Why Should Authors and Readers Engage & Connect With Each Other?

Hello Readers, Authors, and New Friends,

Why should authors and readers connect? There are many reasons why for both sides of this topic. As a book promoter, I know how important it is for an author to interact and engage with their reader fans. It creates more excitement for the reader to know an author is “touchable” and they can learn more about their favorite writers, which helps authors with book sales and gaining more book reviews for books. And it seems I am not the only book promoter, social media PR firm and book marketing site that feels this way.

Here are two articles I came across this week that can give insights as to why authors need and should interact and engage with readers throughout social media and many book sites are exclusively for this purpose like Goodreads. I will share snippets as I would like you to visit and join free so you can be “In The Know” with many tips and advice on book promoting . . .
OUR FIRST is at http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1805275

.

.
“This morning I received three emails.”

.
One was from a lady in Scotland who read one of my books and joined my fan page. She wanted me to know how much she appreciated waking up and finding that I had responded to her messages.

The second was from a man in Australia who sent me a list of things he liked about Silent Witness. He highlighted sentences that he particularly liked, but at the end of his note, he said, “thank you for making Hannah so intelligent.”

The third was from the very first fan I ever had. We’ve been pen pals for 28 years. Now we communicate on the computer but every once in a while we still send one another a card, remember birthdays, the holidays and share information on grandchildren (hers since I only have a grand dog).

The point of all this is that what authors do is extremely personal. It begins with our characters. If we don’t feel them in our souls and translate that feeling into words on the page, our books will be enjoyed but not treasured. When we do make that magic happen and a reader reaches out, opening a personal dialogue with them will make a reader into a fan. In some wonderful instances, it also creates a friend.

Here are my top five rules of engagement:

.
1) Know thou characters: Know the personal history and habits of every character in your book and write as if you live and die with them. If you do this, real people will reach out to you . . .

Please stop by the link above to see all of Rebecca’s rules of engagement.
– – – – – – – – – –

.
OUR SECOND is by Marsha Friedman CEO & Founder, of EMSI PR Firm

No one really needs to convince me how great social media is for connecting you to your customers (Readers) – and keeping you connected – but the point was reinforced perhaps better than ever this week when I was chatting with Jay York, our senior social media strategist.

Jay was telling me about Datz, a restaurant near his home in Tampa, that has impressed him with its excellent use of social media as a marketing tool.
Talk about connecting! Datz has more than 12,000 followers on Twitter. It has nearly 8,000 on Instagram. It has 1,280 mostly positive reviews on Yelp. And, perhaps most impressive of all, more than 40,000 people “like” Datz on Facebook.
Those are remarkable numbers for any business. But especially when you consider that Datz is a local restaurant and not a recognizable brand name like McDonald’s!
So why am I telling you this? Because this social media success story prompted me to have Jay share tips on how small businesses ( and authors promoting their books) can make the most out of their social media to keep customers and potential customers thinking about them.

.
Here’s what Jay had to say:

Interact with customers. Engage your customers inside your business as well as outside it. Some of the most successful restaurant owners have mastered this, Jay says. They take the time to chat with and get to know their customers when they are dining at the restaurant, and they also interact with them on social media. Here’s where it’s worth remembering the “social” part of social media. These sites are all about having a conversation and people expect you to be involved in that conversation – or else they’ll be discouraged from interacting with you in the future.
.

Use undivided attention opportunities to promote your social media. There are a few ways to do this, Jay says. In-store signage that encourages you to follow the business on social media is the most obvious. Restaurants, such as, might drive visiting customers to their social media sites by giving 10 percent off an entrée if they follow them right at that moment on Twitter. Professional speakers can use the same strategy when they’re in front of a large audience by posting their Twitter handle on the screen behind them. The point is to take advantage of the attention of hundreds or thousands of people – all with mobile devices – who can start following you immediately . . .
.Again, please visit the link above to read the Tips to use social media to promote your books and small business. No matter the product, readers want to interact with you and this is a crucial part of your book promoting efforts. I hope you find these articles helpful. :-)

*Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon of Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions*

“Part-Two of our Series ~ How To Gain Traffic To Our Sites, Back links and More By Mike Dane of TruConversion”

February 26, 2016February 26, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Featured Guest, Marketing and More Gain Website Traffic, Guest Mike Dane PR MNGR, Learn SEO, Marketing Books, Use Back Links, Visit TruConversion

Hello and Welcome Friends, Authors, and Visitors,

.
My friend Mike Dane from TruConversion is back to share Part Two of this week’s guest article about how we gain more traffic to our websites and blogs and learning how to use back links properly. Part One was pretty interesting and I myself used a few of the samples Mike had shared with us already. So let’s see what more we can from Part Two where we ended our article about Characteristics Of Quality Backlinks . . .

(Mike Dane, PR Manager for TruConversion.com)
.

Now, that you know the basics, how do you create high-quality backlinks?

How To Create High-Quality Backlinks:

One: Give Testimonials

Yeah! Today we flip the coin. Instead of advising you how to include testimonials in your site, we will tell you why leaving testimonials in other websites is great for your blog

So, here goes:

Imagine finding a relevant product from a relevant site and leaving a testimonial there with a link back to your blog. How many people will you have referred back to your blog especially when you give a testimony on how well a particular product or service has worked for you?
Here is why testimonials are your good hunting ground for traffic:

A consumer review survey has showed that 88% of people have read reviews to determine the quality of a business, 39% read reviews on a daily basis and only 12% of people actually don’t read reviews.

.
Source: Searchengineland

As seen from the image above, the trend on how many people read online reviews is an upward one. This means that this is a potential place of building high quality backlinks.

Hypothetically speaking, if you write reviews in these businesses especially the go to one, in my view, then you widen your net on leading as much traffic back to your blog.

While you do this, remember the Google trustrank philosophy and try to choose high quality websites to plant your testimonials.

Here is an example of how a testimonial links back to your site:

Two: Look For Opportunities In ‘Best Of ‘ Blog Posts

Yeah! Today we flip the coin. Instead of advising you how to include testimonials in your site, we will tell you why leaving testimonials in other websites is great for your blog.

Truth be told, the internet has too much information and the best way to go around your search is looking for best of something. Believe me, I do this too.

Take for example;

If you wanted to know the best website analytics tools in the market at a particular moment, a blog post with a list of at least 10 such tools would really narrow down your search ( seriously, look no further, Truconversion offers the best analytics in the market).

Visit Source: E-commerce platforms (for infographic)

Why is this the gold mine?

I will give you two reasons.

If your blog is featured in such a list in your niche area, then you are sure of getting traffic from these sources. After all, these people came there to EASILY find you! This means the more people the list attracts, the higher your chances of attracting more traffic.

If you are not featured, you can pen down a request to the blogger and have yourself featured. (Be careful with your approach on this though. You might throw some people off especially when you sound like you are using them) You have a list of high ranking, popular bloggers in your niche that you can review and in turn create backlinks through them. This means that you need not feature in the list but use the list to know who to review.

Three: Link Reclamation:

You know, sometimes your backlinks get lost in one of the simplest ways possible. Someone mentions your blog and fails to link back to it.

This is not those situations where you sit back and whine. There is something that you can do.

Let’s look at what Brian Dean from backlinko did:

He discovered that a particular blog post had mentioned his blog but did not link back to him. Here is what he saw:

.
Source: Backlinko

You can see that backlink was mentioned but the text is not hyperlinked.

When Brian saw this:

He took time and wrote an email to the blog owner, with a friendly reminder to include the link. This is what we call link reclamation.

The fact that someone took time to mention your blog in theirs means that they think you got value. So, talking to them shouldn’t me hard.

But how will you know that you have not been linked?

Great question!
Brian Dean did not have the internet at the back of his head but he knew how to use it to find out who didn’t link back to his blog, after mentioning it.
This is the process, according to him.

Find Unlinked Mentions

Tools such as BuzzSumo and Mention.net help you to find mentions of your brand all over the internet. The beauty of it is that you will get a notification whenever someone writes about you online.
Here is a search Brian did in one of these tools:

.

.

Source: Backlinko

See whether the blogger who mentioned you linked back

This is simple, simply click on the links you will be shown with your mentions, and manually find out if the blogger linked back to you.

If they did, you are good to go. If they didn’t, then proceed to the next step.

Reach out
Now that you are sure that you have not been linked, politely contact the blogger and let them know. To make it easier for them, mail them the article link.

Four: Guest Blog
Of course, this would not miss the list!

Sometimes, the best way to build traffic for your blog is to publish in another blog.

Don’t get me wrong here. Someone would argue that the guest post will lead to the hosting blog but not yours.

Sure enough.

But look at the benefits.

If you do a great job, the traffic in the host website would want to read more from you. Better still, this is your chance to personally use another blog, most likely a more popular blog, to refer traffic to your blog.

Your author profile could also serve as your pitch to traffic in the host blog, giving the reasons why they should visit your blog. To crown it all, the killer post is usually proof of your work. So you better work it!

One more benefit:

You easily sell yourself as an expert. You know why? The fact that a different blog let you publish on its platform gives the illusion that you are an expert. (This is very easy marketing if you ask me).

Now that you understand how crucial this is, let me teach you how to be an excellent guest blogger.

I will start with one major guest blogging don’t.

Since this is your gateway to generating backlinks, you might get excited and decide to write on every blog that offers guest blogging opportunities.

Listen,

Not every blog is a great guest blogging opportunity. Guest blogging is actually sometimes an arrangement that I would like to call ‘scratch my back, I scratch yours.

So, compare the value you are getting against the value you are offering.

How To Craft A Guest Post:

Provide a positive experience for your audience: This is basically about the UX-the post’s readability. Can someone skim through and immediately pick out the important points? Do you have visualHYPERLINK “http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/boost-engagement-visual-content”s to engage readers?

Here is why you need to include visuals. Your audience remembers only 20% of what they read and 80% of what they see.

For this reason, you can’t afford to ignore visuals when doing your guest post.

Offer solutions to your audience: In terms of quality, a post that offers a solution to a problem, showing tangible and proven techniques, is the best. The fact that guest posting displays you as a pro doesn’t mean that you should relax.

Prove your worth by giving valuable information.

Let the content trigger response: Great content is bound to make your readers want to contribute and add to the conversation.

In the event that there are any responses in the comments section, be sure to respond. It is rude to be a digital mute.

Leave a mark: Be sure to link back to your blog in the most appropriate way possible as discussed between you and the blog owner. (You are a guest here so you must play by the house rules).

Five: Use Q&A Platforms To Your Advantage:

People always have questions that they need answered in different areas in life. Now, as much as answering them will generate high quality backlinks for you, you need to be careful about the Q and A forums you indulge in.

The kind of forum in my view, will determine the quality of audience you will have and the quality of backlink.

Now, among these many platforms which include Quora and Yahoo, I choose to discuss LinkedIn.

This is why:

LinkedIn is the best social network for lead generation, compared to the rest. It has the highest visit-to-lead conversion rate of 2.74% compared to 0.69% and 0.77% on twitter and Facebook respectively.

.

.

Source: Hubspot

Well, I know this is a social media network and not necessarily a Q&A platform but I will show you how it actually is:

I like the fact that it is a social media platform, meaning that it is one of the greatest places to generate leads and traffic. So, if you want people to read your blog, why not post a link here?

But, how?

Well, in the past, you actually did not have a voice on LinkedIn. By this I mean that you did not have the opportunity to publish and speak out your mind.

And now.

LinkedIn has opened up its publishing platform that will allow its members to create content.

Here is how you use this particular feature.

Write a short status that will trigger someone to want to read further, then boom, you provide a link leading to your blog. It has been shown that providing a link in your update increases engagement by 84%.

Let’s look at one great LinkedIn post example that would teach you how to drive insane traffic to your blog:

.

.

Source: LinkedIn

From the image above, you can deduce the features of a great post when generating backlinks. Do you see the power of visuals and providing a link just after writing a short update that’s a teaser?

And Oh, I forgot to mention something juicy:

LinkedIn has over 259 million users, a figure that increases by 40% each year.

Isn’t this great fishing ground for traffic?

Problem is:

Everyone is focused here, therefore targeted to a particular niche. This means that your potential traffic is less than the attractive 259 million people.

Great news: There is a way out!

It’s simple! Find other avenues other than the publishing platforms to build backlinks. We will discuss two of these.

#1: Actively Participate In LinkedIn Answers

In order to be visible and stand out among the 259 million members, you need to be an active participant.

So, what is LinkedIn Answers?

This is a QHYPERLINK “http://www.linkedin.com/answers/”&HYPERLINK “http://www.linkedin.com/answers/”A platform within LinkedIn where people ask questions, expecting useful answers. The beauty of this is you are sure that these people are professionals seeking valuable answers and would do anything to solve their business problems.

In this case you need to provide the best answers possible as long as you are sure you clearly understand the problem.

Here is quick advice:

This is not about self-promotion.

Yes we understand that is the motive behind backlinks in a bid to generate links but because this is a high quality forum, you need to be more careful.

The best way to generate incredible traffic is to establish yourself as a thought leader in that field, while you do this, you also post links back to your blog.

Be sure to add a disclaimer and clearly state that you are out to offer the best advice you have. This way, you will build more trust by not coming off as someone desperate for blog traffic.

The result? Amazing! People will begin to perceive you as an expert and even refer traffic to you.

#2: Participate In LinkedIn Groups:

LinkedIn groups are usually targeted at professionals in a particular field.

For example, if you are a website developer interested in user experience, you can join a specific LinkedIn group on the same, where all you talk about are UX tips and tricks.

This is your most opportune moment to share your best knowledge and invite people to read your blog. (These are professionals so the blog better be good).

Here is how you do this:

You need to join the group and encourage your marketing team (if you have one) to join the group. Do this, you need to comment whenever relevant questions are asked and if necessary, post a link back to your blog where someone can find additional information.

With time, as long as you are a consistent participant, you will increase awareness for your blog and in turn attract high quality traffic, which is targeted and focused.

In my view, this is the kind of blog traffic that will give you the lowest bounce rates.

Let me tell you why I think so:

They did not just stumble upon your blog. You established your blog as the go to place when they need to have problems solved and great knowledge impacted. This means when they come knocking, they know exactly what they are looking for and are sure they can find it in your blog.

So, how do you choose groups in LinkedIn?

It is a general rule that you can only participate in 50 groups or less. LinkedIn thinks that is it not practical for one to actively participate in more than 50 groups.

More so, some people, who need traffic, just end up spamming these groups with backlinks to their sites, eroding the essence of the group.

For this reason, you need to be very careful when picking your groups since you cannot participate in all of them.

Use the key group insights to determine if the group has your target audience.

The image below shows you what you should see when you do this:

Source: LinkedIn

After getting your ideal group, let me show you how to stand out:

Establish yourself as a thought leader

We had discussed the importance of establishing yourself as a thought leader earlier in this post. So we will not delve much into it.

Just a quick reminder:

Don’t portray yourself as someone who is looking to generate quick high quality backlinks and increase traffic. Just do what you do best- giving valuable information.

If you make the mistake of displaying yourself as someone who is desperately building links, then you risk being misjudged.

And even when the information you have in your blog is exactly what these people need, their negative perception will cause them to view your blog with bias. In worse cases, shun it.

In THREE simple words:

Build your credibility, be genuine and be honest. The rest will flow as desired.

Give In-depth answers to questions

To be a thought-leader, you need to be better than the rest. There has to be a defining feature. One of them is how you answer questions.

Refrain from giving obvious answers that every Tom, Dick and Harry in your field would.

Instead:

Give your insight, have an aha moment.

It is the extra information that counts. While you do this, remember that it is not always that you will give links to your blog. Sometimes it is better off to make people want more of the honey then when the interest builds to a certain level, you lead them to the honey pot.

Last tip:

Follow the conversation and be opportunistic. Give your info at the right moment.

Sometimes, just sit back and watch the conversation unfold then unleash your knowledge.

Create a poll

This is a smart way of getting content for your next post which you can draft after the poll and then use this same audience as your way of building backlinks.

When creating a poll, you need to be careful though because some groups do not allow. So you need to check the moderator settings.

Here is how you do it:

Create polls to find out the biggest industry problems and have people discuss them in the survey.

At this point, you need to be focused on the poll not your intentions with it. One wrong miscalculated move and someone somewhere will assume that this is more about traffic than solving industry problems.

Here is what you do with the information:

After analysis, be sure you are creating new knowledge and now, this will help you create backlinks. Do you know how?

Whenever people quote your statistics, they will have to refer back to the blog post that discussed the poll.(please read on link reclamation to know how to find out when people don’t link back to you).

This will obviously be your first blog post generated by the poll. You can get a second post too.

From the poll, you can tell high priority and low priority problems. Your second post will now revolve around these problems, while you offer solutions. Better yet, depending on your judgment, all these problems can individually lead to different blog posts.

Then,

Where Are My Holiday Book Sales? A Professionals Message & Advice . . .

November 19, 2015November 19, 2015 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Featured Guest Book Sales and Promoting, Marsha Freedman Guest Article, Promoting Advice, The PR Insider

Hello and Welcome Authors, Writers and Readers,

Here is a special message and article from a great place I enjoy receiving awesome advice to pass on to all my book clients I promote. As authors and writers, we all know that book sales and reviews don’t happen over night. It takes a long while to build a readership and a social media presence. Many new authors get discouraged so early in their book promoting efforts. But the BEST ADVICE I had ever received was from my own publisher. And? He was exactly spot on of what he shared with me . . .

“It takes many months, days and hours of promoting your books. And it won’t happen overnight. It takes many, many tireless hours to promote ones book effectively.” I found he was right. It took me a good year of non-stop promoting my first book before it caught fire! But when it did? So many awesome doors opened. And my social media followings were growing too! So, for those who don’t always take advice at “face value”?

Marsha Freedman is a long-time PR Professional for The PR Insider, and in this article she shares what it takes to promote your books and yourself as an author to get those book sales! She has been in this PR business for a long time and knows what it takes. And much of what she talks about? It is much of what I do for al my book/author clients . . .

Happy Reading!

WC32112-PR

My Publicity and Promoting Is Solid, So Where Are My Book Sales?

“I see this scenario played out too often.”

Authors launch a PR campaign, they get a few impressive hits in print, on the radio or on TV, and they sit back expecting the book sales to come surging in. Sometimes they do. But just as often they don’t.

Why? The reason is simple: Getting media and social media exposure is just one element involved in an overall marketing plan. While public relations on occasion can lead to direct sales, it’s really a branding tool, a way to get your name out there so you can then leverage your newly acquired recognition into bottom-line rewards.

That can take time. Even a mention in a top-tier publication, such as the New York Times or USA Today, has limited impact if everything stops right there or you don’t get additional traction out of it by linking to the article on your website or sharing it on social media channels.

While there is no marketing strategy that can guarantee huge sales, there are certainly steps you can take to improve your odds.

A professional-looking blog or website: Your website could be your first interaction with readers, and they will make a judgment about you and your book based on what they see. Online is also where the majority of book buying takes place these days. If your website isn’t well-designed, easy to navigate with well-written copy that encourages a visitor to become a customer and want to buy your books, it’s almost worthless. Visit other professional websites & blogs and compare them to yours. Identify the positive elements their sites have that you should incorporate into yours.
.
A marketing plan: Marketing plans cost nothing to create and the simplest plan is better than none at all. Your plan will include answers to these questions: Who is your target audience? When will you start and how long will you continue marketing? What kind of publicity or promoting will you need to make people aware of your book? Will you advertise, and in which media? Is your audience using social media networks and, if so, which platforms?
.
A clear message: You need to have a clear message for your intended audience of readers and you need to be able to articulate the essence of that message. By the way, that message should be about what you have to offer your intended audience, not the other way around. Way too often in my experience authors believe their message to the consumer is, “Buy my book.” That may have value for the author, but it has none for potential readers. What do people stand to gain from reading your book? Does the information you provide entertain them, solve a problem for them or assist them in some other way? Your message helps fuel your marketing plan.
.
A budget: At the very least, you will need a small budget for things like hiring a website designer if you don’t already have one. You will want to buy books from the publisher to send to the media. Other expenses may include travel, postage and working with a PR professional. Even if you don’t hire a PR firm, you’ll at least need a budget for hiring a book and social media person to help you get the word out.

Just remember, publicity is an ongoing enterprise. The more you keep your name and your book’s title out there, the greater your chances of success will be over the long haul.

Here’s to persistence!

Marsha

Have You Listed Your Books On BookDaily.com Yet Authors?

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Marketing and More Advice, Book Promos, Holiday Selling Book Tips, Marketing, Tips

Hello and Welcome Authors and Readers,

Now it is not very often that I share many articles from some of my “go to book promo sites” I enjoy sharing with authors and writers. But when I got my email newsletter from BookDaily.com today, I read a great post about holiday gift giving of awesome books. And I myself have posted my clients books with a special message about just this fact. So I thought I would share this fantastic article that has tips and advice on how to boost sales from the holiday season. And you need to start NOW! It is a great time to hire someone to help promote your books.

Or even go do a holiday book promotion ad over at BookDaily. I did a one month book blast and it did increase my sales for that month. You can cancel, stop and restart a book promo there anytime. I hope this article share helps many authors with their holiday book promotions. And make sure you go join free and get your own newsletter of book promoting tips by BookDaily.com . . .

4 Ways To Boost Book Sales For The Holidays | BookDaily #Authortips
By: Myrlande E Sauveur

.
Books make excellent gifts for any occasion. They are very affordable, easy to wrap and make great stuffing stuffers for the holidays. As an author you have to learn how to make the best of the holiday season to boost your book sales. Here are four ways to help you:

1. Be visible: Be where your readers are, be a source of information by becoming an expert in your field, and consistently bring value to them. Be active on social media, create a special holiday blog, offer to be a guest blogger on different blogs, be a guest on a local TV and radio show.

2. Make your book accessible: Having your book available in multiple formats and different channels will help boost your sales and you will never miss a selling opportunity, such as having hard copies for speaking engagements and instant sale; eBook format for worldwide distributions, Kindle for Kindle users, Nook for Nook users. EBooks are always great for last-minute gift.

3. Get your community involved: Many local organizations and businesses give out books to different charities and their employees for the holiday season; make your book be their book of choice by doing the followings:
• Find out which organizations/companies fit your book genre
• Creatively link the theme(s) of your book to their motto and engage in partnership
• Offer special holiday discount for buying in bulk
• Offer to be a special guest at their holiday events

4. Give back: The holiday season is all about giving back and make people smile so what’s the best way to do that than supporting a charitable cause with part of your proceeds?

You can create a “holiday buy for a cause” campaign, autographed copies giveaway, offer autographed copies with free shipping on your website. Give out bookmarks, and/or Free copy with the purchase of three or more. And don’t forget to ask them to recommend your book to their friends, family members and social media networks.

Happy selling and happy holidays.

About the Author:
Myrlande E Sauveur is a multiple award-winning, bestselling author of Daily Spiritual Vitamins and Minerals for Your Soul, a devotional/bible study book. She was 2013-2014 Grand prize winner of 50 Great Writers You Should be Reading contest hosted by the Authors Show, was featured on CNN Ireport. She is a marketing consultant and co-founder of Dorcas Foundation.. . .

( Books make great Holiday Gifts for your Readers on your list! )