creative ideas

Social Media for Authors: The London Workshop!!

by Marian Schembari on September 27, 2010

The past two months have been a whirlwind. My first week in London I went to a FutureBook event and ran into the lovely Alison Norrington, a woman I had written about numerous times for Digital Book World, but had never met in person.

One thing led to another and we found ourselves bonding over lemonade at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon. We talked about author clients, Twitter tactics, blogs, starting a business and, most importantly, swapping cool ideas on how social media is changing the way authors market themselves. Two hours and many stories later, I said to Alison, “Dude! People should have paid us to listen in on that conversation – that was brilliant!” Which of course got us to thinking: What if people did pay us? We’re both social media consultants, specializing in the publishing community… We know our stuff.

One month later and we’ve finally organized our first London workshop. I am so so excited about doing this with Alison – we have so much great content to share, a butt ton of enthusiasm and crazy amounts of experience. I wanted to post today and give you the official announcement and details about our event.

So Attention London Authors!!! You definitely want to keep October 18th open and get your tickets while you can! There’s an Early Bird special going on at the moment, but it ends this Friday, October 1st. There are only 30 spots available though, so buy your tickets here.

More Info

Who: Myself, Marian Schembari, a social media consultant and profile critiquer to the stars and Alison Norrington, founder of StoryCentralDIGITAL, author and expert in transmedia storytelling. Between us we’ve been featured in Digital Book World, CNN, Tools of Change, TEDx Transmedia, ABC News, DigitalLA, Daily Mail and TIME. That’s a lot of awesome.

What: A two-hour workshop that will give you the tools to build your brand using Facebook, Twitter, blogging and YouTube. Sell your manuscript,  your finished books, raise your profile and network with publishers, agents, readers and reviewers. You’ll learn how to harness a ready-made market for your book, show that you’re serious about promoting your work and develop relationships with the people who “make things happen.” Pick up the best tips and shortcuts on social media etiquette, while also standing out from your competition! Click here for the full workshop agenda.

When: Monday, October 18th from 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Where: The Grand Union Kentish Town. A super cool bar with space for us and our PowerPoint in the back room, letting us get our drink on AND learn about the wonders of social media.

Why: Because I said so. And also? Because traditional book PR is dead and if you don’t want your work to get lost on the shelves you need to learn these skills to survive in publishing.

Cost: An Early Bird price of £25 is available until 1 October. General price £30.

Who should attend?

This workshop is designed for authors, but publishers, agents, writers and freelancers are all welcome! Alison and I can help you navigate the social media waters to effectively sell your work, engage with your community and build up your platform. We will also be running a day-long workshop as part of the London Screenwriter’s Festival on October 16th so we’ll also have some tricks up or sleeve for screenwriters as well.

Not in London? No bigs. Help us spread the word! I know many of you are in publishing and since this is our first time hosting an event of this size, Alison and I would both hugely appreciate any contacts, email introductions, tweets, Facebook likes, or the myriad of other social media buzz-creations out there ;-)

Click here for tickets!!

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The Ultimate Blog Checklist

by Marian Schembari on September 14, 2010

Even if your blog has great content, there are usually a few things missing that can make a difference in your traffic, returning visitors and overall effectiveness. I recently critiqued a blog where posts would receive tons of Facebook likes, but had no option to retweet. I’ve said this a million times, but make it easy for people to share your content. Remember that Facebook and Twitter audiences are different entities and should be treated that way.

Below is a checklist I give clients. I’ve found those who already have blogs get the most out of this as it highlights the little things you’re not doing that can really make your site more effective, attractive and engaging:

Marian’s Blog Checklist

RSS Feed - I can’t think of one blog that doesn’t give  a subscribe option, but do a double check. Is it obvious place? Does the link actually work? Do readers have the option to get those updates delivered by email or just Reader? Having a clear and functional subscription button is one of the most important parts of your blog as it encourages repeat visits. If you don’t have a button yet, you’re seriously missing out, so get on it now before I throw a tantrum.

Contact Info - Before you start whining about all the spam you’ll get if you post your email address, I don’t want to hear it. Combat spam by posting your email address as username (at) email (dot) com or by simply linking to your email account. I don’t recommend comment forms because you WANT people to have your actual email address. You want to be visible. You want it to be easy for people to contact you. If you want more LinkedIn connections you need to advertise your address or else people can’t send an invitation. Encourage email engagement and more opportunities come your way. Trust me.

About page - I hopefully don’t have to remind you that you NEED an About page, as any blogger will tell you theirs is the most visited page. People want to know what your blog is about and who the hell you are. Utilize this page to highlight what you’re trying to achieve. Trying to get a job? Say it! Want clients or new friends or writing assignments? Use your About page to ask for those things and as a space where readers can get to know you better.

Obvious social media buttons - This is something I didn’t have for a long time because I was too lazy to figure out how to do it. Remember that if you want people to follow you on Twitter, join your Facebook page, etc, you need to make it obvious. You use a Twitter bird with your latest tweet, or just make the buttons conspicuous enough to draw attention.

Respond to comments - One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new blogger was trying to accumulate comments without actually responding to any of them. Unless a comment is brief and/or lame, I  recommend responding to every comment you get. As soon as I started doing that my numbers tripled. When you respond to people it illustrates there’s someone there reading and responding, which encourages them even more. It also means your readers will come back to the site, which is always a plus.

Ability to respond to comments - Speaking of, make sure people have the ability to respond to comments! Many bloggers will reply to a comment assuming their readers will return on their own to check. This is a BIG mistake. How much easier is it to read threaded comments? How much easier is it when you get an email saying that so-and-so has responded to you?  A MILLION BILLION TIMES EASIER. You are seriously deterring engagement by neglecting to offer a “reply” button. I highly recommend Disqus, but many other plugins offer the ability to tick a box saying, “Subscribe to replies.”

Comment encouragement – This isn’t a necessity, but using a plugin like Top Commentators or CommentLuv encourages people to comment by offering some sort of reward. This is awesome for us Comment Whores because people become “regulars” rather than simply stopping by once and a while.

Outbound links - I recently posted about this so I won’t harp on about how important outbound links are, so try to include at least two links to different sites and resources in each post. This is useful for both your readers and the site itself. You might get a link on that site depending on their trackback policy. It also might be good for SEO, but apparently the jury is still out.

Links within - Apparently also good for SEO, linking to your own posts keeps readers on your site longer. I try and link to at least one of my own posts (as long as it’s relevant) and have a plugin installed that produces related links at the end of each post. If you’re interested, LinkWithin is another good plugin.

Subheadings - Keep us from drifting off, break up your text so it’s easier to read.

Tags/Categories - Make sure you’re tagging articles correctly so it’s easy for people to find what they’re looking for. A disorganized blog is a failed blog, IMHO. Try and think like your readers and what they might search for. I doubt anyone on my site is going to search for a specific book review, but they might search for “book reviews” as a whole. Make sense? You may know specifics, but your readers probably don’t.

Images - Again, this is something I’ve already gone on about so just remember we’re visual people and it’s smart to draw us in by posting a pretty picture.

Facebook “like” button/Retweet button - Make it easy for us to share. Simple as that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a blog and think, “Hey! This is awesome, Ima retweet this right now…. Oh…. wait. No.” This is how my brain works. I have 50 billion tabs open at once and the last thing I want to do is open up Twitter, then bit.ly, then cut and paste your title, shorten your link and find your Twitter handle so I can then promote you. Want people to share you content? Take 10 minutes to setup a good plugin and do the heavy lifting for us.

Search form - The search box doesn’t need to be in a super obvious place, but it’s important for people to quickly find something if they’re looking for it. Also, certain plugins (like LinkWithin) can help you pinpoint what it is exactly that people are looking for.

Personal stories - I could write an entire blog post about this (oh wait, I have!), but make sure you’re not just blogging about meaningless stuff – relate it back to you or your readers. Even if you’re giving us some awesome advice, make sure to post the occasional photo of your life, tell us a story, make us engaged in someway. This is the best way for us to get to know you and, even better, come back for more.

Download the Checklist

If you want an actual copy of the checklist – a clean PDF version you can print out with little boxes to tick and everything (!)- I’m testing out “Pay with a Tweet”…

So get your PDF checklist by tweeting this now.

Also — am I missing anything? How many of you actually do all these things – are you pretty much up to speed?

{Photo credit}

{ 138 comments }

“Critique My Profile” Episode 5: Make the most out of linking

by Marian Schembari on July 23, 2010

This week’s episode of Critique My Profile features Desirai Labrada (@Desirai), a Digital Media Designer, artist and all around cool chick who’s looking to land more freelance clients by using Twitter… Check out the video and my tips for her below:

Some actionable tasks for Desirai:

Bio/Background

  • It’s good in that it tells us who you are and what you do, but it’s a little cluttered. Also keep in mind that most of us won’t know what those acronyms mean.
  • Pair down your bio a little bit so that the important bits are obvious and we’re not overwhelmed with too much info.
  • Gorgeous background! It’s so smart for artists and designers to show off their skills with a customized Twitter background.

Tweets:

  • You obviously know what you’re doing and have a good amount of  designer-relevant links and tweets. Keep it up!
  • Instead of using the retweet button, spend 60 seconds following these guidelines:
    • Include the name of the original author as well as the person you’re RTing (only if the names are different obviously). You want to give credit where it’s due.
    • Include a comment or question with the RT. This piques curiosity and invites people to participate in the discussion.
  • Get followers involved in your work. Show us designs your working on, ask our opinion on tiny details to help you work better and make us feel like we’re useful :)
    • Remember people are visual and your career perfect for including links to Twitpic images – anything from art that inspires you or designs you’d like to replicate. You have so many options!

What do you guys think? Do you have more tips for Desirai? Leave your comments below! And if you want me to critique your profile, leave your Twitter handle in the comments.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m now offering a crazy discounted consulting service called 30 Minute Twitter Strategy for those of you who are ready to take your profiles to the next level. Click here for more info.

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5 Things You Can Do Online RIGHTTHISSECOND To Speed Up Your Job Search

by Marian Schembari on May 12, 2010

Spend today and tomorrow SANS RESUME. Toss out your cover letter and get crackin’ on the sites where all the cool kids hang out. Here are my favorite easy, super speedy, more-fun-than-Craigslist top 5 things to do immediately to speed up the dreaded job search progress:

1. Answer LinkedIn questions in your field of expertise. Check out my FREE VIDEO (and yeah, that needed capitalization) in the sidebar for a full tutorial on how to do that like a rock star.

2. Make a list of the top 5 blogs in your industry (not massive news sites or Gawker-esque blogs) and comment on said blogs. Email the editor or Top Blogger and tell them how much you like their site. I, for one, really like love letters. Then follow them on Twitter and retweet the post you commented on. This is a full fledged attack and shouldn’t be done with everyone, only your favorites. No one likes a fake, mmm-kay?

3. Check out your dream company on LinkedIn. Find out their recent hires and connect with them. Send them a message asking how they got that job and advice on the best way to get your resume seen. Also find out your dream job title at that company and do the same. Note: Don’t be spammy about it. Don’t ask them to pass along your resume or take up too much of their time. Just be personable and say you’d really appreciate one tip or experience.

4. Research the major Twitter hashtags for your industry and follow them. Contribute to the conversation.

5. Join the Facebook groups (or fan pages, or whatever they are now) for your favorite companies. Post on their wall, and contribute to the conversation. I’d prefer to not use the word “engage,” so don’t make me, but you get the point. If you have a blog, share a relevant post with the community.

Yeah. Maybe don't do this.

That’s it! Have fun and report your progress in the comments. I love to see how you guys are doing :)

P.S. Want more? Sign up to get into on the Pajama Job Hunt, my new course that will kick your college career counselor’s ass. Click here for the awesomeness.

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Some Long Overdue Publishing Info

by Marian Schembari on January 25, 2010

A few pieces of business:

I recently met with a blog buddy and fellow publishing nerd (except he’s actually significantly cooler than I am) last week. Guy Gonzalez and his band of merry (wo)men put together the first annual Digital Book World conference, which is this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Sheraton NY Hotel & Towers. This evening is my first official outing as contributing editor for their brand-spanking new website/blog. So keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks over at DBW for my publishing, well, musings if you will… ;-)

So on that publishing and DBW note, I wanted to post some videos of their cool event (which I sadly could not attend) 7x20x21. The brilliant Stephanie Anderson spoke about her book lover basketball league and how it’s fun that will save the industry (did I mention she’s brilliant and I love her?). Here’s the video:


And the equally brilliant Ryan Chapman did an awesome presentation on the publishing equivalent to Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper Draper Price (basically – who will be the one to stand out from the rest due to their awesome awesomeness?).

Anyway, I found this enormously entertaining, so if you agree there are more videos here. Peace out homies.

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