Search Results for: click to tweet

Easy for Your Readers: “Click to Tweet”

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Twitter-Feature.

Another great way to invite readers to spread the word about your book is to implement “pre-fabricated” tweets, where you choose the text from your books manuscript (similar to a link).  You can set up this clever feature in your blog posts or website pages, for example in the first 10 percent of your e-book, in the middle, and at the end.
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To implement pre-worded tweets use a website called “Click to Tweet“, and make it easy for your readers and followers to recommend your books on social media or on reader communities, such as Goodreads or LibraryThing.  And don’t forget to add this code into your LinkedIn articles!   Your readers only have to make one click, which is so much easier than to type a text and add a link to it.
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As you have already a sales page on Amazon you can add the URL in your tweet form.  Here is an example of the code for a useful guide- book for authors, how to create a book trailer that we published a while ago:
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<a target=”_blank” href=”http://ctt.ec/Rsd37″><img src=”http://clicktotweet.com/img/tweet-graphic-1.png” alt=”Tweet: Tweet: 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer” /></a>
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Once you are signed up at “Click to Tweet” it will show up as ready-to-send-tweet.

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Everything in this HTML Text is already “pre-fabricated”, you only have to add your title.  And best of all: you will receive the statistics for your tweet, as announced:

We’ll track all clicks on this link and provide detailed analytics.

We’ll shorten any links in your tweet and provide tracking stats.

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Here is a great video that shows you how to implement the tweet to your text.  “Click to Tweet” is not only a great tool to spread the word about your book, it should also be implemented in each of your blog articles or in your website.
More about this at YourWriterPlatform  @clicktotweet
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BlogTyrant Writes:
“Use a website called “Click to Tweet”.  All you do is enter your quote in the box on the right and then click “generate link”.  You then use the URL that they give you as the destination for your anchor text.  You can add these at any part of your post, it doesn’t have to be a block quote.  It could just be a cool little phrase you use to sum up a paragraph or article.  Make sure you make the quote short enough to allow people to retweet it within Twitter itself and make sure you include a tiny URL of the post where the quote came from.”

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You will realize that the number of tweets about your books or other text skyrockets!  Another way to use tweets: Let readers “Pay with a Tweet“.  Instead of giving your book away for free, let your readers promote your book first before you give it away – which means more free promotion and exposure for your book.  Read all the details in this article.  Who needs KDP Select free days anymore…?  You can do this even from your own blog or website.

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day!  Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

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How to Feed Your Tweets

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Twitter-Logo

What, when and where to tweet


Are you sometimes scrambling what to tweet?  An important point with Twitter is to choose your passion, the topic you want to talk about and also to have your own brand, something people know you for.  

You certainly can send the occasional tweet about something completely different, but for the most part stick to your important topics.

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Content to Tweet About:

  • Re-tweet news in your field on the Internet (Internet & news papers/magazines)
  • Articles from your website, or your own blog posts & guest posts
  • Set up Google alerts (http://google.com/alerts) for news content

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How Often Send Out Tweets?
Unless you have ten-thousands of followers, the chances that many people will see all your tweets and click on links are very small.  The number of followers and the tweeting frequency should match.  As no one is 24/7 on Twitter, you might have to send your posts two or three times a day, maybe in the morning, around noon time and early evening.  As more followers you have and the more you want to build a brand, or announce events, the more you should tweet.
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Automate  and Save Time
First of all:  Create a file (Notepad or Word document) and create a long list of tweets, using your own blog, guest blog, news etc. from which you copy/paste tweets, using headlines and URL’s.  Second:  create a folder where you place all your images you might use on Twitter or Google+, some you used on your blog, but also new ones. See our blog about free images you can get on the Internet.  Automate your tweets so that you don’t have to sit in front of the computer all day long. There are several tools you can use: We are scheduling on Hootsuite and also on Futuretweets, other providers are Twitterfeed, and Twaitter (now Gemln). They are slightly different and they serve different purposes.
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Twitterfeed 
Twitterfeed.com feeds your blog to Twitter, Facebook etc.  A YouTube video shows you step by step how to start Twitter feeds, however there are approx. twenty more videos to watch on YouTube.
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Twaitter / Gremln
Twaitter.com – now Gremln is a free product that allows you to schedule your own tweets (up to 20 an hour) on a single or recurring basis. The process is very easy.  You will also find Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn integration, detailed analytics, customizable dashboards, stunning reports, multi-user management, and a whole lot more.

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Link Your Blog to Twitterfeed or Twaitter (Gremln)
Every time your blog – or website for that matter – has something new it will be sent to Twitter. The other two options, Twaitter and TwitterAdder are where you should put all your best blog posts. When you’ve built up thirty or fifty blog posts, you will have a handful of favorites that you would like to recommend others to read.  Post the links in Twaitter or Twitterfeed and schedule them.
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Important:

  • Re-tweets other content – a lot!
  • Decide what your brand is on social media sites
  • Set up automated tweets based on your sources
  • Post often on Google+ and connect it with Twitter (automatically transfers to Twitter)
  • Write a blog and feed the posts automatically to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn etc.

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Monitor Your Traffic
With the increased flow of tweets you will get more replies from people. Be prepared to answer them!  You’re also going to have to carefully monitor the traffic that’s coming to your blog and from which Social Media site or organic search it is coming.. This is a great way to understand which of your tweets are working and which are not.

Using the analytics on your blog, you can see how many hits you are getting:  When do you get peak traffic?
Re-arrange your tweets a little bit and don’t forget to use hashtags with relevant keywords. Try new things. A few video blogs from YouTube, or a series of special blog posts that you can link to.  Over time, you can get others to discover you and getting them to re-tweet your posts.

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Never Too Early
Building your brand on Twitter – or any other social media site – doesn’t work overnight. It takes time and as earlier you start as better for you as an author. You will want to have a big following long BEFORE your book is finished (maybe even before you start writing) in order to have a great start when launching your work.

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Tagged: choose the best times to tweet, choose the right followers on Twitter, Google+ and connect it with Twitter, re-tweet often, twitter feed, what to tweet, when is peak traffic on Twitter

Twitter: Good Timing for Tweets & Re-Tweets?

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Ever wondered why no one re-tweeted?  Or on the contrary: why you got so many re-tweets for something you did not expect to become viral?   Dan Zarrella is a social media and “viral marketing scientist”. He studied what makes certain Tweets more viral than others and found several reasons:
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      • The number of followers
      • The semantic tweet content (timely, freebies, lists, blog posts, links)
      • Re-Tweet Timing – peaks between 12pm – 2pm – at least in North America, also not for Europe, Asia and Pacific Regions
      • Cascading Effect: The more times content is re-tweeted, the more likely it is to be further spread.
      • Re-Tweet others “”You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”
      • Please ReTweet” or “Please RT”

Dan Zarrella writes a fantastic Social Media Marketing blog. Read his post: Examples of Viral Marketing Campaigns and his blog post about Re-Tweets.

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The Art of Getting Retweets

Credit: http://visual.ly/art-getting-retweets

Rachel Sprung listed 11 Guarantied Ways to Get Others to Re-Tweet Your Content:

  • Discuss Current Events 
  • Nearly 80% of retweeted content is about news
  • Don’t Be Overly Self-Promotional
  • Include Links to Your Website
  • Content that is credible, intelligent, and valuable
  • Over 50% of retweeted content is entertainment-related
  • Ask Others to Retweet You
  • Consider the Timing of Your Tweets

Read the rest of the reasons for re-tweets in her blog post at Hubspot.com
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Timing of your tweets:
It seems Friday is the best day of the week, to get re-tweets. Tweet between 12 noon and 2pm to get a maximum of re-tweets for your Twitter content.
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If you have a WordPress blog: Did you already install the “Re-tweet” button? Just found a site
where they describe how to do it, both, automatically or manually: http://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-retweet/   Happy Tweeting!

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Hyper Smash

Pingate

What, How and When to Feed Your Tweet

 

The important point with Twitter is to choose your passion, the topic you want to talk about and also to have a brand. You certainly can send the occasional tweet about something completely different, but for the most part stick to your brand.

There is so much relevant content you can use on a daily basis:

  • Re-tweet news in your field on the Internet
  • Set up and use Google alerts (http://google.com/alerts)
  • Articles from your website
  • Your own blog posts
  • Any guest posts on your blog

How often should you tweet?
Unless you have millions of followers, the chances that a lot of people will see all your tweets and click on links are very small. The number of followers and the tweeting frequency should match. As no one is 24/7 on Twitter, you might have to send your posts two or three times a day, maybe in the morning, around noon time and early evening – if you have already a healthy following in the thousands.  As more followers you have (ten thousands!) and the more you want to build a brand, the more you should tweet – however limit it to not more than once the same tweet per hour.

Tools to automate tweets & save time
Automate your tweets so that you don’t have to sit in front of the computer all day long. There are three tools you can use: Twitterfeed, TwitterAdder and Twaitter. They are slightly different and they serve different purposes.

Twitterfeed 
Twitterfeed.com feeds your blog to Twitter, Facebook etc.  A YouTube video shows you step by step how to start Twitter feeds, however there are approx. twenty more videos to watch on YouTube.

TwitterAdder
TweetAdder.com will help you – for a fee. However they offer you up to 250 tweets and 250 followers for free – plus when you watch this tutorial  (Promo code: DISCOUNT20) you will receive 20% off Tweetadder 3.0. You name a Twitter account, and it will find all the followers of that person. It will then (over time) automatically follow these people for you, on the basis that a lot will follow back – if you have made your Twitter personal info interesting enough – and if you twitter interestingly enough.

Twaitter / Gremln
Twaitter.com – now Gremln is a free product that allows you to schedule your own tweets (up to 20 an hour) on a single or recurring basis. The process is very easy.  You will also find Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn integration, detailed analytics, customizable dashboards, stunning reports, multi-user management, and a whole lot more.

Link your blog to Twitterfeed, Twaitter (Gremln) or TwitterAdder
Every time your blog – or website for that matter – has something new it will get sent to Twitter. The other two options, Twaitter and TwitterAdder are where you should put all your best blog posts. When you’ve built up thirty or fifty blog posts, you will have a handful of favorites that you would like to recommend others to read. Post the links in Twaitter or TwitterAdder and schedule them (recurring).

Take these steps:

  • Decide what your brand is on social media sites
  • Set up automated tweets based on your sources
  • Keep a blog and feed the posts automatically to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn etc.
  • Select your best blog posts to auto-tweet
  • Monitor and change as necessary

Monitor your traffic
With the increased flow of tweets you will get more replies from people. Be prepared to answer them!  You’re also going to have to carefully monitor the traffic that’s flowing to your blog. This is the only way to understand which of your tweets are working and which are not.

Using the analytics on your blog you can see how many hits you are getting. What time of day do you not get any visitors? When do you get peak traffic? Re-arrange tweets to try and even things out a little. Then try new things. Maybe a few video blogs on YouTube, or a series of special blog posts that you can link to again and again. Over time, you can get others to discover you and getting them to re-tweet your posts.

Building your brand on Twitter – or any other social media site doesn’t work overnight. It takes time and as earlier you start as better for you as an author. You will want to have a big following BEFORE your book is finished in order to have a great start when launching your work.

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Hyper Smash

How to Get More Re-Tweets

Want More Re-Tweets and spread the word about the launch of your new bestseller book? 

Your audience on Twitter follows potential leaders in their area or industry. They want to learn more, have access to more content, and reach people they might not otherwise meet in real life.

  • Followers want content that is credible, intelligent, and valuable.
    More than 70% of re-tweeted content is about news, and more than 50% of re-tweeted content is either instructional or entertainment-related. Think books!
  • If you have something valuable to share, you probably want as many people as possible to spread that content or message, and simply asking others to re-tweet that content can be an effective way to generate more re-tweets from other Twitter users. Using the words “Please Re-Tweet” will generate 4x more re-tweets.
  • Your content is less likely to be re-tweeted if it is centered around your products and services. When tweeting, keep in mind the information your target audience craves and the problems they need to solve, and tweet that type of content most.
  • Don’t forget: the length of a tweet cannot exceed 140 characters. Not allowing room in your tweets for people to add “RT @….” plus their comment, will discourage people from re-tweeting. The easier you make it for others to re-tweet your content, the more likely they will do it.
  • Always include hashtags in your tweets. If someone isn’t following you but is searching the hashtag, they will still see your tweet and potentially spread your content.
  • Spreading links back to your website and blog content should be natural. Get as many people to retweet your content as possible so that more than just your immediate Twitter followers will see your blog posts, ebooks, and other content.
  • “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” If you retweet someone else’s content, your Twitter username may stand out to that person among all the clutter on Twitter.
  • Make it easy for others who consume your content – a blog post, an e-book, or a webinar – to tweet about it. Add social media share buttons and links to all of the content you produce to encourage people to re-tweet it with just the click of a button.
  • Timing is important: late in the day and week are the most re-tweetable time periods. Compare it with your time zone. And Twitter is not only popular in the USA. After all, it’s a world wide web…

 

Recipe for Failure – and How YOU Can Do Better

how to use sharing buttons

This weekend I found a huge list of “Upcoming Author Conferences & Events for Authors” at the Selfpublishingadvice.org website, run by The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), an organization which I highly recommend to independent authors.
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Great Events for Authors.
This list of upcoming international events contained everything from book fairs, festival of literature, publishing conferences, writers weeks in many parts of the world, literature festivals, a self-publishing conference, the Book Expo America (BEA) to the famous 2016 San Francisco Writers Conference and the Paris Book Fair.

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How to Spread the Word?
As I like to let our clients and readers of our blogs know about all events related to books and writing, I started to post the events for February and March on our timeline at Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest – or so I wanted… However, I got stuck very soon, as almost all of these event organizers did either not have:

  • any sharing buttons at all
  • only sharing buttons for Twitter and Facebook – or only Facebook
  • only one or two buttons to their own social media sites
  • no sharing buttons – but TWICE buttons to their own social media sites
  • only a Facebook like button, but no sharing button
  • IF there were sharing buttons, they often miss Google+
  • and the worst: NO follow buttons and NO sharing buttons!

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Unprofessional – but Bragging…

“BookExpo America (BEA) is the leading book and author event for the North American publishing industry”. As they do not even have a single sharing button on their event website, how should journalists and publishing insiders spread the word about the event?  Charging premium prices for membership as well as for the event, one would think they could afford a professional marketing team.
Missing sharing buttons on the San Francisco Writers Conference as well…  They have no sharing buttons whatsoever, only two buttons to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
I am not listing every event here that offers no possibility to spread the word online as it would go on for pages.  At none of these event websites did I find a pre-worded Twitter “Click-to-Tweet” button (or other social media for that matter).
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Social Media Sharing Buttons.
At the Amelia Island Book Festival page, visitors can only share via Facebook.  However Facebook restricts very much these kind of posts, and only a few of their followers can see them.  Many people use FB only for their private accounts. It is important to have sharing buttons with Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.  You never know where people are active, and not every post is suitable for every site.
For example, I personally would not post about a writers conference or book fair on Pinterest, but for sure on LinkedIn, where I am connected with other writers and publishing professionals.
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Many users on social media sites don’t know what to post every day. And finding an article or a website with publishing / writing news that can be shared is always a welcome post – done in a second.  To spread the word they do not even need to open their own social media page.  Just click and go!
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Google+ Buttons for Better SEO.
Of all event sites, only the Kairo (Egypt) Book Fair and the Habana (Cuba)… had sharing buttons to Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. These events are organized by IPA, the International Publishers Organization. Their website is professionally set up and their events can be shared all over the internet just by a mouse click.
THE most important reason for Google+ is SEO, the Search Engine Optimization, which means your post / link is immediately available through a Google search.
Try it out: post something on your Google+ timeline, and type the title a minute later into Google search: Your own post will appear on Google’s first page.  90% of the traffic to our blog comes from search engines thanks to Google+.
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Click-to-Tweet:
Pre-worded tweets are a fantastic way for online visitors to talk about an event.  Implement Pre-Worded Tweets.  An excerpt from our latest how-to-book:
Use a website called Click-to-Tweet which offers this great function for free.  It’s the easiest and fastest way to promote, share and track your content on Twitter.  Invite readers to spread the word is to implement pre-fabricated tweets, where you choose the text to put into designated spots into the manuscript of your website.
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As you already have a sales page on Amazon, you can add the URL in your tweet form.  Here is an example of the code for our latest book:
<a href=”http://ctt.ec/d2GTd”><img src=”http://clicktotweet.com/img/tweet-graphic-trans.png” alt=”Tweet: 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer” /></a>

Click to tweet is not only handy to spread the word about your next book within your book; it should also be implemented in your blog or website.  More about this feature: @clicktotweet.

BlogTyrant writes: “All you do is enter the quote in the box on the right and then click “generate link”. You then use the URL that they give you as the destination for your anchor text.  You can add these at any part of your post, it doesn’t have to be a block quote. It could just be a cool little phrase you use to sum up a paragraph or article. Make sure you make the quote short enough to allow people to retweet it within Twitter and make sure you include a tiny URL of the post where the quote came from.”

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Why not use this Free Promotion Buttons?
Event organizers pay thousands for their websites, for their advertisement, to find corporate sponsors, to write press releases, and many more marketing activities.  But why do they not use the only free and very efficient method to spread the word?
If you’re going to dedicate all of that time to an event and create a website, you want to get the most out of it, right?  The success of the announcement largely depends on how many people read about it and one important way to increase readership is to include social share buttons on every post.
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Search engines include the strength of a link in social media as an algorithm ranking factor.  Strength is measured by calculating the number of times that content is shared, tweeted, and posted in social media.  So if your content is getting shared frequently, the search engine ranking for relevant keywords catapults it to the top.  Social share buttons make it so much easier for a reader to pass along your content to their network.  Without sharing buttons you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
If I would be approached to sponsor any of these events, I would not commit before they would have a proper website including sharing buttons.

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Authors can Share More Professionally.
Authors have lots of events to share with their readers and followers, such as book launches, new print or audio-book versions, book signings, book price campaigns and so forth.  Sharing buttons and Click-to-Tweet buttons are available for free, they just need to be added to your website (or to your ebook).
Readers and followers don’t have time to copy and paste text and links and then visit one by one their social media sites to post your event.  Sharing content increases overall traffic.  Instead of making it hard for people to share, make it easy by including sharing buttons to announce your event with one single mouse click!

Read more about free book and event marketing at: 111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free 

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What’s Better: Networking or Advertising?

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Social Media

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One of our clients recently emailed me: I am following now 300 people on Twitter /GooglePlus / Goodreads and not a single book sold … The author had for months only 35 followers / following and we took great efforts to explain her how important it is to network with her future readers – if she wants to sell her books and does not have ten-thousands of dollars every month to advertise it.  Or if she cannot spend 60,000 to 90,000 dollars to pay an agency, helping her title to get into the New York Times bestseller list.

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Social Media networking sites are part of a LONG-TERM strategy of building your author platform and not an advertisement bulletin – and only one of several places where you can engage with readers and, eventually, possibly, maybe, later, sell books to some of them.  Ideally you meet your future readers in person at book talks, signings, meet-ups, workshops etc.  But who has the time for interacting at events and meetings?
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Social Media is Not for Hard-Selling – period!
It is what the name says: a Social Media place. You don’t go to a party because you want to sell your books there. You go to a party to meet people, to socialize, to have fun. Not all the Social Media places are equaly well situated to meet new people / future readers: Networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, often restrict their connections and information to people you already know. Choosing someone new on LinkedIn requires often that you have to give their email address, and on Facebook you are punished if you choose too many followers when you are not connected previously.  Choose the Right (Twitter) followers: If you want to connect with future readers on Social Media, then choose readers, and book reviewers, book worms, avid readers, book bloggers and the like as followers.
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What Twitter Is:
Twitter is really mobile-friendly.  That’s because Twitter was born as a mobile network, like Instagram was.  Twitter is not meant as a family or friends affair.  On Twitter are no relationship statuses, photo albums, public “likes,” or open forum conversations with easily track-able dialogue, e.g. for potential employers or new relationships.  Facebook in contrast will always appeal to people looking to reconnect with fellow students, old friends and family members.  Twitter is more a professional networking tool – e.g. perfect for writers.  Twitter is meant for tailored follower groups, a world not made up of all of the people you have ever met but rather a community of people you admire or would like to know.  Rachel Sprung listed 11 Guarantied Ways to Get Others to Re-Tweet Your Content:
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Benefits of Twitter:
Tweeting is an easy way for someone to support you. You can even provide pre-written tweet-able messages and a Click to Tweet link, so that all they have to do is one click. You can even use this method on free e-books. Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and do some re-tweeting.Follow others, tweet something valuable for others and don’t use Twitter only as a cheap way to advertise!If you want to become popular on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, learn how to use Twitter in a smart and social way, nurse your relationships – that’s what Twitter is there for. Twitter is a tool that creates relationships and conversation – using it only for “advertising” would be devaluing the system. Read more about Social Media mistakes to avoid on Twitter.

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Goodreads: Where Only Readers Meet
Not really considered widely as a Social Media site is Goodreads – even though they have more than 20 million users that chose Goodreads to learn more about books and their authors.  Not to forget the ten-thousands of communities and groups for every kind of literature one can think of.  Smart authors use and benefit from the countless features on Goodreads to connect with readers and reviewers, and to introduce their books to a really wide targeted audience.
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Google+: To Be Discovered on Search Engines
Most books or blogs are found by organic search on Google. Knowing this, would you agree that it is extremely important to be easily found in Search Engines?  What better then to combine Social Media Networking and visibility on the Internet at once! Participating on Google+ – also written GooglePlus – gives you this advantage.  As we receive so many questions how to start with GooglePlus, here is a short introduction how to sign up with Google+, find your followers there, how to post and even connect your Google+ with your Twitter account. Connect your Google+ and Twitter accounts: Using Manage Flitter, you can save lots of time, and have your posts (at least the first 140 letters including a link) transferred to Twitter.
Read: How-to Automatically Post on Twitter from Your Google+ Page. 
Sign up at Google+. Watch this video how to do it:  or this one. Carefully write your introduction and your profile.

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What Else Can You Do to Increase Your Books’ Success?
To make yourself a name as a writer – and more important than to be on Social Media is to WRITE MORE. Your readers want to see content from you. Write your next book! Write blogs, magazine and newspaper articles! Readers want to get more of your writing. And if writing is really what you like to do, then write more!!! Don’t limit yourself only to books!

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– Place your book into the right category / genre and sub-genre (important for its success!)
– Create a second, separate BOOK PAGE on Amazon, Goodreads, Google+ and FB
– Set up a media press kit on your website with a link to your book trailer
– Start a Goodreads Giveaway a month before book launch (print book only)
– Write a blog post about the upcoming launch

– Ask friends to list your book under “Listmania” on Amazon & to LIKE your author page
– Exchange books for book shelves with your friends on Goodreads
– Participate in “Carnival of the Indies” blog carnival to promote your blog URL
– Send your books’ cover to cover contests http://www.thebookdesigner.com
– Submit your blogs including a bio and URL link to even more e-Zines

– Offer interviews at Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com) / local or national TV stations
– Make arrangements for interviews in newspapers or on book blogger’s sites
– Try to set you up to become a desirable guest expert on a talk or morning show
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– Befriend influential book bloggers for even more reviews and articles
– Gather writing friends for cross-promotions and blog tours
– Add press clippings and articles, already published, to your website
– Get a new business card with images of all your books and sales links

– Place the books’ cover image & description daily on your Google+ stream
– Announce your book launch or book signing on Google+ for FREE
– Get even more friends, followers and people in your circles on social media sites
as you need lots of audience to spread the word about your new book!

– Sell your book to libraries (find out how the library orders)
– Let your book translate in other languages or sell foreign rights
– Split your (non-fiction) book in pieces and sell single articles to magazines
– Participate in writing contests and book awards
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As author Tim Grahl wrote in an article: “Social media is not a mass strategy. It’s a 1-to-1 strategy.”   Have fun with Social Media networking and don’t check your, make friends and acquaintances there, write on your next title and don’t stare every day at your book sales statistics.

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day!  Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

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“Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

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A Myth: Selling Books Through Social Media?

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Social-Media
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I am getting this question so often: Do I sell more books when I am on Twitter? Or Facebook? Or Google+? Or LinkedIn? These social mediums are part of the long-term strategy of building your author platform – only one of several places where you can engage with readers and, eventually, possibly, maybe, sell books to some of them. Author Tim Grahl wrote in an article: “Social media is not a mass strategy. It’s a 1-to-1 strategy.”

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Social Media is Not for Hard-Selling – period!
It is what the name says: a Social Media place. You don’t go to a party because you want to sell your books there. You go to a party to meet people, to socialize, to have fun. Not all the Social Media places are equaly well situated to meet new people / future readers: Networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, often restrict their connections and information to people you already know. Choosing someone new on LinkedIn requires often that you have to give their email address, and on Facebook you are punished if you choose too many followers when you are not connected previously. More about the differences in Social Media can be found at a Bloomberg Businessweek article.

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What Twitter Is:
Twitter is more mobile-friendly. That’s because Twitter was born as a mobile network, like Instagram was. Twitter is not meant as a family or friends affair.  On Twitter are no relationship statuses, photo albums, public “likes,” or open forum conversations with easily track-able dialogue, e.g. for potential employers or new relationships. Facebook in contrast will always appeal to people looking to reconnect with fellow students, old friends and their family members. Twitter is more a professional networking tool – e.g. perfect for writers – rather than a way to communicate with family and friends. Rachel Sprung listed 11 Guarantied Ways to Get Others to Re-Tweet Your Content:
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Choose the Right Twitter Followers
If you want to connect with future readers on Social Media, then choose readers, book reviewers, book worms, avid readers, book bloggers and the like as followers. Get more tips in this blog post.
Twitter is meant for tailored follower groups, a world not made up of all of the people you have ever met but rather a community of people you admire or would like to know. How to avoid the wrong tweeps is explained in this blog post.

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Benefits of Twitter:
Tweeting is an easy way for someone to support you. You can even provide pre-written tweet-able messages and a Click to Tweet link, so that all they have to do is one click. You can even use this method on free e-books.  Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and do some re-tweeting.Follow others, tweet something valuable for others and don’t use Twitter only as a cheap way to advertise!If you want to become popular on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, learn how to use Twitter in a smart and social way, nurse your relationships – that’s what Twitter is there for.  Twitter is a tool that creates relationships and conversation – using it only for “advertising” would be devaluing the system. Read more about Social Media mistakes to avoid on Twitter.

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Goodreads: Where Only Readers Meet
Not really considered widely as a Social Media site is Goodreads – even though they have more than 20 million users that chose Goodreads to learn more about books and their authors. Not to forget the ten-thousands of communities and groups for every kind of literature one can think of. Smart authors use and benefit from the countless features on Goodreads to connect with readers and reviewers, and to introduce their books to a really wide targeted audience.

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What Else Can You Do to Increase Your Books’ Success?
To make yourself a name as a writer – and more important than to be on Social Media is to WRITE MORE. Your readers want to see content from you.  Write your next book! Write blogs, magazine and newspaper articles! Readers want to get more of your writing.  And if writing is really what you like to do, then write more!!!  Don’t limit yourself only to books!

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- Place your book into the right category / genre and sub-genre (important for its success!)
- Create a second, separate BOOK PAGE on Amazon, Goodreads, Google+ and FB
- Set up a media press kit on your website with a link to your book trailer
- Start a Goodreads Giveaway a month before book launch (print book only)
- Write a blog post about the upcoming launch

- Ask friends to list your book under “Listmania” on Amazon & to LIKE your author page
- Exchange books for book shelves with your friends on Goodreads
- Participate in “Carnival of the Indies” blog carnival to promote your blog URL
- Send your books’ cover to cover contests http://www.thebookdesigner.com
- Submit your blogs including a bio and URL link to even more e-Zines

- Offer interviews at Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com) / local or national TV stations
- Make arrangements for interviews in newspapers or on book blogger’s sites
- Try to set you up to become a desirable guest expert on a talk or morning show
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- Befriend influential book bloggers for even more reviews and articles
- Gather writing friends for cross-promotions and blog tours
- Add press clippings and articles, already published, to your website
- Get a new business card with images of all your books and sales links

- Place the books’ cover image & description daily on your Google+ stream
- Announce your book launch or book signing on Google+ for FREE
- Get even more friends, followers and people in your circles on social media sites
as you need lots of audience to spread the word about your new book!

- Sell your book to libraries (find out how the library orders)
- Let your book translate in other languages or sell foreign rights
- Split your (non-fiction) book in pieces and sell single articles to magazines
- Participate in writing contests and book awards
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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

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Tagged: Benefits of Twitter, does Social Media help to sell books, Selling books on Twitter?, social media for authors, Social Media is not for hard-selling, Social Media myths

Start-Ups and Self-Employed: Video for Success

Video

 

Consumers like video because it’s easy to watch on any device, entertaining and engaging, and marketers like it because it can give a potentially huge return on investment (ROI) through many channels.

Our appetite for video is at an all-time high.  YouTube alone is logging one billion hours of video watched per day.  The topics for videos can be anything related to your business:
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For example, as a health care professional, you can advise on nutrition, sport, well-being, or answer frequently asked questions from patients.  As an architect, you can explain to potential customers what to look for when acquiring a property, or which questions to ask the municipality before purchasing.  You can also teach viewers about the stages of building a home.

If you are a cook or a patisserie chef you can teach how to create a dinner for twelve, or how to bake a Black-Forest Cake.  Also, exciting for viewers are videos that deal with ‘behind the scene’ topics.  In one sentence: the possibilities are endless!  And so are the ways to promote your business via videos.

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Marketing specialist and author Larry Lubin wrote in Contently how video can help to drive leads: “You need high engagement to retain an audience.  Video content lays the foundation for product consideration, the step before the conversion phase.  At least forty-seven percent of buyers will view three and five pieces of content before they consider a purchase.
Consumers like to watch video content. It helps them form an educated and informed decision as to whether your product or service is the right choice. 1200% more shares are generated by social videos than text and images combined. Marketers who use video receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users.”
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Several types of videos will persuade customers:

• Explainer videos (focused on industry topic)

• Live-streams/presentations

• Questions & Answer videos

• Video case study

• Video product tour

• Product demos

• Tutorials

• Expert interviews

• Customer Testimonials

• Behind the scenes

• Explainer animations

• Live webinars

Larry Lubin explained: “A study from Animoto found that four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than reading about it.  Additionally, prospects who watch product demos are 1.81 times more likely to purchase than non-viewers.  The video format can also be pretty powerful when utilized to boost sales.  And you can use video to promote up-sell opportunities once prospects become clients.”
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The internet is an ultimate short-attention-span arena.
This means a video is better suited than text to communicate
with (potential) customers and to get your message across.


YouTube is the second most popular search engine today.  So, use it to your advantage.  But how to achieve it on a tight budget and with little or no video experience?  Product demo videos, client testimonials, and how-to tutorials are efficient ways to expand your brand and increase sales.  Online videos shouldn’t be longer than two minutes.

Take advantage of the SEO benefits of online video.  Create an intriguing title, fill in the description (100 words or more).  Then add keywords (aim for 8 to 10), and geotag it for the business address.  Take the full URL of the website as the first item in the description for a live link.


Where to Share Videos

Videos have the potential to be an incredibly successful and valuable part of marketing campaigns.  However, only provided you share it everywhere: on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media sites. Write a blog post (or several – every other week – for your website and mention the latest video in your email newsletter.  The wider the audience is, the more views the videos will receive.  Notify all friends, followers, and acquaintances about the new video you have uploaded.  Ask them to re-tweet or post video links to their friends and followers.

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Steve-Jobs .

Learn From Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs from Apple was a “master” of the “pre-launch.” The company is able to cause a massive buzz about their next “life-changing” and “revolutionary” tech gadgets.  They never wait until the product is on the shelves before they start to promote it heavily.  Pre launches are a fantastic way to stir up excitement and curiosity about both: you, your video and the company. 


Don’t just rely on others to promote your video (viral marketing) for you through their networks.  If there is one major mistake, it is to wait until a video is finished before promoting it. A nnounce the launch of the video as an event – especially announce it on all the industry forums, on LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

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Brainstorm even deeper into your assets and research how and where else you can promote:

• Relationships (personal, professional, familial, or otherwise)

• All the Media contacts

• Research information from past launches of similar products – what worked, what didn’t, what to do, and what not

• Pick a competitive product to yours, track all the places they got press, all the attempts they made

• Collect lots of back-links
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The quality and quantity of links pointing to your video will boost its rankings in the search engines.  This will also increase traffic and views.  Get backlinks by adding the video URL to forum and blog posts.
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Place Videos on Amazon and Goodreads

Published a book?  Place videos about the books’ content on your Amazon Author Page! Moreover, you can share video interviews of business launches, new products or services with the readers of your “how-to” books.  In Author Central, click the “Profile” tab.  You will discover sections for adding or changing the biography, photos, videos, a book trailer, speaking engagements, events and blog feeds.  You can add up to eight videos and choose the order in which they appear on your Author Page. 

My advice: Join the free book site Goodreads.com too, where you can also place your business and “how-to” books and add an author profile.  Now, how to attach a video to Goodreads’ author profiles?  You can add a video to an author profile as long as it’s hosted on YouTube.com or Livestream.com. To upload a video, follow these steps:

• Copy the video URL

• On Goodreads, navigate to the author profile 

• On the left side, you will find a “Videos” section.

• Click “add new” on the right side of that header

• Paste the code into the “Video URL” box

• Enter any extra information (title, description, etc) and save

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Mention your videos also on your LinkedIn page – and in all the professional articles you write on LinkedIn.  
Always include the video URL in the author resource box, when submitting guest blog posts or articles for e-Zines or directories.  Link from the website or email signature to new videos you upload to YouTube or other video websites.

 

Excerpt from:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos –
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos

https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYDH41S/



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Holiday Book Sale Campaign Tips

Fireplace

It’s only 10 weeks until Christmas Day.  The coming weeks will be a very busy time for authors, spending long hours of writing and editing, or tinkering about starting pre-sales for their upcoming book or have a book launch.

No matter if you are organizing a book launch for your latest work (or your first book), planning your Goodreads or Amazon Giveaway or if you prepare to have your book on sale, or for free for a couple of days: these campaigns need to be well organized and promoted – and all that well in advance.

I have seen it too many times, that authors decide on Monday morning to have a book sale from Tuesday on and expect it to be a successful one. Or they hurry editing, formatting and slap a cover image together, in order to get the book on Amazon’s sales pages before Christmas.

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Start EARLY !!!
You have about three months to promote a new print book (paperback or hardcover) before the bookstores clear their shelves for the next bestseller. But if you can rack up enough pre-orders BEFORE the pub date, then you can kickstart your book launch.

Once it hits the New York Times or other lists, then a couple of weeks on those lists become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Again: the more time you give your book to be listed on Amazon and other online retailers BEFORE your publication date, the better.

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Organize a Boxed Set With Your Writer Friends
Bundle the several novels and novellas into a book set and give it a great name. And then promote the hell out of it! Brainstorm what you each one of you will do to spread the word – online and off-line. If every one of your writer friends is helping with all their marketing power, it should be a success!
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The Minimum You Can Do To Make Your Books a Success:

Write Several Blogs About Your Campaign Including Images
Tell potential readers the benefits, for example:

  • Low price or even free
  • Send as inexpensive gifts
  • Give them a great incentive for a review

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Write a FREE short e-Book About Your Book : )
Include all the sales links and author biography, and if you will participate in Amazon’s “Matchbox”, bundles of print and e-book, explain your potential readers their benefit of ordering a “bundle“.
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Campaign Announcement
Cross-promote your campaign: Always post and promote your event on your own website, blog and through email as well, so that non-Facebook/Twitter/Google+ users can learn about it and share your book sales campaign event without having to use these social media sites. What’s more: Use Twitter to generate buzz and use LinkedIn to leverage business communities and post the event to LinkedIn.

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Tweets
At least one tweet per hour, each one in a variety of text and accompanied by a cover image photo of your book or photographs from book scenes or areas where it takes place. Sign up to several Twitter accounts. You can have up to five accounts. But don’t post the same tweets everywhere! And schedule well in advance, using Hootsuite or any other free scheduling service to find the best times to post on Twitter.

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Create a Re-tweet Button in a Free eBook
Give away the first chapter of your book as an immediately accessible PDF on your web page or on Amazon. Include a re-tweet button in several strategic locations in the chapter. This allows people who love what they read, to easily share with friends on Twitter. When someone clicks on this re-tweet button, it shows a pre-crafted tweet that says: “I’m reading @……. new book: … Get the first chapter free here too: http://………” You get the idea?
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Announce the Campaign in Your Newsletter
It’s one of the reasons you ask your blog readers or website visitors to sign up for your newsletter: to inform them about specials and sales campaigns or book launches – besides giving them regularly useful and entertaining content.
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Create a Photo Contest
It can be a fun and friendly competition to get people excited about your book. And there’s no better platform than Social Media sites to do just that. You can call it the “Know my Book?” photo contest. All participants need to do, is to take a creative photo with the words “Know my Book?” or “Help Me Launch.” The three best images might receive the book or you can offer an additional first prize for a Kindle or a digital camera.

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Create Your Campaign Well in Advance
Give your event promotion enough time to spare, this also gives you time to notify and invite the people who you know are most likely to spread the word or to attend your events. With so many book sales to choose from, the key is to know your potential customers. Create your invitations, posts and tweets so as to reach as many individuals as possible with your marketing message.
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A Lot of Work You Say?
Yes, sure, if you see it as WORK. But if you like to write about your book, tell people about it, help your readers to find inexpensive copies of your book and to sell more books and get more reviews. No one said that having a business involves only laughing all the way to the bank.

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