Many people think that if you’re in business, LinkedIn is the only place to be, and while LinkedIn has its many benefits and is a strong contender in my social media platform, my answer may be surprising to you.

My favorite social media platform, hands down, is Twitter.

I know. I know. I hear it all the time. You’re thinking “What? Twitter? I just don’t get all that tweeting stuff. All it is is stuff about what everyone had for breakfast!”

That’s where I’d jump up and down, pointing my finger at you and shouting “Wrong!” Well, maybe not so much jumping up and down… And probably not shouting. (It’s not my style.) I have no idea why I’d point a finger either…

But you’re definitely wrong. Sorry!

As simple as the site is, Twitter is the most powerful tool in my social media arsenal.

The Best Social Media Platform for Business

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When I found out in 2009 that I was soon to be unemployed, Twitter was where my job search took root. It was where I was first exposed to the power of hashtags to find and sort content being shared on the internet.

I was a bit nervous at first about using Twitter. Was everyone a scam artist?

Then, I came across Steve Keating (@LeadToday) on Twitter. For some reason, his simple reassurance in his bio that he wasn’t selling anything on Twitter, only giving back, set my heart at ease. I started engaging with him a bit, and enjoying his nonsensical animal trivia on Saturday mornings. It reminded me of a book my kids and I enjoyed called 365 Days of Nature and Discovery: Things to Do and Learn for the Whole Family.

Our shared interest in leadership topics led me to discover the Lead Change Group (@leadchange and #leadchange) shortly after their Leader UnPalooza in early 2010, which sounded like a lot of fun. I struck up a friendship with Mike Henry Sr. (@mikehenrysr), the founder of the group, which led me to discover and make connections with many of the founding members of the Lead Change Group.

I participated in the first Lead Change Round Table Mastermind group, which exposed me to other business owners who were crucial in helping me through the early hurdles of getting Aleweb Social Marketing established. Their support, encouragement, accountability, and love carried me through many bouts of fear, uncertainty and second-guessing.

Within my first year of using Twitter, I’d used it as a resource for:

• My job hunt
• Overcoming the isolation of unemployment
• Engaging with others around a shared passion (leadership)
• Establishing my business

Soon after, it became a means of establishing myself as a thought leader and speaker.

Then, I started to discover third-party tools that helped me even further. I’d already been a big fan of Hootsuite for a long time at that point. However, I started regularly using Bottlenose to find out what topics my extended network was currently discussing, and contributing there as appropriate. It’s “sonar-like” conversation mapping cut down my “listening” time immensely, allowing me to quickly and easily pinpoint the conversations I wanted to join. This was great for everyday conversation with the network or people I already knew and loved.

When I combined that with using InboxQ to find people asking questions in my areas of expertise, I was able to extend my network to individuals I didn’t know, but whom I could help.

Continuing conversations and participating in discussions that interested me “grew” my world, and helped me develop both personally and professionally.

One of my favorite talks that I give is called “To Tweet or Not to Tweet.” It explores whether Twitter is a useful business tool or a devious distraction. Believe it or not, the answer has as much to do with your personality as it does with how well you know how to use the site.

I can trace specific instances where interactions on Twitter have led to:

• Support in times of need
• Great conversations
• Lending assistance where others requested it
• New business
• Speaking, writing and collaboration opportunities
• Participating in, and being the featured guest for, TweetChats
• Interviews with influential people
• Guest posting on other blogs
• Opportunities to review books that interest me
• Connections that have become deep and lasting friendships
• New employees
• The ability to help a friend when an accident resulted in astronomical medical bills

Of course, all of those opportunities could come from real world connections and other social networks as well, but the convenience and ready accessibility of Twitter made it a natural place for me to grow. As relationships developed on Twitter, I selectively extended them into the real world via phone calls, Skype sessions and email exchanges.

Twitter has always been my best news source as well, especially during emergencies. While there can be a lot of misleading early information, the facts start to take shape fairly quickly from eyewitness accounts. Living near the Sandy Hook community and having both of my children’s schools “locked down” that day, I wanted to know everything that was happening, as distressing as it was. Yet, the media really didn’t seem to know much. People talking on Twitter, sharing information they’d gotten from people at the scene or en route to the scene, provided a much clearer understanding of the impact and significance of the events that day than the media was able to do at the time.

So, if you’re wondering whether Twitter is a useful tool or not, let me share one last example with you. The Lead Change Group mentioned above started out as a conversation on Twitter. A few people engaged in a conversation about what could be done to improve leadership today.

That conversation led to the formation of the community that centered around the idea that we needed more character-based leaders; people encouraged to lead from who they are, rather than their position in an organization or community. Together, those early adopters created a LinkedIn group, a vibrant hashtag, a mastermind group, a membership website, an influential leadership blog, a regular guest spot on SmartBrief on Leadership, a non-profit organization, and then to top it all off, we wrote a book together!

There’s no doubt that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the three legs of the stool that supports my business and career. However, Twitter has yielded more friendships, business contacts and opportunities for me than the other sites combined, which makes it both personally and professionally satisfying to me.

If you’re interested in ideas on how you can use Twitter, or other social networks, similarly, check out my book The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books. It will help you get started!

There will always be naysayers when any significant change comes along that impacts the way we do business. But can you imagine your life today without computers? The Internet? E-mail? (I know some of us would like to imagine life without e-mail, but I know very few people who have managed to do away with it in their lives completely!)

The same is true of social media. It’s not just a fad. It’s not going away. And ignoring it won’t help!

How and Why Social Media Won’t Go Away

Social media is all about relationships. As with any relationship, it can have a different context for each connection. There are some people I’m friendly with, others I buy from, I have best friends, a support network, people I ask advice of and collaborate with, and others I learn from. That’s “in the real world,” but it’s true also on social media.

One of my books, The Character-Based Leader, was written with people I met on Twitter. I share ideas with other authors and entrepreneurs, and talk about social media with clients and prospects on Facebook. I have been hired multiple times for speaking engagements and project work by people who found me on LinkedIn and on my blog. Slideshare helps establish my expertise as hundreds of people have viewed my content, and hundreds more follow my Pinterest boards.

Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing there is, and much of it takes place on the Internet these days.

My sister recently broke a storm window in her home, the same week it was being put on the market. After calling many different shops to get it fixed (all of whom said it would take 2 to 6 weeks to do), one place fixed it for her while she waited. No sooner had she left the shop than she’d posted a review on Yelp, and shared her story on Facebook. If I lived in St. Cloud, I know who I’d work with if I needed a window repaired!

Of course, when I commented on her post, saying how happy I was that she’d found a great business to help her, all of my friends saw the comment as well. Oh, and the same is true of the friends of everyone else who happened to comment on and like that post.

The same is true when someone posts a review of your book online, likes your Amazon listing, or shares that they just purchased a copy of your book. Social sharing is important marketing capital, and you always want to make it as easy as possible for someone to talk about what you’ve written.

That said, you also want to participate in the conversation! Respond, build relationships, ask for reader feedback, etc. The usefulness of social media is only limited by your imagination.

Want to select the best cover for your new book? Poll your social network! Let your fans choose it.

Have a few different story ideas, and wondering which one’s most likely to sell? Get reader feedback, quickly and easily.

Heading to a speaking engagement or book signing in an unfamiliar town? Find out who is in the area, and what hotel, restaurant and local attractions they recommend. And invite them to the event!

People buy from individuals they know, like and trust. Social media makes you approachable, establishes your expertise, and allows you greater interaction with your readers than ever before.

As Jody Hedlund points out in Social Media for Writers: A Kool-Aid Drinking Cult?:

“I’ve found the barriers that once separated people seem to fall away on social media.”

I’m not loyal to my favorite restaurant as much as I’m loyal to the experience that makes me feel welcomed and cared for when I go there. The same is true in reaching out to people on social media. You can reach out to journalists, teachers, consultants, politicians, institutions, corporations, and many other formerly unapproachable contacts, and have genuine and authentic conversations now.

If you question whether relationships are important, let me share from our own experience.

In recent weeks, here at Aleweb, we’ve been hired to create multiple Facebook pages and WordPress websites, edit a book, format eBooks, and create a series of mobile apps, all from word of mouth. Some came as referrals from existing clients, others from social media, blogging and web searches.

Yet it’s our relationship-building skills that make the difference here. The barriers to knowing your service provider as more than just a brand have fallen away. So, what have you got to lose?

Want to learn more about using social media to build these kinds of relationships and promote your book online? Check out The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books.

LinkedIn for Authors

Here are a few reasons why you want to be on LinkedIn:

• Links: Links from LinkedIn to your online content count in the Google search algorithm, whereas Facebook links don’t.
• Credibility: Since LinkedIn is a site for business professionals, there is an air of credibility that having a well-ranking profile within LinkedIn grants you.
• Research: LinkedIn’s search functions enable you to identify agents, publishers and editors in the areas you want to get into. In addition, though, it also shows you who your mutual connections are, shared interests, and other commonalities between you that enable you to craft an introductory message that breaks the ice, instead of being just another nameless face in the crowd.
• Connections: The opposite is also true. People who are looking for what you do can find you via LinkedIn’s search functionality, but only when you have a great profile (otherwise, all of the other better profiles outrank you in LinkedIn’s search result – don’t neglect building a strong profile). I have had a number of clients and booking agents find and subsequently hire me due to LinkedIn.

It all comes down to how you use the site, and how strong a profile you have.

So, how do you create a strong LinkedIn profile?

Follow these simple steps to create and use an All-Star author’s LinkedIn profile. [Tweet]

1. Make sure that your profile is “complete.” This means adding, at a minimum, your industry, location, at least 5 skills, education, photo, at least 50 connections, a summary, and two past positions. Once it’s complete, LinkedIn will invite you to share your profile on Twitter and Facebook so that your friends can see it.
2. I can’t say this strongly enough, make sure that your headshot is a good one of you! Don’t just crop a picture out of a recent family photo. And don’t use something so old or grainy that no one meeting you in person would ever recognize you. Make it friendly, appealing, close range (filling the frame), and professional.
3. Add “Author” and the name of your book to your work experience. Be sure to include a description of the book, and a link to purchase in the work history. Personally, I enter the publication date as the “Start Date” and do not specify an end date. (I’ll always be the author of my books. That will never change. So an end date would just be silly!) You also have the ability to attach a video or photo to each position you hold. Be sure to upload your book cover image and if you have a book trailer, add that as well. If you have a sample chapter you offer, you can link it here as well (or if you want to capture e-mail addresses, to an opt-in page to download it), so that people can get the excerpt directly from your LinkedIn profile.
4. Update your profile URL to have a vanity URL. People won’t remember the system-generated URL, but they may remember your name. So, update your URL to reflect that. For example, mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/taraalemany.
5. LinkedIn allows you to connect up to three websites to your profile, in addition to connecting to your Twitter profile. Point one to your website, another to your Amazon listing and the third to a particularly glowing review, your Facebook page, or something like an About.me page, where visitors can easily access links to all of your other online roosts.
6. Write your background summary in a conversational style. I use first person. Making your summary conversational demonstrates that you’re accessible and easy to communicate with. I also use this space to note any other names I’ve used during my career (maiden/married name, pen name, etc.). This makes it easier for people who connect with you from various points in your career to be sure they have the right person.
7. Make sure that the summary includes keywords related to your topic of expertise. Keywords for LinkedIn profiles can be sprinkled throughout the profile (in the headline, job descriptions, summary, etc.), and should be done without naturally. The point here is to attract people, not computers.
8. Add your book titles to the Publications section, as well as any guest posts you’ve written. Consider this an opportunity to showcase your work beyond what they can find on your website.
9. Rearrange the sections of your profile in the order that makes the most sense.

Once you’ve built your All-Star profile, meet people who represent your ideal audience, post a “call for reviewers” in applicable groups, and continue to add content and regular status updates. The most important thing of all, consider LinkedIn as a tool for building relationships and reconnecting with people. While you can market your book there as well, that should be a much lower priority. If your focus is purely on the marketing, you’ll lose the attention of the people you want to connect with the most! Give it time, the sales will come. Focus first on the people and the relationships.

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Do I really have to blog?

The answer to that is simple. NO! You don’t have to blog.

There is nothing in this world that compels you to blog, just like you don’t have to get up and brush your teeth in the morning, or put fresh clothes on, or take a bath once in a while.

However, you may not get the results you want though if you don’t.

The Importance of Blogging, and Blogging Some More

By Gabriel Weinberg

If your goal for your book, product, service or brand is to gain more visibility (the positive kind, mind you!), then blogging is a very powerful way to begin, for many reasons.

1. It’s fresh content, which the search engines like to see.
2. It’s easy for readers to share with their friends.
3. It brings traffic to your website, increasing its visibility to the search engines.
4. It’s more information on the internet that’s all about you and your favorite topic!
5. It gives prospective buyers a sense of who you are, what you care about, and how you present yourself.

So, how do you get started? Don’t you have to have your own website to blog? Well… The answer isn’t quite so simple.

When it comes to blogging, there are many options. You could maintain your own (and have it syndicated), seek out opportunities to guest blog on other people’s sites, and give people reasons to blog about you and whatever it is that you have to share.

Maintain Your Own Blog

If you don’t have your own website, I highly recommend making that a priority. (Aleweb offers website development and blog training services if you’re stuck with how to begin.)

The problem there is, it will take time to build its visibility and let people know it’s there. Once you get started though there are communities, like Triberr, who will partner with you to share your posts, and aggregator sites, like Business2Community and AllTop, that will share your latest posts on their well-trafficked sites.

Become a Guest Blogger

Once you’ve got your own website up and running, start building connections and relationships that will allow you to share your expertise on other sites. Personally, I’m a contributing author to the Lead Change Group’s blog, among others.

When I interviewed Jeff Goins, author of Wrecked, last year, he shared that guest posting was one of the top 3 things he did to grow his audience. And Josh Allan Dykstra, author of Igniting the Invisible Tribe, had similar things to say in his guest post on 4 Unconventional Ways to Market Your Book.

Give People Reasons to Blog About You

Unlike guest blogging, where you give someone your content to put on their website, when you give someone a reason to blog about you, they create the content.

So, how do you get them to do that? Offer interviews to blogging sites whose audiences are interested in what you have to share, or offer a review copy of your book, product or service to a prominent blogger for their review.

The most important thing to remember when approaching someone to feature you is to present “what’s in it for their readers.” This isn’t about you.

Every blogger I know who is passionate about blogging doesn’t do it because they love to write. They do it because they love their audience. So, make sure that you understand who that audience is, what they want to see, and what interests them. Avoid self-promotion by serving their audience, and you’ll still get the exposure you’re seeking. Everyone wins that way!

Spend some time on the blogger’s site, looking at past articles, reading comments to get to know the readers, etc. Then when you pitch your idea to the blog’s owner, it’s on-target and is about the reading audience’s interests.

These ideas and more are covered in my do-it-yourself guide to marketing your book online, The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books. For more suggestions on how to blog, pick up your copy today!

What’s your most effective strategy for using blogs to market your brand?

Don’t wait until the last minute to begin marketing.

A Beginners Guide to Self-promotion

The biggest mistake that many authors make is waiting until the last minute to think about how they are going to market a book. Oftentimes, it’s not until after it is already published that they even start to consider “what’s next?” However, marketing plans should be started early in the writing process so that you have sufficient time to build the connections, relationships and social media profiles necessary to get the word out about your new title.

If you’re like the vast majority of writers, a marketing plan may never have even made it onto your To Do list. Here you are, with your newly published book in hand, and no idea what to do next.

Your marketing strategy is going to be different than someone who started earlier, unless you have a large platform already (a platform is the online reach you have using e-mail, social profiles and other online connections to connect with an audience.). Building an audience takes time, especially if social marketing is going to be a part of your overall marketing strategy. The goal of any good marketing strategy though is going to include maximizing exposure to the right target audience for your book. And while self-promotion may feel awkward and uncomfortable to you, there is no one who knows your material better than you do! You can do this!

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Find people with the right audience for your book, and encourage them to blog about you and your book.

Getting other people to help you “build the buzz” is a surefire short-cut to gaining visibility and growing your own audience. So, give others the opportunity to interview you, review your book, or publish a guest post that you write. This still requires hard work, and the easier you make it on someone to write about you, the more likely it is that they will. So, put in the legwork to ensure that what you’re offering is suitable for their target audience. Bloggers have a duty to provide their readers with fresh, timely content, but most of all it needs to be relevant to the readers. Make sure when you reach out to someone else with the hope that they’ll promote you or your book that you clearly outline what your plan is, and how it’s relevant to their readership.

2. Know your keywords!

Understanding the words and phrases your target audience will use to find your book (and books like yours) is essential. You can have the greatest book in the world, but if people can’t find you or haven’t heard of your book before, it won’t matter. Search engines of all kinds (Google, YouTube, Bing, Facebook, Pinterest, and any other site that has a Search box) rely on properly coded “keywords” to identify your listing for their search results. However, it doesn’t have to be a guessing game! You can use Google AdWords to search for a general keyword related to your topic. For the purposes of one of my books, I used “book marketing.” The keyword tool then shows me exactly what search terms people are using to find sites related to book marketing. Selecting the “Exact” match type will ensure that the results are relevant to your search term. Sort the results on Global Monthly Searches to identify the search terms that are being used the most. Select the most commonly used search terms and ensure that they appear in titles, descriptions, etc. of your listing, website, blog posts, interviews, etc. The difference for you between using “marketing strategy” and “marketing strategies” may be minimal. However, there are 22,500 few people looking for “marketing strategies” last month than those seeking a “marketing strategy.” Knowing what you’re audience is looking for will help you to position your content where they will find it.

3. Optimize your presence on Amazon.com.

Making sure that your author page is set up, containing relevant information and resources, is a great start. But you also need to make sure that your book listing is set up properly, keyworded thoroughly, categorized correctly, and contains sufficient user-generated content to be trust-worthy. Encourage people who have read your book already to leave reviews, and then publish the reviews to your social profiles to promote what others are saying about your book. Encourage your following to give a “thumbs up” to helpful review comments by clicking the “Yes” button next to helpful reviews. And, don’t forget to comment on reviews as well, if only to thank the reviewer for taking the time to leave a comment! All of these different things play a part increasing your visibility within Amazon searches.

These three steps will help you to leverage existing audiences and people interested in what you have to offer while you turn your time and attention on building a social media platform that will allow you to broadcast your own message.

For further ideas about how to market your book online yourself, check out my do-it-yourself guide called The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books on Amazon today!

Doing the research to find all the right sizes was always a pain. Various sites had inconsistent (and even incorrect) information, making it difficult to know where to turn or who to trust.

Thankfully, LunaMetrics has stepped forward and volunteered to be the keeper of all such mundane information, providing social marketers with a single place to turn for all their sizing needs. Thank you, LunaMetrics!

Designed by LunaMetrics.

Here’s what I asked them.

I’m planning on writing a blog post in the next week or two that focuses on the best methods of growing your Twitter following. I’d love to get your tips and input to share with my readers.

And here’s how they responded.

My former business partner, Sheldon Adelson, the former owner and founder of Comdex (one of the biggest trade shows in history) and owner of the The Venetian Hotel, once said to build a successful trade show you need to remember this one rule: “Attendees beget Exhibitors and Exhibitors beget Attendees.” So this also applies to your followers. If you engage them , they will engage you and that is critical to being successful in getting followers — engage them and be real. Don’t just spit out info and sell things, engage them in a dialogue and they will be your best brand ambassadors.

- Jeffrey Hayzlett, Best Selling Author, Speaker & Sometimes Cowboy @jeffreyhayzlett

For me, I’ve used two services that have made a real difference. The first is a new platform that’s in development called Kuhhoots, and it’s a great method of sharing relevant content in a way that’s pre-planned. Started by my friend, Robert Galinsky (yep, that’s him – the Reality TV Coach), I highly recommend this “set it and forget it” approach to staying relevant, without losing that personal touch. Another service that’s made a real impact for me is triberr, founded by Dino Dogan. Triberr allows you to connect with professionals you respect, and mutually share content from your blog posts, with an invitation-only “tribe.” Leveraging the power of others, you can literally reach millions using this platform (assuming you have good blog content). You don’t have to share anything you don’t want to, but it’s a terrific way to access great material, and share valuable info with your followers. And one final thought: do you have a Twylah page?

- Chris Westfall, National Elevator Pitch Champion, Sales and Leadership Development Coach, Keynote Speaker & Author @westfallonline

I’ve been told by an expert I know to keep my branding consistent across all of my online platforms so that people can readily recognize me and identify what I do. By increasing brand recognition, it helps people more readily decide whether or not to follow me. I also make it easy for people to follow me from one platform to another. For instance, I include my social profiles in my e-mail signature and on my website so that people know where to find me!

- Ann McIndoo, Author’s Coach, CEO and Founder of So, You Want to Write! @AuthorsCoach

Content is King and consistency is queen. Keep these two core principals in mind whether you post through a scheduling service or manually for each post. When some one responds to a tweet, Facebook post, LinkedIn post or any other social network that you are posting on, MAKE TIME to be responsive with sincerity and work on getting to know your fans and followers better. Be real! People know when you’re faking and when you have all your chips on the table. So I say “go all in, all the time!”

- Richard Bishop, Owner Classy Catering Creations @CCateringC

Here’s what I’d add to these tips. Find a few Tweetchats to participate in. It’s 100% pure engagement, and a great way to meet new people who share a common interest.

Also, make sure you share a variety of content. Keep a healthy blend of links, retweets, thoughts and interactions going. If you need to use scheduling software to spread your posts throughout the day, then do it! Don’t bombard folks with tweets and then leave them high and dry.

And for anyone interested in learning more about Kuhhoots (mentioned above by Chris Westfall), stay tuned. You may be hearing more about it from me in another month or two…

What are your best tips for growing a Twitter following?

Self-publishing is a viable option for many, and presents a variety of new marketing and publishing options that writers didn’t have access to before. While you’ll forgo the advance that traditional publishers may give you, you’ll see a greater share of the royalties. Instead of a 10-15% advance (and potentially nothing more after that), you’ll see an on-going 30-70% of royalties from a self-published book.

But, keep in mind, that as a self-publisher, you are responsible for everything related to the book. That includes, at a minimum, cover design, editing, formatting, layout, proofing, publishing, marketing and publicity.

On December 9, 2012, CBS Sunday Morning ran the following video segment about self-publishing.

Given how accessible self-publishing options are these days, how do you decide which way to go or if you should publish at all?

1. If you want a traditional publisher, know your reasons why. I was talking about this with a friend recently who reminded me that no one ever makes a purchasing decision for a book based on who published it. So, why do you want to use a traditional publisher? You may have a very good reason, but be clear about what it is.
2. If you are considering self-publishing, do you have what it takes to manage all the pieces that go into it? In other words, are you up for managing a large project? You’re going to have to coordinate a variety of skill-sets or provide the talent yourself in order to put out a quality book. Self-publishing is more than just writing the book and uploading it to a distribution site. There is an art to cover design that makes a book attractive to a prospective reader. And, once the book is open, you want to ensure that typos and grammatical errors don’t detract from the reader’s experience. Then, there’s ensuring that people even know the book exists. Your friends and family are only going to buy so many copies. So, how else will you get the word out about it?
3. If you are self-publishing in the hopes of picking up a traditional publisher later, have you worked out a plan that ensures you’ll sell a minimum of 10,000 copies in the first year? The ISBN of a book enables publishers to see the sales history of a book, which they consider as part of their purchasing decisions. If you self-publish and sell only a few copies, you have made your journey to traditional publishing that much more difficult because you have, in essence, proven that you don’t have a viable audience.
4. Whether self-publishing or going with a traditional publisher, have you spent the necessary time to build your platform (the audience who is aware of you and your work)? Major publishers want to see that you have a ready-made audience. One industry expert shared a few quick gauges she uses for this. Do you have a Klout score of 70 or higher, an available mailing list of 20,000 or more (yours or someone else’s), and at least 20 speaking engagements a year at $5K or more per engagement (or that you are already a celebrity in some other way)? If you don’t have these things, consider them as benchmarks you want to achieve as you build your audience. The bigger the platform you have, the greater success you’ll realize with your self-published material.

The ready availability of self-publishing options is attractive to many, and it’s certainly easier to get your material out there than pursuing a major publisher. But before you take the leap, recognize that self-publishing is a business, not an outlet. It’s not a magic wand to fame and fortune.

Make sure that you have laid out a solid plan to achieve your goals and have the necessary resources of time, money, connections (it doesn’t have to be costly) to implement the plan. If you don’t, you’ll be disappointed with the results.

If you need help getting started with a plan, consider buying a copy of The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books. It will get you pointed in the right direction.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve encountered in self-publishing your books?

The Apple in the Orchard

The story itself is about Brave Apple, who learns the importance of living with purpose. She learns to question the status quo and look beyond what’s familiar to find her place in the world.

Brave Apple grows on Pale Green, a tree on the outskirts of the Orchard that is pale and produces sickly fruit because of his disconnect from Red Harvest, the largest, strongest and healthiest tree in the Orchard.

Red Harvest nurtures the relationships among the trees in the Orchard and cultivates collaboration as they grow and produce fruit. Since Pale Green is so far from the center of the Orchard, he misses the messages of Red Harvest. As a result, Pale Green believes that he is separate and apart from the rest of the Orchard. Believing that he is completely independent, Pale Green struggles without the support and connection of the rest of the Orchard.

As Brave Apple surveys the Orchard from the branches of Pale Green, she can see Red Harvest’s glow, but not feel it. A desire to connect with Red Harvest overwhelms her. She battles fear and uncertainty as she does what no one else has ever done. She leaves the safety of her branch, and begins her pilgrimage to the center of the Orchard. Her desire to learn is overwhelming.

Brave Apple’s story is an allegory of every leader’s journey. There comes a time when we question the things we’ve always been told. Our desire to learn forces us to seek out mentors and other leaders who can help us discover the secrets to achieving our passions and realizing our goals.

It’s a wonderful story to share with children, to show them that conformity is not always the best way. It encourages the reader, showing that curiosity and a desire to learn are noble qualities.

For adults, the story is equally appealing, and will resonate with many readers as they work to become emerging leaders themselves.

But don’t just take my word for it! This story has also been endorsed by the likes of Ken Blanchard, Mike Henry Sr, Roy Saunderson, and S. Max Brown; some pretty heavy hitters in the leadership arena.

Ken Blanchard has this to say about The Apple in the Orchard:

The Apple in the Orchard by Sonia Di Maulo is a lovely little book with a profound message: To pursue greatness, aspiring leaders sometimes must dare to leave the familiar. Opportunities for growth and learning are all around you—so take the leap, and grow!

To get your copy of The Apple in the Orchard, click here.

Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided to me by the author. No further compensation was made or promised. Additionally, no affiliate links were used in this post.

Jeff is a writer who lives outside of Nashville with his wife, son, and pup. He works for Adventures in Missions and blogs at goinswriter.com.

When you started your blog in 2010, you had some burning questions about making a living as a writer that you were trying to answer for yourself. (To see Jeff’s questions, click here.) With the recent publication and success of Wrecked, it looks like you found the answers. I’d love it if you could share part of that journey with my readers because it’s a trip they’d all like to take too!

1. What were the 3 most significant things you did to grow your blog’s readership?

Great question. First, I wrote content I could be proud of. This sounds like a given, but most bloggers don’t do this. They settle for “B” content, because they’re busy or restless or lazy, and they don’t think anyone will notice. But people notice. I made the decision to always write “A” content for my blog.

Second, and this is an important complement to the first thing, is I ship. I give myself regular deadlines and I meet them, no matter what. At first, this was blogging every day and since has scaled down a bit. The point, though, isn’t the frequency. It’s the discipline you learn when you have a deadline. So important (especially if you want to get published). It also gives your audience the sense that you’re going somewhere, and it builds anticipation.

Third, I wrote for other websites and blogs. I’m a big proponent of guest posting. I started small — with friends and other bloggers who were peers. But then as I built momentum, I started befriending bigger bloggers and leveraging those relationships to help them and then eventually publish content on their websites. This helped me reach a broader audience.

2. As a writer, which social media networks do you find to be the most useful, and why?

I’m not very innovative with this. I stick to what works. First, let me say that blogging is a form of social media, and the best network you can build is your own. Try to get as many people to your platform and get permission (i.e. subscriptions) to keep communicating with them.

Beyond that, I use Twitter and Facebook mostly. I like Twitter more, but Facebook offers better results in terms of driving traffic.

3. Many of my readers are self-published authors. I know you have some eBooks (The Writer’s Manifesto and You Are a Writer) as well as Wrecked, which was published by Moody Publishers. When would you recommend a writer find a traditional publisher versus self-publishing?

A traditional publisher will help you carry a message to more people (usually). They will also help you create a better product (most of the time). Self-publishing usually lets you make more money, but it’s limited to your own sphere of influence. I would recommend going with a traditional publisher if you have a message the world needs to hear and it’s really not about the money. That was the case for Wrecked. Plus, self-publishing helped me not need to make much money off of it. This is what we call the “hybrid publishing” model, and I’m a proponent of it. Self-publish to make money (and build a tribe), and traditionally publish to establish yourself and reach more people.

4. What does it really take to get published?

Really, all it takes is perseverance. If you work hard enough (and don’t completely suck at writing), you’ll build a tribe, find an audience for your words, and get your message out. And frankly, it doesn’t even take that. I mean, you could self-publish an eBook on Amazon tomorrow, if you wanted.

So I guess all it takes is the desire and the willingness to do it. Good luck.

Do you guest blog or have guest bloggers on your site?

Although my answer was rather lengthy, I want to cover the gist of it here with you. The short answer is: “Yes. I guest blog and have guest bloggers on my site. And so should you.”

If that’s all you wanted to know, you’re free to go read something else now. But if you’d like a more in-depth explanation, stick around, because here it comes.

I believe in guest blog­ging, as well as being a con­tribut­ing blog­ger because I can’t expect that every­one is going to come to my site all the time to learn about my brand. As much as I love bringing traf­fic here, I’m not a traf­fic con­duc­tor, I’m an infor­ma­tion pur­veyor.

As such, I have to be will­ing to go where my tar­get audi­ence is (on social net­works, other blogs, and online com­mu­ni­ties) and par­tic­i­pate. Oth­er­wise, it’s sim­ply hubris to expect every­one to come to me for the infor­ma­tion I feel like sharing.

So, I guest blog when invited and the audi­ence is rel­e­vant. I invite guest blog­gers on a selec­tive basis, need­ing to know that they’ll pro­vide qual­ity con­tent of inter­est to my read­ers.

My blog is syn­di­cated to other blog net­works (like Business2Community, All­Top and oth­ers), and I am a con­tribut­ing author to the Lead Change Group’s blog that is related to a sec­ondary inter­est ofmine, leadership.

All of these build authen­tic­ity for my brand, mak­ing me a val­ued and trusted resource for those that dodecide to fol­lowme.

I wouldn’t have it any otherway. Would you?

What are your thoughts about guest blogging? Do you like it when someone guest blogs on a site you follow? Do you write guest blogs yourself?

Say you have a Facebook profile. You’ve got lots of “friends,” but you don’t know most of them. They’ve simply connected with you because you’re a public persona and they want to get to know you better. I know this happens all the time with public figures.

You joined Facebook for the same reason as everyone else; to keep in touch with family and friends. But then these friend requests started pouring in. Like a deer caught in the headlights, you didn’t know what to do. So you accepted the request or ignored it hoping that it would go away. But then in a moment of weakness, you gave in and accepted the backlog of requests just so that you wouldn’t feel guilty anymore. Right?

Now, your newsfeed is flooded with information that you really aren’t interested in, and it’s making it harder to see those gems from your friends and family that you really do care about. You could filter it, as I demonstrate in one of my YouTube videos, but who has the time to go through so many friends and put them in lists?

Did you know that you can convert your Facebook profile into a Facebook page? What? You didn’t? Neither did I!

Here’s the deal. When you migrate a profile to a page:

• You do lose the old profile. You have to create a new profile for your personal use using a different e-mail address than your old profile. But if the idea is to clean up the profile, starting with a clean slate isn’t a bad thing!
• Only your profile pictures and friends/subscribers are transferred over to the page. So, backup your content if you have any interest in saving it. It won’t be accessible later. Note: Depending on the number of friends you have, it can take a few hours for all the friends and subscribers to appear as “likes” on the new page. So, don’t worry if they’re not all there right away.
• Other than the new likes and a profile picture, your new page is blank. Once again, not a bad issue. Just start creating content. At least you’ll be off to a great start with the following.
• If your profile is the admin for any groups or apps, assign new admins before you migrate. The page will remain an admin for any pages you’re an admin for, but better safe than sorry; I’d add other admins for pages as well.
• If you have a username specified for your profile (otherwise known as a “vanity URL”), it will be applied to the new page instead. The username for my page is “AlewebSocial.” That gives me a vanity URL of http://www.facebook.com/AlewebSocial. Facebook doesn’t allow you to change the username of a page with more than 200 “likes,” so depending on how many people are friends, you may not be able to update the username of the page.
• From what I can piece together, the name of the new page (the page title) is based on the profile name. Therefore, Joe Schmoe’s profile will be displayed as “Joe Schmoe” for the page title. At least that’s my guess. So, if you want a different title, change your profile name before you update the account. The first name could be “Joe Schmoe’s” and the last name “Awesome New Facebook Page.” You get the idea. I have to admit, I have not tried this out yet, but my guess is that it would work. Otherwise, to change a page title, you have to put in a special request with Facebook, and they don’t make it easy.
• The newsfeed of your new page will be blank because you haven’t “liked” any other pages yet.
• Some people may be put off by becoming a fan when they thought they were your friend (think old high school classmates, family members, etc.). So, anticipate a drop-off in “likes” soon after the conversion.

Making a page is definitely the right answer, even for personal brands. You need to be in conformance with Facebook’s terms of agreement, otherwise, you risk them shutting your account down.

But there are other reasons for it too. For instance, Google indexes pages, but not profiles. In addition, pages allow much more functionality than profiles do, including adding apps for a mailing list, creating events, etc.

I hope this helps! Since I haven’t had anyone volunteer yet for me to convert their profile, I’ll share someone else’s video of the process for you to see what it looks like.

If you decide that you want to go ahead and try it yourself, just sign into your Facebook profile and go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate to get started.

So, what do you think? Is it time to convert your Facebook profile to a page? Let us know below if you’re daring enough to do it!

During a recent weekend trip with this friend and some others, I realized that everyone who knows him holds him in high regard. I’ve often wondered what people will say about me when I’m gone. (Strange, I know – but it’s part of being intentional about the legacy I want to leave.) It became apparent that my friend has been building his legacy for years already, and it’s a strong and solid one!

When it comes right down to it, though, haven’t we all?

The path we follow through this world intersects with others’ along the way. We make an imprint upon everyone we meet, no matter how large or small. When we hold a door open for someone else or send a friend a card for no reason, we are touching someone else’s life. It may not be the same impact as when you rescue someone from a burning building or help a child gain confidence, but we can’t go through life without affecting those around us.

And sometimes, it’s the small actions that have the biggest effect. Just plain being there when someone needs a friend, putting yourself in their shoes for a time, sharing simple words of encouragement and understanding – it all adds up to the legacy we leave.

What legacy are you leaving as a person and a leader? Are you being intentional about it, or just letting it develop over time based on random acts and decisions you make? Better yet, does everyone you know hold you in high regard or are there relationships that need mending?

As leaders, we need to be aware of those around us, but more than that, we need to be aware of the effect we have on them by our actions and our inaction.

To become a leader with a legacy you can be proud of, here are a few action steps to point you in the right direction.

• Imagine listening in at your own funeral. What do you want to hear people remember most about you? And what did you inspire people to aspire to? That’s going to become your goal.
• Assess where you stand in relation to that goal now. If you need help with this, ask a trusted friend or mentor.
• Identify what skills, characteristics and habits you need to start establishing now to more clearly achieve that goal.
• Begin a program of self-improvement to better incorporate those behaviors into your life.
• Periodically reassess both the goal and where you stand in relation to it.

We are works in progress until we die. Unfortunately, for most of us, we have no idea whether today’s the last day or if we have another year, 20 years or 50 years. Yet, a legacy waits for no one. We’re making one right now, whether we’re intentional about it or not. Is it something we can be proud of, or does it still need work?

The time to begin is today. What’s your legacy going to be?

This was originally posted on the Lead Change Group’s blog on June 25, 2012. Reposted here as part of the Evangelical Seminary’s Leadership Synchroblog campaign.

For instance, on Friday nights at 11 PM ET, there’s the TweetChat #slumberparty hosted by the lovely @DabneyPorte. It is often accompanied by creative hospitality, pillow fights, stolen Diva jets, great music spun by Wayne, and general merriment.

But once a year, there is the annual International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19. This celebration is enjoyed by celebrities like Dave Barry, and everyday folks like you and me.

This year’s celebration is the 10^th anniversary of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, otherwise known as “ITLAPD.” With over 82,000 likes on their Facebook page, this online party is a well-attended one.

Yet its popularity and extends beyond Facebook. Their website talklikeapirate.com has a Google page rank of 6 and an Alexa ranking of 259,871 worldwide and 37,696 in the US. The banter and merriment make people want to join in the fun, and this translates to traffic.

For the fact that the majority of their activity is limited to a couple of months a year in the lead up to September 19 each year, that’s an incredible accomplishment.

So as you think about your business, what kind of fun and merriment can you bring to it? This extends beyond contests and polls, which bring limited one-time traffic, into the realm of entertainment. Take for instance the Old Spice viral videos that came out a couple of years ago with the Old Spice Man. They were shared far and wide because of their humorous nature. Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself and create a fun environment. Take yourself too seriously and you’ll be considered an old fuddy-duddy. Nobody likes hanging out with a fuddy-duddy.

I know a new business that launched their YouTube video series with their blooper reel, instead of their commercials. They ended up generating a lot of interest in their YouTube channel before they ever put up a single commercial for their brand, simply because they were willing to laugh at themselves. Once they started putting their product commercials, they already had the attention of a rapt audience.

So in honor of making social media a bit more fun, here’s a brief video tutorial on how to change the language settings in Facebook to “English (Pirate).” The same technique can be used to change the Facebook language settings to anything else you choose as well.

So, give us an “Arr!” below, and scrawl somethin’ tellin’ us what your favorite way is to have fun with social media.

Today, I was “manning the shop” all alone when an older couple came in for a wine tasting. Being an early Friday afternoon, the place was quiet, and I was able to simply enjoy engaging in conversation with them. Over the course of the next hour, we shared stories about our lives back and forth with each other.

As the husband went out to the car to load their purchases, the wife stayed a talked awhile longer. She confided how much she valued the time I had spent with them. Her daughter had just remarried, her grandson had gone to college and her granddaughter was starting a new job at a local hospital. They have been a close-knit family, living on the same property for years, in and out of each other’s homes on a daily basis, and now this grandmother was feeling “an empty nest, times three!” The sorrow and grief in her eyes was heart-wrenching, and I was grateful that we’d had that time alone to just enjoy one another’s company.

As I was thinking back on that experience this evening, it occurred to me that so few of us really know how to listen. There was a moment when this woman was leaving the winery where our eyes connected, no more words were spoken, but she knew that she had been heard, and her thoughts and feelings mattered to someone else.

In social media, where we don’t have the opportunity to make eye contact, and listening can echo back like an empty chasm if you don’t make your presence known, how do we let someone know we’re listening?

I had another instance earlier this week where I’d seen someone’s name flit through my Twitter feed whom I hadn’t spoken with in a long time. So, I reached out and sent her a tweet, asking her how she was doing. This led to a private (DM) conversation where she shared that Life had been rough of late.

The best way that I could show I was listening was to actively participate in the conversation, but always keeping the focus on her. It’s so easy to want to relate our own experiences with a topic. But sometimes a person just needs to be heard. When using social media, oftentimes it’s feedback (or the much-bantered word “engagement”) that let’s us know anyone is even listening.

Here are some tips on how to demonstrate active listening in social media:

• When someone needs to talk, let the conversation be about whatever it is they need to talk about.
• In real life, eye contact and touch show that we’re engaged. Online, substitute a private message or directed contact to let the person know you are there, you are listening and you care.
• Don’t steer the conversation to yourself. Instead, be genuinely interested in what the other person is saying. If you can’t be genuinely interested, perhaps it’s not the right person to be deepening a relationship with.

These tips aren’t for every conversation you have online. But it’s important people know you care about more than the product or service you are selling, and that you’re a real human being capable of engaging, feeling and being authentic.

Online friendships can remain at a superficial level for a long time. But when we take the opportunity to deepen those connections, perhaps even bringing them offline, it’s amazing what can happen. What tips do you have for connecting with individuals in real and authentic ways?

a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

9/11 afforded many people the opportunity to look within themselves and find the hero within. We all have that quality within us. It’s that drive that enables us to put the needs of others before our own in times of trouble or sadness. That selflessness becomes a mark of maturity, demonstrating that we’ve learned a vital lesson. The world does not revolve around us.

Take a few minutes this day to watch this video, reflect upon it’s message and look within your own heart and mind.

The world needs more heroes. Where can you step up and make a difference in someone’s time of need? Whether it’s volunteering on your kid’s soccer team, mentoring a fatherless child, serving at a local soup kitchen, helping someone out financially, visiting with an elderly neighbor, or something completely different. When average people step up to fill a need, coming together and pulling together, they can accomplish amazing things.

As the narrator, Tom Hanks, shared:

The great boatlift of 9/11 became the largest sea evacuation in history, larger than the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II, where 339,000 British and French soldiers were rescued over the course of nine days. On 9/11, nearly 500,000 civilians were rescued from Manhattan by boat. It took less than nine hours…

Don’t live your life wondering “Should I have?” And don’t wait for tragedy to strike to call up that inner hero. You have the ability to make the world a better place today.

I’d love for each of my readers to share whatever they’d like in the comments below, whether it’s their memories of how 9/11 affected them, or how they are inspired by this post and video to step up and commit letting their own inner hero loose. For those of us who lived through 9/11/2001, the world was forever changed. But we have it within ourselves to continue that change, embracing the spirit of self-sacrifice that made us proud to be Americans, to make a positive difference in our communities today.

Are you going to step up to the challenge?

She concludes the piece with a very revealing set of questions. I wonder how many of us ever truly consider them as we tweet, share, post and blog. They are:

What is your foundation for social media? What are your beliefs? What promises are you living or do you need to make to your social media friends?

If you’ve ever written a business or marketing plan, the answers to these questions should be a part of it. And those answers should be consistent with how you implement and use your social media accounts.

For me, both my company and my online interactions are guided by a biblical passage found in Ephesians 4:29.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

I believe that everyone of us has unique gifts and abilities. When we use our gifts to contribute to the world around us, the world becomes a better place to live in.

My particular gift is to take complex ideas and communicate them in ways that are easy to understand. I did that for over 20 years as a technical writer and trainer. I’m doing it now as a speaker and consultant. And that is why this blog will always be used to educate my readers, providing you with useful information that builds up your ability to market your product or service online.

I wholeheartedly believe in the old Chinese proverb:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

I know that a lot of my readers are do-it-yourself-type people, whether by nature or due to financial constraints. While Aleweb is here to serve your social marketing needs, we will always have a firm commitment to teaching you how to fish as well.

So, to echo Pam’s questions… What is your foundation for social media? What are your beliefs? What promises are you living or do you need to make to your social media friends? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

I’m often asked by clients about which metrics they should be noting. It doesn’t matter if they are an author or speaker looking to build a platform, or an entrepreneur looking to get found online. The question is always the same. Which metrics are important?

My reply is often this. The metrics that are important differ depending on the goal you’re trying to reach. Without knowing that goal, collecting data is almost pointless.

But here’s a metric that Michael pointed out that jumped out at me, because it’s more of a self-reflection. It’s the percent change in the last twelve months. This can apply for a website (as in Michael’s example in his book), or a social profile. It reflects the rate of growth in the last year.

Understanding this number helps you to recognize how effective you are at doing what you’ve set out to accomplish. Whether you’re building a platform or increasing visibility for your brand or product, you need to build a following, and that starts with creating relationships with people who value what you have to share. Whether or not they are coming back to your site on a repeated basis, and whether your information is finding it’s way out into the Ether is a huge part of that. But time spent on the site also has an effect on:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Subscriptions
• Sales

Here’s an excerpt from Michael’s description that explains how to calculate the percent of change in the past twelve months:

Here’s the formula: unique visitors in the last thirty days, minus your unique visitors for the same period twelve months ago, divided by your unique visitors for the same period twelve months ago, multiplied by one hundred.

A similar formula could be applied for a Twitter profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn account, etc. so long as you have the numbers needed for the calculation.

Looking at my own site, I’ve had a 347% increase in my website traffic since November 1, 2011. Unfortunately, I don’t have a full year’s worth of data yet, since I migrated my website in October last year. But in another couple of months, I will. The main point here is, I must be doing something right, and that’s encouraging to know.

If we base our assessment of our success on the number of comments we receive, it can seem like our efforts are getting us nowhere. But knowing that my message is being heard and noting that my page/visit count is also going up means I have more people coming to the site and they’re digesting more of what I’ve shared. And they’re doing that because they value what I have to share. In the process, relationships are being built as we engage with one another, content my readers value is shared within their networks, and more people are being helped by what I have to offer.

That makes the effort worthwhile.

So, how about you? What are you doing to influence and monitor your social growth?

Do you have a social media will?

You may be wondering to yourself, “what the heck is she talking about?” But bear with me for a minute. In April 2012, the U.S. government updated their Personal Finance article about writing a will. Their updated recommendation got a lot of folks in the social media world buzzing because they added a section about writing a “Social Media Will.”

Pundits considered what this might look like and discussed the potential issues involved in writing one. For example, a will is a legal document and, as such, it is a matter of public record. Part of the challenge is, you’re supposed to provide your social media executor with a list of all your social profile user names and passwords along with instructions as to what you’d like done with them. Obviously, you don’t want those as part of any public record!

In addition, good internet protocol requires regularly updating your passwords, and new sites come along all the time requiring new accounts and related passwords. So how do you keep your social media directive up-to-date?

While no one likes to think of their own demise, this topic hit home for me when my fiance died late last year. While he wasn’t “into” social media, he did have multiple e-mail accounts, a blog, and a couple of social profiles out there. He was also moderator of a very active Yahoo Group. I was thankful that he had given me his e-mail password long ago, and that ultimately allowed me to identify and access his other accounts.

It came to mind for me again this week when Tony Robbins’ long-time business partner, Chet Holmes, passed away on August 13, and a friend of mine, Howard Tuckey, posted on Facebook the same day about discovering that an online friend of his had passed away. Howard and I got talking about how some of the friendships we develop online are as real and as lasting as those we have in person, even though we may never actually meet in person. Some even become like family, or “eKin,” to us. (By the way, Howard and I have been online friends since the late ’80s, and we’ve never met — that we can recall — there was that TEXTMOOT we may have jointly attended…)

Anyway, as we discussed how it is that online friends find out about the passing of another, Howard and I thought of a few different ideas. Of course, out of respect for families and legal due process, such announcements should be initiated by the family or with their permission, however, it would be an interesting element to cover in a social media will. Why not, in addition to leaving account names, passwords and disposition instructions, leave instructions as to how friends connected with those accounts are to be informed of one’s death?

So, here’s what I propose a social media will consist of. But please note, I’m not a lawyer and haven’t run this past a lawyer, so there may be some flaw in it. Don’t sue me!

Rather than writing out all the profile names, passwords and instructions for each site, use a tool like Roboform to manage your account information. (You can download a copy here.)

1. In the Notes section for each entry, specify what you want done with the account in the event of your death, and if and how connections to the account should be notified.
2. Store the password to your Roboform account with your legal documents in a safe place, making sure that your social media executor knows where it is stored.
3. Make sure it stays current as you change your Roboform password.

The nice thing about using Roboform in this way is that your account can be accessed from any computer, so long as the person has your account and password info for it. This way, even family members who live halfway across the country can process your instructions without having access to your computer.

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<img src="http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The-Character-Based-Leader-197x3004.png">

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Here’s how to add functioning HTML code to your WordPress page or post.

If you want to add it to the sidebar instead, you have to add a text widget to the sidebar and paste the code in there instead. Here’s how to do that.

Without knowing what the topic was that day, Tom had brought along this poem he’d written. With his permission, I share it with you. (Apologies from both of us to The Bard.) :-)

To tweet, or not to tweet, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of cyber-obscurity,
Or to take arms against a sea of competitors,
And by opposing end them? To log on, to search,
No more; and via Google to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural junk mails
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To log on, to search;
To search, per chance a “hit” — aye, there’s the rub:
For in that SEO of hope what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this limited liability company,
Must give us pause — there’s the respect
That makes the value proposition so long.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of clients,
The promised referral, the proud man’s brochure,
The pangs of unreturned phone calls, the Internet’s delay,
The insolence of networking, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his laptop make
With a Facebook page? What would consultants bear,
To blog and sweat under a weary life,
But for the dread of something called LinkedIn,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus the hyperlink doth make cowards of us all.

What are your views? Is Twitter a useful business tool or a devious distraction? If you don’t know and want to find out, feel free to give us a call or book our talk for your organization.

Today’s tip will show you one of those tactics intended more to remind people that your book exists rather than directly tell them about it. The nice thing is, if they want to learn more, they can click through and do just that! But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Watch the video below to learn how you can add the Facebook page for your book to your work history in your profile. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your book yet, give us a call and we’ll help you get one set up.

You can do the same thing for your LinkedIn profile. (Once again, if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, we’re here to help!)

By linking to your book in both of these places, you’re leaving a subtle reminder for people connected to you that directs them to where they can find more information about your book.

Remember, one of the rules of marketing is to stay “top of mind.” You want your book to be the first thing they think of when they go to pick up a new one, and you can subtly do that by keeping the title visible wherever you interact with people.

At the same time, this additional visibility for your book title helps to grow your platform, enabling more people to be aware of what you’re working on and generating potential interest in your future projects.

What are some of the other subtle ways that you stay “top of mind” for your readers?

1. Start first with the increased exposure that posting presentations to the SlideShare site itself gives to you. Developing a strong presence on the site, with a complete profile, suitable keyword tags for each presentation, etc. will allow others to find, appreciate and share your material and samples that much more easily. It also provides a great place to send event planners, training coordinators, etc. who want to see a bit more of what your work looks like. According to the SlideShare website:
   SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.
2. Jazz up your LinkedIn profile by incorporating the SlideShare app into it. To do so, in LinkedIn, select the More menu, followed by Get More Applications…, and then select the SlideShare Presentations app to add to your profile. Configure the app to connect to your SlideShare account, and then visitors to your profile will be able to see the most recent presentation you shared. If they click on the app logo, it will take them to an expanded version of the SlideShare app where they can explore other presentations as well.
3. Embed a presentation on your website. If you have a presentation or two that you want to highlight for your website visitors, SlideShare provides you with the necessary embed code to be able to do that. Here’s one that I just uploaded from a talk I gave last March.

4. Pin presentations from SlideShare to Pinterest boards. I recently got into a debate with someone about Pinterest and its ideal uses. They saw it as a place where women share recipes and post inspirational quotations. The thing is, Pinterest is such a powerful site and has an incredible level of engagement. So, why wouldn’t you incorporate it into your business strategies, marketing tactics or even your job search? Here’s a great SlideShare presentation on creating Pinterest resumes. The same concept can apply for various speaking topics, book subjects, training courses, etc. Be imaginative!

5. Periodically share your presentations in your status updates on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Create a few pre-crafted posts that you can add to your editorial calendar and keep continuing traffic coming to the presentations you want to have the most visibility. Schedule these posts in your post planner (I use Hootsuite), so that they run on auto-pilot.
6. Remember to craft your presentations well! A well-crafted presentation will catch people’s attention, prompting them to share it with their networks as well. Consider adding video to your presentation or an audio track, wherever appropriate, to bring the presentation to life.
7. Generate leads using SlideShare. If you upgrade your free account to the PRO version, you can use LeadShare to enable viewers to contact you directly, right from your presentations! With a LeadShare campaign running, a lead capture box is displayed after the first 10 slides, at the end of the deck, or by a permanent display button on the player. To learn more about Leadshare, click here.

What are some of your favorite ways to use SlideShare?

So, when Mike Michaelowicz, a.k.a. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, asked if I’d be willing to review his latest book, The Pumpkin Plan, I had to give it some serious thought before making the commitment.

In reading the book’s description though, I realized it was one I was going to want to read regardless, so may as well help with the launch! The book’s subtitle is “A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field.” It’s more than that though.

In this book, Mike explores the idea that many entrepreneurs are broke in every sense of the word, working 5 to 9, eight days a week, yet still living check to check. As much as I hate to say it, that sounds like me and many of the other entrepreneurs I know!

Every one I talk to has the same complaint. They want to work less and earn more. Whether it’s selling their service, product, book or speaking topics, it takes hard work. We keep thinking that we’re so close to “making it” that we keep plugging away at it, never realizing that we’re going about it all wrong…

That’s what drove me to read The Pumpkin Plan. I needed to find my own way out of the rut I was making and into the business I knew I could have.

Mike was inspired by the methods used by farmers to grow giant pumpkins and saw the applicability of those techniques for growing a wildly successful business that dominates the competition.

The plan is simple:

• Plant a prizewinning seed.
• Get rid of the losers.
• Nurture the winners.

As I ate lunch with a friend the other day, a message came through on his phone, and he started talking about how he’s got this blood-sucking client who contacts him multiple times a day for support. After reading The Pumpkin Plan, my first thought was “Get rid of the loser!”

While this is a hard thing for any business owner to contemplate, blood-suckers keep our businesses from growing because they sap us of the time and energy we could be spending to blow the minds of our best customers with our innovation and unparalleled service.

This same principle applies whether you are an entrepreneur struggling to attain the riches of time and money you know are waiting for you, a speaker offering too many one-off topics to be appealing to as many event coordinators as possible, or an author looking to market your book to absolutely everyone.

Plant a prize-winning seed. What’s the core strength of what you have to offer? When other people talk about it, what do they say? If you don’t know, ask your best clients or customers. Here’s what one of mine had to say…

Top two things I love about Aleweb.
1. Actually knows what needs to be done.
2. And on the rare occasion that you don’t know, you know exactly who does. As result, I don’t have to pay for fiddle-around-trying-to-figure-it-out time.

Get rid of the losers. Rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of healthy ones. So, know your customers. Figure out which ones drive sustained growth and ditch the rest! (If you’re like me, ditching a customer sounds hard. But Mike gives 4 examples of simple ways to do just that, and they’re easy!)

Nurture the winners. This means more than just upselling to your best customers. It means finding out what their real needs are and then blowing their minds with innovation and unparalleled service, doing the things that you are already best at doing. Talk about aligning your business with your purpose! In this stage of the plan, you are working with the customers who already value you for what you are best at, and are giving you ideas as to how to give them more of it!

So, if you’re looking for inspiration, thoughts and practical ideas of how you can go from growing your everyday, garden variety business to growing an awesome, killer, cream-of-the-crop enterprise, you need to read this book and work the plan as you go along.

To learn more about The Pumpkin Plan, watch a video from Mike, and download the first chapter for free, check out his website and the related free resources.

Disclaimer: A free review copy of this book was provided to me by the author. No further compensation was made or promised. Additionally, no affiliate links were used in this post. Aleweb is based in a state where we can’t be Amazon affiliates. Darn!

Have you read The Pumpkin Plan yet? What action steps have you taken toward growing your own giant pumpkin?

A friend of my mine shared a link to an article on Facebook this morning. The title caught my attention. “Happiness, joy and big fat Klout scores.” Hmm… I had to click on the link and see what that was about. (If you’re still with me at this point, can you wait until you’ve finished reading this post before abandoning it to go read that one? Or at least come back here when you’re done? Thanks! :-) )

The author, Mark Schaefer, makes a very good point, and it’s well worth reading in his own words, even though the post is almost a year old now. The message is still timely.

Are you using social media to create happiness, joy or a big fat Klout score? These are three major distinctions, and your purpose has a lasting affect on how useful your marketing will be.

Let’s look first at the Klout score, because I know so many people like to see how they can manipulate that score and others like them (Kred, PeerIndex, etc.). Your Klout score is based on an algorithm that looks at how influential your social media presence is. It’s not a bad thing to be aware of to see if your strategy is accomplishing what you’d hoped it would. But I see it as a yardstick to measure effectiveness, not as a goal to be achieved. No one is ever going to praise you at your funeral for that awesome Klout score you had.

The next one we’ll tackle is happiness. Everyone would agree, happiness is a good thing to share within your social networks. Just to be clear though, as Mark puts it:

… There is a difference between happiness and joy. You can be happy about a hamburger. You can be happy about a song. Happiness is temporary. Joy is peace.

Within your social marketing strategy, happiness would be offering that free sample of your book, or a discount code for your product or services. It’s a temporary thing that people are happy to share with their friends and connections, but it has no lasting effect.

If the purpose of your social marketing is to create “happy customers,” you’ll be engaged in a constant quest to find that next thing that will spark them to action and brighten their day. Offering them the same thing repeatedly will eventually lose its charm and appeal.

However, when you understand the reason for the journey you, personally, are on, and the difference you want to make in the world around you, you understand your why. It becomes easier to make business decisions because you have something to navigate by.

I recently had the opportunity to speak on a topic that I have the knowledge and skill to speak on, but it’s not part of what I’m trying to accomplish with my life and my business right now. When I was still unclear about my why, I would have taken the speaking opportunity even though it was a bit in left-field. Yet, now I could see that it wasn’t relevant to what I’m working to accomplish. I was able to offer up another topic that was in alignment with my purposes, and that was suitable for the audience. It worked out incredibly well. However, even if the speaking engagement had fallen through, it would have been alright because I wasn’t chasing down a rabbit trail that distracted me from my purpose.

When you know you’re why, you feel joy in your work and it’s reflected in your social media activities. Joy is lasting. It’s contagious even! When you are joy-filled, others want to be around you, and they want to learn why you are the way you are.

It’s often said, “People don’t remember what you say, but how you made them feel.” When you engage in your social marketing activities with joy, people that want what you have naturally start appearing. The message spreads, not because of what you’ve said, but because of how you’ve made them feel. No discount coupon or Klout score is ever going to accomplish that for you.

So, what’s your WHY? What energizes you about what you do, and makes you ready to get up each day to tackle it again? Share it below. We’d love to hear about it.

Photo courtesy of Photobucket user l5gcw0b