In his book, Hopcke (a therapist) says people ask him, “How do you work with synchronicity?” and he answers, “Be open to the meaning in what you did not want to happen.”

How does this apply to social media? I think it does beautifully because if there is one thing I know about social media it is that you never know what might happen and you can not underestimate the power of being online and finding new synchronistic communities and readers.

I might say, “”Be open to the meaning in what you do not yet know will happen in social media.”  Stop being afraid of what might or might not happen and just start conversing online.

If you come from a place of reticence, fear and “i’m not enough-ness” online then synchronicity will be hard fought. If you choose to be open to all that CAN and will surely happen if you are participating on the Web, then BELIEVE me you will be constantly amazed at how the Web really works to connect people to their tribe.

It’s not about marketing your ideas, it’s about empowering your community and finding synchronicity between them and you and what can be done to change the world.

It’s not about celebrity. It’s about celebrating how uniquely gifted all of us are and how we can lift up one another.

It’s not about bait and switch and selling something you know is not the real deal. It’s about waking up and typing your heart out because you know in doing that you are doing good.

Every single person on the Web counts toward something greater and at the end of the day, why not be counted?

You matter to the Web. I hope to see you there in the new year.

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I very rarely do not approve a comment to my blog because it’s very important to keep the communication gates open both ways and we’re all here to learn together. With that in mind, please take this lesson to heart. It is not good marketing to post a short blurb about your book in someone’s comment section of their blog. I know there are some book “marketers” and book “social media experts” who for years have touted this as a good idea. Heck, they’ve even published this suggestion in some of their own books!

However, this is never a good idea. Ever, ever, ever.

Think of it like this. What if you decided, in an effort to get more buzz out about your book, that the best possible thing you could do is spray paint the front of someone’s home with your book title and short description?

This would actually make the homeowner feel great rancor toward you and the neighborhood (her community) wouldn’t much cotten to seeing this either. They trust the homeowner to keep her home spiffy, smart and valuable!

A blog is someone’s home. People come to it and the blog author opens his/her doors to a knowledge base that will hopefully be very educational and actionable. And FREE of marketing blather including in the comment section.

With that in mind, here is the aforementioned comment I received (I’ve edited it a bit so not to expose the commenter, so anywhere you see BOLD I’ve changed it from what it actually was.)

“Shoved to the curb and left to fend on her own at the age of 14; AUTHOR NAME eventually went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work.

But God was not welcome nor allowed to be spoken on the job… Not able to do so, AUTHOR NAME went on to work for the Archdiocese of St. Paul/ Minneapolis for 8 years.

NAME OF BOOK is a true story of AUTHOR NAME strength & perseverance. That, combined with her strong faith is what makes this story unique and a must read!

This is AUTHOR NAME first book and is currently working on her sequel… NAME OF NEW SEQUEL.”

So here’s the thing, this comment not only violates the good mojo in terms of respecting one’s home blog turf, but also it shows these three things:

1. The author has not ever read the blog she just posted a comment to.

2. The author did not actually read the blog post she posted the comment to.

3. The author is unaware of how one should post comments to a blog.

Lessons Learned:

1. Read the blog you’re going to post a comment to.

2. If you want your book reviewed or want to drive traffic to your book site – research the sites that talk about books, book reviewing and reach out to those blog editors in person through an email pitch, not through an email pitch.

Here are some good ones to check out -

a. BergersBookReviews.com – Alice Berger’s fantastic site.

b. Bookpleasures.com - Norm Goldman’s superb site. Note, on Norm’s link that he has a quick review service, but also offers a free review service.

*I posted the two examples above without the direct contact information (emails etc.)  because I’m mean and I don’t want to share. Ok…that’s not really true. I posted them like that so you could learn how easy it is to use this little free tool called the Internet, hit those sites and get the contact information on how to pitch them books very easily from their site!

To sum up: Be your own best advocate, keep pitching and swerving and building strong lists for your book, and don’t listen to everything social media book gurus advise you to do.

And in the words of one of my favorite Monty Python songs, “Always look on the bright side of life, always look on the bright side of life.” How does that apply to marketing your book? There are thousands of blogs you can find to feature your book if you’ll just stay positive, focused and in it for the long haul.

Now go and get your book out there!

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Guess what?

Just in case you’ve not been monitoring their free tools in the past couple months,  they’ve also powered up Twittergrader.com.

Should you try it out? Of course. Should you use it as another way to give you guidance on how you’re reach is on the Web and how to improve it? Absolutely.

My grade is 99 out of 100. And my ranking is 34,000 among 5 million plus Twitter accounts. Remember marathon, not sprint with all things social media. No matter what your grade is at the onset, you can always improve it.

Does ranking size really matter? Hmm. Good question. No grading system should be the only thing you rely on to determine how your efforts are progressing, however it’s good to have some base measurements and definitely when these tools are free you should take advantage of them.

To spur you on in your own quest to rule the Web, at the very least put a couple of your competitive Twitter folks in the grader too and see what comes up.

I’m also positive that HubSpot will continue adding more features to Twittergrader so once every six months you should replug in your TwitterID and see what comes back gradewise.

Each time you do, I have no doubt you’ll find more actionable data you can use to help your social platform expand.

For more information on how the grader works, I also encourage you to check out HubSpot’s reference for it here.

Now go and grade!

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There’s been quite a bit back and forth about how FiledBy.com is just creating another place that authors have to update, yada, yada, yada and woe is we authors who shouldn’t have to help with our own marketing.  I have two words to say to that, “Boots on!” which in Texas stands for “Stop whining in the cactus, put your boots on, stop the woeing and start marching to your next big book rodeo!”

Even if you just are going to use the free offerings of FiledBy.com, who would not want to at least do that? Do you want to be on the lone prairie all by your lonesome book self? Or do you want to take advantage of the amazing opportunities in this new publishing rodeo and ride like the wind to your many cheering denizens?

I pick ride like the wind, and I hope that means you will to and at the very least fill out your free profile on FiledBy.com .

Here’s a great example of the homepage today to “spur” you on. It features Seth Godin, John Perkins and a few other authors you just might recognize! If you can’t see it because the image is too small – that’s on purpose – so you’ll have to go to FiledBy.com today and see it there.

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Too often corporations, non-profits, musicians, and authors are throwing up a blog and thinking of them as a tiny insignificant ant amongst the more firm terra cotta of an entire website.

In reality, that tiny ant is the key to your long-term visibility on the Web.

If your whole site is not built on a blog platform (like mine is), at the very least your blog link needs to be front and Web-page center on your website.

Web 2.0 is changing everything we thought we knew about websites and how they drive search and build community. All these methods and ideas are slowly being uprooted by this new, persistent, unyielding blog ant. (Think rubber tree plant and what the ant did to it.)

The Web is the rubber tree plant and the blog is the ant.

“Anyone knows an ant, can’t move a rubber tree plant.” Or can it?

IT CAN.

All the major news sites including NPR,  CNN, Washington Post and countless others are incorporating blogs. Not only do blogs provide an immense amount of value in terms of driving search engine traffic, but they also provide an immediate conduit for conversation with your colony.

The conversation that starts with one blog  post is then taken to hundreds of others via the Sharethis widget under each blog post. (This makes it easy for everyone to share messaging out on the Web.)

If you don’t have a way for folks to pass your content on easily after each post, please go to Sharethis and get the widget.

When your content is shared, it in turn grows and feeds your colony, boosts your “link love” and your Google Page Rank and empowers your message.

Having a blog can be incredibly valuable if you’re willing to work to link to other bloggers, blog 3 times weekly and post your blogs out to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. (Work hard, little ant.)

Your blog also opens up a beautiful way for you to interact with your readers. Through comment forms and your own comments,  you constantly underscore the value of your colony and the more important value of their part in the “joint conversation.”

(Side note: On the power of Ants and the colony - (Excerpted from Wikipedia) - “The colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony. 

Ant societies have division of labor,  communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study.”

Your blog builds your colony for you. Think inspiring, uplifting and engaging and your colony will grow.

The days of websites just serving as adpages or long marketing messaging are gone. The best sites and blogs incorporate real, authentic, story-driven content. We all want to feel a part of a bigger colony.

You see, it’s good to be an ant.

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 We’ve all seen the commercials urging us to buy a Chia Pet, the low cost alternative to actually going outdoors to watch something…anything grow. And who amongst us has not  lovingly admired our own bear Chia pet and how quickly it sprouted?

My, my, no time at all and you have the whole pet covered in bright green tiny leaves. Oh the happiness and instant green-gratification of my little bear Chia pet. Which just as quickly dies in the next two weeks no matter what the watering, praying, or even a lighting of the Patron Saints of Plants candle.

What’s a Chia Pet have to do with social media? A lot more than you might think. The bigger the corporation, the more the Chia Pet mentality comes into play.

With bottom lines shrinking and pressure to be the next YouTube 50 million views breakthrough, the more the pressure for producing quick growth, beautiful sprouts and bounties of Chia Pet revelers to comment on how wonderful and unique your Chia Pet is over all the others out there.

Here’s the real truth. Social media initiatives are not Chia Pets. They don’t grow that easily, they don’t sprout all over that quickly at the onset, and they aren’t in a perfect shape of a bear, ram or even an Obama. The good news is they also don’t wilt after two weeks never to sprout again. If you plant the seeds correctly your social media initiatives will live on as perennials, one might even say as wildflower perennials.

The challenge lies in getting your team of marketing gardeners to understand that social media has to have time to really take root.

Here are some tips to good rooting:

1. Find the sunniest spot (or the best product attributes), and foster the growth of your wildflower perennials (products, services, software.)

2. Don’t over-fertilize the garden. (No bullshit allowed in this ‘long-tail’ garden.)

3. Don’t overwater it, or protect it too much from the outside community.

4. Don’t put a gate on it that has a combination so only a few can view the highest blooms. 

5. Keep your soil fine-tuned (rake out all the marketing speak and keep the soil deep and real.)

6. Open your perennial garden up to anyone and let them offer insight, tips and their seeds along with yours. Let them help water your perennials.

Make your social media initiatives such that people feel as if they’ve absorbed them through the Cosmos (defined as “the biggest tree in existence.”)

Chia Pets, according to the commercial, grow in just two weeks. Social media initiatives take months to plan and months to bloom.

Wildflowers just like strong social media plans take seeding in all types of climates, locations and weather. Social media initiatives take seeding in Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, online communities, forums, and blogs.

Wildflowers bloom despite the wind, rain, sun, and temperature. The California Poppy, The Purple Coneflower or even the Bluebonnet find their way along the highways and byways across the world. Good social media initiatives seed and bloom as well along the World Wide Web-way.

Social media lets us slowly and transparently grow our garden, in this highly over-Webbed world, and proudly see our perennial seeds root by correctly utilizing all the Web 2.0 opportunities that exist. 

(Thanks to Sharon Goldinger for her inspiring convos.)

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Go here to check out this great riff on the end of marketing and PR.

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Resolve to do an e-newsletter this year. It will be a great benefit to you and your prospective customers.

Here are three e-newsletter companies you can use to push your news out:

MadMimi.com

ConstantContact.com

MyEmma.com

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Read the story so you understand how truly powerful social media is and how it’s not about you “messaging to them” – it’s about everyone messaging to one another when something REALLY interesting is happening.

While you can’t always control the message, you must embrace that you can be a part of the message as a company or individual and ultimately that keeps you in the ongoing conversation.

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