The Scrappy Marketer

Book Marketing: Pitchapalooza!

Tonight my husband and I attended a book tour event called "Pitchapalooza with the Book Doctors", hosted by local independent book store, Rainy Day Books. As I've mentioned, my husband recently self-published a fantasy adventure novel, so book marketing is very much on our minds these days.

The event format was interesting - everyone who attended put their names into a drawing, and book authors David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut ("The Book Doctors") picked names at random to pitch the panel of publishing industry experts with their book concepts. Everyone got exactly one minute to present their pitch, then the panel offered comments and suggestions for improvement. It was fascinating to hear all the vastly different concepts for books, as well as the panel's comments.

I jotted down some of the tips shared by the panelists, and since this is a marketing blog, I thought I would share them here.

• Differentiate your book from others in your genre. Help the agent/publisher see what makes your book different or better from what's already out there. Is there more room on the shelf for a book like this?
• The job of the pitch is to pique the agent's/publisher's/reader's interest. If you can't grab their interest in one minute, your pitch will fail.
• A book pitch needs a main character for the agent/publisher/reader to relate to/fall in love with.  Help "us" (the agent/publisher/reader) decide why to spend time with your main character. Why should we care about what happens to him/her?
• Think of your book pitch like a movie trailer - who is the "man on the poster"?
• Include a brief mention of your qualifications for writing this book - why should we listen to you?
• What's at stake in the story? Establish this early in the pitch (don't wait 45 seconds into a 60-second pitch).
• Is this a book...or a blog? Do you really have enough material/content to fill full-fledged book?
• Address the question, "Why does this book need to exist?"
• Don't just say the main character has a "dark sense of humor", *show* us his dark humor. 
• Don't just give a glimpse of "strange bizarre-ness" in your story, show us. Offer "word pictures". But quickly & succinctly.
• Use your writing skills to illustrate, and give a sense of your unique writing voice.
• Cite statistics of your audience, particularly for non-fiction book projects. How many people would be interested in this topic?
• Compare the audience for your book with the audience of other similar books. If readers of Stephen King's "Needful Things" would enjoy your book, mention that.
• Summarize who your book would appeal to - geeks, entrepreneurs, spiritually-minded women, cancer survivors, etc.
• Describe what the reader will get out of reading your book.
• Demonstrate how ideas are going to manifest in the book/story.
• Give an idea of the nemesis, the struggle, what's working against the protagonist.

Oh, and do all this in about a minute. 

While I did write a formal book proposal for my books, I consider myself vastly lucky I didn't have to compose a one minute rock star-ready elevator pitch. The pressure!

You can read some sample pitches & comments in this post on the Book Doctors' blog: NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza Pitches

Everyone who bought the book at the event is supposed to get a 15-20 minute phone consultation with the authors, which I thought was very generous. I'm curious to see if the consult actually get scheduled, and what the authors will have to say about my husband's book.

Did I mention the e-version of Angst is just $2.99 (Kindle, Smashwords, and Nook)? What have you got to lose for that price?

Social Network for Scrapbookers and Paper Crafters Launches

Houston, TX – February 21, 2011 – Just launched is a new social network website community designed specifically for scrapbookers, paper crafters and mixed media artists.  Paper crafters of all varieties are encouraged to create a free profile page and start connecting.  Whether your interest is traditional, digital or hybrid scrapbooking, card making or mixed media collage you will be able to network with other paper-crafting enthusiasts on ScrapbookingSociety.com.

The main focus of the site is to “connect, create and educate”, says Editor-in-Chief Lisa Vance-Robinson.  “Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting Society has been specifically designed as a social network,” she continues, “to allow crafters to network, find ideas and inspiration and explore the use of products and techniques. The purpose and benefit to members of ScrapbookingSociety.com is not just about connecting people, but rather providing people the tools and the knowledge to do something better than they could do before.”

"When I first became interested in the magical world of scrapbooking and paper crafting,” remembers Robinson, “I wanted to know as much as possible, as soon as possible.  I wanted to see what other people were creating, how they were using tools and products, and connect with them to share ideas and find inspiration.”

ScrapbookingSociety.com also offers a venue for crafters to connect directly with scrapbooking companies. “Because manufacturers, distributors and suppliers can join and promote their products,” explains Robinson, “our members are able to learn about products and supplies in great detail, and get to know the companies on a more personal level.”

Members can create online profile pages with a variety of useful features:

• A photo gallery, to showcase and display scrapbook layouts and paper crafting projects
• Embeddable YouTube videos that will play directly on the profile page
• Hot links to the member’s own site, blog, YouTube channel, shop, or other web destination
• Attachments, such as PDF catalogs or tutorials
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – each profile page can be optimized by the member with the member’s choice of searchable keywords and description
• All members and sponsors are featured in auto-play slide shows on the site’s home page

Other areas of the site include Articles, Events, Promotions, and Classifieds.  Each area features contributions by Society members.

Members who join as a “Sponsor” can choose from a variety of levels of sponsorship, including the option to purchase banner ad space which will show on all of the main pages of the site.

About Scrapbooking Society
Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting Society was founded in 2011 as a social network for paper crafters of all types – traditional, digital, and hybrid scrapbookers, card making artists as well as mixed media artists are all welcome.

ScrapbookingSociety.com serves as a forum to connect, educate, encourage and inspire crafters. It is also designed to strengthen brand recognition of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers of all types of crafting products all in one unique setting.

>Download this news release as a PDF

Profile of the Social Media Manager

via brandpilgrim.com

Love this detailed job description (sounds perfect for me!). I think it's helpful for people to see/understand that social media/content marketing is more than being familiar with how to post on social networks - it's about an awareness of your audience, their needs, and how to communicate effectively with them, as well as being open to being influenced by them. The two-way, back-and-forth interaction is key.

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Social Media Marketing: Do you "like" QR Codes?

Just shared this in our weekly "Jedi" meeting at work, where we discuss all things tech/geeky. Techcrunch.com posted an article this morning about Likify.net, a new service that "allows marketers to add QR codes to products and signs, and then link those QR codes to a Facebook like button."

Even if QR codes are not getting widespread adoption/usage, I still find this automatic launching of a Facebook "like" an interesting use/merging of social custom/trend and technology. I wonder how long until something like Likify hits the US?

Read the whole article at techcrunch.com

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Power Up Your Social Network to Get Work: Social media for job hunters

Are you a "fan" of Facebook? Do you tweet and retweet? Are you linked to the thought leaders in your community and industry? Social Media expert Angie Pedersen will be discussing the pros and cons, and ins and outs of various online social networks. Learn what you can do to make yourself more visible, more effectively, to make the most of your job search. Bring your social media questions, and get "plugged in"!

When: Tuesday, 10/12, 6:30pm
Where: Forward Bound Job Club
Lee's Summit United Methodist Church
http://www.every1church.org/about-us/directions/
Room 118, in the preschool building

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Wheat vs. Chaff: Content Curation Ideas

I read an interesting article on the Junta42 Content Marketing blog recently - in it, founder Joe Pulizzi discussed "content curation", or basically the act or process of gathering and compiling content (information), in order to spotlight significant or otherwise noteworthy material.

I caught Paul Gillin's column in B2B magazine yesterday on how curation is the new creation. This quote hit home:

"...humans face a problem our species has never confronted before: We have too much information. Our challenge has shifted from finding what we need to filtering out what we don't. Today, curation is nearly as important as creation."

He continues with four suggestions on ways for curate (or gather and compile) content.

1. Lists

2. Curated Microsites

3. SmartBrief-Style eNewsletter

4. Curated Twitter Feed

Read the whole article at blog.junta42.com

I like to think I've been a content curator from way back in the day - when I started my font site in 1998, I gathered and compiled all the freeware fonts featured in Hall of Fame scrapbooking idea books, and offered them for download in one place. I went on to edit an industry news blog that acted as a clearinghouse for newsbytes from all segments of the industry. I also wrote books that gathered a variety of inspirational resources in one place.

Rather than a "hunter and gatherer" in the wild, I prefer to think of myself as a "gatherer and compiler" in the social sphere, separating the wheat from the chaff of information, to bring you just the information and ideas you need to help get that marketing mojo flowing. That, it would seem, is what content curation is all about.

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Example of Crisis Communication: Twitter

When websites experience technical issues, the administrators ideally send out some sort of "crisis communication" - how companies/sites communicate with their audiences during a crisis, such as a site outage or login issue.

Twitter experienced a technical issue this morning, related to a security exploit on their site. The blog post linked below is their response, describing the "short story" (simple explanation) and the "long story" (more involved technical description).

The short story: This morning at 2:54 am PDT Twitter was notified of a security exploit that surfaced about a half hour before that, and we immediately went to work on fixing it. By 7:00 am PDT, the primary issue was solved. And, by 9:15 am PDT, a more minor but related issue tied to hovercards was also fixed.

Read the whole post at blog.twitter.com

I thought I'd point this out as a sort of case study for what I see as appropriate crisis communication:

• it was timely - posted the same day as the issue occurred, and/or the day it was resolved
• it explained the problem, both simply and with a more involved history, describing how the problem was identified, through the technical troubleshooting process
• it explained the scope of what assets were affected - "This exploit affected Twitter.com and did not impact our mobile web site or our mobile applications."
• it explained the resolution and any potential lingering effects.

I particularly liked how the post concludes:

We’re not only focused on quickly resolving exploits when they surface but also on identifying possible vulnerabilities beforehand. This issue is now resolved. We apologize to those who may have encountered it.

This is reassuring to their audience - emphasizing that they are constantly monitoring security issues, and strive to predict future security scenarios. Then they apologized. Whether or not anyone at the company messed up, or was otherwise to blame, effective crisis communication "owns" the crisis and attempts to reestablish customer confidence. Apologies go a long way to this end.

Well done, Twitter.

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Google Instant Means Big Changes for Marketers

5 Ways How Google Instant Changes the Game for Search Marketers

There are several critical implications that need to be considered by search marketers.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit
2. Impression counts may increase
3. Your competition list just got longer
4. Predictive search = keyword research
5. Real-time is the new fast

Read the whole article at mpdailyfix.com

In this article from MarketingProfs.com's Daily Fix blog, David Felfoldi offers an analysis of what Google's new "Instant Search" means for people who do business online. His commentary is useful not only for people who use AdWords as an advertising vehicle - it's also helpful for anyone looking to improve their search engine rankings and traffic.

I was particularly struck by his third point, about "long tail keywords" - being super-drilled-down in your niche may not be as desirable as it once was, if others are found (and selected) in search engine results before you are. Interesting observation. I also think his suggestion for "marketers to monitor their AdWords accounts closely in the next few weeks" is valid - or web traffic analytics in general, to see what search terms are bringing people in, in case any trends start to change.

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous

Facebook Places: What you need to know (and do)

Facebook recently added a new service to its social network family - Facebook Places. Facebook Places is a location-based social networking tool that allows smart phone users to "check in" wherever they happen to be. That check-in will update your Facebook status with your current location/activity, and enter the news stream of your Facebook Friends. You also can see a list of other Facebook peeps who have checked in nearby.

Say you're seeing a movie at a local Fork & Screen.  You whip out your trusty i/smartphone, and surf over to touch.facebook.com (if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation). Tap the Places tab, then tap "Share Location". Select your location from the Nearby Places list.  You can also tag your friends at the Place where you are. Click the "Check In" button again to share your visit. You'll then see a list of other Friends who have checked in where you are, giving you the chance to connect with (or avoid) them while you're both in the same place.

While I haven't used any location-based social networking sites, it sounds like Facebook Places is similar to sites like FourSquare and GoWalla, which use the GPS functionality in your phone to pinpoint where you are. One thing that makes Facebook Places different is that it can also act as an aggregator, so other location-based sites can "push" their location updates to your Facebook status and news stream.

I'm the first to admit this is a cool use of technology, and it goes right along with the social sharing mindset of today's technology & social media users. But as with any sort of publicly accessible information sharing, there are some things to keep in mind.

I read an interesting article about an experiment with Facebook Places: Welcome to the Hotel Facebook. The writer, Patrick Barbanes, had a Twitter friend "check in" at a restaurant, then "tag" him as also at the restaurant with him. The thing was - neither of them was actually there. The Facebook Places homepage even mentions this:

When a friend checks in and tags you

If you're already using Places, it's like you checked in yourself without having to do a thing. If you're not using Places yet, it's just like being mentioned in a status update.

Now, me?  "Without you having to do a thing" makes my spidey sense tingle. I'd prefer to control when (or if) I check in anywhere, no offense to well-intentioned friends.

You have to specifically opt out in your Facebook Privacy Settings, so your Friends can't tag you at a Place. Lifehacker has a quick little how-to tutorial and video on just how to do this: How to Disable Facebook Places.

Personally I don't use any of the location sharing sites, and I have my Facebook Privacy Settings pretty much locked down. I have my Facebook "Places I Check In to" set so "Only Me" can see those posts (which I don't plan to make). I chose not to enable "Include me in 'People Here Now' after I check in" (even though I don't plan to check in anywhere). And I disabled "Friends can check me in to Places".

Rather than get too much further into the ramifications of sharing "too much" information online, I'll just point out these other reviews/articles, for your reference:

• Mashable.com: A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
• HuffingtonPost.com: Top Five Ways to Use Facebook Places Effectively
• The Facebook Blog: Who, What, When, and Now...Where
• RedTape.MSNBC.com: Facebook Places: Be your friends' 'Big Brother?'
• CNN Tech: Facebook Places: Here's how it works

And you? What do you think of Facebook Places? Or any of the other location-based sharing sites? Harmless pasttime or TMI (Too Much Information)? Also, are there any other questions you wish I would have addressed in this post?

Inbound Marketing Certification

Certification Criteria

I am pleased to report I recently completed the certification process at Inbound Marketing University - I am now an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional. In their words, here's what that means:

The Inbound Marketing Certification acknowledges the recipients proficiency in Inbound Marketing principals and best practices. These principles include: blogging, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) lead conversion, lead nurturing, and closed-loop analysis. In order to receive the Inbound Marketing Certification, the recipient must pass a comprehensive certification exam with a score of 75% or higher.

The Honors Distinction is awarded to graduates with an exceptional understanding of inbound marketing. The top 15% of exam takers with a 90% score or higher receive this honor.

via inboundmarketing.com

 

Posted via email from Angie Pedersen's Posterous