Guest Blogger -- Cheryl Michael

Marketing doesn’t have to feel dirty. Try Facebook!

Facebook allows you to reach an exponential amount of people you don’t know, yet. Remember that old shampoo commercial from the 80’s?



They told two friends who told two friends and so on and so on? Well, on Facebook, when you tell two friends you tell 130 friends. That’s what Facebook says is the average number of friends that each FB user has. Wow. Forget two friends, telling two friends and so on and so on. On Facebook two friends will tell 260 friends, and it will happen automatically. That is why you should use Facebook to promote your business or book. Facebook is good clean referral marketing that can be fun!

Not convinced you need to fool with FB? Well, according to Facebook one third of all Americans have a profile on Facebook, and Facebook has a total of 750 million users worldwide. It is the world’s largest online social network. And it is FREE! You can have a profile (a page for a person) and even a FREE business page. Heck, multiple pages if you want. Why would you not take advantage of something with so much reach that is FREE?

It’s not hard to get started.

If you want to see what successful authors are doing on Facebook. Just type their name in the search box on the top of your FB page. Check them out and copy their tactics. They probably have a full-time, social media marketing person doing this for them with lots of sneaky know-how. Learn from them. I’ve been in marketing for over ten years, and I always copy something that works. It saves time and money.

Who should you friend? Besides the obvious answer (as many people as possible.)

Think. Which successful author has an audience similar to yours? I must confess, I love to write sassy, adult humor about dating. Now you know, whether you care or not, this caused me to search for Chelsea Handler on FB. She is the author of My Horizontal Life among other books, in addition to being a stand-up comedienne and late night TV show host. On her page she has sponsored questions posed by a vodka brand. For example, “Some people want their martini shaken, not stirred. How do you want yours?” (Extra dirty is my answer!)

What does that have to do with selling any book? And what’s my point? Two fold, my potential FB friend. Actually vodka plays a prominent role in many of Ms Handler’s one-night stand stories. Oh, and one of her books is titled Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. Ah ha! What? Exactly! FB is not about you giving a hard sell about your blessed book every post. (Point #1) Plus, this vodka company, who can pay me to say their name in this blog post, sponsored that question. She made money from them. (Bonus idea.) She seems clever, and entertaining maybe I should be her friend so these fun tidbits are automatically delivered to me on my page. (Point#2) Post about another writer or a book you like, (you have to be their friend on FB), use the @ symbol before their name, and guess what? It will post on their wall, and all their friends can see it. Now they see you! There are security and visibility settings that we won’t get in to here that people can adjust but, in general, this works. You helped them and now they automatically helped you. If you wrote something entertaining or useful they won’t want to hide you, and if you help them they should reciprocate. We are all friends here, right?

Facebook is a SOCIAL media.

Can you imagine being at a cocktail party where you are cornered by a car salesman shouting at you to buy a car or buy his book about buying cars? You might leave the party (or in Ms Handler’s case, drink more vodka and check out mentally.) Your FB friends will feel the same way. They are real people you know. Be engaged with your audience on your FB page, and they will stay at your party. Keep the party fun and interesting. Ask them questions. Post content they might like because you know what they like. You wrote with them in mind, didn’t you? Remember, when they ”like” your page it posts on the newsfeed on their wall for their130 friends to see. When they write on your Facebook page, a.k.a. comment, that also shows up on their wall. Now the party is rockin’ and people are talkin’!

There is more to celebrate about FB marketing and using social media ( twitter, LinkedIn and more) to spread the good news about your writing but knowing MY audience, I know a few points to digest is enough to get you thinking and you are a busy person. If you want to learn more you will. You are smart. You are reading this blog, aren’t you?

Last point this post, I promise! (Point#3) Be true to your brand. In the case of a writer this is your voice, your purpose. Post with this in mind. Let this principle drive your content.

Here are a few ideas for page content.

(1) Post questions to open discussion – Let it flow, good or bad. Respond to the Bad in your best caring professional tone. Encourage and feed the Good. Delete the Ugly – porn posts, swearing, you get the idea.
(2) Take polls – People like to be asked their opinion.
(3) Run contests – Give away a copy of your book or something related to your brand story (not vodka!), something legal to give away. For example, movie passes to someone selected out of the comments for the day. Rules can be found here.
(4) Be creative! Maybe create profiles for your characters. Have mini stories play out on their FB pages. Or let fans help decide who lives or dies or gets married or hooks up in your next book. They will need to buy the book to see what you did with their feedback.
(5) Sell your e-book or self-published book on the FB page. So the accepted rule in the social media expert chatter is 80/20: 80 percent of your content is your friends talking, 20 percent is you making offers or broadcasting your message. If you are engaging people, and they are enjoying your brand they may want to just click and buy. One free app you can try is Payvment E-Commerce Dashboard.

In summary, remember to make your page worth visiting. Give your friends and fans content that they will like, let them speak, listen, reward the them for visiting, and be true to your voice. Chelsea makes no secret that she likes to be in your face like a no-tear shampoo, and she likes vodka. And BTW Chelsea has 1,844,411 friends.

Additional Facebook Resources

Start here to create a page.

Educational resources about marketing on FB

Cheryl Michael is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a B.A. in Journalism. She majored in advertising and has worked in various marketing positions including Distribution Marketing Manager at ADTRAN, Marketing Director at Fleet Feet Sports in Huntsville. She is currently a free-lance social media gun for hire. She spends way too much time playing on Facebook and gets crazy excited talking about social media marketing. You can reach her at cmichael1101@gmail.com

Guest blogger -- Lessons from a Survivor

I always like to do a "boob blog" in October (past blogs are here and here) since it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this is such an important topic for women. I put out the call on Facebook Monday and in a couple hours I had my guest blogger lined up. Ya gotta love Facebook! So without further ado, here's Deborah Stephenson.

I was playing with my new oversized Doberman puppy and he kept pawing at my breast. I just laughed, since he was a male dog and thought he was just nuzzling me. He continued and then without warning, he swung his head terribly hard into my right breast. I grabbed my breast in extreme pain and to my shock, a huge lump became obvious. This lump had not been there before but now protruded enough to be quite apparent, even visually.

I made an appointment with my primary care physician to check it out. It was a very large tumor that had been totally hidden until the dog hit me, and it had begun to hemorrhage. The doctor was fairly certain that it was malignant and sent me to a cancer specialist for a biopsy.

Lesson #1 Do not assume that you will be able to detect a lump by self exams only.

Lesson #2 Sonograms are better at identifying suspicious lumps than mammograms.

Lesson #3 If in question, see a qualified specialist right away and order a biopsy.

Lesson #4 Some dogs can smell cancer. Notice if they act strangely towards any part of your body.

Lesson #5 Research! Find the very best surgeon and cancer specialist. Never rely on your current doctor just because you like him. Find someone with a very high percentage of successes and one that specializes in breast cancer only. They read sonograms with 10 times the magnification and their radiologist read only breast x-rays. Select the most extreme treatment since you have only one first chance to beat a cancer diagnosis. I have lost many friends that chose saving a breast instead of the priority to save their life.

Marilyn and I attended school together and she may even share our 7th grade picture together at Clara Harris School in Concord. It is a blessing to be sharing this story with you, at her request.

I battled cancer again in 2007. The picture above was taken during my chemo treatments. I actually had no hair, no eye lashes or eye brows, but still have a song in my heart. The most important personal lessons that I learned: Never let your circumstances change your joy of living. Live each moment as though it were your last!! Live in the now, always.

Schedule your check up today. Early detection can be a life saver.

Thanks Marilyn!!!!

And here's that 7th grade photo she talked about. Folks who can correctly identify both of us will be put into a drawing for a book.

Geography Lesson... sort of

My church is in the midst of a building program. We’re by no means a large church, but we’ve outgrown some of our facilities and have a plan in place to add more room. The minister said the architect told the building committee that in some mega-churches 50% of the attendees may not actually see the minister face-to-face. They might see him or her projected on a screen in another part of the church complex.

And some folks attend church in their pajamas by watching online. The minister even tempted us with a couple websites if we didn’t believe people attended church
online – www.virtualchurch.com and www.dogchurch.org, which is the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua. Honest. The preacher wouldn’t lie.

Then he made a statement that really surprised me. He said if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world after China and India.

Whoa!

I jotted down that factoid on my bulletin and when I got home I used my mad Google skillz to find out more. Here’s what I learned:

~ The Kingdom of Facebook has 400 million users.
~ 50% of active users log in on any given day.
~ 35 million update their status daily.
~ 3 billion photos are uploaded each month.
~ The average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook.
~ It’s available in more than 70 languages.
~ 70% of users are outside the U.S.

We are becoming an increasingly online society. I can pay my rent online, pay my bills through online banking, order all sorts of household, food and gift items through websites and chat realtime with folks on the other side of the earth.

The art of social networking (most commonly Facebook and Twitter) is being taught in writers workshops around the globe as a tool for writers to connect with their readers.

But I started wondering why non-writers used Facebook. So I did a little informal, unscientific poll and asked a randomly selected group of my Facebook friends the question “Why?” Here are their answers.


I decided to get on Facebook to see pictures of friends' grandkids. Now I keep up with friends & family in at least 10 states! I try not to get on too often 'cause I stay too long.

Yes, it’s a definite time suck. I’m one of those who looks at photos of friends’ grandkids and wonders how we all got old enough to even have grandkids.

I originally joined facebook to keep up with family and college friends. I then branched out to writers and other readers I'd met on blogs. I stay on facebook so I know what is going on with all my friends and family(only way I get updated pictures of cousins, nieces, and nephews). I also keep up with my hometown through facebook and church events through facebook.

Last year I reconnected with a group of my high school classmates. Our 40th reunion was held last fall and while I wasn’t able to attend, it was great to see how the years have treated all of us. I even had one classmate guest blog. You might remember Molly and her blog about her tea shop.


To reacquaint myself with long lost school/classmates, to keep up with family and friends.....and I think you must have a bit of voyeurism in you to read posts....

I had to laugh at this one, especially considering the friend it came from. The voyeurism comment is just like her. But it’s probably true – I know I've peeped through the Facebook windows into people’s lives.


I use Facebook as a tool to reconnect to old friends and people that I use to know in the past. It it wonderful seeing how they have changed, seeing their families and grandchildren. Also knowing what they are doing with their life. I DO NOT use FB for such "games" like Farmtown, sending hearts, hugs, bears..etc...that is silly to me and opens a door for malware on my computer. It does amaze me how some people want to tell everything that is going on in their lives, and that is a huge 'turn-off' to me....I don't want DETAILS on EVERYTHING they do LOL LOL

Hope you are doing good and you are one of the people from my past that I had always wondered about..so glad we reconnected.

I have noticed that when I go out in public..I see FACES of those I see on Facebook!

I wanted to add to my last message that I find that FB can be and IS addicting! Sometimes I find myself checking out FB when my time does NOT permit..I do it anyway. I have to 'test' myself from time to time just to see If I can stay off FB and FB usually wins! LOL

This woman and I were in Sunday School together as small children and she lived in the same neighborhood as my grandparents. We’d lost touch through the years but reconnected on Facebook. Her parents are deceased but she still lives in the home where she grew up. It’s been nice to “visit” my hometown vicariously through her.

It makes my group of friends virtually available anywhere I live and it is easy to stay in touch with lots of people on a regular basis. Also, great way to make new friends!

This one is a friend of a friend who is now a new friend. We met at a Valentine luncheon and by the next day we were Facebook friends. And she’s right – no matter where a friend might move, she’s still available through the computer. Ahem… my friend who moved to Ft. Walton Beach! Get with the program, girlfriend!

I live alone, and Facebook is my way of keeping in touch with my family and friends, to share their lives and have them share mine. I share the minutiae of my day, my triumphs and challenges, joy and disappointments, who I am. I always receive feedback and it makes me feel less isolated, more connected with the world.

This one really resonated with me. When you’re married, you sit at the dinner table and talk about your day. Even the most insignificant things are dinner table talk. But when you live alone, who do you tell about the abandoned birds nest on your patio or that your granddaughter had a dance recital or that you missed half of Dancing with the Stars because you knocked a bottle of nail polish over on the carpet?

Your Facebook friends, that’s who! The details might turn some folks off, and they are free to ignore them. But others are there to offer advice on how to clean the carpet, sympathize over the birds nest and tell you how beautiful your grandchild is.

I started a facebook page for my community service club at Hoover High School, so I could post upcoming activities and message all members (95) at the touch of a button (so easy!). From there, I have grown a community of young women at my church, a family group, and a group of old high school friends. It is fun staying in touch with them. I post status updates about once a week, not every day.

Great idea!

So are YOU on Facebook? Why? What’s been your most interesting Facebook experience? One lucky commenter will get a book from my stash.

Regular blog readers know quite a bit about the Playfriends and our habits, likes, dislikes, pet peeves, etc. We’ve also learned a lot about you in the past few years. When we first started the blog, we did a lot of talking about what we’d put on the blog and what was off-limits or way TMI. There is a line – somewhere – between creating a community and telling everything about yourself in an open forum.

The idea behind any kind of online community is to create a connection and a conversation between us and you. From a marketing standpoint, it’s supposed to create a relationship between the writer and the reader so that 1) the reader will want to buy the author’s book , and 2) to keep from falling off the reader’s radar during those months that the author doesn’t have a book on the shelf. (What five unpublished authors hoped to accomplish by creating a blog is still up in the air. ~grin~)

But there’s always the question of How Much is Too Much? Long-time blog readers probably have a pretty good idea of what I’m like in real life – I’m neurotic about my weight, I talk too much, I preach the importance of good foundation garments, I’m afraid of storm drains, etc. And, presumably, because y’all keep coming back to visit, you kinda like me – strange storm drain neurosis and all.

But what if you found out I was an atheist? Or that I’d been to jail? Or that I fervently believed in a cause you’d give your last penny to shut down? What if I used the blog as a way to preach my opinions? It would probably keep you off the Playground, right? (Okay, the other Playfriends would have beaten me to death long before then, but let’s just keep going for the sake of argument.)

From a marketing/promotion point of view comes the big question: Would you quit reading my books?

I ask because of some things that I’ve seen on facebook recently. I’m friends with a lot of authors on facebook, and I’ve seen several of them post strong points of view in their status updates – things about politics (like health care reform, the conflict in Iraq, whether they like Sotomayer for the Supreme Court, if Obama should be drinking American beer), things about religion (existence and non-existence of a supreme being), things like that. Things that make me wonder whether I’d be this author’s friend in the non-facebook world. Sometimes, they’ve even started a spirited debate among their friends in the comment thread, with their facebook friends arguing both sides of the issue.

I’m all for healthy debate. I also know that authors, like everyone else in the world, have their own beliefs and values that may not line up with mine. For the most part, it comes down to “to each his own,” and honestly, I never put much thought into what the authors I loved to read were doing with their spare time.

But then their beliefs started showing up on my facebook news feed.

Any media figure takes a risk when they make a stand about an issue. They might lose fans (remember the Dixie Chicks debacle? Or the Beatles for that matter?), or they may gain fans (Jenny McCarthy – former Playboy model – gained lots of soccer-mom fans from her stance on the MMR vaccine-Autism link).

So where’s the line? Do you care if your favorite author votes Democrat or Republican or Independent? Do you care where they stand on Sotomayer’s confirmation or if they’re a Rush Limbaugh fan? Do you care if they like the Yankees or the Dodgers or if they yell “Roll Tide” or “Go Vols”?

Does any of that bleed over into how you view their books? Can you still love the author’s work, even if you found out they stood on the opposite side of an important (to you) issue? Or would you quit reading their books altogether? Would it have to be a big ideological thing (like gay marriage)?

Or can you just put it aside because the work is what really matters?

I’m serious. Enquiring minds really want to know. What do you think?

My facebook status might depend on it (kidding).

PC

Bad girls, bad girls, watcha gonna do...

On Sunday, I took one of the (many) Facebook quizzes out there to find out which Joss Whedon character I was. The answer was Faith, the other Slayer from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is interesting because I like Faith, and I’d love to have her body and her moves, but rather funny because of today’s blog topic.

(I'd love to look this good ---------------->)

The Playfriends are always up for something new and different, and two weeks ago, Angel, Smarty Pants, and I signed up to take a women’s self-defense class. Yep, one of those classes where you get to beat up on guys wearing lots of protective gear. We learned how to get loose if someone grabs us from behind, and how to stomp, hit, kick, and elbow men in sensitive areas

Now, I haven’t been in a fight since high school, and then only twice. (I think I’m still banned from that skating rink.) I have dealt with my fair share of drunk guys in bars who wanted to get a little too friendly. I’ve slapped some faces and brought my knee up where it counts, but the whole punch-stomp-kick thing was new for me. But I think we all learned a lot and had a pretty good time.

Of course, part of the fun of doing something different with your friends is that you get to see them in a different light and learn something new about them. And let me tell you, Smarty Pants has some aggression issues, and you do NOT want to mess with her. I don’t really know what she did to the instructors, but I was her biggest casualty of the day. (No surprise, I know. This is ME we're talking about. It's not a true Playfriend adventure until PC gets hurt...)

Not ten minutes into class – when we’re supposed to be learning the proper movements and practicing *gently* on each other – SP nearly sent me to the hospital. It was partly a size issue – SP has about six inches on me, so when she lifted her arms and turned to face her “attacker” (ahem, me) her elbows were right at head height. This wouldn’t have been too bad, except for the aforementioned aggression issues coupled with some overachiever excitement. WHAM! SP’s elbow into PC’s temple. I saw stars. Tears welled up. I’m surprised my weenie self didn’t pass out from the pain. (I’m no Faith the Vampire Slayer.)

I had two black eyes the next morning. Even with copious amounts of concealer, I looked like a battered woman and Darling Geek got many strange looks at church. I had a monster headache for two days. There was swelling and tenderness that lasted longer than that.

The girl can certainly throw an elbow.

And I never could get her back. Check out the pictures of us on the Playground. She seriously has six inches and about twenty pounds on me. If I grabbed her from behind, she just leaned forward until my feet were off the ground and I was helpless. I was more than happy to turn her over to the well-padded and well-trained instructors and let her beat up on them.

Angel also let loose and wasn’t quite as angelic as normal, but honestly I don’t have a lot to report because the concussion caused a little bit of amnesia. I was also pretty busy keeping SP’s elbows in sight at all times so I didn’t accidentally get in the way again. (And we won't mention about how she tried to take out my *good* knee...)

For proof (and laughs), I present the photographic evidence of our adventure:

Angel grabs me from behind. Hmm, she doesn't look too Angelic at the moment, does she? She seems to be enjoying it. Bit of an aggressive streak in her too...

Now it's ON. There's about to be some hair-pulling and b*tch-slapping going on...

Angel takes on the instructor.

SP was behind the camera (this is unusual, because usually it's Angel behind the camera) and I was off nursing my concussion, so there are no shots of SP in class, alas. There are also no photos of my black eyes.

Good times. :-)

Ever take one of these self-defense classes? Did you unleash your inner Slayer on the instructors? What kind of revenge should I be planning for SP?

PC

To Friend or Not to Friend

Friend – noun – a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard; a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile

Friend – verb – to add someone to your Facebook community.



Facebook is a free website used to network people by various factors such as location, school or workplace among others. Members can add friends, send them messages, post about themselves and create photo albums to share. Facebook was founded in 2004 by a Harvard student. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but later expanded to include other Boston and Ivy League colleges as well as Stanford University. It later expanded again to include any university student, then brought in high school students and now is open pretty much worldwide to anyone over the age of 13. Today Facebook has 150 million active users.

It has been blocked from time to time in Syria and Iran, and is blocked by many workplaces to increase worker productivity. Duh. If I were the boss, I'd block it too.

I joined Facebook on September 8, 2008 and to date I have 284 friends. I have a few requests outstanding so maybe I'll hit 300 soon. I tried to find out who has the most friends on Facebook but couldn't find anything definitive. I mean, it's not like "He who has the most Facebook friends wins" or anything. I also belong to some groups including one for the elementary school I attended, I have a corkboard with some Flair and I enjoy playing 52 Pickup to help Save the Planet.

I started thinking about my Facebook friends and came up with ten kinds of friends on my list:

1. My husband

2. My boys and daughter-in-law

3. Family such as nieces and nephews and my daughter-in-law's mother and sister

4. People I went to school with in elementary and high school and in college

5. Writers and their friends -- we're a very friendly lot

6. Former business associates

7. People from message boards and Yahoo loops I belong to

8. Friends' spouses

9. Small world friends

10. Friends who are the result of keen detective work


I'll tell stories about 9 and 10. A while back I added the mother of one of the groomsmen in my son's wedding. Mostly we just see what's going on in each other's lives. But yesterday a woman with a very familiar name commented on groomsman's mother's site. I messaged her and asked if she was so and so, and she was. Our boys all attended the same elementary school and were in Cub Scouts together. She knows groomsman's mom through club work. And interestingly enough, the familiar name moved a number of years ago and lives within two miles of me now. Small world, huh?

In the keen detective work arena, one day I was just typing in surnames of people I'd known and got a hit on a woman I believed was the daughter of a high school chum. I messaged her and asked if she was so-and-so's daughter and if so, would she pass my email to her mother. A couple days later I got an email from the mother who just signed up for Facebook a day or so ago.

I typed in another name of a couple we were in Germany with. They had twin girls names X and Y. I got a hit on a young woman named X and in her friends list was a woman named Y. I messaged her, explained who I was and she emailed me back with her mother's email address but with the caveat her mother was out of the country for ten days. I honestly forgot about emailing her until I wrote this blog yesterday afternoon. I dashed off an email and two hours later she replied with "Hi Marilyn!!! How exciting to hear from you after all these years! I must get on Facebook, clearly it's THE thing to do." She filled me in on what has happened with her and her family in the 28 years since we've seen each other.

Sometimes you have to dig a little, but if you're lucky, you can find the daughter of someone from your childhood neighborhood, the girl who trimmed you hair in the dorm at college and catch up with the boy you took to the Sadie Hawkins dance in ninth grade who now owns a large pharmaceutical company and got an $8,000,000 salary package in 2007.

Of course, I should be working on the WIP, and I have been, but one particular chapter has been a real bear and while I'm sorting through plot points and POV in my head, I'm dabbling with Facebook. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Do you use Facebook? Have you had any small world or keen detective experiences?

P.S. I am nearly finished with chapter 10 of the WIP, which leaves one chapter to go. Yay!