Tag: Casey Lynn Marketing and Media Services

  • Wiley Wednesday—Custom Facebook Fan Pages

    One thing I always admire about the bigger-name authors is their beautiful custom designs–Twitter backgrounds, websites, Facebook pages…things I didn’t think the averaged e-published author could afford.

    I was SO wrong.
    Let me tell you about the company ShortStack. They’re new, hip, and with it. The FREE version of the program would allow you endless ways to customize your Facebook fan page. And it’s fairly simple to use–just click and drag the elements you want added to a new tab (y’know those things along the left column under your picture? Those are the tab elements) and then connect your account to Facebook. POOF! You have a new tab! (For an example, look at Skylar Kade’s page–thought it’s on the edge of NSFW)
    ~~~
    This is what the tab composer in ShortStack looks like. While I’m sure you’ll enjoy exploring on your own, I’d like to highlight ten elements of the program that you should know.

    1. Your composition tabs: design (where you put the elements together), CSS (where, if you know this coding language, you can make your tabs look even more slick), and PUBLISH, where you apply the Facebook tab you’ve just created to your Facebook page. The image below shows the PUBLISH tab, and there are two very important things to change before you officially publish your page. First, change your tab name to something descriptive, like “Welcome”
    or “Contest”, otherwise it will default to “Tab 1”. Second, if you want this to be the first thing that your visitor sees, you should change it to the “Default landing tab”.
    2. Tab name: like I mentioned above in the Publish tab, also change the name here to match.
    3. Add widgets: These are the different elements you can add to your page.
    4. Basic tools: You can add elements for pictures, slideshows, text, links, and a shopping cart, though I primarily stick to the pictures and text (NOTE: there is also a text element at the bottom of the widget column; this is for HTML text. The top text element is more like a word processor that allows you to choose font, color, style, etc)
    5. Promotions: from left to right, the widgets are Promotion, Voting, and Entry Count. Note that if you are running a promotion there’s extra work involved because you have to create the promotion information and entry form–but it’s well-worth it. What I prefer to do is create two tabs–a “Welcome” tab with basic information, and a link to my “Contest” tab. (NOTE: while you can’t create two tabs at a time, the free version of Short Stack does allow you multiple tabs)
    6. MailChimp widget: Have a newsletter or thinking about sending one out? You can add a MailChimp sign-up widget to your Facebook tab. I love MailChimp as much as I love ShortStack–and it’s equally free.
    7. Integrations: YouTube videos (for those book trailers), twitter streams, and RSS feeds–all can be added to your tab. To keep things from being crowded, consider creating an additional tab for your RSS and twitter feeds.
    8. Forms and Promos: This is where you’ll be directed if you add the promotion widget (#5)
    9. Edit Widgets: This is where you drop any element you want added to your tab. To rearrange their order, grab the top left corner and move the element. The pencil allows you to edit the widget–definitely explore all the options available to you there. The teal button at the bottom, “show titles and borders” is something I usually unclick. Otherwise, each widget will be boxed and titled on your Facebook page.
    10. Live Preview: This is what your page will look like to a visitor. Note the three options: A key (what the page administrator would see), A thumbs up (what a fan would see) and a red-lined thumbs up (what a non-fan would see). If you look back to #9, each widget has these similar images below them so you can determine who sees what. This is useful for what is called “fan-gating,” where you show exclusive content only to your fans. So, for example, you could have a promotion widget that is set to fan-only (click the thumbs up at the bottom of the widget box) and a visitor would have to “like” your page before seeing the contest information. (NOTE: in place of the key, the Edit Widgets area uses two people to represent what EVERY visitor sees)
    11. Status: This will show you whether your tab is Unpublished or Published.
    ~~~
    I know this is sounds complicated, but play around with it–if there’s something you don’t like, you can always edit it.
    Feel free to direct any questions at me (@caseylynnmms) or at Jim from Short Stack (@shortstacklab)–they’re really good about helping their customers.
    Happy Fan Paging!

  • Wiley Wednesday—Five Ways to Manage Twitter Overload

    With Twitter’s exponential growth over the past five years, many users are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of tweets that show up in their stream.

    As a corporate social strategist, I had to find a way to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts without feeling overwhelmed. These five tips turned a mammoth task into something manageable.
    1. Use a 3rd party client like Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or Hootsuite. All three can be used on the computer or on a smartphone. Hootsuite is the only one that does not have a dedicated desktop application; you use it online.
    For personal use, I’d recommend Tweetdeck, as it has the most intuitive user interface–it’s easy to understand and customize. In addition, it now has a tweet scheduling function, so you can pre-arrange for any message to be sent at any time on any day. It’s a huge time-saver, especially for those informational or promotional tweets.
    2. In your twitter client, set up a column to follow pertinent hashtags (If you’re new to hashtagging, Mashable has a great post about it). That way, you’re following a more focused conversation. For writers, #amwriting is informative, but very busy. I prefer to follow #MyWana (writer support and community) and #1k1hr (groups of writers aiming to write 1,000 words in one hour–great support and motivation). You can also follow genre-specific tags, like #romcom. To find your ideal hashtag, use the search bar in Twitter, or use a site like Twittag or Tagalus. By dedicating certain columns to certain topics, you’ll feel less overwhelmed by a slew of disconnected updates. This will also make it easier to follow and join conversations–just remember to include the hashtag in your replies!
    3. Create Twitter lists to group the people you follow. Then, in your twitter client, you can set up a column that shows updates exclusively from one of those lists.
    If you’re new to listing or have NO idea what I’m talking about, these three resources will help:
    4. In your client, consider removing the full follower stream (the column that updates you with every tweet by everyone you follow) or at least move it to the far right of the columns, so it’s not the first one you see.
    Here’s what my Hootsuite dashboard looks like:
    My columns, from left to right: my social media list, my attorney marketing list, the general twitter feed, mentions, and sent messages. In Hootsuite, I keep a separate tab just for hashtags, but that’s only because there’s a huge number that I monitor. For personal use, I’d eliminate the “home” and “sent message” feeds and replace them with my favorite hashtags.
    Tweetdeck and Seesmic work in the same way, but Tweetdeck would be more simplified–which is almost always a good thing.
    4. Arrange for your tweets to be sent out for you so you’re not spending time throughout the day getting sucked into Twitter. For personal use, I schedule tweets throughout the week, then dedicate a time each evening to actually socializing and connecting.
    You can break Twitter down into three types of tweets: informational broadcasting (like sending out a link), promotional broadcasting (sending out information about you and your books; should be less than 20% of your total tweets), and conversation. I sit down on Sundays, usually, pick a handful of links I’ve found useful, and include them in my tweets–adding, of course, appropriate hashtags.
    I have a feeling my next Wiley Wednesday will be the anatomy of a tweet!
    Some tools that help you schedule your tweets: your twitter client; Buffer, which calculates the times of highest activity for your followers and sends your list of pre-arranged tweets out at those times; Timely does something very similar.
    5. Don’t feel like you need to read every tweet that gets posted. Sometimes, to filter through the chatter, I’ll use blURL to give me a list of my home feed tweets that include hashtags; that way, I can browse for useful information and pass over most of the “this is what I had for lunch” tweets. Other times, I’ll set an age limit on tweets, i.e. I won’t read anything more than an hour old. That way, I have fewer updates to read. This is especially good as most tweets have a shelf-life: either the content won’t be relevant anymore, or it will have been retweeted, and you’ll see it in more recent tweets.
    Twitter should be fun–not an obligation. Hopefully these tips will help 😀

  • Wiley Wednesday: Return on Relationship

    One of the social media marketing buzzwords floating around is “return on investment.” (ROI) This is a metric, a measurement, of how “worthwhile” your social media efforts were.

    The problem is, when quantifying, you can’t take into consideration the depth of a networking connection–only things like how many times a post was viewed, tweeted, or commented on. It’s hard to reduce human connection down to numbers, but many marketing experts make an art and science of it.
    Even the term itself is scientific. I guess since social media takes time, and time is money, it is an investment. But that implies that your followers and their messages to you are some sort of currency, which defeats the whole purpose of SOCIAL media, doesn’t it?
    Then came Ted Ruben, who coined the phrase “Return on Relationship.” (ROR) This change in wording brings a whole paradigm shift. It’s not about how many followers you have so much as it is the relationship you build with them.
    To increase your ROI, you employ techniques like catchy headlines, tweet blasts, hashtag abuse, and, for some, what borders on spamming followers–because it’s all about the bottom line of “how many people can see my message.” It’s a lot of talking into the empty air of cyberspace.
    ROR focuses on something more important: how many people will READ my message, and, more importantly, how many will ACT on it? To increase your ROR, Ruben suggests that you listen, focus on meeting the needs and desires of your audience, engage with them in the long-term (not just long enough to get a single comment), and, above all, knowing your audience.
    Genius, I say. To learn more about ROR and meet some awesome tweeters who are all about it, follow the #RonR hashtag, @tedruben, or read his blog at http://www.tedrubin.com/

  • Thursday Thirteen

    Today we revel in the random. Click below and tell us what you think.

    A. Catherine Noon

    Casey Lynn Marketing & Media Services 

    Darla M Sands

    Skylar Kade

  • Wiley Wednesday: An Interview with Casey Lynn Marketing and Media Services

    For this week’s Wiley Wednesday, we have the opportunity to have a chat with Casey Lynn, of Casey Lynn Marketing & Media Services. Casey helps authors to market themselves and to navigate the new reality of self-promotion. Casey has kindly consented to answer some questions for us.

    WR: First off, what IS a marketing/promo plan?

    CL: Before we start, let’s lay out some definitions. “Marketing” comprises all the actions you take to connect a product or service (for writers, a book) with an audience. “Advertising” is any paid method of marketing, like buying a Facebook Ad or space in the Romantic Times magazine. “Promotion” is everything you do to promote yourself, your brand, and your product/service, like teaching classes, guest blogging, or being active on social media. Marketing is an umbrella term that includes both advertising and promotion, with neither one being necessarily more effective or better than the other. So, a marketing plan just is a way to formalize your goals and methods of reaching the target audience for your product/service. The most powerful aspect of it a marketing plan is putting it on paper (or on the computer, of course). This makes the plan not only more real, but holds you accountable for defining and reaching those goals. Remember–your goals need to start with your audience. What are their needs? How does your product/service fulfill an unmet need? If you take this approach–giving something they can use rather than foisting something upon them–you are more likely to form connections with your audience. And those connections are what turn the casual reader a dedicated fan, or a client into someone who will passionately refer your services to others.

    WR: What should I include in my plan?

    CL: Above anything else, give yourself measurable goals with a given time frame. A marketing plan is for accountability and a structured plan of attack, yes, but beyond that it can act as a test of how effectively you are promoting and advertising yourself. For example, if your goal is “I want to increase my twitter followers,” then adding one person could be considered a success. But have you reached your true goals and your audience? Probably not. On the other hand, if your goal is “I want to gain ten new twitter followers a week–not spam bots. On average, five will be follow-backs from relevant new tweeters that I follow, and the other five will be people with whom I interact using hashtags.” That is a measurable goal in two ways: One, you have a quantifiable number (ten) and two, you have a time limit (one week). Therefore, you could set up a spreadsheet to track your progress by week. That way, you can see if there are any positive correlations between promotional actions you take (like participating in a hashtag-based twitter chat) and meeting or exceeding your goals.

    Some things to include in your plan: Targeted audiences (as specific as you can make them), Audience needs and desires, ways of reaching audience (where they spend time online, what resources they read and trust, etc), and tangible actions you can take to connect with this audience. Will you do guest posts? Pay for advertising on a certain website? Connect with them via social networking groups? I’d also suggest finding a way to chart out your actions and their results, so you can constantly evaluate your plan to make it more efficient.

    WR: Where can I go for more information to do it myself?

    CL: Before you run out and buy every book your Barnes & Noble has on marketing, promotions, and social media, check out the internet first. A slew of amazing blogs provide quality content–and it’s free. I have an ever-growing blogroll of places to pick up information, all gathered on my resource page, here. Or you can check out my marketing and social media blogrolls via Google Reader.

    When you find a blog that provides information you can use, add it to your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader. For more information on what RSS is, and how to set up a reader, go here. By doing this, you can aggregate all the new blog posts into one site, like Google Reader, and read all the updated posts in an efficient manner–it’s almost like a customized newspaper.

    Finally, experiment with the different marketing techniques you encounter. Eventually, you’ll build up a personalized list of methods and tools that put your product/service in front of the best audience.

    WR: Where can I go to get help if I need it?

    CL: I’m always happy to answer questions (via e-mail to CaseyLynnMMS AT gmail DOT com or via twitter @CaseyLynnMMS), and on most of those blogs you’ve added to your RSS (because you’ve already done that, right?), you can ask a post-related question in the comments section and a bevy of readers will help you out. I can’t guarantee that all their advice will be equally effective, but they will give you a starting point. Also, because marketing it NOT a science–it is trial and error, for the most part–ask your fellow authors. Many will be able to point you in a good direction. If not the right one, they’ll at least get you closer to the answers you need.

    We are grateful to Casey for her time and information. Be sure to check her out at Casey Lynn Marketing & Media Services and remember – your success is in your hands!