 Article by Caroline Black @ Culture Coverage
Social media is undoubtedly a fantastic tool for online marketing and one that only looks set to grow in the near future. The potential it has to increase your reach worldwide and create genuine, long-lasting relationships with potential customers is infinite. However, it isn't enough to log on and just start posting. What many businesses fail to understand is that social media only gives out and much as you put in. To properly promote your products and services, you need to be tactical and stay active. These five pointers are a great place to start in creating a successful social media campaign. 1. Think Visual It’s been shown countless times in marketing that people respond best to visual stimulus, and this translates directly to social media. While short text updates do still have their place, it’s becoming common knowledge that posts with images get much more engagement. It’s also important to consider the overall aesthetic of your page. Some platforms allow you to customize color schemes and backgrounds, and getting these just right to support your brand and goals is essential to engage the right kinds of customers. Similarly, creating a featured image to share with every post is also an extremely useful tool to help build familiarity with your company. The more people see and recognize the logo, the more likely they'll be to think of you when they require the services you provide. 2. Run Competitions One of the strongest promotional features of social media platforms is the ability for users to like and share posts. Not only does this increase your visibility on the primary website, but it also has a direct effect on your ranking in Google. Because of this, encouraging customers and fans of your page to share your posts as often as possible is the key to success. One way to do this is to run a competition. You've probably seen campaigns of this nature before, particularly on Facebook, and they most definitely work. Simply share a picture offering a prize—it could be a free consultation, merchandise, concert ticket or use of your services, depending on the business—for a winner who will be chosen at random from those who have liked and shared the picture. Not only does doing this create an immediate buzz and draw many potential new fans to your page, but it also allows you to interact directly with users and create an active online personality, to which people are far more likely to return than a page that lays dormant for most of the time. 3. Re-post Content Visibility and activity are both keywords to remember when marketing on social media. In other words, you want as many people to see you post as many times as possible. Due to the algorithms used on networks such as Facebook, more often than not, your promotional posts will only be shown to a handful of followers. Because of this, there is no shame in posting the same thing more than once. This can be a literally share or re-tweet of previous material, or you can switch it up by changing the image and headlines, so fans don’t know you’re recycling content! 4. Keep Your Page Clean Just like your parents wouldn’t let you play with the kid down the street with the criminal record, potential customers will never trust a page that has been obviously compromised in some way. Due to the intimate nature of social media and the many calls for a greater focus on privacy, people need to know they’re interacting with a page they can trust, so keeping a clean online reputation is an essential practice. This is a two-fold step. First, it's about appropriately vetting what your post yourself. Second, it's about protecting yourself from hackers. While the first is self-explanatory and boils down to not posting when angry and not making personal comments or digs at rival companies, the second is a little more complicated. In short, it’s easy to contract malware on your page via sloppy security practices, particularly when updating on-the-go. These simple code injections may seem harmless, but could end up sending spammy links to all your followers and infecting them with similar viruses. As these infections are most commonly picked up from unsecure public WiFi networks, it’s worth using a Virtual Private Network, such as the well-reviewed IPVanish, whenever you update to encrypt your data and protect you and your followers from disaster. 5. Make An Investment Finally, most social media platforms allow you to pay to increase your visibility. This could be in the form of creating an advert that will target users interested in similar topics to your business; it could also simply increase the number of followers that can see your posts. It's becoming an essential step for all businesses that are serious about their social media promotion, and therefore is important for anyone who doesn’t want to be left behind. A recent survey investigated just which platforms experienced marketers were most likely to invest their money in, and an astounding 90 percent agreed that Facebook adverts were the most worthwhile, with Twitter and LinkedIn next on the list, at a much less impressive 17 percent and 20 percent respectively. These tips are just a few ways that you can transform your social media marketing campaign. However, they're no replacement for professional advice. If you're serious about promoting yourself in social media, then hire an expert today and make the most out of working on these sorts of platforms! About the Author: Caroline is a successful blogger and expert in internet marketing. She loves sharing everything she's learned with fellow companies and hopes these tips will improve your marketing campaigns.
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Matt Banner OnBlastBlog.com As Seen on Forbes, Entrepreneur & The Huffington Post As a writer, you have a skill that’s always in demand. Being able to craft articles, books, posts, and status updates is easier said than done. Doubly so if you’re trying to convince someone to buy something. Like any profitable skill, it needs to be marketed so people can find you. Today I’ll show you a few quick tips for marketing your writing online before we look at an infographic packed with information that will help you become a superstar writer. Marketing Your Writing Skills and Finding Success (Infographic) Marketing yourself online starts by establishing a presence within the World Wide Web. While creating a website, you should also create profiles for yourself on social media platforms so you can connect with agents and readers alike. For writers, we need to form an image of the ideal reader. Once we have this, we know who to market our books to. Even if you’re the greatest writer on Earth, not everyone is going to like what you work on. Once you’ve honed in on your readers, you’ll know how and where to market to them. In the meantime, you’ll need to start making money so you can quit that day job and work from home. This is where today’s infographic comes in. With the knowledge contained here, you’ll be able to find paying jobs while you forge a career for yourself. You’ll be on your own book tour before you know it! Let us know how this infographic helped you pursue your dreams in the comments!  Credit: On Blast Blog
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 That is the question book bloggers get asked time and again by authors. Initially, when I first began my book blog eight years ago, that question got me excited at the prospect of being offered a free book to read and review. Now, not so much.
Some of the books I get offered are not even the genres I like to read. So why am I being asked to review them? Simply because the author or publicist did not do his or her homework. You need to target the right book blogs for your book. I can’t stress how important this is. Finding the right blogs for your book can make the difference between getting your book discovered by your target audience or lost in a sea of other books. If you want to make good use of your marketing time, then take the extra few hours to do this. But how do you know which blogs to target? Let’s say you wrote a sci-fi novel. The first thing you need to do is look for book bloggers who love to read this genre. A quick search on Google using “sci-fi book bloggers” will get you links to where you can find them. You can also search directories such as The Book Blogger List. What should you look for in a blog? Here is a quick checklist:
I can tell you that we book bloggers do have our pet peeves about how we are approached and we openly talk about it on our blogs. How do you avoid getting ignored or having your email request deleted within seconds of being opened? The secret is in the introduction. Do NOT send out mass emails containing the intro “Hi there”, followed by a book description and an ebook attachment. That is spamming and will get an automatic deletion. And it won’t do anything good for your reputation. Instead, address the blogger by name or the pseudonym found on their blog or social media sites. Your first sentence should indicate that you know something about them, which is why you are contacting them in particular about a possible review of your book. That first sentence should make a book blogger feel like they have been personally selected by you to review your book. Because...that is what you did right? So how do you write a good pitch? I will address that is my next article. Don't miss out on any of them by signing up through email subscription on my right sidebar. You work so hard to write your book, but it shouldn't end there. Be prepared to get it out and into the hands of your readers. Be prepared to become a successful author. Article by Laura Fabiani Do you have a manuscript ready for submission? Are you a self-published author? Do you own the rights to your novel? Then you qualify to enter in the World's Best Story contest, of which we are a proud sponsor. Enter today!  Every author wants and needs good media attention. With over 4,500 books published every day, how will your book get noticed? Today both publishers and indie authors are pitching book bloggers for book reviews. But with so many people requesting reviews, how do you get those influential (but overwhelmed and sleep-deprived) bloggers to even consider reading your book, let alone reviewing it?
I started book blogging in 2008, shortly after I published my first novel, when I created my blog Library of Clean Reads. I quickly became immersed into the world of advance review copies, author interviews and book tours. My mailbox was soon stuffed with bright yellow book packages— much to my heart's delight—and my inbox with hundreds of requests from publicists, publishers, tour companies and authors. I became adept at recognizing good quality self-published books from poor ones. In time, I developed the ability to scan a review pitch and within a few seconds knew if I wanted to review the book offered. Most of my blogger friends who've been doing this for as long as I have can do the same. Having been through the arduous task of marketing my own self-published novel (yeah, it's not easy) and having worked with novice authors throughout my years as a book blogger, I've decided to share my blogging knowledge and insider secrets with you to help you avoid common mistakes made by new authors. First though, it's helpful to understand the role of book bloggers in publicity and marketing.  Article by Laura Fabiani
The explosion of book blogs on the Web has led to the formation of virtual book tour companies, a business that was non-existent ten years ago. When publishers got on the bandwagon by getting their titles on tour with these companies, the reputation of book bloggers transformed from the simple diary of a book lover to a book marketing platform for authors and publishers. So how do authors get their books on these savvy book blogs? It’s not as easy as it used to be as more and more book bloggers get inundated (and I do not use that word lightly) with book review requests. To bypass having your pitch ignored or even deleted, you can buy the services of a virtual book tour company who has access to these experienced bloggers. Which one is the right tour company for your book? Here are some pointers to steer you in the right direction:  Article by Laura Fabiani
When I tell people I’m a virtual book tour coordinator, I usually get a blank look, followed by a slight frown as they try to figure out exactly what it is that I do. A few years back, authors may have had the same reaction, but not today. If you’re an author, you know how important online publicity is. Getting your book noticed on the World Wide Web through virtual book tours will get you exposure faster than if your local bookstore stocks your book. Why is that? Because tour companies target book bloggers from all over the country who read and review your genre. They know how to get your book in the hands of avid readers who spend hours (and I mean hours!) telling others on their blogs what they’re reading and why. In the last six years virtual book tour companies have been gaining popularity in offering what is now considered one of the best promotional tools for authors. Here are 5 reasons traditional and small press publishers, along with self-published authors are choosing professional tour companies to promote their books: |
Laura Fabiani
Laura Fabiani is an author and book blogger who shares her love of books on Library of Clean Reads. She is the owner of iRead Book Tours, and Italy Book Tours and also the proud sponsor of World's Best Story. Fabiani offers virtual book tour packages and promotional services for authors and publishers. Permission to Reprint:
You may reprint any of Laura Fabiani's articles if you include her author's bio as stated above. 
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