Social Media RipOff

I hereby declare this the biggest social media conference ripoff ever. Ok, maybe not ever. But I don't waste my time researching bogus social media conferences (and you shouldn't either). So there.

$1,000. One day. No confirmed attendee list. I don't see any one-on-one time...AND they're promising you you can learn "best practices." Which you can learn here, here, or here. And many, many other places.

The truth is "best practices" of anything are going to be fairly basic--don't spam, don't overuse the hashtag, etc. You can't talk about best practices of the higher level stuff: crafting a campaign or talking to your specific audience, because there are too many variables. You have to be, at a minimum, familiar with the basics to get anything out of a panel or conference.

Guys, panels are hard. As someone who's been on them and listened to them, it's rare that I come out of a panel discussion with much more than one or two insights to ruminate on (which is usually worth it, actually).

This is because you've got 3 - 5 people, all with different agendas, none of whom want to give too much away, plus an agenda-ed moderator, PLUS a crowd that runs the gamut from someone who knows a lot about the topic to those who just heard about it. And, worse, those who just heard about it who think they're in a tutorial on, say, best practices of social media.

This last group is, unfortunately, the most likely to get suckered in to paying a GRAND to go listen to the head of McDonald's talk about their Twitter strategy. Because obviously what works for them, what's even FEASIBLE for them, should be on your radar, too? No.

Here's the thing about panels and conferences: you have to be really well versed in the topic long before you go there. Ideally, you should have dabbled a little in it, too, so you know what the glitches are for your specific situation. That's why we encourage so much research into agents and publishing before just showing up at a writer's conference thinking you'll get an agent or a book deal. If you don't know what you don't know, how are you going to glean the information that will help answer those questions?

For all of you who've walked out of a panel or a whole conference feeling like you just listened to people talk about totally company specific, personally inapplicable things, that's what happened to you.

So as for these social media conferences? Put your cash into a reputable freelancer who works in your industry and can speak to you particular strategy.

Have you been to a conference before? Did you leave filling fulfilled and knowledgeable or confused and downtrodden?

Being "Booksy"

There is still a lot of debate surrounding the effect that the ebook has, both on our industry as well as on those who keep us being able to call ourselves an "industry": the readers. Some say it's a travesty, that writing can never be experienced the same way on a touchscreen as it can on a deckle-edged page. Some say otherwise (typically in large groups, conspicuously): that anything that gets more people reading is OK by them.

In all of this, though, I've always had the feeling that something is missing from the discussion. That, really, ebooks aren't a bad thing. That they're not infringing on your right to have a bookshelf full of first edition hardcovers with pages whose smell fills you with joy--but eventually you will have to pay more to fill that bookshelf, just as all those vinyl-philes do to keep their turntables turnin'.

The missing thing is reading. Love of the stories contained in books, rather than their packaging...when did we forget that binding is just a vehicle for getting you the story in a convenient, albeit well-designed way?

I read this (sort of pretentious and college-y feeling, unfortunately) article this morning, about the difference between loving to read and loving to fetish-ize reading (page sniffers!). The author says the following, among other very true things: "Booksing tends to show up as a gushy, shared celebration of the idea of books, rather than of the experience of reading any given one." You can read more here: http://bit.ly/GJZMzE

Thoughts?

A Great Overview of How To Use Twitter...and Have a Job

I hope this sheds light on the fact that, while a lot of tweets from me and mine are organic, many are also posted ahead of time so that the pressure's off me during the busy work day.  I'm not slacking. I'm maximizing.

Which means you can't use "no time" as an excuse not to self-promote anymore. :)

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/5-twitter-secrets-to-become-highly-visible-in-your-niche_b7645

How to Get Twitter Followers

I've noticed a rash of "so-and-so is trying to get ## more followers by the end of the day! Go follow her/him!" tweets recently.

Why is this happening?

I've seen others taunting people: "I'll post XYZ picture if I get ## more followers!"

This is so completely backwards. Posting interesting content will cause people to want to follow you. Interesting content is not a weapon. It goes against everything organic about social media to use it to taunt people into following you. And those people are probably not going to return to your feed, so I hope you don't intend to ever use it to tell them anything else.

Twitter and Facebook followings are built over time, not crammed into one or two "follower drives." What sort of artificial timeline is making people do this all of a sudden??

Traditionally, marketing centered around "events" (hence Event Marketing). So, say, a book launch. A very clever marketer would arrange a series of appearances or reviews or other buzz-generating items slightly before, on, and after, a certain date.

Social media--the internet in general, really--is making Event Marketing a thing of the past. Which is not to say that it's not useful or that no one does it anymore. It still has its applications. But crafting an online presence is not meant to serve one date (although a good presence will give you a strong platform when there is a specific piece of info you need to disseminate). You have to create a reason for people to want to add you to the noise of the Interwebz, so make an effort. Followers drives ain't it.

BEA Day 1

I had so much fun walking around--in many ways, BEA feels like a big party for publishing people, particularly agents. Agents sort of get a pass to sit in panels, network, and, of course, swag.

This has been my experience in the past, but it certainly wasn't yesterday. As foreign rights director, I had to have, like "meetings." With some delightful publishers from Japan. Of particular interest were innovations that the publisher NHK (the BBC of Japan) is working on to bring ebooks to the Japanese market.

There's currently no hardware for reading ebooks in Japan. Consensus seems to be that this is because Japanese people are not interested in a dedicated reader device--something that only reads ebooks. It's a complaint that Western readers had, too but got over, and that is now being solved by WiFi and 3G readers. And the stupid iPad.

Instead of trying to get readers to adopt new hardware, NHK is working on a platform in mobile app form (it's only in Japanese so far, drat) that will allow people to tweet or post to facebook (and other social media sites, I'm sure) right from their reading environment--from their Kindle for iPhone app, for instance. So they can have their reader+ on their phone. The challenge will be getting people to read on a phone, but I'm seeing more of that even over here.

May be reiventing a couple wheels there, but it's an interesting approach. Our discussion centered on whether people even want that capability. These days, escape from social media and social _______ seem to be the main draws to reading for most.

Blog Promo and Audience

OK, before we were so rudely interrupted on Wednesday, we were deep in conversation about blogs. How you have to have them and what to write on them, and what not to write on them. We are making so. much. progress.

Now, you've got this blog! It's your online brand-y-hub thing! You are crafting a message both personal and interesting to your audience!

Whoa. Audience? Who said anything about that?

Oops.

Your audience, as you doubtless know, is numero uno. It's more important than your witty quips or cool stories. Plus, if you keep checking your comments and you've still only got that one from your mom asking about your change of address, we've you've got a problem.

Two things on audience: Who they are and how to get on their radar screen.

Both take a little legwork. Your blog has a topic--you don't only have to talk about that one thing, but it should constitute the majorty of your content. So research that topic! Google keywords and see what comes up. Take a look on Twitter to see who's talking about the things you're blogging about. Use this info to:

1. See who should follow/friend/link to--as in other bloggers
2. Decide how to tailor your posts and labels (at the bottom of blog posts) so that you include the keywords people most often search when looking for your topic. They're the intuitive ones. The ones you Googled. You're dabbling in SEO now!! You techy, you.

The people involved in the internet discussions you uncovered with your Googling are your core audience--they're already interested. Their followers/friends/readers are interested in what they're retweeting/posting/blogging--meaning they're valuable. They'll extend your "reach." Marketing lingo! Look at you...

Now you talks to them!! But before you start broadcasting your presence, hedge your bets a little. Get about a week's worth of your best material queued up to pose. You can take one of two routes:

• Have a big launch day.
• Just sort of ease onto the scene

The former is appropriate if you've got something you know people will want. I had some assurance that people would like the prizes I hawked offered on my launch day (thank you, btw!!), so this was a no brainer to me. I knew it would drive traffic and, through retweets, etc., that people would spread the word (THANK YOU!). Do you? Be creative now...and make sure it's not random. It needs to make sense in the context of your blog.

If you don't do a launch day, tha's cool. Just ease in there--post that week's worth of material before you start promoting yourself. But make sure your best, most interesting post is the one you post on the day you start buzzing about yourself. One that'll hook 'em, and get them clicking around your other posts. Doesn't hurt to cross link to your other posts, either.

When you're ready, just slide into the conversations you've been watching:

• Twitter is the easiest place to do this. Make comments or retweet. Use hashtags. Don't be afraid to talk directly (@) people. You can link to your blog in your tweets, but also link to other sites that you find interesting. Be interesting/linky and not only will people follow you, but they'll check out your profile, which lists your blog (right???).
• Other blogs are fantastic ways to get ideas for content or crosslinking. Someone say something you have Opinions about? Response blog and link to it. Mention your response, using the other person's handle, on Twitter. You can build on others' posts and, by linking to them, build a presence in the community.
• Facebook. I don't know. Post a picture or something. Facebook is a weird and wild animal. It'll have it's own series here somewhere. Plus, I use mine only for personal use. You have to be careful with that. With all the pictures.
• Quora. OMG this place is so underappreciated. People ask questions, other people answer them. It's a great place to build a platform and find things to blog about. The things people are asking about are the things that they'll want to read blog posts about.

So that's it! KNow that you'll do probably 5 hours of work up front, figuring out where your audience is and how to best talk to them. Expect that, and don't be discouraged. Your time investment will reduce as you find the most efficient means of talking to your readers. And as your readers start reblogging/retweeting you...doing your work for you. :)

The Stuff That Really Doesn't Go On Ze Blog

Some things are just not interwebz material.

People may debate excerpts on ze blog. I'll reiterate here what I said in yesterday's comments: excerpts are usually part of a sales strategy. This assumes the book is for SALE (or orderable), whether via traditional or self publishing. If it's not pushing people to buy (NOW) or preorder, your excerpt is wasted. In my opinion and many others'.

But barring your copyrighted content, anything is blog fodder! Blog your LIFE! Your PASSIONS!! Right?!?!

YES. Well, no. Almost.

Just because you're blogging about "your life/passions" doesn't mean you don't have to filter. Someone likened blogging to "reality TV" and "car crashes" in the comments, because it's raw and emotional and you can't look away. Eh...not really.

"Feelings" don't belong on your blog. OK, half of them do. The "YAY This awesome thing!!" or "How cool is this?!" feelings are great for blogging. But the feelings that I most associate with car crashes and Reality TV (regret, sadness, anger, etc.) should never make their way onto the internet--anywhere.

Back to the brand. While no one is happy/professional all the time, your blog/Twitter/Facebook should read like you are. Moments when you're down are moments when you need your friends around you, yes. You just need to TAWLK. But your Twitter followers and blog readers are not your friends (barring the ones that were friends first). They're your Twitter followers and your blog readers.

You love them, but it's, like, meta-love. It's binary code love. Not suitable for heavy emotional stuff--too much is lost in translation. Just think about all those text messages that have come across wrong at one time or another. Do you really want that happening on an interwebz scale?? No.