Promote Your Book With Social Media
Teleclass :: September 28, 2010
Teleclass Guest: Nettie Hartsock, The Hartsock Agency
As an author, you know you could be using social media to promote your book. But which tools do you use? How often do you use them? What exactly is the best way to get noticed? Join us as we chat with PR strategist Nettie Hartsock about using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging to attract media attention.
Register now! The first 10 people to register will receive a free hard copy edition of Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman.
Format
1-hour teleclass
Sep 28, 2010 :: 1 – 2pm ET
Price
FREE
Yep, it’s Latin. I’ll tell you at the end what it means, but here’s a clue: If you can’t wait for me to tell you and you’re already busy Googling the words, then you’re definitely not following the phrase’s direction!
So wait till the end and I’ll let you know.
I’m listening this morning to K.C. and the Sunshine Band on my iTunes and I just finished walking a mile around our neighborhood. In the mornings, where I live, there are deer, snakes, frogs and rabbits meandering about. Often when I go out in my front yard I see the same sleeping beautiful doe with two brand new baby deer sleeping beside her.
At about the same time, my over- abundantly gorgeous pug Willie starts barking and wakes up the poor doe as we make our way out the door.
She wakes up her babies and off they run.
I don’t think about email, blogging, tweeting, or linked-ing-ing while I’m walking. I think about BEING. I think about how more of us need to think about BEING, and less about DOING.
While all these tools in social media: blogging, tweeting, facebooking give us incredible new ways to communicate, it doesn’t mean we have to DO it all the time. Spending too much time on social media or doing TOO much on social media does not guarantee that you’ll have that time returned to you in dollars, customers, or new speaking gigs.
Don’t be caught in the hype cycle of these tools and give up your BEING to them.
Use your time efficiently – don’t panic, don’t sweat it if you aren’t able to blog more than twice a week and for gosh sakes stop comparing Ashton Kutcher’s number of followers to yours.
Just BE.
Find the best narrative for your social media content and tell your story one post, one tweet and one facebook update at a time. Don’t overload folks with inane chatter just to show you’re on the platforms. Don’t let social media folks talk you into spreading yourself too thin over all these channels so that all you really have is watered down messaging and communities that are fragmented over the different tools.
You can make the same strides without the frenzy and you’ll enjoy it a lot more. Don’t blog without a reason, don’t tweet endlessly and don’t Facebook your 8th grade history teacher to death with updates of how smart you turned out to be. (Sorry, Mr. Wilbanks! I’ll try to work on this.)
Aim for a good meditative balance for all you’re doing online and offline and aim for your work to benefit others first and your bottom line second.
What’s the translation for the title of this post?
BE HERE NOW.
While there are plenty of PR folks out there who can pitch on your behalf, don’t forget what you can do on your own. If you have a blog you have an incredible tool for media to find you.
The media is constantly sourcing blogs and the experts who write them to feature in both online and offline news stories. Almost every single cable news show incorporates experts who are identified only by their blog or website.
Imagine you being that next expert! Imagine saving thousands of dollars on worn-out pitching methods and getting the news media to come to you through your unique content on your blog.
Did you know that last week the AP announced it will officially give bloggers attributions in news stories?
So why aren’t you creating news with your blog? Be ahead of the stories of the day and offer your expert opinion via your blog before you’re asked to. (TIP: Don’t make it snarky.)
Stop waiting for a PR firm to make your news for you. The Web has created a fantastic way for you to be directly seen by journalists, freelance writers and news media. In fact, they’re hoping to find you because their editors are tasking them to find experts online who have large communities.
If you are that expert, and they can quote you in a story then it serves the publication as well as you. Offline and online publications will assume that if you’re quoted in a story, you will also link to that story on your blog, Twitter, Facebook etc. and that will help drive more readers to the media publication itself. It’s a win-win.
If you rely only on traditional PR flacks and online PR folks to get you to the media, but are not actively working on your own behalf, then you’re missing out!
Journalists would rather be in contact with you directly. Make it easy for them by creating content on your blog that sets up interesting angles on stories, underlines your expertise, and is well-written so they can source it.
How do you write news hook blog post titles?
1. Look at the headlines on major media sites, and use the same form for some of your blog posts. Here are some I grabbed off MSNBC.com today.
To get to D.C., a Democrat runs away from it
Many Gulf fishermen reluctant to try their luck
Poll: Most still confused about health care
No Verizon, not antenna, is iPhone 4′s big problem
Bombed car from Iraq on display at museum
Body Odd: Screwy in the city?
Tween boys tackle obesity: One family’s story
Airline passengers fight fees | Peeved about peanuts
Ouch! Contestant’s face is a melon magnet on ‘Race’
Public employees snooped in Bowersox files
Those headlines are clever, engaging and make you want to read the rest of the story.
You can write the same type of headlines for your blog posts! The job of a good blog post title is to get the readers’ attention. It’s exactly the same with a headline.
My past client Manisha Thakor is very adept at this on her site. Hit her blog and read the last five to seven headlines on her blog posts – you will love them! And then learn from them.
Now go and make the news!!!
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