Newbie Author's Guide

Helping new and aspiring authors navigate the publishing wilderness

Guest Post: Reasons Why Content is Important for Social Media Marketing by Serina Levis

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I would like to welcome Serina Levis to NAG today. She is here to offer a fresh perspective on why content is important to social media marketing. Check it out and enjoy!

Whenever we talk about social media and a brand’s growth on the social media platforms, we always ask them questions like:

  • How did you get the X number of followers?
  • Why did your brand not work on certain platforms?
  • What is the ROI on the social media platform?
  • How do I get users to talk on my page and share what I post?

The answer to all these questions is very simple. It begins with the presence of the content or the lack of it.If your social media page is not performing well, it means you seriously lack the right content. If your social media page is growing with leaps and bounds, then this clearly means that the content you are posting is great and users love what you share. Content is the actual meat of your social media presence. Everything that you post is called content, if you do not have any content, your page is just a blank template and nothing else.

The importance of content is more now than before because of the communication clutter and stringent policies of all the social media platforms. If your content is not right, then there are chances people will not like it or even before that, the social media platform will not approve of it. Today’s guest blog post is going to talk about reasons why social media is so reliant on content and how does content help you get success on social media.

Content is the way you communicate

One reason for the importance of content onto the social media platforms is because of the fact that it is the only way to communicate with people on social media. Consider content as the language of social media. Now imagine how if you use the wrong language in real life situations can result in you being not really appreciated by the people you are interacting with. The importance of language is so high in real life and so is the importance of content in social media.

Content is what people feel

Content is something that people actually feel. They get emotional with what you share. For example, if you share a tragedy, they will feel sad and if you share something happy, they will be content. Content is that element which directly affects the users of social media and so the importance is very high.

Content is information

Content is also information about you, your company and the services you offer. If it is not appropriate or right, then it is directly having an impact on your organization’s credibility and your brand equity.

Content is knowledge

On many occasions, social media content is also a source of knowledge for the users. If your social media content is not saying anything insightful, then new people are going to simply ignore it. This is why it has to be absolutely credible and something which your users will be surprised to read. This is why so many brands rely on “Did you know” kind of facts on their social media posts.

Author Bio

Serina Levis is the author of this blog post. Serina is a senior account executive at a social media firm. He encourages writing blogs on websites, which is why he frequently contributes to the website AssignmentDoer.co.uk follow her on: G +

Guest Post: 5 Tools Everyone in the TWITTER FOLLOWER Industry Should Be Using by Sheena Mathieson

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I would like to welcome Sheena Mathieson to NAG today. She is here to share 5 tools that everyone who uses Twitter for business should use. Enjoy and try them for yourself!

5 Twitter Tooks

Many companies are now turning from one social tool to another in order to reach out to a specific audience. This refers to the kind of audience that the online industry is relying on so that they can reach an array of the company’s products and services. Using a social tool like Twitter allows the distribution of information to reach each and every Twitter follower. Here are a few tools that everyone in any Twitter follower industry should consider using.

Long links can take up a lot of characters, which can be a problem for Twitter whose characters are limited. If anyone needs to shorten those links, it is recommended to use Bit.ly. Not only that, but it saves a lot of time by sharing these shorter versions of links to more than one account. Through Bit.ly, individuals can make customized domains that match for their company. This personal touch creates trust among any Twitter follower.

Hootsuite is another favorite tool used by the online industry. If a company uses more than one social media, Hootsuite allows its users to manage them instead of having to open them individually. By doing it this way, it saves a lot of time and effort that can be used somewhere else in a more productive way. Not only is it easy and convenient, it is a single platform that allows you to access all of the social network channels that the company is in.

Another popular social tool used in the online industry is BufferApp. Instead of flooding every single Twitter follower with interesting and relevant news that one finds every minute, this tool allows the user to send these links in accordance to a schedule. This is important so that followers won’t get annoyed with overloading of tweets at a single time. The user can set up a particular schedule based on time to evenly distribute such information.

SocialBro is another social tool that companies can invest on. This is because its users can analyze critical data and assessment towards a path of making important decisions that can enhance any marketing strategy. SocialBro reaches out to a target audience that is vital for any company. It attracts potential clients and customers.

Another powerful tool that can be added to the list is Twitterfeed. Shared quality content can be viewed by the audience over multiple social networks. After users have distributed the content, statistics can be tracked and monitored. This way, users can analyze which content is popular among the audience so that users know what kind of content to look for in the future when the need arises.

All of these social tools can be used in the online industry in order to boost and promote a particular business to an audience who is in need of such product or service. These are meant to be used for long term measures so that companies can watch as they progress or bounce back after a series of downfalls. A combination of marketing strategies as mentioned earlier are important in order to reach the company’s goals.

About the Author

Sheena MatthiesonSheena Mathieson, understands the essence of making excellent content that suits the needs of every business especially when it comes online marketing. She can spice up your marketing campaign with the content she makes and then incorporate Buy Real Marketing services.

Guest Post: The Application of Social Media in Business Administration by Katherine William

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I would like to welcome Katherine William to NAG today. She is here to share some information about using social media in business administration which authors and writers can glean from since being an author is a business in itself and social media is necessary. Enjoy!

Technology has touched every single aspect of human life and picturing life without it is awkward and unmanageable. Social media is a novel and an impressive product of technology, around which our lives are dependent, absolutely and completely.
By saying our lives revolve around social media is actually true in a literal sense. People are more impressed by this new approach rather than any other thing. Social media is defined as online communication through different mediums such as websites and blogs.
This approach is novel in its sense because no other such development has taken place. Social media is used for a variety of purposes that include exchanging information, expressing opinions, defining strategies, sharing photos and manifestation of speech.
This is defined as a vast and huge medium through which one corner of the world is actually connected to the other corner. Initially, used for entertainment purposes and commitments, the scenario has again taken a turn and social media serves purposes other than entertainment as well. Social media, hence is used and adopted by different business oriented folks who are learning and are on the verge of expanding their business and what better and a perfect way could there be other than the social media?

Advertising
Social media has enough space for advertising purpose, these new websites allow young entrepreneurs, financiers as well as other business agencies to promote their work and communicate with other businessmen as well. This result in exchange of information, which is benefiting both sides not only that, but also businessmen can advertise and promote their industries through this forum.

Publicity
With the help of paid services, business companies can advertise on social media through which exposure and publicity is given to their respective companies. Since, social media connects different minds, it helps to promote and publish the work of businessmen and their companies. Moreover, new business strategies are appreciated and acknowledged throughout with the help of social media. In a nutshell, social media is a perfect opportunity for the purpose of business publicity.
Information
Social media is an exceptional way to study and receive information as well. Business related tips are available online and also posted on different social media websites by professional expert businessmen. Hence, to increase business related information one can also pay a visit to social media websites to keep themselves updates and enhance a bit of knowledge relating to the field. Lastly, business related debates can help create a healthy environment that can bring the two poles together for one purpose.
Enhancement of Business
With the help of proper advertising, promotion and exposure many existing settled business companies can post job requests on social media as well, which helps them to gain maximum employees of experienced nature. This is how businesses are improved and enhanced and this is another way to open up different global branches across the world. There are different websites available, created solely for the purpose of professional communication and linkages. These associations are created to enhance professional relationships among people.

Author’s Bio

Katherine William is an employee at Chiefpapers-Academic paper writing. She has been working in the company as a Senior Assignment manger for 5 years. She has received her education in the field of Computer Sciences and has earned a Masters degree in Business Management.

Guest Post: Four Trends That Will Change in Social Media This Year

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I would like to welcome Maxwell George to NAG today. He is here to share some thoughts about what could be changing in social media this year. Seems exciting. Enjoy!

Changes in Social Media

 

 

The secret to staying in the market for all social media networks is to continuously evolve, grow and offer its users something different as well as private. Privacy in social media is something which has recently become a major concern for the users. With the hacks and malicious activities going on, social media users and the experience are going through a kind of turmoil. Recently released news about Face book and Twitter being hacked and the passwords being publicly available to, everyone has taken the social media world with a wave of concern.

Fast forwarding to the New Year and coming future, we still social media are only going to get stronger every passing year. The rising challenges will only help social media networks to strengthen and address all the issues and come stronger. Social media has become such an amazing reality, that now it is next to impossible to think it will start to fade away or eventually cease to exist. Every year, in fact, we will see further changes that will not only improve the overall user experience of social media, but also something different and better in terms of connectivity as well as security. Our blog post is going to focus on various changes that are expected to take place in the social media field this year and how it is going to change the way we use social media networks.

Payment Security and Options

It has been very frequently reported in the news media that the likes of Face book and Gmail are now planning to introduce the facility to transfer money using debit or credit card details of the users. Some users have already reported the availability of this feature on their pages and it is thought all this is under the testing phase. This can be a revolutionary change in the social media networks something which Face book and Google both are known for. Such a change will not only improve user experience, but also offer an amazing new feature to them.

New Networks Mean New Competition

Face book might have countered, it’s competition by taking over Whatsapp and Instagram, but every passing day more and more social media networks is taking up on air. Likes of Tumbler and Snapchat will also invest and see an increase in their user base. So as the new networks take the playing field, competition for already existing giants will increase since users will have many more options to choose from.

E-commerce Integration with Social Media Networks

This year might also see the integration, e-commerce functionality with the big social networks. This means users will be able to do their shopping while browsing through their social network profiles. The likes of Amazon will have increasing competition if users get the opportunity to shop from their social media profiles.

More Security and Privacy Regulations

It is not a hidden fact that more and more work is being done in terms of managing privacy and security amongst the networking profiles. We will see different policies of passwords, user identification and registrations regarding the registrations of profiles will take place.

Author Bio

Maxwell George is the author of this blog post. Maxwell has worked with different social media agencies and now has one of his own. He likes to talk about social media and technology on various forums like cheap essay help service at IrishEssays.com.

Rachel Thompson Introduces #MondayBlogs

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#MondayBlogs

Rachel Thompson aka RachelintheOC, Queen of Twitter, Queen of Snark etc is now announcing the new blogging meme on Twitter #MondayBlogs.  It had been previously known as #MentionMonday, but there were a whole lot of issues going on with this hashtag.

To get the hoe-down on all the issues, you can click here to visit Rachel on her blog.

Back In Time: What is/was #MentionMonday?

For anyone new to the indie community or unsure what I am talking about, #MentionMonday is a meme or a themed hashtag used for a certain purpose–Rachel sums it up as a “theme”. It was originally intended for blogs and for bloggers to share their content and retweet others. This was around before Triberr and works great. Nowadays, we have this and Triberr and using them in conjunction with each other is great, too.

Other people seemed to hijack the hashtag and buried the posts in abysmal muck creating a lot of noise. Others were just confused thinking it was for ‘mentioning’ other people (see Rachel’s post). So it became a trash dive for the gems so to speak.

So now we have #MondayBlogs which should stamp out the confusion of what it’s about–blogs. Rachel has also built a new stream and twitter handle for this activity, @MondayBlogs, for you to follow. You can mention this handle in your tweet or use the hashtag #MondayBlogs.

How Do I Participate?

Since this blog is for new authors and now that blogs are a integral part of your platform, knowing how to use it is crucial. Like I have said in the past: It’s one thing to know what a persimmon tree is and how to identify it, but it’s a whole different thing trying to find one on the field and knowing when and how to eat the fruit. So item one: you need a blog.

Post regularly. It is a good idea to post on Monday if you can, but if you can’t, you can send out your tweets on Monday for your newest post and/or an older post you would like to share. Getting in a routine at least once a week is not a bad idea. Make sure you’re putting out good content! People don’t retweet or return to snore-worthy content! There have been times I would have an odd day post and would post it the following Monday along with or instead of the regular Monday post. This is why I write on this blog every Monday.

Formula for the #MondayBlogs tweet: Start the tweet with the #MondayBlogs hashtag or handle, title of your post, very brief description of the post (optional)–you can flip flop these too for some variation–shortened direct link to the post (via bit.ly or the built-in shortener for most social media management platforms), any optional hashtag tags you wish to add. You can also put “Plz Retweet (it’s best to spell it out)”, but this is also optional. Hint: Keep tweets to 120 characters or less for optimal retweeting. Yes, you must fit most of or all of this in 120 characters or less and build intrigue, so make them count! It takes practice, but it’s worth it. It’s not as difficult as trying to factor a polynomial or solve a physics problem, so there is no need stress out!

Example Tweet: #MondayBlogs Learn how to annoy your #editor “10 Ways to Annoy Your Editor” [shortened link] #editing Plz Retweet.

This is also a karma thing. You need to retweet others. This isn’t a do it once thing either. Getting in the habit of doing it and doing it over a period of time is best.

This is a good sturdy plank to use in your platform, but use it wisely and correctly!

Don’t be a Social Media Commercial

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tv commercials

Rachel Thompson, several others, and I have spoken a little about the prevalence of spam in social media, discussion forums, and everywhere in between. It’s not just authors doing it, but that is the community we reside in so that is what we mainly see, and this blog is for authors–especially for the new and aspiring ones.

Newbies are more inclined to spam because that’s what everyone else is doing, or they have been given wrong information.

Today I want to write about the same ol’, same ol’ in a new perspective. Instead of talking about that funky canned meat; I will write about this in a new perspective for 2 reasons:

  1. It is a new flavor for an old idea
  2. It is an expansion of a section for my upcoming book that this blog is built around: The Newbie Author’s Survival Guide

This section and this post has it’s foundations on ideas I have learned from Rachel Thompson with the ratio of promotional stuff to content stuff. Rachel puts more emphasis on Twitter since that is where she is 98% of the time, but this can be applied everywhere: Facebook, Google+, your blog…

Anyway, promotional stuff is basically centered around your or someone else’s (if you cross promote others) book stuff (since this is mostly for authors) or other secondary services that are offered. Or, it can be liking your Facebook page, friending on Goodreads, or some other type of social media activity. Most of the time it can be summed up as something that can lead outside of somewhere to something promotional or to a book or service.

Content is the fun stuff (most of the time without links) unless you are sharing someone else’s content from their blog or an article. This is the stuff that entertains, teaches, or informs your connections.

The general rule is to have more content than promo. 2 content for every 1 promo is the minimum. Even more content is better. Am I perfect? No. I try to be as entertaining and helpful as I can. Some days may be more linky than others, but that depends. I try to “bank” some content on non-promo days if some big promo thing will be going on. Topic for later?

Promo = TV Commercials

Liken your social media stream(s) and blog posts to TV if you will. Everyone has their favorite shows or a movie they like to watch, right (when it comes on a different channel than HBO)? Your content is basically like that said TV show or movie for the people who like to read your posts, tweets, etc. Promo is the commercials just like those on the TV or the radio. Doesn’t everyone hate it when the movie or TV program stops for commercials and have to wait for the movie/program to come back on?

You should be nodding. Unless, of course, you want to have a break to grab a snack or make a mad dash to the bathroom before the movie comes on!

Some channels seem to “love their commercials”. The last hour of the movie or the last few minutes of the program seems to have more commercial interruptions on certain channels–when there wasn’t enough commercials during the other part of the program… Annoying huh? What do we do? We record the movie or program with TiVo or a cassette (if you still have a VCR) or DVD to skip the commercials or we skip the channel unless there is nothing else on or that movie is not on any other channel or not in the “movie drawer”.

Other channels, on the other hand, seem to have “the right amount” to where it is not annoying, but still have commercials. The movie channels have commercials in between movies as “filler” with none during. These channels are the ones that are watched most of the time, right? You see what’s on these before the former channel example, right? That’s what you want to be!

The Superbowl: The Epitome of Commercial Coolness

During the Superbowl is probably the only time that I know of when people enjoy the commercials as much as the game. They actually want to see what comes out and these are the commercials everybody talks about. They talk about these just as much as what the cool/dumb things their favorite teams do during the game. What comes back to the via the “viral word of  mouth” is what is repeated after the weekend on other channels for a set period of time.

You can make your promo just as cool and as entertaining as the Superbowl commercials. People talk about your promo as much as your content or stuff you find to share for content.

There isn’t a TV channel that exists today that has Superbowl-grade coolness commercials at the right amount with the best programming (at least in my opinion). Movie theaters and DVD’s seem to be close here.

That’s what my goal is to be.

Now there is no formula or order of operations to become this. It takes time, and it takes experimentation. It takes feedback from your followers and other people, research, and observation. That’s how the Superbowl found the “right ingredients”.

I’m still experimenting–I’m still pretty much a newbie author with a little bit of age on her. I am nowhere near “veteran” stage. Still finding my way.

Keep Social Media Social

Now social media is still to be social, so interact with others when they try to interact with you! The digital age has made it possible for fans to interact with their ‘entertainment’ to some extent. This is another general rule to keep a cap on the promo. Sharing a bit about life (only as personal as you want others to see) is another form of content and creates interaction. It makes you a person rather than an intangible “commercial” (if all that is posted is promo).

Life is not a commercial, so I don’t know why some folks behave this way. It’s a little strange. Will likening promo to commercials help? Won’t know unless people tell me 😉

So to keep people coming back to your channel tone down the promo, turn up the content, and work on making everything cool!

Comments or Questions? Like to hear them! 🙂

OMG, Not My Frappucino!

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Well, I’d like to welcome JP Thompson back for another guest post. Another great addition from the Thompson House of Snark–seems like Rachel is rubbing off on JP ;).Today he is sharing some cheap, low cost promo and tools. Dreaming of a bestseller? You may want to enjoy coffee at home if you need it for your survival and skip Starbucks until then. Enjoy!

There you sit in your favorite chair pensively sipping on your Frappuccino, gazing out the window not noticing the people coming and going. You dream about your bestseller. Just as in years gone by, you imagine Casey Kasem announce, “and topping the charts this week is . . . your book.“ Then suddenly reality sets in: OMG, blogging, tweeting, article writing, advertising, etc., etc. All the things I need to do to expose my book to climb the charts. Sigh!

What was that you are telling yourself?

I don’t blog, I’m too old to twitter, I don’t know what to blog or tweet about, I don’t know about this SEO thing, I can’t afford to advertise, yada yada yada . . .

Let’s get real for a moment and jump out of the box. Don’t blog, don’t twitter, don’t advertise, don’t know SEO . . . as the terminator once said, “no problemo”. For little more than the cost of your Frappuccino you could:

  • Get a 400 – 500 word article (or blog post) written for you.
  • Have someone write 10 awesome tweets for you.
  • Have your promo message tweeted to 250,000 people 4x on twitter.
  • Have a Facebook Fan Page created.
  • Have your message posted for over 300,000 Facebook followers to see.
  • Submit a press release to 35+ press release sites.
  • Get a video made to promote your book or website.
  • And so much more.

Fiverr.com is it. You can find all sorts of services on Fiverr.com for a mere $5. Just a little more than the cost of Frappuccino each day, you can do book promotion. This site is nothing short of faaaaantastic! Don’t blog, don’t twitter, don’t advertise, don’t know SEO . . . “no problemo.”

Also, for a little more than the cost of your Frappuccino each day, you could do promo activities with a paid search or display network ad campaign.

  • Advertise your video on YouTube and get up to 500 views of your video from searches on YouTube.
  • Have your book seen each day thousands of times on a number of websites like FanFiction.net.
  • Get up to 30 clicks per day to your book page from organic searches.

Also, for little more than a couple Frappuccino’s you can get an author interview or do a guest post at @IndieBookPromos (indiebookpromo.com).

You are in a global marketplace. Whether you can or can’t do any of the above is of no consequence. It is so easy to find others who can do it for you, which will free you up to do what you want and like to do, write.

So, tomorrow as you sit in your favorite chair pensively sipping on your Frappuccino, gazing out the window and dreaming about your bestseller, that great coffee aroma swirling around you enticing the senses, the coffee slowly vanishing from your cup — remember, so too are vanishing readers.

No more excuses! You can do it all for little more than the cost of your Frappuccino. EXPOSE yourself, NOW!

Until next time…

“Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Casey Kasem

 

AdWords, as simple as 1-2-3. Get your ad campaign going in minutes! J.P. the AdWords Guy can help you with a task that will seem like you are in a cognitive learning experiment. If you are looking to GET EXPOSED and drive traffic to your Amazon page or book web site, the AdWords Guy can help you. Call, NOW!

949-431-3841

J.P. Thompson

TheAdWordsGuy.com