Archives for Google+

Statistics On How You Can Better Use Social Media

Social-Media

When I started out on social media ten years ago – seems like a lifetime – there were no books, articles, stats or any data available.  Spending many hours a day on all kind of sites (sometimes that are long gone) and still sticking with Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn I had to learn mostly through trial and error.  Nowadays it’s much easier:

“Data and statistics might give you a good starting point for testing out your own strategies. Start with these statistics, test them for yourself, and find the best system that works for you”, explains social media guru Kevan Lee.

First Things First: Maximize Your Profile Data
Help more awesome people find you. Hava complete bio and links to your blog, web and social media presence. You need to help people find you and make it easy for them to follow you.

Your Biggest Advocates Might Have the Fewest Followers
Social monitoring website Mention analyzed over 1 billion social mentions from the past two years, and in their analysis, they found that 91 percent of mentions come from people with fewer than 500 followers. Less than 10% of mentions will come from a power user. You can prioritize these power users if you want, but it’s also important to give a quick and delightful response to those with few followers—the vast majority of those talking about you.

Less Than an Hour to Respond on Twitter
Consumers expect a lot from you on Twitter, as recent research by Lithium Technologies confirms. According to Lithium, 53 percent of users who tweet at a brand expect a response within the hour. The percentage increases to 72 percent for those with a complaint. As a business owner either invest in a monitoring service to manage your timeline or get really good at checking your Twitter email alerts.

Late Night = Best Time For Retweets
TrackMaven analyzed over 1.7 million tweets to come up with data behind the best practices for earning a retweet. The best time of the day to tweet for a retweet? After-hours, between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET. is the best time of day for a retweet. Track Maven also found that Sundays are the best day of the week to get retweets and that tweeting with the word “Retweet” or with all caps or exclamation points leads to more retweets.

The Social Intelligence Report from Adobe analyzed over 225 billion Facebook posts. Their research on the best day to post pointed to a clear winner: Fridays, with more comments, likes, and shares than any other day of the week.

Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook Drive the Most Traffic
In terms of quantity, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are the top three referrers of traffic. Social sharing site Shareaholic revealed an interesting split in the way that social media

YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn Are the TOP Three Sources!
Get involved in social media accordingly.  If you’re after a big reach and spreading brand awareness, go with Facebook and Twitter, and think long and hard about joining Pinterest, too.  If you’re interested in more qualified traffic, then be sure to invest time in Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

There’s a “Best Day” for Everything on Pinterest
The Pinterest blog recently revealed which categories get the most engagement on each day of the week:
Monday: Fitness
Tuesday: Technology
Wednesday: Inspirational quotes
Thursday: Fashion
Friday: Humor
Saturday: Travel
Sunday: Food and crafts
If possible, create a Pinterest board that touches on each of these seven topics, and build this sort of specific sharing into your Pinterest schedule.

Written Content Trumps Visuals
Social Media Examiner’s annual survey of nearly 3,000 marketers leads to a ton of insights into how marketers think about social media and sharing.  Surprisingly, 58 percent claim written content is their most important form of social content.  Visual content came in second (19 percent.)  Original written content can be a great opportunity for thought leadership, authority, and brand awareness. When you’re creating new content to share, keep in mind the power of storytelling.

When Thinking of Social Media, Think of a Big Party!
Imagine you are invited to a big party.  You are entering the room, you say hello to everyone, you small-talk a bit, you participate in a discussion, you listen what others say, you make some compliments or praise someone, you have fun and you show yourself from your best side.

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/which-social-network-is-best-for-authors/
Are You a Good Party Guest?
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/acting-like-a-professional-author-on-social-media/

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Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYDH41S/

111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
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111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
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111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
https://books2read.com/u/mVZkjr

Book Marketing on a Shoestring:
How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5gdp

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How You Can Grow Your Google+ Following

Audience


Saving time on Social Media, allows you to interact more with your followers and readers.  But first, you need lots of followers to connect with you.

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The easiest way is to connect followers from several social media sites. So, no matter on which site your followers are, they will find your posts.  Some of the best social media sites to blog are LinkedIn and Google+.  Start to grow your presence on GooglePlus, this social media giant is as important as ever. Remember: Everything you post here is automatically in their search engine results!
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Transfer LinkedIn Followers to Google+
Martin Shervington from PlusYourBusiness explained in a video how to connect your LinkedIn followers with your Google+ account. He explains how it works Step-for-Step:

  • Log in to your LinkedIn account and on the upper left go to your Connections page and click on “Keep in Touch”
  • Once you are on the page, click in the upper right on the gear-icon
  • When the Connection page appears, click on Export LinkedIn Connections in the “Advanced Settings” part in the right column
  • A new page opens with a button: Microsoft Outlook (.csv file)
  • Underneath you can see EXPORT, click this which prompts the download
  • Open the .csv file and you will get an Excel Spreadsheet on your computer screen with all the names and email addresses of your LinkedIn connections
  • Select all the email addresses in the E-mail Address column and copy them to your clipboard/notepad.
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Another YouTube Video by Lee Smallwood shows:
How-to Import LinkedIn Contacts into Google Plus Circles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c8JfldNHSA
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Should your LinkedIn account be relatively new with only a dozen followers, you can implement them one by one. Just copy every email address from your clipboard or notepad into the search function on top of your Google+ page, where it says: Search for people, pages or posts.  Google+ will open up their profile pages if they are a Google+ member, and you just need to click “add”

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If you want your LinkedIn connections to follow you back on Google+ too, you can send them a brief note (in one shot to the entire circle!) saying hello and letting them know you are now following them on Google+ because you are already connected on LinkedIn.  To do this, use the function “Also send emails from you to Your circles” at the lower end of each post, next to the SEND button.  Just mark it, before you send your note.  No one will know that you just sent out dozens of emails.

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Most Important:
Your Google+ profile must stand out to people who are in your niche. Shape your profile into something that looks interesting.  Place a great profile photo of yourself (not your cat, dog or motorcycle).  Be a person that others want to follow.
Join Google+ communities, you are then part of a larger group of people who are engaged on a certain topic.  This is another way that you can refine your level of engagement on Google+ in order to add not just a lot of followers, but the right kind of followers.

 

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Why You Need Writer Friends

viewers
Many new writers are wary (and even scared) of forming friendships with other writers. Creativity comes from living life, ideas come from getting out of your comfort zone, exploring the world.  But even the most introverted individual needs fellow writers to talk to, better yet a close-knit network of writer friends.  Having wonderful, (but not writer) friends, family, and writing to keep you busy is fine, but having professional discussions with other writers is essential, und it would make the writing process a lot less fearful.
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Working in isolation might over time suck the life out of the writing, and you might hit a plateau. Having people you can trust and who understand the crazyness because they had endured it, too. Often writers really want to open up with someone about their writing failures and successes, but never having anyone to talk to. We need someone to tell us when our writing is good (and when it’s god awful terrible), someone to complain with, someone to pick us up when we feel like quitting.
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Writer Friends are Not Only for Socializing…
Becoming part of a small writers or critique group means:

  • Writer friends know exactly what you are going through
  • Writer friends will help you to improve your writing
  • Writer friends will inspire you and teach you new things
  • Writer friends will be your first readers and proofreaders/beta readers
  • Writer friends will help you to promote your books

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Proofreaders/Beta Readers
Beta Readers are not your editor or proof reader and don’t expect them to do the grunt work. That’s your job. They can help to strengthen your story from the beginning. But they could spot a few flaws BEFORE you release the book. They might discover passive voice, accents, cliches, misspelling, typos.
Beta Reading might save you a lot of money if the editor is charging by the hour.  Beta Readers also help to polish your book before the first reviewer or readers get their hand on your book.
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Writer Friends are Helping to Promote Your Books
Building a platform, getting a follower-ship and being constantly present on social media are not a favored task by most writers. But with a little help from your friends…promoting each others books makes it much easier and not a chore anymore. Start with the basics and exchange this:

  • Recommend your writer friend’s books regulrely at Goodreads. You will find the Goodreads page dedicated for this under “Browse” and then “Recommendations”.
  • Recommend and share the books on all your social media accounts, as well as to your family and “real live friends.
  • Share her or his blogs posts, and use the sharing buttons on each of the Amazon pages and on Goodreads for all books she/he wrote.
  • Write guest blogs for each others blog or website, and help your writer friend to find book reviewers in your circles and online communities.

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Where to Find Writing Groups and Writer Friends

  • Join writer communities at Wattpad, LibraryThings, Goodreads and Google+
  • Meet-up groups are practically in every large town and city and offer critique groups and writers circles
  • Find writer friends at workshops and conferences
  • Social media sites usually have writer groups in your genre, such as LinkedIn, Google+ or Facebook

No excuses! There is no shortage on like-minded writers that are all looking for pals. Just say hello!
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Writers are usually really warm and willing to go out of their way to help each other. We’re all in this together, right?  Remember: you are in this for a long time – if writing is really what you like best in life. 

Read also: Why Authors Need Beta Readers
https://www.savvybookwriters.com/why-authors-need-beta-readers/

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Tagged: beta readers, Google+, Marketing, Meet-up Wattpad, Writer friends

How to Create a Social Media Blitz

Social-Media-Blitz


Social Media
 is meant for networking, not for advertising.  However, sometimes there is an exemption, such as a book launch, pre-sale campaign, Amazon Free Days or a Kindle Countdown sales campaign, that you want to announce as often as possible to reach all your followers.

Here is how you can accomplish this without getting your posts or tweets kicked out due to spamming:
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1. Step:  Connect Your Social Media Accounts

As more writers are engaged in Social Media and as more platforms they use, as easier it gets!  You write the posts – snippets from your blog or short announcements only once, but then you copy and paste them to several of your Social Media sites. Here are some examples:

Goodreads: Import your blog. Authors are the only members of Goodreads who can have blogs, and author blogs are a great place to start a conversation. You can add a link to your personal website or blog.

Google+: Connect your Google+ account with Twitter and everything you post is pinged to Twitter as well. How to set it up via ManageFlitter is explained in this blog post.

Pinterest: Connect with Facebook and Twitter, using their “setting” function.

LinkedIn: Connect your Twitter account with your LinkedIn page

Got Hundreds of LinkedIn Connections?
Circloscope.com is the only tool that allows you to find Google+ users from your long list of email addresses and to transfer them in bulk.
Now you just have to decide if you want to transfer your LinkedIn followers “by hand” into your Google+ circles or if you want to transfer them with one click (paid version of Circloscope.com = $47 for one year).  If you have hundreds of followers to transfer, you might choose this small one-time expense to save lots of time.
More on https://www.savvybookwriters.com/how-to-import-your-linkedin-contacts-to-google/
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2. Step:  Add Sharing Buttons to Your Blog

How can you multiply the amount of posts and tweets for your campaign and get folks to share your posts or website content online?  Make it easy for them to share what you have written with their social networks – and forward it to their followers and friends, and these also forward it to their friends and followers …. You get the idea!
The best way to start this process is to include clickable buttons to offer the idea of sharing front and center, and make it incredibly simple for your readers to post your link to LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and most important: to Google+, and many other social networks, such as Tumblr or StumpleUpon.

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3. Step: Join Bit.ly or Any Other Link-Shortener

You might know Bit.ly as a tool to shorten lengthy URL’s, such as this posts’ web address from: http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/benefits-of-using-bit-ly-for-social-media/

to: http://bit.ly/NbQgkw

When someone clicks on the Bit.ly shortened version, they are then redirected to the original long URL. Best of all: you can post to several Twitter and Facebook accounts with ONE click.

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4. Step: Join as Many Google+ Communities as Possible

Posts within a community are indexed by Google and will be found in organic search results –
which means higher ranking for you on Google’s Search Engine! However, do some networking before you post about your campaign for the first time and don’t spam the communities, rather choose those who allow self-promotions.  Best of all:  you can start your very own community, where you can post at your discretion! Important is only that you have lots of followers there.
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 5. Step:  Write & Publish on More than one Blog – plus LinkedIn

Use this new, free feature to get more exposure for your writing and your books.  This is how it works:
If you go to your LinkedIn homepage you will need to look for an “share an update” box in the upper part of your page and look for a pencil symbol next to the paper clip.  If this is visible, you are ready to publish on Linkedin!

Hover over the symbol and it will show “create a post“.  If you click it, you will be taken to a page ready to put your title in, write a new post or paste an article from your blog, website or a previously created content.  It means you can start publishing articles, images and links to potentially 300 million users on LinkedIn.

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6. Step:  Create Author and Fan Pages

Tips for Your Professional Amazon Author Page
Once your book goes live on Amazon you are eligible for an Amazon Author Central Account – and your very own web page on Amazon! Best of all: There is no advertising on your site, just a large image of your book(s), your reviews and your book’s description.  Get more tips here.
Amazon is not the only place where you can have an author page: Google+, Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest etc., they all offer a second page, dedicated to your book or you as an author.

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7. Step:  Get as Many Quality Followers as Possible

No matter which sites you join, create an attractive profile, complete with an avatar that shows a favorable and professional portrait and an attractive bio.  Display links to your Social Media accounts in your email signature, your blog or website, business cards – just everywhere.
Re-tweeting and re-posting your followers is a non-brainer. Be generous in linking and re-tweeting others. You do not have to sit all day long on your computer to do this.  Check tweets once or twice a day and pack interesting ones into Buffer who will spread them throughout the day.
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– Share only valuable content.
– Be generous, inspiring, entertaining, provide useful links.               – Provide content that people are proud to provide to their own followers.

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Be selective when choosing followers, avoid commercial account, celebrities and others who will most likely not re-tweet / post your content.  Never buy any followers, these are robots who will not help you.  As an author look for readers, book bloggers, reviewers etc.  and thank everyone who is helping you to get the word out.

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8. Step:  Write Several Blog Posts Ahead of Your Campaign

Write at least three to five articles about your campaign or your book – either on several of your own blogs or as a guest blog.  Use several angles to get the message out, and write about the benefit of the reader / buyer!  Use for each of your blog posts a different image.  Use the headline and link of each of your posts during your campaign, under a variety of links as explained in the first tips of this article. Example:  FREE TODAY: The Wolf’s Moon,  ebook, 408 pages, 99 reviews – get this fascinating suspense #Thriller  Amazon.com/dp/B0077F0DFI

To get more posts / tweets out, you can exchange the main link with the links of every country your e-book is sold in.  E.g. you might create twelve completely new tweets.  And on top of that if you add to each of these tweets a recipient at the end of the message, for example:  @ebookPR or @ebooksIntl, you are able to expand your tweets into hundred or thousands more…

Don’t forget to take advantage of the Buffer function that can spread your blog posts over the day – or Hootsuite.com and Futuretweets.com.
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9. Step:  Schedule Your Posts at the Best Times

There are several tools you can use: You can for example schedule on Hootsuite or on Futuretweets.com, (or both) or on other providers, such as Twitterfeed, Buffer and Twaitter.com (now Gemln).
Posting links to Twitter between the hours of 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time will give you the highest click rank, especially early in the week.  Meanwhile, sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays.  My own experience so far with both, Google+ and Twitter is:  8-9 in the morning, 11-12 around noon, 3pm and 5-6pm.  One last tip:  when you post on your Google+ timeline, you can also add a personal email to all your followers – hopefully you have lots of them!

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Take Advantage of these Time Savers – and Reach more Followers

Using all these tactics should allow you to post your campaign at least 15 – 20 times per day, without ever repeating the link to your book or your message.  However, I am sure, as a reader and a subscriber of our blog posts you knew about these tips already.

 


9 Steps to Reach More Followers in Less Time

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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

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,130 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? There is also the “SHARE” button for easy sharing at Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook etc.

 

All About Google+ for Writers

GooglePlus
More than 625,000 People join Google+ EVERY DAY, according to Digital Buzz and Huffington Post statistics.  Before I even joined Twitter, GooglePlus (Google+) was my first Social Media network of choice.  I loved the beautiful images and videos that appeared on my timeline.  And I am stealing a couple of minutes every day to scroll down and share, or at least place a “plus sign”, on interesting posts.
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#1 Social Media for Professionals:
Participating on Google+ – also written GooglePlus – gives you an advantage at search engine results: your posts are automatically included in Google’s Search Engine.  What better then to combine social media networking and at the same time your visibility on the Internet!  Google+ has now the title of being the world’s second largest social network.  It’s a no-brainer to use the many benefits for authors and publishers.  And don’t forget the thousands of Google+ communities where you can place your post directly to your favorite audience.  Here are five tips how to improve your success with Google+.
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How to Start With GooglePlus.
Get tips how to sign up and start your Google+ account, how to find your followers, how to post, connect your Google+ with your Twitter account and most important: join Google+ communities.
Your first step is to open a Gmail (email) account, if you don’t have one already.  Once this is done you can sign up at Google+.  Watch this YouTube video how to do it.
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How to Build Your Google+ Profile.
On the top navigation of your page, there is an icon, marked “Profile,” which should appear once you roll your mouse over it.  From there, you can start building your Google Plus profile.  Just like Facebook, Google Plus gives you a main profile photo that acts as your thumbnail when you post text and images or when you engage with other people.  Fill out the “tagline” section, and it will show up underneath your name on your profile.  Try writing something that sums up your personality, work or hobbies in one short sentence, using important keywords convincing people to follow you.
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Your Bio / Introduction:
Here, you can write a short or a long note about whatever you want. Most people include a friendly welcome message, or a summary of what they do and what activities they enjoy doing the most.  These points are totally voluntarily:

  • Bragging rights: You can write a short sentence here about some accomplishment you are proud to share with your circles.
  • Occupation: In this section, list your current employment position, if you want, or just author.
  • Places lived: List the cities and countries in which you have lived. This will be displayed on a small Google map for people to see when they visit your profile.
  • Other profiles & recommended links: In the sidebar of your “About” page, you can list other social media profiles such as your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles.  You can also list any links you want, such as a personal website or a blog you enjoy reading.

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Finding People and Adding Them to Your Google+ Circles.
To invite people to your circles (up to 5,000), or to find somebody on Google Plus, simply use the search bar at the top to search for their name.  If you find them in your search, press the “Add to circles” button in order to add them to whichever circle or circles you want (max. 50 per day).  For authors the best search phrases to find followers are: readers, reviewers, book bloggers, book worms, book lovers, avid readers etc.
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Sharing Content on Google+.
Under the “Home” tab, there is a small input area you can use to post stories to your profile, which will show up in the streams of people who have added you to their own circles.  You can choose your Google posts to be view-able by the public (by everyone on Google Plus, even those outside your circles), by specific circles, by one or more people.  Place up to 500 words of content, including links and add attractive or funny images.  Don’t forget to use hashtags, described in this blog post.
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Five Tips for Google+ Advanced Users.
Google+ has now the title of being the world’s second largest social network.  It’s a no-brainer to use the many benefits for authors and publishers.  And don’t forget the thousands of Google+ communities where you can place your post directly to your favorite audience.  Here are five tips how to improve your success with GooglePlus.
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1. Curate Good Content – Share it!
Most users do not create enough of their own content to be active daily on Google+. By sharing other people’s content, you can effectively engage and inspire your followers. Google’s +1 button is used 5 million times a day, according to stats from Huffington Post.  Sharing other posts and writing a short comment, will also show up on Google’s search engine, and consequently improving your search engine ranking (SEO).
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2. Have Lots of Images – Less Links
Google+ is a visual social network. Posts with with a message and an uploaded image or video will get much higher engagement than shared links.
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3. Tag Other People’s Posts or Share Them
By adding a “+” symbol in front of page names, your exposure on Google Search engines increases as well as this with readers, bloggers, reviewers and your supporters.  You will find a strong increase of new followers over time too.  Do check regularly your Google+ notifications, found at this little bell symbol on top of your Google+ page.
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4. Check Your Google+ Statistics at “Page Insights”.
Want to know when your page was visited most, from which country your visitors came from, or their gender and age?  Google+ Insights will help you to find out what kind of content your followers engage with most, as well as their demographics.  Insights offers you statistical information about how your target customers are engaging with your business on Google.  In order to access this information, your business must have a verified local page.  In an article, Search Engine Journal lists these useful features:

  • New followers on your Google+ page
  • +1 clicks on your posts, the number of re-shares your posts got from your Google+ page
  • The number of comments your post received from your Google + page
  • The number of times people clicked on Maps to get more info about your business location
  • The number of clicks received to get info on driving directions
  • The number of clicks to your website through local search results
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5. Connect Your YouTube With Your Google+ Page
Currently in Beta, YouTube just announced the ability to merge your YouTube channel with your Google+ page.  How it works is in detail, even with screenshots, described in an article from NPtechforgood.com:
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Step 1: Click on your profile photo, go to your YouTube Settings > Advanced.
Step 2: Select “Connect with a Google+ page”.
Step 3: Select your Google+ page.
Step 4: Confirm that you want to merge your channel and your Google+ page.
Step 5: Note the new YouTube tab on your Google+ page.
Step 6: Select “Use YouTube as ….
Step 7: Note the integration of of your Google+ page inside your YouTube channel.
More tips how it works can be found on Google’s help site.
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Seven Reasons Why Google+ is Perfect for Writers:
1. Followers can be found much easier and faster than in any other social media network.  One can build “Circles” with hundreds or thousands of followers out of existing groups which are easily identified by keywords.  For example, to create my first circles I have chosen: readers, writers, publishers, photographers, librarians, book reviewers, book lovers etc. and also some “private” circles.  Within days I had 5,000 people in my circles and at that time over 1,500 had already chosen to have me in their circles.  Perfect for a big audience!  Search for useful connections you know from the real world and other social networks to include in your Google+ circles.
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2. Everyone can select the audience or the parts of your list that will be receiving your message through your circles and if you want to make it a public message.  On Twitter for sample, messages usually can be seen by all of your followers.  Google+ lets you fine-tune who reads what.  On Google+, you can post one sentence or you
can post an entire article if you like. “Like” or “Share” articles or images that others posted with one single click.
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3. SEO – Search Engine Optimization: You can submit each of your blog post to your Google+ account.  Google treats the information on its own platforms, aka Google Search Engine, pretty high, which means your SEO-ranking for your website or blog improves dramatically.  Your Google+ profile will always be top ranked on a Google search, so just fill it in and link it to all your other sites
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4. Perfect for authors: Create a Google+ Business Account – easy and free.  The Google+ platform allows for every business to act as an individual in many forms. Adding to the depth of their overall platform is the inspiring development of the local options, using the Local Google+ pages.  The interface is simple, you can see everything at one go, and adding or removing a page from a circle doesn’t require you to dig deep into the system.
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5. Easy to upload images, lots of them, and video allow authors to post cover photos of their books, book descriptions, author’s bio, their book trailer and a link to Amazon or other booksales pages.  Post free book images or photos to illustrate your books’ content – if you want, several times a day – and if you have enough followers in your circle, to not bore them with your book announcements.  By consistently posting on the same topics and growing your Google+ followers, you help Google drive even more customers to your site.
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6. Use “Google Talk” or chat with friends, customers and readers.  In your left sidebar, you have an option to connect with people in through chat.  It’s similar to the same chat feature in Gmail, also known as Google Talk, where the indicators will show you if someone is online and if they are available for a text chat (a green dot) or a video chat (a green video camera).   When you click on their name, a little chat window will pop up at the bottom right side of your screen so you can start chatting.
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7. Google is attaching author information to Google search results.  Thanks to this new author information service from Google, it will be easier for people to identify the initial or original source of a blog post or article.  Google is verifying that the blog post was written by this person.  Link from your blog (or your website), to your Google Profile and then, you link from your Google Profile back to your blog.
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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.  Here is how to set it up:
There are many free services that do this, one of the best sites to do this is ManageFlitter.  Start with opening your Google+ account and go to your profile.  The URL should be http://plus.google.com/ followed by a long number, then /posts.  This is your unique profile URL.
Select and copy it.

  • Go to the ManageFlitter home page and click “Start.”
  • Click “Connect to Twitter”
  • Select the “Dashboard” tab, then click “Turn on/off Google+ sharing”
  • Paste in your Google+ profile URL you just copied
    and then click “Start Sharing.”

From now on, everything you post on Google+ will be tweeted on Twitter, with a link back to the Google+ post.  Congratulation! You made it!
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Fantastic Feature: Google+ Communities.
More vital than knowing when and where to network with your readers or peers or to post your blogs, is finding like-minded groups of people, such as Google+ reader and blogger communities.  There you can reach new people who are likely interested in what you are writing or blogging about.  Posts within a community are indexed by Google and will be found in organic search results – which means higher ranking for you on Google’s search engines!
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Start Conversations and Share Relevant Content.
Google+ Communities are for users who are more interested in vibrant conversations around topics than they are about self-promotion.  Quality community members are those who share relevant content that sparks conversation or debate, and who participate in conversations by leaving comments and +1’ing posts.  Users whose intentions are to spam the community will most likely be removed by a moderator, so be careful how you approach your communities.
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Avoid Too Much Promotion in Google+ Communities.
When you join a community, you can find people who are interested in the same topics you are.  Depending on the type of community, you may have to wait for approval before becoming a member.  Google+ Communities are for users who are more interested in vibrant conversations around topics than they are about self-promotion.  Quality community members are those who share relevant content that sparks conversation or debate, and who participate in conversations by leaving comments and +1’s.  Users whose intentions are to promote themselves or spam the community will most likely be removed by a moderator, so be careful how you approach your communities..
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How to Join a Google+ Community Step by Step.

  • Go to the left side of your Google+ page with your cursor
  • click on communities
  • search or type in e.g. “books” or “blogging” and click the magnifying glass symbol – almost 60! communities are showing up, sorted by membership size
  • choose for example “Promote Your Book” with over 2,799 members and thousands of posts
  • click on their image and see lots of posts
  • on top you will see “Join this community to post or comment”
    we are polite and click “Join community”
  • then we introduce ourselves and greet the owner of the community

Interesting:
– everyone in the community can read / answer to your post (also not your timeline)
– at most communities you can also choose if you want notifications to your email
– on the left hand side you will find another search function where you can search this community
– you can also see who is a member of your community and follow them
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Start Your Own Google+ Community.
When you own or moderate a Google+ community, you can create categories to organize discussions, remove offensive content, highlight great posts, add moderators to help you keep the conversation going, invite members, or edit your community.  You can invite people to join your community – up to 500 people at a time.  Having more people usually increases the number of posts in your community, and encourages others to use it.

Tip: Anyone can share a community by clicking the “Share this community” button. When you click it, you’ll create a Google+ post that links to the community’s page.  But it won’t create an actual invitation for people to accept or decline.  Learn more at Google+ Support.
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Google+ Benefits.
For me personally the best reason to be on Google+ (beside the fun scrolling and reading through the timeline) is that Google Plus influences search rankings – a lot!!!
What is Your reason to be on GooglePlus?

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Writers: How to Leverage Social Media

Statistics have proven how important social media networks are for every business – including your writing / publishing business:

  • 8 out of 10 internet users are reached by blogs and social media sites.
  • More than 50 percent of adults (18 and over) use two or more social media sites.
  • More than 90 percent of teens go online daily, with half that number checking their social media sites several times a day.
  • 87% of small businesses claim that social media has helped their business.
  • Marketing professionals saw an increase of 74% in website traffic after devoting just 6 hours per week in social media.
  • 85% of business-decision makers believe that at least having one social media channel is very important for technology purchase decisions.
  • Online sales will generate more than $370 billion by 2017, with referrals by the top social media sites.
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Get The Most Out Of Your Social Media

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
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However, there’s much more to just creating a Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest account and expecting success to follow, writes the Search-Engine-Journal. Understand which platforms work best for your brand and where your audience spends most of their time. Don’t forget Goodreads, where readers are searching actively for interesting books!
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A visitor who is interested in sharing the book’s web page clicks on one or more of the social sharing buttons at blogs, sales pages, such as Amazon and Goodreads and that link is posted on their social media page for all of their followers to see.

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More info about Social Media Networks and how to use them for your book’s success can be found in these articles:

6 Social Media Sites that are Important for Writers
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/6-social-media-sites-essential-for-writers/

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Brands with great GooglePlus pages
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/18/10-brands-with-great-google-plus-pages/
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Social Media Facts 
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/01/17/20-social-media-facts-and-statistics-you-should-know-in-2014/
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How to Get More Followers
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/how-to-get-more-followers-on-your-social-media-sites/

Do You Use Social Book Marking / Sharing Plug-ins?
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/do-you-use-social-book-marking-sharing-plug-ins/

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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



3 Most Important Media Platforms for Writers

3Penguins
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In some of my seminars and during publishing and book marketing consultations I meet authors that are not only new to writing, but also often have no “platform” – which means no blog or website and no Social Media presence, aside from some posts on Facebook to friends and family.

No problem, it’s all a matter of organizing it and not getting overwhelmed!  Here are some practical tips for online book marketers – no matter if they are independent writers or so-called “published” authors:
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Before You Start Posting on Your Social Media Sites

  • Make yourself familiar with each detail on these Social Media sites, all the functions and how people interact.
  • First set up folders and files for your images, posts, tweets – and most important for all your passwords, to have them always handy when you work online.
  • To find lots of free images for your blogs use either the “Commons” on Wikipedia or check out the fast inventory of photo-sharing sites.
  • List your posts and tweets neatly in a row on a notepad or word documents, so that you just need to copy and paste into your Google+ page.  Don’t forget to type all your passwords and log-ins immediately in your files!
  • Connect all your Social Media Accounts.  An essential step would be to open a Twitter account, and connect it with Google+, so that all your Google posts go automatically over to Twitter. Set up your Goodreads page, so that all your blog posts are automatically show up on your author page.
    Always type into the search function on top of each site: reader, reading, book lover, bookworm, reviewer, book blogger, avid reader etc. to find the right people to follow.
  • To shorten your links in posts and tweets, use a shortener, such as www.Bit.ly, which you can even use to tweet from their site. And later, if you want to post more on Twitter or Facebook and to be present “around the clock”, use a scheduling program, such as Hootsuite.com or FutureTweets. It will save you a lot of time – time you can use to interact directly with your followers.

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The 3 Essential Social Media Platforms for Writers

1. Your Blog:
The content you are writing can be split in short, single sentences and (together with your blog URL) posted on your Social Media sites. Why your blog sells your books is shown in a former post.  Invite your readers to sign-up for your blog posts, and eventually for your newsletter too. Thanks them for blog comments and interact like you would do on any other  social media site. Here are some key statistics about the benefit of blogging:

• 84 percent of people have bought products based on their description in blogs.

• 25 percent people (25-34 year olds) read blogs every day.

• 1 in 4 people buy something each month based on blog content.

• 18 – 34-year-olds valued blogs as the most important information source when making buying decisions.

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2. Goodreads:
With 26 Million English-speaking readers worldwide the largest pool of potential readers for your book – provided you are following eventually roughly 5000 of them. As more you reach out as greater is your success, and following readers or reviewers is done by a single mouse-click. How to open an author and a book page, to navigate Goodreads and how to start a Goodreads Giveaway is explained in these Slide Shares.

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3. Google+
The greatest benefit of Google+ and their communities is the fact that everything posted there is automatically on Google’s Search Engines and very high in rankings! As with Goodreads, Google+ also offers an author page, but for EVERY book a separate one, plus the possibility to open your own community (up to 50 separate sites). There are no strong limitations how often your book can be shown on Google+. However your followers (preferably readers, reviewers, book lovers etc. ) want to hear more from you than about your book only.
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There are certainly more Social Media sites than these three pillars, such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest – but your blog, plus Goodreads and Google+ should be your first choice.
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Why do you Need to be Visible as a Writer?
Readers need to find you and your book!  Your chances to be seen on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes &Noble or Waterstones is about 1 : 6 Million or more, almost as good as winning the lottery…

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What do you want to achieve?
Preferably show your best site to potential readers, reviewers and book buyers, interact with them, network and be sociable. Remember, there are two reasons people why people flock to Social Media: to learn / gain something or to be entertained.

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How do you Want to be Seen?
As a professional writer certainly, as someone to be taken seriously. That starts with your – not your cats’ or dogs’ – photo /avatar and your short bio.  Always remember:
You never get a second chance for a first good impression!

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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 – 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

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Visit us Here on the Weekend

Visit-our-Blog.

Have fun to visit our blogs, learn even more about the publishing world, and join our social media sites.  Welcome here:

 

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://www.111Publishing.com/seminars

http://www.Savvybookwriters.com/blog

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111publishingWorld  @ Google+
http://bit.ly/1e1pCCN

Doris-Maria Heilmann  @ Google+
http://bit.ly/19PrQAz

111Publishing @ Google+
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS

ebookPR @ Google+
http://bit.ly/13NFyBT

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

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http://www.twitter.com/111publishing

http://www.twitter.com/ebookPR

http://www.twitter.com/ebooksIntl

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http://ebooksinternational.tumblr.com/

http://www.content-on-demand.blogspot.ca

http://www.international-ebooks.com

http://www.e-book-pr.com/

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Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day. 

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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

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

 

How to Import Your Linkedin Contacts to Google+

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Import
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Import From Ireland (LinkedIn) to California (Google+):

In a recent blog post on SavvyBookWriters.com/blog we explained the possibility to connect all your Social Media accounts.  The task was to post or tweet more – in case you need this for a campaign to go viral.  Saving time on Social Media, allows you to interact more with your followers and readers.  But it also shows them where else they can connect with you.  You can import for example your LinkedIn Followers to Google+.  How this works?  Read more on our new blog site:

Our WordPress blog http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/ has moved to our web domain at: https://www.savvybookwriters.com/blog.

As we cannot transfer thousands of subscribers we will re-blog for a while.   If you want to get these valuable tips in the future, please sign up when the pop-up window shows up after 10 seconds on the new site, to make sure you won’t miss any articles in the future.   THANKS

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Tagged: Circloscope.com, Google+, Import Your Linkedin Contacts to Google+, LinkedIn, PlusYourBusiness.com, Social Media Tips

How to Import Your Linkedin Contacts to Google+

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LinkedIn


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Google+.

In a recent blog post on SavvyBookWriters.com/blog I explained the possibility to connect all your Social Media accounts.  The task was to post / tweet more – in case you need this for a campaign to go viral.  Saving time on Social Media, allows you to interact more with your followers and readers.  But it also show them where else they can connect with you.

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Martin Shervington from PlusYourBusiness explained in a video how to connect your LinkedIn followers with your Google+ account.
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This is How it Works Step for Step:

  1. Log in to your LinkedIn account and on the upper left go to your Connections page and click on “Keep in Touch”
  2. Once you are on the page, click in the upper right on the gear-icon
  3. When the Connection page appears, click on Export LinkedIn Connections in the “Advanced Settings” part in the right column
  4. A new page opens with a button: Microsoft Outlook (.csv file)
  5. Underneath you can see EXPORT, click this which prompts the download
  6. Open the .csv file and you will get an Excel Spreadsheet on your computer screen with all the names and email addresses of your LinkedIn connections
  7. Select all the email addresses in the E-mail Address column and copy them to your clipboard / notepad.

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Hundreds of LinkedIn Connections?
Circloscope.com is the only tool that allows you to find Google+ users from your long list of email addresses and to transfer them in bulk.
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Now you have to decide if you want to transfer your LinkedIn followers by hand into your Google+ circles or if you want to transfer them with one click (paid version of Circloscope.com = $47 for one year).  If you have hundreds of followers to transfer, you might choose this small one-time expense to save lots of time.

  1. 1. Go to the Dashboard function, scroll down to the function “Profiles”, and from there to Email or Google ID’s
  2. Paste the long list with all your LinkedIn email addresses into the field that opens up
  3. Click the OK button and after a moment or two you should see your LinkedIn followers
  4. Filter the ones you are already following on Google+ in the “Filter” menu item at the top of Circloscope.com
  5. On the resulting popup window click the “Circled?” and then click the “Apply Filters” button
  6. Add the remaining people to your new or existing Google+ circles: Click on “Select All” on top of the page
  7. Click on “Action” on top of the page and choose the function “Add profiles to circles” and OK
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Should your LinkedIn account be relatively new with only a dozen followers, you can implement them one by one.  Just copy every email address from your clipboard or notepad into the search function on top of your Google+ page, where it says: Search for people, pages or posts. Google+ will open up their profile pages, if they are a Google+ member, and you just need to click “add”

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If you want your LinkedIn connections to follow you back on Google+ too, you can send them a brief note (in one shot to the entire circle!) saying hello and letting them know you are now following them on Google+ because you are already connected on LinkedIn. To do this, use the function “Also send emails from you to Your circles” at the lower end of each post, next to the SEND button. Just mark it, before you send your note. No one will know that you just sent out hundreds of emails.

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Dear Readers:
Our WordPress blog http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/ has moved to our web domain here at https://www.savvybookwriters.com/blog.  As we cannot transfer thousands of subscribers we will re-blog for a while.   If you want to get these valuable tips in the future, please sign up when the pop-up window shows up after 10 seconds, to make sure you won’t miss any articles in the future.   THANKS

 

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