When it comes to Twitter, if you’re an author and you’re just starting out, one of the ways to find people to follow is to use the Wefollow tool. If you hit this link, you can see the Wefollow books list – http://wefollow.com/twitter/books . These are Twitter book reviewers, publishers, and media people who write about books or work in the book industry. This is a free tool that you can use anytime to find some more book folks to follow.

If you want to find more libraries on the Web a great resource to use is GalleyCat’s listings at this link – http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/best-library-people-on-twitter_b11945 .

The other important thing to remember as an author on Twitter is that you use your tweets to provide strong visibility for your book. Too often authors are letting others tweet on behalf of them or focus too much on sales jargon instead of tweeting about the book and why readers would want to identify with it.

Another tip we give authors during their book signing tours is to make sure they highlight and follow the bookstores that they’re appearing at on their Twitter feed. This is a great reciprocal way to acknowledge and support the independent brick and mortar stores that are supporting authors in incredible ways.

To find bookstores who are twittering – see this link on Wefollow – http://wefollow.com/twitter/bookstore .

If you do a book signing at a brick and mortar store – take a picture and post it out across all your social networks as part of your support of the store as well as your book. And make sure that you tweet out your date and time for signing prior to the event. Thank the bookstore via Twitter as well.

Make sure your PR agency is also keeping up with the latest tools online and offline so that you’ll have the competitive advantage! Ask them if they are open to you sending them blogs that you want them to reach out to. Ask them if they pitch to Twitter book reviewers and online blogs/sites. Ask them how often and how many and see if you can see samples of links and posts they’ve garnered on behalf of their authors.

Above all, use the best of online and offline tools to make sure your book comes out on top!

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We’re all curious about the latest trend, breaking news, new innovations, interesting and unique people or products, and the media is exactly the same way.   Imagine if you can help create a new trend with your book or ideas.  Imagine giving the media a brand new angle for coverage of a saturated topic.

Creativity is key to providing the unique news-hook for your book or your platform so that the media wants to feature you. Authors must think about how their book applies to the hot issues of the day – it’s a constant and ever-changing focus. One of the basic questions to ask is, “Is my story relatable? Does my story tap into something that people are worried about or an issue that might be controversial?”

For instance, some very prevalent issues as I write this column are the environment, the economy, the oil spill, the family crisis in terms of parenting and stresses on family, diets and healthful living. Each day a new opportunity presents itself to pitch your story forward in a meaningful and news-hook fashion.

Think how you can be part of the news discussion almost in real-time, as it is happening. Don’t discount your opinion and how it might be valuable to many other associated topic interviews beyond your book.

Whether it’s hard-hitting news interviews or feature pieces, the key for you is to be able to successfully tie-in these larger issues to your book or your platform, and speak effectively on those when you are tapped by the media.

Reporters and media need credible sources, and you are the best possible source for them as long as you’re well-versed in your topic area and you are armed with verifiable facts.

The media is counting on you to be the expert, to elevate the discussion and help everyone progress to a deeper understanding of the topic or subject manner. If you think of several different angles for the story, this will help you in creating something unique from your expert perspective. Asking questions is key to this practice.

Who is important in this story? How will my interview impact the listeners, and why should they absolutely be listening? How can I effect change in their lives through this interview?

The media aims to establish significance of any story for their listener base, and they rely on their guests to help them do that. The more a news story applies to current events and topics, or is relevant to the listener community at large, the more opportunity and success you’ll have to be a featured expert.

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As a longtime journalist turned online visibility strategist I’ve seen many of my clients apply the power of their social media content to connect directly with journalists and secure media coverage.

The days of just having a traditional PR person pitching you as an expert are long passed. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the old mass pitching methods via fax, spam mail and phone do not see the uptake they once did.

When over 50% of the journalists, bloggers, and media are freelancers it’s vitally important to remember they are actively on the hunt for the next great story because that is how they will in turn get paid for a story.

That next great story could be YOU.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share insights on how to use your content to “be the expert that shines online” to the media. I’ll also share some client wins that have come through using the processes I’m writing about.

The tips today focus around how you can use your blog content to garner media attention as well as new opportunities for contributing to larger online sites like the Huffington Post or BasilandSpice.com that feed out to many online channels.

Remember your blog content can be repurposed into all your other online channels. (Note: If you’re concerned about copyright of your blog content, then make sure you’ve registered it under the Creative Common License.)

Here are five tips you can use today to attract the media to your blog:

1. Set up google news alerts that match your expertise and and respond to at least major media article that comes through those alerts on a weekly basis. Link to the article in a blog post, and give additional insight (from your perspective) to the article’s topic. Don’t be snarky. Give actionable insight.

2. Subscribe to three enewsletters from publications that cover your topic. When you get those enewsletters make sure you read through them and see if there is a wonderful article you can cite in your own blog and again give your take on the article. Make sure to explain why it’s a useful article to your blog readership and add a couple of your own insights as well. (Extra tip: Go to the actual site the article is running on after you’ve made your blog post and comment on the article itself on the site. Always comment authentically and don’t comment just to get a link back to your site!)

3. Be a news breaker on your blog. Just like a PR person offline spends hours reading the news in your arena and trying to determine how you can comment on breaking news – you can do the same yourself and use your blog to do so. If you’re a fiction writer for instance, you might keep up with the latest sales in fiction and share your insights with your readers first!

4. Don’t leave out the local and regional! Too often we’re focused only on national blogs, media and coverage. If you start with your local coverage, articles, etc. to link to you can begin to catch the local media’s attention through your blog. Once in awhile blog “close to home” sharing some local insight or linking to your local paper. Imagine if your local paper is The Washington Post and the editor is scanning blogs for local folks to comment on business stories!

5. Stop waiting for just the right blog-bite! The longer you wait to start sharing your insight in your arena on your blog, the more the competition will outpace you. Take 30 minutes today and write up ten things you know you could effectively comment on in the news or media world. Start building some content around those on your blog.

You will succeed!

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1. Make your site a mini-magazine issue of thought-leadership. Look at your site as though it’s a real publication for both your peers and the media to source for news. Build an editorial calendar for all your online tools including Twitter, Linkedin.com (status updates), Facebook and make sure you’re congruent in your content and your expertise.

2. Make sure you’re linking outside your blog to other news sources and stories by journalists. As a recovering technology journalist (1996-2004) I can tell you that all journalists love to have their names or links to stories, surface in Google alerts and they really love to show those to their editor as well.  You’re also giving them new sources of experts to look at when you write about stories they’ve covered and what your take is on the story.

3. Build a set of Google alerts on topics you’re most interested in and let those Google alerts give you ideas for new pieces of content on your blog, your Twitter and your Facebook pages. Don’t just stop at  posting those story links, go and comment on the stories at the sites they’re on and that will help you with building link-love to your site.

4. Don’t purposely be contrarian to the news. Be the person who lends a new angle or insight to a story.

5. Make sure you’re reading the online and offline magazines in your vertical and studying how their stories are created, who they source and where you can contribute bylines.

6. Have a website that encompasses a Web 2.0 press ready page. This includes your TwitterID, Facebook, Linkedin.com, YouTube channel and one pager about your expertise.

7. Put Google alerts on journalists’ names so you can build a clip file of what they’re covering and who they write for. More and more the online media is made up of freelance writers so don’t leave them out of the mix.

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While many of you might not have the time or inclination to reach out to bloggers, and will want to hire a publicist to help you, keep in mind that you still need to participate as much as you can in terms of blogging, building good content to repurpose as guest bylined articles, and pro-actively thanking (via commenting) bloggers for featuring the book.

The best authors are those who are willing to take that extra step toward connecting with the bloggers whether they have a publicist or not.  Take time to thank and give link love to bloggers who have featured your book.

Put Google blog alerts on books in your vertical and make sure your publicist is reaching out to those books too.

If your publicist is returning results to you that include blogs with just one or two readers, ask how that benefits the book. Part of understanding the blog world is getting your book to blogs that have a strong reader community. It’s not always about numbers – it’s also about quality – but you still need to shoot for blogs with a larger community of readers.

If you have a smart, savvy publicist then you should expect them to build and refine a very strong list of blog, website and online potential reviewers. You also want to look for blogs where the community is active in terms of posting comments to reviews. Also look for blogs that offer book giveaways. There are many of those and they’re very good about considering a book for giveaway.

Always keep in mind that bloggers want good content to give to their readership. Don’t blog-blast pitches that don’t fit the blog’s focus. Don’t rely on traditional PR methods to garner coverage. Don’t just send press releases. Send short pitches that evoke immediate reaction.

SAMPLE:

Dear NAME OF BLOGGER:

I’m writing to you in the hope that you might be interested in reviewing this book, “TITLE OF BOOK.” Here is the book’s website – www.WEBSITE.com . I know that you review leadership books – SAMPLE LINK OF REVIEW THEY”VE DONE RECENTLY , and would love for you to consider this book as well.

Here is a brief bio of the author and a link to the book information online.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

Best,

YOUR NAME

Remember, your book can be evergreen on the Web. What that means is that long after you’ve engaged or not engaged a publicist you still have the potential for garnering new readers and reviews for the book.

Keep going!

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O: her husband left her, her dog ran away, she sold all her pageant trophies to a gold exchange and now she’s going to climb Mt. Everest.

Oprah – My mom just read my book, “My Mom is Happy, and That’s all that Matters,” and said you would LOVE it for your show.

 I paid $435 for six webinar series on Oprah. They promised you would have me on your show if I pitched you just once. When is show date?

 I know Gayle is reading this for you. Gayle, if Oprah won’t have me on her show, what about your radio show instead? I like your hair.

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The announcement has filled me with glee, when I consider that all those Oprah-esque PR insiders who provide you tons of tips, insider secrets, oprah-show advice etc. will also hopefully be cleaned out as well.

If it’s time for Oprah to have a new start, it’s also time for everyone who has ever paid thousands of dollars to consultants just “hoping” they’d get the right Oprah teleseminar-guru-recipe for being on the show to have a new start too.

For those folks, I hope Oprah’s announcement will serve as a wakeup call that you don’t need to rely on PR gurus, or media gurus to get you on the Oprah show. I’ll tell you a secret, the best way to get on the Oprah show is by using your own initiative, being creative and having a unique and interesting story.

I’ll tell you another secret! People have actually been booked as a guest on her show by pitching the show directly through the website form on Oprah.com. People have actually been booked on her show by tweeting out interesting ideas that Oprah’s producers (who are also on Twitter) find and then build a show around.

If you don’t think they’re on Twitter, do a Google search for “Oprah Producer Twitter” and find them yourself. I could give them to you, but it’s time you start doing your own walking! Come on! You can be your own PR guru if you believe in yourself enough.

You too can go back home to Oprah when she starts her new show. The first step is to tap your shoes together three times and say, “There’s no place like Oprah, there’s no place like Oprah, there’s no place like Oprah. ” (Oops, wait, I was channeling a PR guru and what they might tell you.)

Ok, start again. The first step is to come up with what makes you unique and then research Oprah’s website and see if there is already a show they are booking around that topic. Every week they post new calls for guests to pitch themselves.

The second step is to be persistent without stalking! The third step is to be creative about how you want to get on the show. Don’t believe there’s room for creativity? Peeshaw, as my great Aunt Susan would say.) Still not feeling it?

Read this story of how one person got on Oprah by selling tickets to his own show on the sidewalk.

Or how about using a billboard to get on Oprah?

Still not convinced? Read this story about how one woman used the online submission form and kicked ass on Oprah.

Don’t give up. Who knows you might even be featured on the show twice!

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Hmm. Why don’t they reveal them? Perhaps because they themselves have not really ever had a client on Oprah? Or maybe it’s because if they did reveal them you wouldn’t keep buying the seminars?

Or maybe there really aren’t any secrets and all you need to do is work very hard at presenting yourself as authentically as possible, and have a new angle to a story that Oprah and her staff just might want.

Previously on this blog, we covered two other Oprah-stories of success, not created by a PR firm, publicist or viral marketer, but instead created by folks who were willing to get out there and really brainstorm their way to the Oprah show.

Here’s the third installment!

I cannot encourage you enough to study what Mubarakah Ibrahim of Balanced Fitness was willing to do and how it got her on Oprah. (Beware: this did not involve stalking Oprah’s BFF Gayle, or Oprah’s chef, or Oprah’s dog trainer, or even Oprah’s mailman!)

It simply involved Mubarakah having great faith and pride in herself and what she knew was her differentiator from other fitness trainers out there. Bravo!

In less than ten days after Mubarakah went to the Oprah website and emailed them a very brief pitch about herself and her fitness center, she was contacted by Oprah producers and subsequently on the show.

The Web and Web 2.0 offer you amazing abundance if you choose to be brave!

My favorite Rilke quote is, “Be brave and mighty forces will come to your aid,” in Mubarakah’s case, she was her own mighty force! Learn from it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLk9Fe9IYw[/youtube]

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For my readers, he has offered the opportunity for 5 scholarships to the event. All you need to do is email Michael at michael@beneaththecover.com and offer the best reason in an email to Michael, as to why you should receive a scholarship.

Everyone else will receive a 75% discount on the workshop and just enter the discount code nettie. You need to go to this site and enter the code, and I’ll see you on Friday in NY!

Here’s an excerpt describing the Book 2.0 publishing event:strong>