Posts tagged Promotion
Your Promo Photo: What Are You Promoting?
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Photos from Morguefile.com
How old is the photo on your Web site or business card? If it’s more than two years old, it’s probably time to get another one. If you’ve changed your hair color or style, that’s another reason to have a new photo taken. If now’s the time, stop and think about what you want you want your photo to say about you.
Do you want to appear cool and professional?
If you’re promoting a book to a major publishing company, you probably need to have a professional photographer do your photos. Be sure that he or she can provide digital versions so that you can use your new pics on your Web site or blog.
But—make sure your photo isn’t so touched-up that people won’t recognize you. At a writers’ conference, I sat with a professional psychologist who wanted to write for the Christian market. She gave me her business card. The design was super, but her photo didn’t even look like her. She had sandy blonde hair and a healthy tan with freckles peeking out from under her makeup. Her photographer had air-brushed out all the “imperfections.” She had no wrinkles to show that she had been around for a while (with the experience to show for it). The freckles, one of her most alluring features, were nowhere to be found. (more…)
Promotion/Networking: Twitter for Writers
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Continuing the series on social media for writers, today I’ll share what I’ve learned about Twitter, the micro-blogging tool. If you are not familiar with Twitter, go to this article on Wikipedia now.
Instead of having friends as on Facebook, Twitter users have followers. I’ve used Twitter for several months now, following people mainly in the Christian publishing industry. Some of the same people are friends on Facebook. As of today, I am following 49 people, and 56 people are following me. Some say that you should follow everyone who follows you, but I don’t follow people unless it appears that their content will be of interest to me.
What I Like About Twitter
- Posts (tweet) are short and often provide links that I can access if I want to know more. It doesn’t take me long to scan the list and read the things I’m interested in.
- I can post announcements about new blog posts to help build my readership.
- I can follow people I want to know more about and ignore the ones that are following me in order to sell me something.
- The new Lists feature allows me to separate my preferred follows from the ones I’m just following as a courtesy.
What I Don’t Like About Twitter
- Some people resort to text message language in order to get a longer message in the 140 character limit. Besides having trouble interpreting some of it, I see this as cheating!
- Some people must just tweet all day long. There’s a limit to how much I want to hear from any one person, no matter how much they know about writing and publishing. If you have that much to say, use a blog.
- I’m following publishing professionals for information about writing and publishing, not about where they’re going, what they’re having for dinner (breakfast, lunch, snack), or what the weather is like where they live.
Twitter Marketing Effectiveness
Although there are things I don’t like about Twitter (and other social media, for that matter), I have to admit that they can be effective. I do see an increase in the traffic on my blogs for a day or so after I tweet about a post.
Recently, a family in Vermont needed funding for medical treatment for their special needs baby. The mother let friends know about the problem via Twitter. Someone set up a page on her Web site where people could make donations through Paypal. The message went out on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. See the details in this article, “How Social Media Saved Jaeli.”
Other Articles About Twitter
Seven Twitter People Every Author Should Follow
Nine Ways to Promote Your Book Using Social Media
See my previous posts on Facebook here and on social media in general here.
Read my post on Twitter, Facebook, and Tweetdeck.
Promotion/Place: Networking
0In the last few posts, I’ve talked about the Product and Promotion components of a Four P’s marketing plan for writers. See the Golden Rule Marketing article for a quick review of the Four P’s. Next, let’s move on to the Place component, being in the right place at the right time to get the business (writing assignment, book contract, editing client).
Networking is a way to develop contacts, people who may become customers or sources of word-of-mouth recommendations (referrals). It is “informal communication,” and it occurs in-person, over the phone, by mail, or online. You won’t necessarily make a sales pitch for your business with every contact, but you can use networking to establish yourself as a credible source of information on your specialty. Thinking back on my own experience, I realize that I chose my doctor, my dentist, and my child’s music teacher based on referrals from neighbors and friends. I did check their credentials, but it was the referral that started me looking at these people initially.
Word of mouth has always been the most effective means of promotion for products or services. Marketing professionals often use the term “viral marketing.” You know what a virus does to your body when you pick it up through your “network” of friends, family, and coworkers. An e-mail virus creates havoc by sending and resending itself through individual e-mail accounts. Each e-mail user’s address book represents his or her network. Each person in this address book has his or her own network. When network meets network, the virus propagates itself throughout the Internet community.
Do you have existing clients or customers? Give them an incentive to refer your services to others. Write down the names of all of the people you see every day. How many of them might need your services at some point? How many of them know someone who might need your services? Use your network to pass the word about your business.
More Info:
Word of Mouth Marketing: http://www.wordofmouthbook.com/book/
Article on viral marketing by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson: http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm
Networking to create leads: http://www.marketingpower.com/content18916.php
Promotion: Next, a Web Site
0A writer seeking to get work published must have an online presence—a Web site, a blog, or both. Many writers try to get by with a blog provided by one of the free sources, but I think it’s better to have a brochure-style Web site with an associated blog or a Web site that includes a link to a free blog.
The Site Itself
If you have budgeted for a site, I congratulate you. Since most beginning writers prefer to use a free site, I provide information on site-builders that allow you to start out free and upgrade later to a paid version.
Both of the companies listed below have ads in the free versions. To get rid of ads, you must upgrade to a paid version. Both have a blog feature so you can have your blog and other information on the same site.
www.webs.com (formerly Freewebs.com)
Some site-builders offer a free trial so that you can work with their product a bit before you have to pay. Check out these three and look at the pricing page before you sign up for a trial. I have tried all except Homestead myself.
Highpowersites.com (subsidiary of EZ Christian Hosting)
Vistaprint (Offers business cards to coordinate with design of Web site)
Keep in mind that free builders are not going to offer the range of options that you get when you pay. If you have budgeted for a site, try the free versions before you make your final choice. If you must begin with a free site, set a goal to upgrade to the paid version within six months. Some of the options above are available for about $5.00 per month. It’s a small price to pay for a professional-looking Web presence.
The Domain Name
When you set up a free site with Webs.com, for example, you get a Webs.com address. See my sample site at http://www.freewebs.com/emilyakin/. Everyone who sees this URL will know that this is a free site, because it has the Freewebs URL first. My site is a subdomain of Freewebs.
It looks more professional to have your own domain name. Choose the domain name you’d like to have, like www.yourname.net. Go to www.godaddy.com or www.networksolutions.com and buy it. Have alternatives ready, because your first choice might not be available. Prices vary depending on the extension (.com, .org, .net, .info). Buy it for two years the first time because that will get you a better rank in the search engines. Once you own your domain name, you can re-direct it to a free or low-cost site. You will use www.yourname.net on your business cards and other promotional pieces. Once you’ve set this up, when the visitor types in or clicks on that URL, she will be taken to your free site and will probably not even realize you are using the freebie.
Beware: Some of the companies that offer free sites also offer to sell you a domain name. If you buy your domain name through one of these outfits, be sure that you will own the domain name and not the company. If you should decide to change to another site-building company, you want to be able to take your domain name with you. If your current company owns it, you’ll have to buy it from them in order to change companies.
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It is possible to construct a free Web site on www.wordpress.com, but you would need instructions on how to do that. I plan to put step-by-step instructions on my Wired to Write blog soon. Click over and subscribe so that you won’t miss those instructions.
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