ve created.

And I’ll even throw in a bonus, #6. Add a “+” to the end of any bitly link, including your own, and you’ll be taken straight to the insights page, which will tell you how many clicks the link has had, from where the clicks came from, as well as a breakdown by country. For example, bit.ly/inpursuit+

Connect with me on Facebook or Twitter for more social media tips and tricks for authors!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 18, 2012 · 8:20 pm

10 Reasons Why Every Author Should Have a Facebook Page

Along every author’s publishing journey there comes a point where he or she must decide whether or not to set up a Facebook page to promote the book. But I’d urge you to think beyond creating a page just to market and promote a book, after all, there’s much more to it than that; think of a Facebook page as a place where you’ll be building a dynamic community of readers and frequently engaging them in discussions around your book, your work, and your experiences as an author.

To simplify your decision, here are 10 reasons why you shouldn’t think twice about setting up a Facebook page as an author.

Your Facebook page:

  1. allows friends, family, and future readers to experience your publishing journey with you.
  2. gives you a place to share your personal story as an author, from the day you won an essay contest at school to the day your first book was published.
  3. provides you with an around-the-clock fan focus group that’s ready to help you pick a cover or nail down a subtitle.
  4. boosts awareness of your book before it hits the shelves.
  5. allows you to reach and talk to a hyper-targeted audience of potential readers.
  6. facilitates getting those priceless, early reviews on Amazon.
  7. provides a community where readers can discuss the book with the author as well as other readers from around the world.
  8. drives click-throughs to the book’s page on online retailer sites.
  9. offers readers exclusive supplements to the book, such as videos, interviews, Q&A’s, photos, or deleted chapters.
  10. extends a reader’s relationship with the book well beyond the last page.

I’m feeling generous, so here’s an 11th reason: if you create a strong fanbase of readers, your publisher will be much more confident signing your next book since you already have a community of fans just waiting to read your next words.

Have you set up a Facebook page for your book yet? “Like” us on Facebook for tips and tricks on making your page rock.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Social Media

June 10, 2012 · 5:02 pm

Why You Should (Social) Network with Other Authors

Can you think of another product category where there are over 300,000 new and unique products introduced to the market each year? Publishing is a unique industry in that sense. Although all of those new books are competing for shelf space, they’re not necessarily in competition with one another.

Whereas, Coke and Pepsi will never be friends, Author A, who wrote a book on dating, and Author B, who wrote a bodice-ripping romance novel, can be great friends and benefit from a symbiotic relationship.

Building relationships with other authors is an integral part of the publishing process. Who else truly understands what it’s like to dedicate months, even years, of your life to writing a book? Who else can relate to the challenges of working with a publishing house, or self-publishing? And who else spends their Sundays tweeting and posting new content to grow and nurture their communities of supportive readers?

To build a relationship with other authors, it’s important to connect with them through the various social media channels that you, and they, are using. If it’s Twitter, give them a hand and retweet them every now and then; you know how good it feels to be retweeted. If it’s Facebook, leave them a nice post on their page’s Timeline, showing your support for their book.

Invest in developing connections with a few authors whose books complement yours. Then put your heads together and come up with ways to leverage the communities you’ve grown to benefit the both of you.

One great example of this is New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shayne, who has partnered up with four of her author friends – Shelly Thacker, Teresa Medeiros, Susan Mallery, and Jane Porter – to give away a free Kindle this month. Fans can click on the Contest app on Facebook to unveil the author’s secret to happiness in “The Romance Writers’ Blissful Secrets Scavenger Hunt.” Then fans have to visit and “Like” the four other authors’ pages to unveil their blissful secrets. After they’ve collected all five, they can enter the contest by e-mailing the answers and their details.

In short, these ladies are sharing their fan-bases. If you have 20,000 fans, and I have 10,000 fans and she has 15,000 fans, let’s try to drive those fans to “Like” all of our pages so we can all have 45,000 fans. Brilliant.

In the end, having these types of relationships with other authors will only help you and your book. If it’s not running a campaign together, I’m sure your new author friends would be happy to post a simple message about your new book if you, in turn, promote theirs.

Take a short break from growing your own community, and think about how you can connect with other authors to grow your communities together.

Let’s all grab hands and sing Kumbaya!

Tell me, how has connecting with other authors throughout the publishing process helped you?

Connect with us on Facebook for more social media tips and tricks for authors!

Leave a Comment

Filed under publishing

May 31, 2012 · 2:52 pm

How to Choose the Right Social Network for Your Book

Social media is an integral part of any book marketing campaign. But few realize just how much time and dedication it takes to make it really work. That’s why it’s best to be strategic about your use of social media from the start.

Step one is to decide which platform or platforms are going to work best for you and your book. Just as every book is unique, each social network brings different opportunities to the table. Realize that it may be better to focus your energies on the “best fit” option, rather than to create profiles on many and not have the time to maintain them.

Here are some tips to help you decide which social network is the best fit for building buzz for your book.

Facebook Page: As Facebook approaches 1-billion users, you can be confident that your audience is spending some time here. Facebook’s hyper-targeting capabilities through their ads platform allow you to reach your ideal audience and share your story, through content, on a consistent basis. Be sure to set up a page – not a profile, and not a group. You are building a community around a brand, and that brand is yourself.

Google+: Although it doesn’t have the userbase that Facebook has, there are a few communities that are far more active here than on any other social network. Photographers were some of the first to embrace Google+, which has become a vibrant photo-sharing community; thus, it remains the choice network for the majority of pro photographers. If your book has a strong photo element to it, or if it has anything to do with photography itself, Google+ is your place. Another active sect are techies and gamers. If you’re looking to reach the tech nerds, take a look at Google+.

Twitter: Although it can seem like a bottomless pit of noise, Twitter offers authors a fantastic way to connect with those interested in your book’s content through the use of hashtags. As a result, it’s an especially good fit for non-fiction authors. For example, an author writing a biography of Mark Twain could add #marktwain, #americanlit, and #biography to tweets to ensure that they reach people who are searching for more info on Mark Twain.

Pinterest: Is there a visual element to your book? Is the topic supported by endless images? Pinterest is an image tagging and sharing site, which allows users to keep track of favorite images from the web, but also to subscribe to other users’ pin boards that interest them. Let’s say your book is about World War II, fashion, or weddings. All three are topics that are supported by endless images. Create boards for your topic and be a leader in curating relevant and intriguing images not only from your book, but from around the web.

LinkedIn: Does your book meet a development need for professionals? If so, then LinkedIn should be a part of your social marketing strategy. Build up your LinkedIn profile, and be sure to list your current position as “Author of ___”. Then begin exploring existing, active groups based on your topic. For example, if your book is about business leaderships, then start building your voice in groups such as the 80k+-member “Leadership Think Tank”.

YouTube: You usually wouldn’t focus all of your social media energy on YouTube, but if your book will have video supplements, then it’s a good network to have set up; especially being that it is a part of the Google portfolio, and therefore will help with discoverability through search.

Then there are the niche, and micro social media networks. Indeed, there are forums out there for just about any topic you can think of. While those are important, I’d recommend picking at least one of the major networks above and start developing your personal brand.

Which social network(s) did you choose to promote your personal brand and promote your book? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to like us on Facebook.

2 Comments

Filed under Facebook, Google, Pinterest, publishing, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter, YouTube

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 30, 2012 · 2:55 pm

5 Social Media Tips for Authors

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliejordanscott/5321143470/Book publishing has its challenges. There’s finding a publisher or learning how to self-publish, endless hours of researching and writing, managing multiple rounds of edits, getting a cover design that makes you happy, making sure the book will be available at your local bookstore, and then in the midst of everything you have to grow your platform and build the buzz so that when the book launches people will be eager to buy it.

Social media has become a measuring stick for an author’s influence and reach. An author with a powerful and engaged community on Facebook is much more appealing than an author without. A strong social media platform sends the message that when you speak, people listen. Thus, when you write, people read.

Yes, it’s time consuming. But it’s a vital part of a successful book publishing experience. So here are five things you, as an author, can do to boost your social platform:

Choose the right social networks

At the very least, you’ll want to choose one social media network to focus on and build, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Each has their strengths and benefits, so make a strategic decision on what is best for your personal brand and your book.

Add as much “about” information as you can when setting up your profiles. You don’t want visitors to wonder what your page is about, tell them. Don’t forget to add the url of your website or blog as well.

Share your publishing story

Promoting your book doesn’t begin the day it comes off the press; it begins long before that. Start growing your communities in social media when your book is in its infancy. Share your journey through the writing and publishing process with your fans and followers. This way, when the book comes off the press, you’ve already spent months introducing it to your audience and they’ll be eager to get their hands on a copy.

But what if you’re already miles through your journey? Facebook Timeline allows you to back-date posts; take advantage of that. Gather those photos of your manuscript sprawled across the living room floor, pictures from late nights with your coffeepot and keyboard, and those “Milestone” moments along the way, and add them to your page.

Post Consistently

Reserve a half hour every day or so to dedicate to social media. Create engaging content that you believe your fans will like, comment on, retweet, click-through, or share. The more you can get people to engage with your content, especially on Facebook, the greater reach your posts will have. Social isn’t about starting today and reaping its rewards tomorrow. It takes time; those who benefit most start early and are consistent throughout the process.

Create a Content Calendar

You’re swamped with deadlines and the last thing you have time to do is sit around thinking about what to post to social media. Develop a simple calendar that helps guide your content. For example, Monday you’ll post a quote, (quotes are always simple, solid pieces of content that fans love), Tuesday you’ll post a link to a blog post, (you’ve been blogging for a few years, so this is just a simple recycling of materials), Wednesday you’ll post an image that illustrates your book’s progress, Thursday you’ll link to a timely news article that’s relevant to your topic, Friday you’ll ask your fans a question, then you can take a couple days off. You’ll notice a lot less stress when you start your day already knowing what you’re going to post, rather than having to start from scratch.

Put Social Everywhere

Add social plugins to your blog and/or website. You always want to drive new traffic and integrate social media into all of your marketing efforts. If you’re printing bookmarks to distribute, make sure you’ve added your Facebook URL and Twitter handle. Make it simple for people to connect with you every step of the way, and your community will take off before you know it.

What do you think is the most vital step in building your author platform with social media? Let me know in the comments, and please “Like” us on Facebook for more social media tips for authors.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Facebook, publishing, Twitter

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

May 27, 2012 · 2:27 pm

Another Eurovision Loss, Another Missed Opportunity for Malta

TVM’s Facebook page for Eurovision with 2,700 fans

It’s over. After all that excitement, buzz, anticipation, antics on Sunday morning television, “flash mobs” in Valletta, Eurovision is over.

Yet, after months of tours, performances, and publicity, what does Malta have to show for it? Further, what does Kurt have to show for it?

I won’t pretend I’ve been watching Eurovision since I was a child; actually, this is just the second year for me. But when I think about Eurovision I see an opportunity to capture the global stage, not just for a couple of nights, but for a couple months. An opportunity to promote this beautiful country, its history and heritage, as well as its talented representative to the greater European audience. An opportunity to build relationships and nurture those relationships all twelve months of the year. And is this audience not your country’s biggest market? Tourists?

So while others may see last night’s event as a loss for Malta, I see it as a missed opportunity.

About two months ago we took an audit of the social media presence of all 42 participating countries. Last night we added post-show metrics and are now able to measure the growth of each performer leading up to the event. Unsurprisingly, Facebook was the most widespread channel being used to broadcast a country’s Eurovision story.

Loreen, Sweden’s representative and this year’s winner, was one of the few who used Facebook strategically to grow her reach, build buzz around her song, and engage her fans on a consistent basis. Not only did she grow her community by 20,000 in two months, but she connected with fans from across Europe through a strategic content campaign. The hashtag, #Loreen12P, was the center of all of her outreach across social, including the tag for her Instagram campaign where fans could upload a photo of themselves portraying the lyrics to her song in a creative way and be a part of her fan video.

Loreen’s Facebook page, which had 83k fans prior to the Eurovision finale

Am I saying that Sweden won because of Facebook? No. Sweden won because her song rocked, and that’s how it should be. But did her social media push help? Without a doubt.

It’s a pity that here in Malta we did not invest in growing a community of fans across Europe who could actually affect the vote. Instead, lots of energy was spent entertaining locals with publicity stunts, which although great fun, just further inflated the bubble of local hype. As a result, we have absolutely nothing tangible to show for our marketing efforts. And sadly, Kurt, has nothing to show for it either.

On the other hand, Loreen, and the others who put their energy behind social campaigns, have a fan base that they can continue to reach, even now that Eurovision is over. Thus, when their new records release they’ll have communities that they can tap to build buzz and catapult album sales; plus, they’ll have fans from across Europe who will support them when they go on tour. Unfortunately, Kurt has none of that.

In the US, there is American Idol. This week marked the finale and the naming of the season’s winner. Where does FOX, the network, focus their marketing? Facebook. Contestants’ pages are filled with their firsthand experiences and their personal stories. FOX even provides a set of custom apps, including one for voting through Facebook. Jessica Sanchez, this year’s runner-up has 318,000 fans. When she posted, “This isn’t the end for me,” after the final show she got 20,000 Likes and 5,000 comments. She lost. But did she really lose?

Eurovision is over. Had we invested our efforts in building a social media platform for Malta’s contestant we could have easily been sitting on a massive, engaged community of European Eurovision voters that support Malta. Come next year, we’d already have a respectable base of European fans to introduce our new contestant to. Each year, we’d grow stronger and stronger, and influence more and more voters. But instead we walk away with our heads down.

Did we really lose? Yup.

Could we have done better? Yup.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Facebook, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,