https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EgyV7OpXE&authuser=0
I promised my mate and fellow writer, Dapo Akers, that I would him spread the word of his new movement to promote his home city. He put together this video and I invite you all to check it out and FEEL THE VILLE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EgyV7OpXE&authuser=0
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at [email protected]. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015 I came across a five-year-old book that amazingly still seemed relevant today. Normally, a book that’s a few years old is not outdated, especially if it’s on a subject like improving relationships or how to build a birdcage, but when it comes to marketing or social media, almost all books are in need of refreshing upon the date they are published. But Guerrilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson offers a lot of useful advice and resources.
I was particularly entertained by their chapter called 107 Social Media Tweets, which was filled by Twitter-size statements about social media marketing. Here are 11 such tweetable tips: #5 Contrast keeps people interested. With your blog and Twitter content vary tempo, topic, and format. #9 Stay curious and you will stay current. #16 Improve the way you use five tools 10 percent each. Cumulatively it will have a big effect. #37 Being a thought leader is just is just as much about selfless contribution as it is about unique dialogue. #58 Worry less about selling and more about connecting and rapport. #76 Constantly look for ways to contribute, and you will never run out of marketing leverage. #107 Think twice, click once. #102 Social media is 90% contribution and connection, 10% marketing and sales. #103 Social media belongs to the people. They get to make the rules, not the marketer. #19 The best medium is the one your customer likes. Use multiple media. #24 Social media works better when it’s incorporated holistically with your entire set of marketing tools. The book contains checklists, trips and strategies, and identifies over 100 sites or tools to use. It said it best on page 174: “Guerilla social media marketing is both a strategy and a way of thinking and living virtual lives. It’s about applying time – tested principles of community building, relationship development, innovation, and imagination to the lightning-fast world of digital social networks. As we have said earlier, a guerrilla social media marketing attack has a beginning, a middle, but no end. You need to sustain the attack for one year or even longer before you reap the full benefits.” I have just updated my new website so that my offer includes our heroes — our veterans. I WISH TO ANNOUNCE THAT $50.00 FROM EACH COMMISSIONED PORTRAIT WILL BE DONATED TO THE CLIENT'S CHOICE OF ANIMAL SHELTER, ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANIZATION OR ANY GROUP OR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WORKING FOR THE BENEFIT AND WELFARE OF OUR VETERANS. http://animalsandpeoplebygregsmith.weebly.com/ "These Colors Do Not Run" by Greg Smith
To reiterate, some of you who follow me know that I am a graphic designer and portrait artist, most of you don't. Tomorrow I will be launching a new web site dedicated to my work as a portrait artist. Why? Recently I lost my job of two years and now that I stand on the cusp of retiring I want to return to my artwork while I strive to grow my side career as novelist. I went on to say that I was bringing a new dimension to my commissioned portraits and this is what I plan to do: $50.00 FROM EACH COMMISSIONED PORTRAIT WILL BE DONATED TO THE CLIENT'S CHOICE OF ANIMAL SHELTER, ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANIZATION OR ANY GROUP OR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WORKING FOR THE BENEFIT AND WELFARE OF ANIMALS. I invite you and all your friends to visit my new web site and look forward to hearing back from you.
http://animalsandpeoplebygregsmith.weebly.com Cheers, Greg Some of you who follow me know that I am a graphic designer and portrait artist, most of you don't. Tomorrow I will be launching a new web site dedicated to my work as a portrait artist. Why? Recently I lost my job of two years and now that I stand on the cusp of retiring I want to return to my artwork while I strive to grow my side career as novelist. However, this time I am adding a whole new dimension to my commissioned portraits that I hope will enable you and me to take a very active role in supporting all those who devote themselves to the welfare of all animals worldwide. Sounds daunting and far reaching, doesn't it? Keep an eye out for my next blog post — it will explain everything. I thank you and everyone else reading this for your interest in and support of my writing thus far. I hope you will do the same with my portrait work. Thank you for your time,
Cheers Greg Posted: 11 May 2015 06:05 PM PDT Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at [email protected]. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015 What do you do when someone says “yes” to whatever you asked them to do?
Say “thank you” and move on? No way. A yes is an invitation to ask for more. Let’s say you are selling your book at an event and someone agrees to buy your book. Nice to get a sale, right, but shouldn’t that ice cream be topped off with a cherry and some chocolate syrup? Try to convince the person to buy another copy as a gift for someone. Perhaps as you get talking to the consumer, you can ask questions that will help you understand if they are in a position to buy more copies. Are they part of a book club or do they work for a large organization that might like the book? Do they know others whom they can tell about the book? One thing you want is for people to sign up for your blog or newsletter, and to follow you on Twitter, connect on Facebook and visit your site. You want to establish a long-term relationship with others. Get the idea? You may be happy you got a sale, but the real selling comes when trying to parlay the transaction into something bigger. In order to get more, be persistent and always ask for more. Some things happen accidentally or coincidentally, but you can always make things happen when you initiate contact with others. Your odds of success increase with the level of quality attached to your outreach. Let’s move on from sales. Let’s say someone agrees to follow or connect with you on social media. Great. Now convert that into something better. What’s better than someone connect to you on Facebook? Someone who “likes” you. Someone who tells others to connect with you. Someone who buys your book. Someone who elevates the connection so that now he or she is tweeting about you or reviewing your book for their blog. When you get a “yes,” you are happy and satisfied for the moment, but every yes could be much more than what it is. In fact, whether someone says yes or no, it doesn’t matter. You just keep asking for more. You hope that you’ll say, offer, or do something that gets their attention and incentivizes them to take an actionable step that’s favorable to your situation. Hopefully you will get what you want -- then ask for more! Did you know more than 100,000 American horses are slaughtered for human consumption each year?5/11/2015 I urge YOU to join me in supporting the drive to stop this! Please click on the image below which will take you to the site where you can add your signature and comments to the thousands of others already taking action. Thank you for your heart-felt support.
Greg Smith Novelist Posted: 02 May 2015 06:09 AM PDT Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at [email protected]. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015 It sounds like a dumb question, but do you know why people buy your book? It’s not the same question as: Why do you think your book is good?
You may logically think that people buy your book because it’s good, but they don’t. They buy it because they hope or think it’ll be good. They don’t know how good it is until they actually read the whole book. So what can be done to convince another to believe your book will be good? How do you play into their perceptions? First, you should identify who you feel is your targeted reader demographic. Look at things such as age, education, sex, location, and other census-type indicators. Then think of specific characteristics. Is your reader one who likes something that you feel translates to who would read your book? For instance, if your novel is about an auto theft ring would it appeal to people who love cars? Or who work in law enforcement? Second, think about what’s new, unique, or different in your book. Do you have a strange character in your novel, or if it’s non-fiction, is there a special resource or bit of information revealed that isn’t found elsewhere? Third, how does your book compare to the competition within your genre? What can you boast that no similar book can? Fourth, does the book feel and look cool? Is it designed and laid out in such an appealing way? Fifth, all things being equal in content, author status, and layout, is your book less expensive? Sixth, would people buy a book because of who wrote it? Of course. People follow celebrities, best-selling authors, and people who are credentialed experts. If you don’t have any of that going for you, what can you highlight about your experiences, positions held, people that you’ve met, or ideas that you share that will convince people you are a worthy personality with an interesting take on the world? Let’s go back to my original question: Why do people buy your book? Do you know now? Sometimes we guess or make assumptions as to why people buy anything from us. You should just ask: What motivated your purchase today? Maybe they read a positive review. Maybe your book cover and jacket copy drew them in. Perhaps it was bought as a gift for someone who likes the subject matter that you wrote on. It could be a friend, relative or colleague who bought it as a favor to you. Find out why people buy – and you’ll learn how to sell better. To sell your book it takes many things to go right. You need copies of your books to be where your targeted reader exists. You need to have an opportunity to hand-sell them. You need to find people who want what you have. you need to say just enough to lure them in. The selling of most books is not done face-to-face and in-person. It’s done by e-mail, website, catalog, mass mailings, and social media. It’s done via ads and word-of-mouth recommendations. So how do you influence each of these sales points if you can’t be there to seduce and charm your buyer? Your words will need to do the work. The descriptive copy that you write on a blog or in an email is what your book becomes. Sixty-five thousand words get reduced to a few hundred. You’ll need to induce a sale based on what you say about yourself and the book. What will you say? For guidance, look at what others do and borrow what you like. Experiment and see what works best. Where possible, seek out in-person sales opportunities – bookstore signings, library appearances, speaking engagements, taking a booth at a community book fair, and meeting with retailers to convince them to at least carry a few copies of your book. People buy on perceptions, even misperceptions. Appeal to their usual pressure and desire points: · Sex, love, lust, nudity, beauty · Money, greed, financial security, wealth · Power, politics, and domination · Family, children, parents · Self-help, advice, motivation · Entertainment, celebrity, fun, sports, fame · Faith, religion, God · Morality, ethics, and justice · Culture and community Safety, victimization, bullying, crime · Overcoming a loss or solving a problem · Battling addiction: booze, weight, drugs, smoking, gambling, sex Start to track or note who bought your book and why. Look for patterns. Use this feedback to help you to sell to others. You may think people buy your book for one reason but it may turn out they buy for other reasons. Once you know why people buy from you, the selling process becomes simplified and easier. Are you one of those people who used to read a lot ... before life got in the way? Well, maybe it's time to make time to read again. Reading helps the mind to relax, to take a break from the office; it's also a healthy way to stretch your mind, flex those imaginative muscles and visit places with new characters whom you've never met before and can grow to love ... or hate.
What is life all about, anyway? Racing to and fro, doing this and that until you collapse on the couch to take a break? Life should be a little of that but also a little time-out for yourself just to while away the time with a good book. Now's a great time to start, don't you think? Good! Glad you think so. Then it's a date? See you between the pages. Cheers Greg Smith |
Greg Smith -AuthorI have 30+ years as a graphic designer under my belt. During that time I've worked on countless books; designing covers, layout, etc. Now I've decided to "go behind the camera." Now I'm trying my hand at writing. Archives
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