But writers are busy. Some are too busy to take my classes. So they ask, “Can I hire you to do my social media for me?” My answer is no. I will be happy to work as your social media coach. I will be happy to set up your website and your blog, to build your Facebook page, and to get you started tweeting (I did this with a client this morning). I will be happy to add all the bells and whistles to your blog and sit down with you to compile a long list of topics that you can blog about. I will be happy to show you how to improve your SEO (search engine optimization) and how often and when to tweet. But I can’t do it for you. For one thing, it would cost a fortune. For me to write your blog posts and post updates to Facebook and Twitter every day as well as respond to blog and Facebook comments, retweet and @reply people, and follow (or not) people back on Twitter would take several hours per week—at $75/hour. Do you really want to spend $300+/week, or $1200+/month, for someone to do your social media networking for you? We could cut the cost down a little by posting one short blog post per week and simply sending that to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ in addition to advertising your readings and publications. We could skip responding to blog comments, reading and commenting on other people’s blogs, retweeting and @replying people—but you wouldn’t gain many followers that way. And you certainly wouldn’t make any friends. The whole point of social media is to connect with people, and the more strongly you connect with them—through regular correspondence, online interaction, or, better yet, in-person interaction—the more likely they are going to champion your book when it comes out—to retweet that article you wrote for Salon.com, or congratulate you when you win that PEN award. Your readers want to connect with YOU, not with your social media coach. They want to hear YOUR opinions on writing, they want to read posts in YOUR style of writing, they want to learn more about YOUR life.

If you’re a company with a product to sell, or if you’re famous enough that simply having a web presence is all you need to win friends and influence people, then by all means, hire someone to blog and tweet and post status updates to Facebook for you, so you can spend more time selling products or writing. But if you’re a midlist author, a beginning author, or an unpublished writer hoping to connect to your audience, you’re not going to do yourself any favors by hiring someone else to do it for you. You can hire a coach to get you started and guide you along the way, or to help you take your game to the next level if you’ve been doing social media for a while, but then it’s up to you to take the helm and steer your ship—off into the social networking sea.

What about you? Do you know authors who hire other writers to blog for them? Tweet for them? Post to Facebook for them? Would you ever consider hiring someone else to do your social media networking for you?

2. Use your name as your brand.
Did you know you can change your Twitter user name without losing your followers? So if you chose “@hotchica6” and now you have 3000 Twitter followers, it’s not too late to change it to “@HilaryHiggenbottom.” On your Facebook page, once you have 25 likes, you can choose a customized URL (and you can change that URL until you have 100 likes, at which time it’s locked in.) Go out there now and change all your IDs to Hilary Higgenbottom, or whatever your real name is, hotchica6.

3. Post your contact info.
It doesn’t have to be your personal e-mail address, but create SOME way for people to get in touch with you, and post that on your website. (Post it like this to avoid spammers: Hilary (at) Higgenbottom (dot) com.) There’s nothing more irritating than spending half an hour searching someone’s site in vain for a way to contact him. It’s not only frustrating, it makes the author appear aloof and unaccessible. Someone may want to ask you for an interview or compliment you on your latest article in the New York Times, and they may not want to do that in a public forum.

4. Get a professional photo taken of yourself.
You will post your picture everywhere—on your website, on your blog, and on the profiles of all your social media networks, and you don’t want that to be a blurry full-length photo of you and your dog. Wear something simple that isn’t black or white or patterned, put some make-up on, do your hair, and fork out $300 to have a professional photographer take your picture (make sure that includes the digital copies of the photos.) Better yet, have multiple pictures taken of yourself in a variety of settings (at your computer, doing a reading, etc.) Mary Robinette Kowal and Michael Hyatt do this well. Every time you refresh a page on their websites, their photo changes.

5. Interact with your audience.
Whether it’s through a blog, a professional Facebook page (where anyone can “like” you), or a Twitter account, make yourself accessible. Gone are the days of J.D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon. Readers not only want to know about you, they want to talk to you. And they want you to respond. You don’t have to spend all day on social media, but take a couple hours out of every week to connect with your audience. Your efforts will pay off in increased work (Editor Alan Rinzler credits his steady editing work to his blog) and book sales.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your online presence through blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, I have a Social Media Madness class beginning this Thursday, Feb. 2 at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, and there’s room for a couple more students. Also check out Lorraine Sanders’ one-day Journalism Basics for Bloggers as well as the full roster of winter classes.

And now what about you? What is one of your favorite social media tips?

Now, here’s an exercise to determine whether you are blogging to the wrong audience:

Profile your audience. Make a list of the different groups of people you imagine buying your book. Who are they? Are they teen girls? Middle-aged women? Men who like to read thrillers? How old are they? What do they do for a living? How do they spend their free time? What products do they buy? Make lists. Then, once you’ve got that down, think about what topics those people are interested in reading about. What concerns them? What are their thoughts preoccupied with? (Boys? Sex? Making money? Finding God? Decluttering their homes?) Make another list.

And finally, ask yourself: Are you blogging about the topics on that last list? Why or why not?

By the way, there is some value in attracting other bloggers to your blog for the simple reason that they are more likely to blog about you and your work than non-bloggers. But you need both. You need to reach as many potential readers as possible, and there are many ways to do that.

Now, you tell me. Are you blogging to the RIGHT audience? Are you blogging to your potential readers, or are you only blogging to other writers? What’s stopping you from making that leap?

Originally born in Sao Paulo, Brazil to Korean parents, Samuel Park moved to the United States at age fourteen. He went to high school in Southern California, in the South Bay Area, and then studied at Stanford University, where he graduated with B.A. (with honors) and M.A. degrees in English. He has a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Southern California, and his scholarly writing has appeared in journals such as Black Camera, Theatre Journal, and Shakespeare Bulletin. He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago. His debut novel THIS BURNS MY HEART has been called “mesmerizing” and “stunning,” and has been selected by booksellers as a Great Read Indie Next List Pick for July and an Amazon Best Book of the Month.

How Social Media Has (and Hasn’t) Helped My Writing Career


Social media, like much affecting publishing these days, is a relatively uncharted landscape—no one knows yet if it helps, or how it helps, though everyone feels it’s important. I’ve been told by more people than I can count that I should blog, tweet, and have a website, though it’s impossible to quantify how that translates into book sales. Here’s the rundown on what it’s been like for me, and my advice for other writers:

1. Twitter:
I think twitter is the best place for writers—published, aspiring, retired—to be. It’s fun, it’s quick, it’s casual. If there’s only one thing that you have time for, I’d say tweet. Twitter can lead to links to excellent articles and blog posts, and serve as a quick education into the business. Also, following other writers give you a very clear sense of who the players are. I’d recommend following @eleanorwrites and @alexanderchee, both very active and full of wisdom (and me, of course! @SamuelPark_). Of all social media, I waited the most to join twitter, but it turned out to be the most useful. It’s a fantastic way to connect to potential readers. Make friends with other writers, who are going to be your support system through this. On my release date, most of my congratulatory tweets came from other authors. I’ve made quite a few real life friends through twitter, first meeting them online and then translating that into real life lunch or dinner. Use your tweets to promote other writers and advance the conversation. Don’t worry—by promoting others, you’ll get back too. Twitter is like karma on speed dial.

2. Website:
It is absolutely key that you have a website. Your prospective agent will check it out, and so will potential editors. Once your book comes out, everyone uses your website as a ground zero, from journalists looking for information, to readers considering coming to your readings. Make sure it is constantly updated, and full of information, including listings for your events, contact email, even Q & As and Reading Guides, which will make it easier for journalists and bloggers to write about you. I recommend Word Press, and then linking it to a custom domain, so that it’s yourname.com, instead of the less aesthetically appealing yourname.wordpress or yourname.blogspot. Thesis can be an easy and cheap way to make it attractive. I haven’t tried Thesis personally yet, but a lot of writers use it, and create fantastic-looking sites on their own.

3. Blogging:
I recommend blogging, even though it is not as popular as it was a while back. Books are really hand-sold, either by booksellers or by you. Blogging allows you to reach potential readers and supporters one by one. If you’re able to maintain hundreds of followers—who really like you and value you—that’s an incredible platform to have. Name your blog after yourself—your name is your brand. Blog at least three times a week. I don’t recommend posting your own work—blog about writing, or about the biz. The downside of blogging is that it’s incredibly time-consuming; Twitter definitely has an advantage over blogging in that sense.

4. Facebook:
Facebook is most useful for writers who already have a fan base. Authors can translate those “likes” into sales for their next book when it comes out. It used to be that you had to wait for a review or an ad to hear about your favorite writer’s new book, but with Facebook, you learn months ahead from your news feed. This means established writers can get an early jump on pre-orders for their books.

5. Tumblr:
This is the social platform I’m least familiar with, though some people seem to be crazy about it. Tumblr appears to combine some of the best aspects of blogging and Facebook, and makes it very easy to share photos. I don’t see a whole lot of writers on Tumblr, though, so I think that makes it, along with Google+ at this point, entirely optional.

6. Flickr:
Useful for making high resolution photos of yourself available to media. You can download your photos, and then put the link up on your website.

An Overall Thought:
Bookselling is about handselling person by person. The more friends an author has on Facebook and followers on Twitter, the easier it is for her to do that. So how does social media help? It helps if you have lots of friends. They will buy your books and want to support you. They will become advocates and evangelists for your book. They will spread word of mouth and create buzz. In other words, social media helps insofar as it helps you to make and maintain friends. Nowadays, people want to buy books from writers they know!

What about you? What have you learned about the benefits of blogging/Twitter/Facebook since you began building your author platform? Do you use Tumblr, Flickr or Google+? What are your thoughts on those platforms?

Alta Peterson is a marketing and design specialist and web designer and consultant. She has over thirteen years’ experience and helps businesses of all sizes create highly effective communications. She has a degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Minnesota (Go Gophers!), where she studied advertising and marketing. She opened Alta Peterson Communications in 2004. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

One of the best aspects of email marking besides saving trees is measurability. You can see how many people open your messages, and what links caught their interest. This is extremely valuable information you can use to continuously improve your marketing efforts.

I recently attended an email marketing workshop put on by Constant Contact.
Here are some of the rules, guidelines and pointers I  picked up.

1. Most importantly: Don’t be a spammer
People hate spammers, so being perceived as one is clearly bad for business. Plus, some forms of it are illegal. In 2003, Congress passed the THE CAN-SPAM Act, banning some of the most annoyingly egregious forms. Here are some additional guidelines.
There are two types of people you can email:
a. Those who already know who you are.
b. Those who have specifically signed up to receive your messages.
It is considered best practice to send only to people who have expressly opted in. Most businesses send to people who know them already, even if they haven’t opted in. The very best practice is to use a double opt-in.
• Publish “unsubscribe” links that are easy to find on every message.
• Opt-out requests must be honored within 10 days.
• Use accurate and non-misleading subject lines.
Read more about The CAN-SPAM Act.

2. Develop and send quality content, and not too often.
Even if the law doesn’t consider you to be a spammer, your readers will unless you provide them with something useful and interesting.
• Sending messages too frequently will cause people to unsubscribe.
• Take the time to develop quality content for your newsletter and messages.
• A good rule of thumb for content is 80% educational and 20% promotional.
• Reading on the screen is 25% slower than in print. Keep things concise.
• You’ll get more readers by sending your messages between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

3. Grow Your Mailing List
Great content is great, but it doesn’t matter if you’re lacking an up-to-date list of interested contacts.
This advice is similar to all other forms of marketing:
• Include a sign-up form on all pages of your site.
• Tell people about your mailing list on the phone.
• Put a sign-up link in your email signature.
• Use social media to promote mailing-list sign up.

4. Subject Line pointers:
• Don’t use generic, spammy sounding phrases such as “special offer for you.”
• Don’t use dollars signs or other symbols.
• Don’t use CAPS!
• Use 5-8 words and never more than 49 characters.

5. Software
There are several options and levels of pricing, and some even have free versions.
• Mail Chimp has a very nice a clean look and is good if you are doing mainly newsletter type mailings.
• Event Brite has the most sophisticated functionality for organizing events.
• Constant Contact does both but is a bit more complex to manage.

What about you? Have you tried e-mail marketing? Do you receive any e-mail newsletters? Do you have a preference of one company over another? What do you like or dislike about the newsletters you’ve received in the past?

When I moved back to the states in 1995, I was on a health food kick, so I tried Laura Scudder’s peanut butter. I hated it. I hated that I had to stir it, and I hated the taste. I still bought it once in a while, but for the most part, I didn’t eat a lot of peanut butter.

Since I’ve been living in Berkeley, I’ve been eating a lot of peanut butter again. For a while I ate the (no-stir) Skippy natural peanut butter, and then I discovered Adams. It was similar to the Laura Scudder’s I hated in that I still had to stir it, but it tasted good, so I started buying it. I ate jar after jar after jar, and began serving it to my son once he was old enough, too.

Then one day, I went to the supermarket and noticed that the Laura Scudder’s was on sale. I decided to compare labels to see how much fat/sugar/salt it had compared to Adams (which is all peanuts and has no added sugar and less than 1% salt). The labels were identical in every way, right down to the company that distributes them: Smuckers. Here I had somehow convinced myself that Adams was superior to Laura Scudder’s when, in fact, they are the SAME peanut butter branded with different labels. One has a male/sur name (Adam/Adams) and the other has a female name. One has a bright blue label with large, circus-font letters while the other uses cursive on earth tones. While one emphasizes “all natural” and says “creamy,” the other says “old-fashioned” and “smooth.” The ONLY difference between the two products is their branding. That’s when it hit home how important branding is. MORE important than the product itself. Much more.

So, when it comes to blogging, Twitter, and FB, what makes a good personal brand? Rather than quote from studies or other blog articles, I’m going to tell you what stands out for me when I look at someone’s blog/Twitter feed/personal brand.

1. Clean, simple design. Designs that are busy or too dark and difficult to read are a turnoff for readers. Clean and simple—with or without photos or other images—is always best.

2. Professionalism. A blog full of great advice, insightful thoughts, hilarious stories, or great information and links is much more valuable than a blog full of ramblings about what your cat did to the couch last night. Unless it was really funny. In that case, tell me all about your cat.

3. Consistency. Whether you post every day or once a week, it’s important to be somewhat consistent so readers know what to expect, and aren’t disappointed when they get something different.

4. Integration. It’s important to integrate your brand across multiple platforms, that is Twitter, Facebook, and your blog for starters. You can start by linking them so when you post to your blog, it updates to Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook. There are multiple ways to do this, and I’ll talk more about that in a subsequent post. But you need not only to integrate the content, but your personal brand as well. Does that mean your Twitter background has to match your blog background? Not necessarily. Mine doesn’t. But if you do have a logo or a book cover or some awesome art, yes, use it, and use it across all platforms.

5. Personalization. If you don’t own your domain name, buy it. If it’s already taken, think of something original and buy that instead. This isn’t to say that your blog can’t be JohnSmith.blogspot.com or JohnSmith.wordpress.com, but it looks much more professional if you have your own domain name: johnsmith.com. Also, don’t use a blog template (like I do) if you can afford a web designer. A professional web/blog design really stands out among the gazillion blogs using the same templates over and over.

6. Promotion. It’s important to get the word out about your brand, but not to self-promote to the point of irritating your audience. I have one friend who is ALL about self-promotion, and I cringe every time I get an invitation or update about her latest workshop, networking event, or web seminar. Don’t make people cringe.

What do you think makes a great personal brand? Can you cite examples of people who have created successful (non-irritating) personal brands?