seobridges.com

Last week, Avinash Kaushik tweeted that some people don’t think before they Tweet, and that can lead to adverse consequences. I Replied, “It makes one consider that the freedom of speech has given rise and justification to the freedom of criticism.” I thought I’d write out a Social Media Marketing Rights version of U.S. citizens’ Miranda Rights:

“You have the right not to post or tweet everything you’re thinking or doing all the time. Anything you post or tweet can be used against you by anyone, anytime, anywhere for any reason at all. You have the right to maintain a social media presence separate from your everyday social and personal life, now and during future interactions with your friends, followers, and fans. You have the right to hire or consult a social media marketing agency, before you engage in social media. If you cannot afford to hire or consult a social media marketing agency, you’re on your own. If you must let everyone on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other social media sites know what you’re doing and thinking all the time, all those free social media tools you use may cost you your job, privacy, and dignity.”

Like your Miranda Rights (If you’re a U.S. citizen), which are meant to remind you that you don’t have to incriminate yourself under police interrogation or in a court of law, your Social Media Marketing Rights should remind you that when engaging with your friends, fans, and followers on social media sites, there are just some things better left unsaid because not leaving those things unsaid could spell trouble.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

Today, I’m starting to blog on Fridays about my journey toward publication, beginning with my search for a literary agent. I’m not an expert, so I’m not going to offer any advice. However, I’ve done much of the research for you on how to use the online world to connect offline. So I’m going to let you know how to use the tools I’m using, starting with AgentQuery (AQ).

On the left side of AQ, you’ll see the ‘Quick Agent Search.’ AQ consists of a database of 972 agents, so you might find it easier to use their full search below that. AQ suggests finding ten agents.

AQ recommends you narrow your search down to the ten most likely agents to want to know more about your work. It doesn’t hurt to keep a list of more than ten agents, but make sure you prioritize which ones you’ll contact first.

For more advice on how to obtain an agent, read AQ’s writers’ section, get advice from writers with agents, follow the conversations I listed in this blog, and sign up for AQ’s social networking site—AgentQuery Connect. They offer forums, a calendar, a live chat room, and other ways to connect.

Along with using AgentQuery and AgentQueryConnect, I recommend you join Goodreads, post book reviews on Amazon, and check out my blog. Next week, I’ll update you on my progress, so come back and join me on my journey toward publication.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#Facebook #fan#pages #Marketing

Zuck doesn’t just want Facebook (FB) to be a another social networking site; he wants it to be the way people interact with the World Wide Web.  Today, I found a couple of videos on FB marketing.  The first is a great video for authors that will help you understand the demographics of the people that use FB.  The second one will tell you about a new plug-in that will help you gain more fans for your fan page.

Here’s the Google Chrome plug-in she talks about.  If you’ve upgraded to the new fan page template, the “suggest to friends” feature is on the right column, under “Admins.”  In order to see it, you will have to use Facebook as yourself rather than as your fan page.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

If you read the most recent issue of Poets & Writers, you know if you are an author and want a Web designer you want Jefferson Rabb.  He doesn’t design sites with a traditional call to action, rather he designs them with the goal of letting the user get to know the author better.  Most, if not all, of the sites he creates he creates for Hachette Book Group or Random House.

His site features what appears to be four subway lines running through Manhattan.  In the middle of the map is the front page of one of those sites—Nameberry.com.  That site deserves to be featured in the middle of Rabb’s rendition of Manhattan because it is that site, and that site alone, that Alexa ranks the highest out of all of the sites Rabb designed.  According to Compete.com, Nameberry received 98,064 visits in January, which was a little more than 10,000 less visitors than in December.

So, what are they doing right with Nameberry.com that’s not going so right with those other sites?  Yes, social media.  Facebook sends the third highest concentration of visitors (5.61%), and Nameberry.com has a Twitter account with a decent following.  Yes, SEO content. Google sends the highest concentration of visitors (44.86%).  Though, Nameberry receives 6.54% of its traffic from Parents.com and Babynology.com, which combined makes them more lucrative than Facebook to Nameberry.

Even though Parents.com is not a social networking site, they offer a community where expectant parents can interact with one another.  Babynology does not offer any type of social networking, but they do have photo contests, articles and tips, and easy to use search features.  So, what’s the point? Simple, you need something more than a fancy Web design; you need to find your audience and engage.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#Goodreads #Writing #SocialMedia #Writers

If you’re a writer, you should set up a profile on Goodreads (GR), so you can spin an attractive writer’s web. 26.21% of unique visitors to GR come from Google, so you want to fill your GR account with attractive keywords. Begin spinning your web with these high impact keywords:

Books:

The Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye
The Hunger Games
Never Let Me Go
Water for Elephants
Twilght 5 (Not Midnight Sun)
Eat, pray, Love

People:

Marilyn Monroe
Audrey Hepburn
John Lennon
James Patterson
Dr. Seuss
Bob Marley
Chuck Palahniuk
Lady Gaga
Charlaine Harris
Eckhart Tolle
Pema Chodron
Paulo Coelho
Stephenie Meyer
Justin Bieber

* This list of words is based upon Alexa.com, current as of the original date of this blog, and will change.

After you attract people, you want to know where your audience might go from GR. The same four sites send each other the most amount of traffic, thus allowing you to create an attractive writer’s web.

From Goodreads:

22.67% go to Google, 12.17% go to Facebook, and 4.43% go to Yahoo.

From Google:

4.15% go to Facebook, 2.34% go to Yahoo, and 2.17% go to Youtube.

From Facebook:

7.86% go to Google, 5.36% go to Youtube, and 4.24% go to Yahoo.

From Yahoo:

8.44% go to Facebook, 7.62% go to Google, and 2.29% go to Youtube.

From Youtube:

13.52% go to Facebook, 9.98% go to Google, and 3.02% go to yahoo.

Also, consider writing reviews on Amazon. Based on studies of overall increases of traffic to Facebook the average amount of traffic to Facebook increases by about .936% . Aside from that, after Yahoo, GR sends the next most amount of traffic to Amazon (3.42%).

So, to spin a Writer’s web, set up an account on Goodreads using the above keywords to attract Google and Yahoo, stay active or set up an account on Facebook, post videos on Youtube, and write reviews on Amazon.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#pubtip #copyright #writingadvice #writing #HarperCollins

Last Friday, I mentioned a new site for teen writers by HarperCollins called inkpop.com.  It is a site where teens can post their writing, let other teens know what they like or don’t like about one another’s writing, and get advice from HarperCollins publishers.  Think of it as American Idol for teen writers.

Here’s a list of other sites where you can share your writing:

http://www.mibba.com/

http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/

http://www.booksie.com/

http://storymash.com/

http://www.writers-network.com/

http://www.webook.com/

http://www.wattpad.com/

https://www.createspace.com/

http://www.qoop.com/

http://issuu.com/

http://www.smashwords.com/

http://www.wordclay.com/

http://bookoven.com

http://www.fanstory.com/

http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/

These look great, and I am not saying they are not.  I am saying you should know your rights, as in copyrights, first. 

For those of you outside of the U.S., I am not an attorney, so I cannot advise you.  Though, as a person who is not an attorney, I would warn you that if you are found to be in offense of stealing a U.S. citizen’s work, your country may turn you over.

Yes, once you write anything, it is copyrighted.  This blog is copyrighted material.  Some people may do a “poor man’s copyright,” which is sending a document to oneself in the mail.  But the date on a mailed package can be altered simply if the author works at, or knows someone who works at, the USPS.  An envelope can also be steamed open.

When a court decides whether a case is worth going to trial they look at the evidence.  They want to know if there is enough evidence and if that evidence is strong. I am going to venture to say that most courts may throw a copyright case out unless the work is legally copyrighted with the Library of Congress.

It is great that people can put their work online, so a huge publishing company can see it (And NO! I am not saying they would steal your work.  That would be like the owner of a candy store stealing candy from the kid.)  Writers should be aware of how to protect themselves, and then protect themselves.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#pubtip#HarperCollins #inkpop #query#letter #writer #author #writing

I found a couple of great videos for new authors.  The first one gives advice on how to write query letters, and the other one is about a book HarperCollins is publishing (The Carrier of the Mark) by Leigh Fallon.  They found the book on a new website for authors called inkpop.

For those unfamiliar with inkpop, it is a website by HarperCollins for teens where they can share their writing, get advice from other writers, and find out what other aspiring writer like or don’t like about your work.

Enjoy these videos!

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Welcome to a new year and a whole new set of blog ideas, conversations, opportunities, and more.  I am going to do thing a little differently this year.  Mondays I will post a blog,  Wednesdays my friend Jennifer will guest blog, and Fridays I will leave open to my creativity.  This morning, I am going to do one more blog on how a best selling novelist (JK Rowling) uses Social media.

Rowling receives 6.17% of traffic to her site from Twitter, 3.7% from Facebook, and another 6.17% from a site called Mugglenet.  Mugglenet is more than a social networking site, rather it’s a social networking platform dedicated to the Rowling’s writing.

This social networking platform integrates the social networking site MuggleSpace, which is a Ning based social networking site where JK Rowling and Harry Potter fans can interact with one another.  The uniqueness of Rowling’s social networking strategy is that she doesn’t have one.  Let’s get real.  She is a brand.

So, there’s the last lesson we can learn from this series.  Become a brand, and use social networking to familiarize people with your brand.  Rowling, or Rowling’s rat pack, created a Web within the World Wide Web that ensnares visitors within a maze.

If you want to brand yourself, create a type of Web within the World Wide Web that captivates your audience and makes them forget about time.  Send them through a maze, much like Rowling, filled with websites, books, movies, information, chances to interact, and reasons to escape their otherwise mundane lives.  Chances are it won’t be as extravagant, but start out small with a Twitter or Facebook account, a book trailer or two, and keep growing.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Today, I’m going to review how James Patterson uses social networking to connect with his fans in a personal way.  Jamespatterson.com receives 46.34% of its traffic from Google, 12.2% from his newsletter at the Hatchette Book Group, 10.98% from Facebook, and 8.54% from Yahoo!  Other than the newsletter, which I do not receive, his social media marketing efforts seem to complement his traditional marketing efforts in the same way that Stephenie Meyer’s and Stephen King’s complement their endeavors.  Though, Patterson goes a step beyond that in that he offers his fans a personalized social networking sites.

Jamespatterson.com receives 7.32% of its traffic from his personalized Ning site, myjamespatterson.com—The James Patterson Community.  There are almost 50,000 member, 52 groups, and countless discussions throughout this personalize social networking site.  The setup is pretty much the same as it is for any other Ning site.  Honestly, more could be done to give it a more personal feel, but with nearly 50,000 members I think Patterson can find better ways to spend his money.

Patterson gives his most loyal fans a place where they can connect with one another and himself (on occasion) without wondering if they’re just connecting with another generic social networking author page.  There are only 17 sites linking into myjamespatterson.com, and it only receives traffic from direct traffic, Google, and Jamespatterson.com (perhaps from the occasional other page).

So, while James Patterson uses social media to complement traditional media, he goes a step further by offering his fans a place where they can get to know one another and play Soduko.  Yes, I said Soduko.

Stay social my friends,

Erick