The interest of Pinterest in Marketing

Ah my new love!

I love Pinterest ! If you are on, come connect with me! I love learning about people from their boards! 

It's so fun, I'm also doing a pinning contest for those pinners who pin both Untraceable and Uncontrollable covers on their boards. :)

I also just created a Nature of Grace board with all my images of Mo and Wyn and things in the book. You can follow that board individually. Let me know what you think or send me some images you think should be there!

Pinterest is fun (wait did I say that already?) It's a huge bulletin board and gets rid of those pesky bookmarks on my browser that I hated so much.

Pinterest - what is it?

Pinterest is the newest social networking site. It is more visual and image based that Twitter or Facebook used by primarily women at this point. 

It encourages you to find and pin everything dang cute things to your boards. It is kind of a modern way to bookmark stuff you love or find interesting. On Pinterest I am the best dresser, the best cook, and the wisest person! 

Repinning, following, and organizing is fun and easy. There's that word fun again. 

Besides being....fun...you can use it to build a platform.

Benefits of using Pinterest

·      Find people who like the same things as you.

·      Gives insights into people’s personal likes and dislikes.

·      Creates easy bookmarks to things you love.

·      Helps you find out what is trending and what is popular.

·      It’s fun.

Tips for using Pinterest

·      Always embed links so people can go  to whatever you are pinning.

·      Be sure to pin your own original stuff as well as repin others.

·      Download the pin icon to make it easy to pin wherever you are.

·      Create boards and use interesting titles to attract attention.

·      Create a book board for yourself.

·      Tag friends in posts to create community.

·      Use keywords in descriptions and hashtags.

·      Make sure you know what you are repinning.

·      Make sure you have descriptions.

·      Try to space out pins so you don’t bombard the boards with one topic.

·      Use likes as placeholders so you can find something again.

·    You can follow people or individual boards. This helps you target  who and what you want to watch.

·      Don’t forget to categorize your boards.

·      You have 500 characters in each description box. Use them.

·      Highlight text before pinning to add to description box.

·      Link Pinterest to other accounts.

·      Pin coupons for your book.

·      Create group boards with multiple contributors.

·      Watch for copyright issues.

Pinterest pet peeves

·      Populating description with the actual post. Create summaries.

·      Forget to include links or descriptions.

·      Not grouping into boards.

·      Pinning everything.

sign up here

Pinterest - Repin my Beating Heart

Pinterest is the latest social networking site that allows you to pin and post pictures of anything you want. 

The site's popularity has exploded in recent months, making it one of the fastest-growing websites in history. Even faster than Facebook or Twitter.

It is a virtual bulletin board that you can use to find ways to redecorate your house, plan a wedding, post inspiration for books, tag meaningful quotes, keep recipes, flag books, or just keep track of random stuff that catches your eye. Kinda like a scrapbook for the Internet so you can sort through the chaos of Internet-age information overload.

It is so fun! And yes, just like Twitter, it can be a major time sucker. But did I mention fun. I love finding people because you can learn so much about them and their writing by seeing there pins.

It can make you crazy because you could honestly pin all day long. I love everything it seems.

Come join me if you are on there - it is hard to find people.

Things to know About Pinterest

• You have to request an invite
• You need to watch out for copyright issues
• Make sure you link to a web sources for pictures - could be harming artists
• You will have to sign in with Twitter or FB
• Watch out for the time sucking factor
• Don't just promote your book- make it a 2 way dialogue
• Most users are women between 25 and 44. So not a huge teen market.
• People can repin pictures on Pinterest or pin from various sites.

Ways Authors Can Use Pinterest

1. Get connected - another way to build a platform and meet cool people you might not normally meet. There are over 
2. Launch daily pinning themes around your books or writing
3. Run pinning contests using photos or covers
4. Find book inspirations
5. Promote your blog by linking images back to blog posts
6. Promote your friend's books
7. Create Boards for your books to give inside scoop on characters or setting

Here are a few articles on more ways to use Pinterest:

21 unexpected ways to use Pinterest

13 Things writers should know about Pinterest

10 Pinterest tips for Authors

Happy pinning!

What do you think? What else can you use Pinterest for? If you are on Pinterest, add your id to the comments. If you are not, go here to request an invite.

Mardi Gras Thurs/Effective Social Media with Gurus

Mardi Gras Update

The winner of Wednesday's Daily Prize Drawing......


KELLY Polark!!!!!!!!!


I'm so happy for you. Send me your email and I will put you in touch with Marietta for your query or 1 chapter critique as well as a 30 minute phone call!!!!

To others, don't get discouraged! We have 2 more agent critiques to giveaway by the end of the week. Just be sure to Follow and Comment.

Important Reminders:

• Follow Elana and me by 12PST/3 ET time tonight and automatically be entered into the Follower Drawing which will include a query critique from the amazing (and hilarious) Jennifer Laughren at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
• Comment today for a chance to win the last Daily Prize listed below.
• Today is the last clue for the Scavenger Hunt. Go back and make sure you have collected all four clues (one in each post this week) and come back tomorrow to fill out the Grand Prize Drawing Form. Winners will be announced Monday.
  
• You can still get extra points for the Grand prize Drawing. Click here to see what you can do.
• The Grand PUBA prizes which include an Agented package that includes free marketing and an Unagented package that includes a query/3 chapter critique by my agent, Alyssa Henkin/Trident Media.

Effective Social Media - Blogging and Tweeting the Right way!

Today, I wanted to get you some information on Bogging and Tweeting (Twitter).

The last Daily Prize Drawing will be tonight. It will be a copy of Lee's ebook on The Zen of Blogging and a copy of the book Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz. So be sure to Follow and Comment today!

Now presenting......

Lee Wind, avid blogger and author of the ebook The Zen of Blogging.

Today, he tells us the top 3 reasons why blogging is awesome for authors. (To purchase a copy of Lee's ebook, go to his site.) You can also follow him on Twitter.



Also presenting...

Greg Pincus, Social Media Guru who speaks at conference as well as runs several great blogs. His writing blog, GottaBook and his social media blog, The Happy Accident. You can also follow him on Twitter for some great social media advice.

Today, he tells us about the Golden Rules of Twitter.




Hope that was helpful!

Thanks to Lee and Greg for taking the time to do the Vlogs!

Clue #4 is the word "Now."

Fabulous Follower Fiesta/Social Networking in 15 Minutes

Fabulous Follower Fiesta

Here are today's winners! Thanks again to all my followers.

Winner #1: Katie Ganshert
You won Wish by Alexandra Bullen and Get Known Before The Book Deal by Christina Katz. Please email me your address.

Winner #2: V.S.
You won The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint and 30 steps to becoming a writer and getting published. Please email me your address.

Congrads and thank you for following me :)


Today's Guest Post is by the awesome WordServe Literary agent/avid blogger, Rachelle Gardner at Rants and Ramblings.

Social Networking in 15 Minutes a Day

A lot of people wonder how they can do all the online networking they're "supposed" to do without it completely draining all their time and energy. Well, I don't have all the answers, but I've developed a strategy that works for me, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Blog

1. I write my blog posts for the week in one or two sittings, usually on the weekend.

2. I schedule my blog to post automatically each day so I don't have to think about my blog all week unless I want to.

3. I'm flexible so that if a timely idea hits me mid-week, I can go ahead and write a blog post and schedule it for whenever I want.

4. All the blog comments go directly to a separate email box. Whenever I get comments that give me an idea for another blog post, I divert those emails to a separate folder called "Save for Blog."

5. I also keep a Word doc with ongoing ideas for blog posts, which I jot down whenever they strike me. When I need to write a post and get stuck, I have both my Word doc and my email "Save for Blog" file for ideas.

6. Some of my posts require almost no effort on my part. I strategically use guest posts and Q4Us, to maintain consistent postings without having to write so much.


Twitter

1. I use TweetDeck to keep my tweets organized on my desktop, but there are many other Twitter apps you can use. Just don't rely on the Twitter website itself - it's extremely inefficient.

2. I don't keep TweetDeck open while I'm working! I take breaks from working and open TweetDeck, or sometimes I actually keep it open on a different computer so I can check it when I take quick periodic breaks.

3. I generally give myself about a two-minute limit on Twitter during work hours, which includes tweeting, reading, and responding.

4. I use TweetLater and often schedule the day's worth of tweets in the morning before I begin my work day. Then as I'm checking Twitter later in the day, I don't have to think of new tweets, I simply respond to others, and read people's responses to mine.

5. In my "leisure" time (nights and weekends) I typically don't limit myself. I sometimes tweet a lot and get into conversations with people, but I don't look at it as a waste of time. It's fun and it can also be valuable networking.


Facebook

1. I adopted the philosophy that we each use social networking for our own purposes, and we get to choose how we use each platform.

2. Therefore I've decided to use Facebook only for my family members across the country, and people with whom I'm actually acquainted in real life.

3. I update Facebook approximately once a day, sometimes less. My Facebook friends are a different group than my Twitter friends. People were getting annoyed at so many updates, so I've cut it way down.

4. I've noticed that Facebook tends to swallow much more time (if you let it). The conversations are interesting and can really suck you in! For that reason, I typically only open up Facebook once a day, and it's usually not during the hours I'm working.

Visiting Other Blogs

I forgot to mention scheduling time to read and comment on other blogs. If you're actively trying to build your own blog traffic, this is a necessary and valuable use of your time. Try to plan on an extra 15 minutes a day for this, and visit/comment on several blogs each day.

When my blogs were new, I spent a lot of time commenting on other blogs. Now I don't need to as much, since Twitter seems to be the most effective way to drive people back to my blog. However, I read about 20 other blogs regularly, and it's almost always on my Blackberry when I'm away from home: sitting in the kids' carpool line or hanging out at their various activities. In fact, whenever I have brief moments of waiting, even 5 minutes or less, I automatically pull out my Blackberry and read blogs. I keep up very effectively this way.

These are my strategies to make sure social networking works FOR me without taking up all my time. What are your strategies?


Check out Rachelle's informative and very popular blog for more insight. You can also follow her on Twitter for her minute-by-minute agent updates!

Making Connections vs Selling Yourself

The Delurker Winner

The winner for commenting on the DELURKER post is........

ALISSA - you won!

email me your address!


Connections vs Selling

I know marketing can be overwhelming.

How do I know? Hmmmmmmm

Because people email me telling me! :)

"I'm scared."
"I don't know how."
"I just want to write."

I get it. It's hard to do marketing as a writer.

I know - you're a writer. You just want to write. You don't want to "sell yourself."

So then don't!

Building a network takes the selling out of your marketing.

This is the reason why you start NETWORKING waaaaaaaaaay before you need to sell anything. Way before you need anything.

Here is the bottom line.

You build your network way in advance of any book contract and you do it for the purpose of making genuine connections. To help people. To reach out and touch someone. (not literally of course - that would be illegal! :)

This way - over time - you build honest and authentic relationships over time. So when your book comes out or if you need something. You are no longer asking a stranger. You are asking your network.

That means you don't have to sell anything, you just have to ask for support. There is a difference.

Jill Lublin, one of the authors of Guerilla Publicity, advises her clients, “Start publicity way before you need it.”

According to Mashable.com article "Social Networking Matters", "Networking is not only about the ability to connect to people – it is also about the ability to use those connections. We call it a “two-way-street” – networking is not something you do by yourself, you always need your counterparty to be in there with you, to want to help you and assist your advancement. You only achieve this willingness by doing something in return, or even before you ever ask for anything. This is true networking – there are no shortcuts, you need to invest time and effort in order to reap the benefits of the connections you have made."

Put the system in place so when you need the word of mouth, when you need the publicity, when you need the buzz, it is organic because you have built relationships on trust. You did not build them because you needed something.

Do you have to do all social networking all?

Of course not.

But you must have a web presence and you must do at least one form of online networking.

Do you have to blog, tweet, FB, ning, lit chats, after party lit chats, email, interview blah blah blah?

No.

But you have to do something and it HAS to be online. Because that is where everyone is nowadays. Online. So to lose that opportunity just isn't business smart.

Pick one or two and do them really really well. Not half ass. But well.

The important thing is to do something that you are excited about. Have fun with it.

So here is my brilliant advice:

• If you don't know how, learn it
• If you do something crappy, do it better
• If you hate doing marketing, don't do it if you don't care about selling books
• If you think your publisher will do it for you, you're wrong and in la la land
• If you think you don't need marketing b/c your book is great all on its own, wake up
• If you don't have time, turn off the tv and make some
• If you have a question, ask me. :)

Do you have any questions about social networking??