Marketing Monday: Accidental Advertising

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Accidental Advertising, Book Marketing, Dillon Josephson, Marketing Monday, Marketing Tips, Promotion, Roberta Trahan, Social Media Marketing, Stairfaces & Josephson, Twitter, Viral Threads

Authors, like every other person or company plugging their products, are constantly refining their marketing message and dry-running new social media strategies, trying to figure out how to engage our potential readers – whoever they are. It’s all a very frustrating exercise in futility, most of the time, because who knows? No one, really.

There are paid services and books and blogs with tips-o-plenty, but the truth is no one knows what makes a video or photo or post or tweet go viral, just like no one knows which books will hit the best-seller lists or get made into blockbuster films. The only thing we know for sure is that there IS a cultural stream of consciousness out there that everyone is tuned into on some level, and if you’re lucky enough to accidentally tap that vein, anything is possible.

Accidental advertising is just what the term implies – unintentional. You can’t plan for it or pay for it or pick the place or time to show up. It happens organically, but oddly enough, not necessarily randomly.

One of the universal truths in marketing is that people respond to messaging with their emotional right brains more than their practical left brains – even when making a perfunctory purchase. They respond to things based on how those things make them feel more than anything.

Take as study the most amazing example of accidental marketing I’ve seen in years – the case of Dillon Josephsen, who inadvertently blew up the internet last week by tweeting something kinda silly-sweet he noticed about his dad’s business Facebook page. Dillon discovered that his dad, a flooring guy in New Jersey, had been taking pics of dogs he met on the job (in his clients’ homes) and posting them on the page as his “employee of the week”. Super cute, right? Dillon innocently tweeted a collage of the photos to his friends, and inadvertently staged a mega marketing coup.

EVERYONE LOVES DOGS! Who knew right? I know *I* do. When I saw that tweet retweeted in my feed by someone I follow, I clicked on it SO FAST. And then I clicked through to Dillon’s dad’s Facebook page because I just had to see it for myself.

And now, like over 14,000 (!) other people across the globe, I am a fan of Stairfaces & Josephsen Hardwood Floors for no good reason, except DOGS, and of course one day I might move to New Jersey and need some reclaimed barn door planks refinished and installed as flooring in my home office. It could happen, right?

But, even if it doesn’t, my heart has been warmed by some guy I’ll never meet and the pets he posts on his business page. I’m ALSO now following his college-age son on Twitter, because this kid? He’s trying to make something of himself, maybe in the media/entertainment industry, and I’ve got a daughter his age who is trying to make her mark as a vocalist. ABN (always be networking), people!

See how this works? Sometimes it’s just about being yourself and sharing information that matters or moves YOU. If it makes YOU happy or sad or mad, odds are pretty good it will affect others the same way. Being a member of the audience you are trying to reach and engaging in honest dialogue without contrivance or artifice or hidden agenda is the easiest form of social media marketing and networking there is. And it works surprisingly well!

To learn more about Dillon and his dad, here’s a great article (one of many) that popped up after that tweet went viral:

 

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The Week in Review

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47North, Amazon Publishing, Apub, Author, Blogging, Blogging Tips, Book Marketing, Fantasy, Roberta Trahan, Social Media Marketing, Week in Review, writing life

This week was exhilarating, and exhausting. BUT, I accomplished all of the goals I set for myself, AND was able to track some measurable results from my efforts. Here’s a brief recap:

• Got this week’s Marketing Monday post up – late, but better than never. Next week’s is already in the can and will be uploaded early!
• Consulted with a very successful author friend who gave me some solid, specific suggestions on my new project. This was hard, because it’s always hard to ask others for help, but she was very gracious and her guidance has already paid off!
• Asked three other successful author friends to help me with some promotion. I felt I could do this because a) I’ve been supportive of their careers and b) we’ve traded these kinds of favors in the past. A trusted writing community is essential, so if you don’t have one yet, start building.
• Launched a new project – my Writing in Real Time endeavor, a serial novel released in episodes, for free on my blog. This is a controversial thing to do, but my number one goal right now is to build an audience for my work. It’s been five years since my first book was published, and more than two years since the sequel. Since then, my career has stalled. I need to feel inspired again, and interacting with readers can do that for an author. But first, I need readers! Here’s the link to the first episode (read and share!): Blooded – Episode One: Leap of Faith
• In support of the serial novel project, I made a directed effort to raise my public profile – I spent some $ on boosting likes on my FB page, and invested a big chunk of time in social media. This is where I’m seeing those measurable results I mentioned. I’ll be talking about this in more depth on an upcoming Marketing Monday.
• Got some writing done, too!

Whew, right?!! I don’t know if I can keep up this kind of pace every week, but I’m going to try. For now, it’s wine o’clock somewhere…

See you on Marketing Monday!

Marketing Monday – It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint (or Why Slow & Steady Wins The Race)

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47North, Author Branding, author marketing, Blogging, Library Thing, Pinterest, publishing, Roberta Trahan, Shelfari, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

The last couple of weeks I have focused on the downside of some social media tools, because it’s just as important to to understand the risks of your marketing efforts as it is the benefits. But the truth is that none of it works unless you are prepared to explore all your options and then commit time, and patience.

One of the biggest frustrations most folks have with marketing is their need to be able to connect their efforts to identifiable and measurable results (i.e. book sales). This seems to be especially true of authors who are self-publishing. Because these folks have often invested significant amounts of money in the publication of their book, they have tied their definition of success to sales. This makes perfect sense in a balance-sheet logic sort of way. The problem is that folks often misunderstand the subtle distinction between author marketing / book promotion and advertising – which then tends to create a set of expectations that are never quite satisfied. Success, as an author, is just as much about you as it is about your book.

I used to teach day-long workshops on this concept – but here’s the short version. Marketing is a very generic umbrella term that covers a multitude of concepts and tasks – including Promotion, and Advertising. Generally speaking, Authors promote and Publishers advertise. In the best case scenario everyone does a little bit of everything. If you are self-published, it’s all on you. all of the time. Which is tough, no doubt. But the important point to take away is this – no matter how you are published or who does what, you need both author promotion and book advertising.

If you are traditionally published, like me, you have little or no control over pricing and have very little to leverage in the way of the kind of offer that stimulates sales through advertising. Your efforts and time are best spent (building up to, and then after the release date) on author promotion. Author promotion (aka author marketing, aka author branding) consists of defined, sustained tasks which are designed to build and maintain awareness and visibility in The Long Run. These sustained tasks include blogging, tweeting, pinning, guest posting, newsletters and more – implemented and maintained consistently over time.

It is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you are a career author, there is no finish line. Even more, you may never be able to match your efforts to real dollar numbers. But, you should be able to measure your success in the short term by blog hits, FB fans, or Twitter / Pinterest followers. All of this contributes to sales, sooner or later. Truly.

Of course none of us can do it all, but we can all do some. It takes time, and persistence, and a willingness to give everything a try. Be creative and have fun, but most of all, be consistent. It’s important to maintain a presence of some kind everywhere you can, but I recommend targeting the bulk of your efforts on a few (say, three) favorite places. Here are some of mine:

Pinterest – This is just plain fun for everyone. I love Pinterest because it is so visual. It also gives me a way to creatively express my author identity and promote my book. By linking images I post on Pinterest back to my blog or website, I can create a larger community for myself and build interest in who I am and what I do without pimping my book all the time.

Shelfari  – This is a reader community powered by Amazon that is similar to (but better than,  in my opinion) GoodReads. It is definitely a more controlled place to play, and has lots of fun features for interacting with readers. It is worth checking out, if you haven’t already been there. I also recommend Library Thing as an alternative to GR, and finding at least one genre-specific site where you can interact with readers.

My Blog –  Next to my website, this blog is the only static presence I can realistically maintain. The keys to building a blog following are regularity and consistency, and providing meaningful content. This takes planning time in addition to writing time, but it really does pay off over time. Using post tags liberally but wisely also helps.

Another Manic [Marketing] Monday – Why Twitter Doesn’t Sell Books (or anything, really)

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47North, @speechwriterguy, Amazon Publishing, Author Branding, author marketing, Guy Bergstrom, Novel Writing, publishing, Roberta Trahan, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, The Red Pen of Doom, Writing

If you follow this blog or have read my bio, you undoubtedly know that in my former life I was somewhat of a marketing maven. For over twenty years I made it my business, literally, to study information delivery systems and consumer behavior. What I have discovered, somewhat to my surprise, is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The technological big bang gave birth to what we now call Social Media – Facebook pages, blogs, Pinterest and dozens of other virtual groups and communities, and of course, Twitter. Never before have there been so many ways to interact. But as interchangeable as it all appears, it’s really not.

Not all Social Media Mechanisms Work the Same Way

While it is true that the modes of communication have evolved, the psychology behind communication has not. The reasons we interact are essentially unchanged – to feed our basic human desire for companionship, to expand our minds through the pursuit of knowledge, and to exchange our goods and services in order to meet our lifestyle needs. Social Media is said to be the Global Equalizer, opening a myriad of marketing pathways that all appear to lead to the same place – the consumer. This is true in a general sense, the same way that it is true that all people on Earth live under the same sky.

In order to use Social Media Marketing to its best benefit, it is important to understand who travels which paths, and why. Websites are like billboards or storefronts – static portals which recreate a sense of permanence in the Virtual World, and can act as sources of information and as retail hubs. Blogs have taken the place of topic driven channels and publications in that they disseminate specialized information and provide an opportunity for discourse (aka feedback). Online groups and communities (which include GoodReads, Pinterest, Facebook Friend Pages and more) create “places” for like-minded individuals to connect and engage in an exchange of ideas. Facebook Fan & Event Pages have essentially replaced what we old school marketers used to call “brochures” and “flyers”. These are all useful marketing tools when targeted toward your unique audience. The bottom line, dear author? Figure out which of these “places” are where people go to learn about BOOKS, specifically the kind of books YOU write, and focus your efforts there.

But What about Twitter?

I’m just going to straight up say what we all already suspect but don’t want to admit. Twitter isn’t really good for anything except creating a giant echo chamber for the sound of your own voice. Twitter is, at its essence, a soapbox. It is a platform that anybody can use but isn’t really effective unless you are a Very Important Person (like a politician or celebrity, or maybe a Best Selling Author) who ALREADY has gazillions of fans just dying to know what you had for lunch. Twitter MIGHT be a conversational hub, if you have the attention span of a gnat. What it definitely is NOT is a results-oriented marketing venue. At its best, Twitter is a real-time information stream that just may, if you are paying attention to the right person at the right moment, tell you something interesting or useful. Kinda like radio advertising.

Having lots of followers on Twitter does not mean lots of people are paying attention to you.

Really. I can’t stress this enough. In fact, odds are that most of your followers are only following you so that you will follow them. This is the very definition of a cluster f**k, dear author. Even more likely, most of your followers are probably other authors who write in the SAME GENRE AS YOU. Tell me, dear author, how many of these like-minded souls are likely to promote YOUR work to THEIR audience? I dare you – take a look at your list of followers and try to determine how many of them are actually purchasers and readers of your work, or people who can or will further your writing career or recommend your books. It’s good to know these things.

In the book world, there are two possible exceptions to the Twitter Doesn’t Sell Books rule. One would be authors of non-fiction writing business or writing craft books, and book marketing or publishing feeds by industry professionals and reviewers. Twitter just MIGHT be a meaningful way for these folks to announce news or posts on their blogs, which will in turn potentially lead to a sale of a recommended book. The second exception is when authors or industry professionals (including reviewers) consciously and intentionally connect to support each other using Twitter as a promotional vehicle. This can be very effective, but it requires mutual agreement and cooperation. This is strategic maneuvering that takes a bit more dialogue than the implied “I followed you, so now will you please follow me back?”.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Twitter – I spend hours upon hours reading my feed. But I don’t do so in a stupor of self-delusion that I am actually spending my time successfully marketing my work. I follow other authors and publishing professionals I personally know or whose careers I strive to emulate, and those who offer me useful information or entertainment. I occasionally do a search on my own name to catch those few and far in-between tweets by people who are reading my book and updating their progress on GoodReads, or the rare book reviewer who has posted their opinion of my work. I like to thank those people publicly for taking the time to read my book, even if they didn’t like it. In this way, Twitter is a much better incoming resource than an outgoing one. When I do tweet my own stuff, I do so without the slightest expectation that anyone is paying attention to what I have to say. In order to make even a tiny ripple in the Twitterverse, I will first need to do a lot more work elsewhere building sales and visibility.

That said, I do find lots of interesting folks tweeting in the Twitterverse – many of them members of exception #1 noted above. One of my favorites is Guy Bergstrom (@speechwriterguy) who has a nifty blog called The Red Pen of Doom . He has lots of hip, helpful advice on book marketing and PR in general. I like his ideas a lot, and you should read what he has to say. He knows what he’s talking about.

Here is one of my favorite posts: Guy Bergstrom says “You need a TEAM and a PLAN“, and I couldn’t agree more :).

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