Twitter

By: Shama Hyder (www.AftertheLaunch.com)
Use your real name. Save the company bit for the info section.
Use a picture that shows your face. Skip the silly goggles, hats, and political stickers. Show me who you are!
Create a twitter background that gives people a quick synopsis of who you are. Learn how to create your own here.
Share a link to your own blog posts.
Find a cool new tool? Share it. My latest find- The Jing Project.
Show gratitude.
Ask for help. (Anyone know why puppies love peanuts?)
Start a discussion!
Re-tweet important tweets. Re-tweeting is when you repeat what someone has already twittered. Best example of re-tweeting I saw was when a Portland twitter buddy’s daughter went missing! The twitter board lit up with re-tweets. She was found.
Share a pic. http://www.TwitPic.com
Post updates during conference time!
Report earthquakes and other natural disasters. Seriously-Twitter is faster than the Associated Press.
Help a Reporter Out. Just follow @SkyDiver for relevant tweets.
Brag about your clients. When they deserve it of course! One of our clients, K9Cuisine, personally delivered 24k pounds of food to the Houston SPCA after Hurricane Ike hit. Remarkable. Video here.
Build relationships with people you only run into once or twice at conferences.

Create an informal mastermind. I once heard of a few school teachers who used Twitter to share lesson plans and get feedback on challenges.
Quick Surveys! What do you like better? Posts with lists or paragraph type posts?
Make predictions.
Perform an act of kindness. When @Dalbee heard my twitter pleas for help navigating Boulder, he quickly asked @laurenpreston to pick me up from the airport. She also dropped me back!
Give and get Free stuff? No, seriously. Just ask @Aruni who scored a printer. And @DaveTaylor who scored free tickets to a Cirque show in Las Vegas.
Find product reviews. I never buy any big tech gadget before asking the pundits on Twitter to weigh in. Just don’t ask MAC or PC. The responses shut Twitter down!
Movie reviews! Just go to http://www.search.twitter.com and type in the name of a movie you are considering going to. Tada! Real time reviews. Also you can follow @FilmBuzz
Share a recipe! You can’t share food, so might as well share the recipe.
Review a product.
Find an intern!
Hire a new team member.
Get the scoop on a potential hire. Just search for their name at http://www.search.twitter.com.
Get the scoop on a date. Never done it myself but boy have I heard stories!
Find a great new restaurant. Just ask a local…or do a search!
Tweet-Ups. Meet up (physically!) with the people you twitter with.
Vent.
Get customer service help- quicky! Network Solutions, Comcast, Zappos, Whole Foods, and Dogster are just some companies that come to mind who have a presence on Twitter. It’s ALMOST as cool as having a fairy Godmother.
Find JV partners.
Brag about a job well done by another company or individual. They WILL work harder for you, and appreciate the remarks. @MariSmith is one of our greatest fans on Twitter, and we adore her for it!
Find a job or a contract position.
Establish expertise by providing your expert opinion when called for.
Use it as a virtual water cooler. A lot of people on Twitter work from home, and appreciate the virtual water cooler.
Share hope and pride! This was a common theme during the election period.
Share tips. Swallowing a tablespoon of peanut butter cures hiccups.
Find new blogs to read and explore!
Connect with people across the globe.
Don’t post spam links. This serves no one. Remember, it’s just as easy to un-follow someone as it is to follow them.
Find speaking engagements. Definitely stalk @BlogWorld. Just kidding! Rick is just a fun guy to follow.
Find speakers for your events! Both speakers and event planners hang out on Twitter.
Share book reviews.
Find book reviews. More accurate than Amazon in my opinion!
Use cool tools like http://www.TweetLater.com to automate direct welcoming messages to new followers. Much like an auto responder. Use wisely!
Ask top bloggers your questions! @ProBlogger @JonathanFields @LizStrauss @BlogSquad are all on Twitter!
Get the scoop on local events. If you live in the DFW area, be sure to follow @LizMarshall @MarbleHead @Veribatim @CharlesMcKeever
Favorite tweets (by clicking on the star button to the right) that you want to follow up on later. Especially the ones that contain relevant links you think you don’t want to forget.
Tweet out your newsletter or eZine. Courtesy of Aweber! (Just one more reason I love them!)
Get new subscribers. Do this by sharing relevant and useful information.
Don’t ask people randomly to subscribe to your information.
Monitor what is being said about you and your company.
…Then join the conversation!
Find sponsors for your blog. No kidding!
Break news. If you follow me on twitter you know that After The Launch will soon be Click To Client. You did know that right? = )
Learn to become POWERFULLY succinct. If you can’t say it in 140 characters, well…then you just can’t say it!
Keep your Twitter name short whenever you can. Your twitter name counts within the 140 character limit.
Promote your conference or event. Keep it classy!
Showcase your work. Either by linking to it in your information, or providing a link in your twitter background.
Learn from people you admire. I do this on a daily basis, and it helps our business greatly!
Play a clean and fun joke. Wait until April fool’s day.
Get fitness help. I cannot begin to thank @fitbizwoman for all the help she has given me! I didn’t realize virtual physical training was doable. It is.
Find inspiration. Follow @InspireMeToday
Promote your new product or ebook. Again-be classy. Content marketing! Follow @JuntaJoe to learn more.
Host contests.
Participate in contests.
Find and pitch bloggers who cover what you offer.
Build relationships with bloggers (this is priceless if you own a business of any sort!).
Getting votes. Again, no kidding!
Get flight information and travel tips. Follow @Southwest @JetBlue.
Redistribute content.
Take questions from the audience whenever you participate in a teleseminar or conference.
Build a fan base! Better yet..build a community. You do know how to do this right? Just to be sure follow @ChrisBrogan.
Direct traffic. A huge percentage of traffic to this site comes from Twitter alone.
Online Visibility! Twitter is a GREAT way to build your personal brand. An entire persona can be created just by following someone’s tweet.
Find new people to follow just by following those you respect and trust. This is powerful networking at its best!
Share tips that further establish your expertise. If you follow me, you will often get online marketing tips and Facebook tips.
Say please and thank you. Yea, I know you only get 140 characters but a little politeness goes a long. Pls = please. TY = thank you.
Don’t use questionable pictures of yourself. If there are kids in the background, parents twittering may un-follow you.
Don’t feel like you have to respond to every tweet. In fact, don’t. Only respond to tweets that you have something genuine to add to.
Get comfortable with the fact that there IS a lot of noise on twitter. What can you do about it? Don’t add to it! : )
Get your particular group members to sign up with Twitter. Then use it to keep in touch with them and trade quick updates. The groups don’t even have to be formal. Neighborhood carpool, PTA, and office mates all fly! Check out http://grouptweet.com/ to keep it organized.
Raise funds for your non-profit. Follow @JohnHaydon for more tips and tricks!
Evangelize. Anything. Do it in the proper spirit. Please.
Track packages from major carriers. @trackthis
Reminders - @timer
Toot your own horn. Go ahead, you deserve it!
Don’t toot your own horn too much. Keep it classy, remember? : )
Let others toot your own horn for you. Keep in touch with your clients on Twitter.
Be careful what you tweet. It NEVER goes away-even if you hit the little trash icon.
Don’t tweet what you wouldn’t want your boss, your mother, or your kid to see. You get the idea.
Be there for someone having a rough day. Empathy made easy courtesy of Twitter. Watch @EvansDave to learn how to do it well!
Get ideas for your next blog post. Just sit back and observe!
Get ideas for a new product or service. A marketplace full of people just talking! All you have to do is listen and observe their pain. Then come up with a solution!
Share! If you find great links, great articles, great anything- share. More often than not, your followers will appreciate you.
Don’t worry about your status update count or your follower number. QUALITY over QUANTITY!
Un-follow freely. You don’t have to feel bad about un-following negative people…or spam bots!
Don’t be a spam bot. Be a person! Let your personality shine through.
Strive to provide value in every tweet. Think before you tweet!

The Future for Book Promotion

by Rebecca Talley

It’s amazing how technology has advanced in the last 25 years. When I was in high school, no one had a cell phone or a personal computer. We all had to use landlines to speak with our friends and we used typewriters for our research papers. Yes, gasp, we had to actually know how to type (or at least know how to use the correction tape properly).

I remember my grandpa’s old typewriter and how the “e” always looked like an “o.” When I received a sleek new manual typewriter as a gift, I was thrilled. I was even happier when I was able to purchase a snazzy electric typewriter with the correction tape already loaded—talk about up-to-the-date technology.

I can still remember the papery thin feel of the onionskin paper and the ding when I needed to return the carriage on my manual machine. I remember the clicking of the keys and the pinging as the metal letters hit against the page. I can still hear the soft clicking as I moved the roller to load the paper. Of course, I also remember the frustration of finding a typo or misspelling and trying desperately to correct it.

When I was finishing my senior year at BYU, my husband tried to convince me to use a computer. I refused. I wasn’t comfortable with a computer and couldn’t see how it was any easier than using a typewriter—silly me. After several months, he finally persuaded me to try a computer and when I saw the ease of the “delete” key, I was sold.

Technology has come a long way. True, it can be used irresponsibly, but it can also provide us with a wealth of information at our fingertips as well as connect us to people all over the world. When I first started writing, I had no groups, no connection to other writers. I had no one to ask questions. I knew nothing about publishing. I didn’t even know how to really find the needed information so I kind of bumbled around in the dark hoping to figure it all out.

Then, the internet hit and, boom, I could access information from my computer in my own home. It didn’t even matter that I lived in the middle of a hay field. I found groups. I was suddenly connected to the world.

Because of the new technology and the internet, authors can do what time, distance, and money prevented them from doing pre-internet. Authors can now take advantage of blogging to create a web presence, create websites, participate in blog book tours, join online groups, ask questions in forums, and promote books by simply attaching a link on all outgoing email. We can promote our work while sitting in our pajamas. How cool is that?

The newest tool to promote our work is now on a site called YouTube. A friend of mine, author Marsha Ward, has created her own book trailer for The Man from Shenandoah. This is the future for authors to promote their books online. See what you think.



And to show you a little different approach, here is a YouTube by LDS author Jewel Adams promoting her fantasy novel, The Journey.



Even if technology seems difficult or foreign, it’s definitely in our best interest to embrace the new ways of communicating with our friends and with those who may want to read our books.

I’ll let you know if I ever fully embrace it and have a YouTube on Heaven Scent.

GoodReads

Abel Keogh

Book lovers unite!

Whether you love to read books, write them, or both, check out GoodReads.com – a social networking site for those who love books.

GoodReads is a great way to list the books your reading (or have read), review them, and talk with others who have similar interests, discover new authors, and see what others are reading and saying about books.

If you’re a published author, you can notify GoodReads that you’re an author and they’ll turn your regular account into an author account. This gives you a great way to connect with readers, list upcoming events, link back to your website, and more.(You can see my profile here.)

Personally, I’ve found the site a great a great way to promote my book connect and with those who have read Room for Two. This week I’ve already received several messages from GoodReads members who read it and wanted to tell me how much they enjoyed it.

Both readers and authors should check it out.

A Huge Hook

Emily Cushing

In June I am running in the Wasatch Back. It is a 175 mile relay race from Logan to Park City. On KSL’s television show Studio 5 they are going to spotlight a participant who is running in the race. It has to be the runner’s first time running the race and the runner must be running the race to lose weight. I fall under both of these categories. Therefore, I am being considered as one of the people they may spotlight. I have to admit, I think it would be really fun to be on the show; however, how much more fun would it be if I were going on the program to promote my book?

So fellow authors, that leads me to a question. If I get chosen, would it be terribly inappropriate if, in the middle of the segment, I discreetly pulled out a copy of my book One Heart, Many Voices and said, “Yeah, yeah, I’d love to lose twenty pounds, but more importantly, is there anyone out there who is looking for a great Mother’s Day gift? If so, One Heart, Many Voices is the perfect gift for you…..” How many seconds do you think I would get before a huge hook dragged me off the stage? I wouldn’t kick or scream. I would just continue to smile and hold up the book until I disappeared out of camera’s view. Because after all, isn’t any publicity good publicity?”

So that leads me to my second question. What are some good, interesting, or creative things that you have done to help promote your book? I figure with 22 of us, we may learn some good new promotion tactics, tactics that hopefully don’t involve a huge hook.

Internet Promotion

By Rebecca Talley

I also attended the LDStorymakers Conference. I enjoyed a class taught by Tristi Pinkston and Candace Salima on Internet Promotion.

They taught us that blogs are important tools to establish a web presence. It isn't enough to maintain a personal blog, we must also visit other blogs to establish blog relationships and build a readership. We must always remember to use common courtesy when we post on someone's blog and not use it as a promotional opportunity, but rather use it to establish friendships and mutual respect.

We also learned about podcasting and how doing a regular podcast can help book sales. Candace Salima interviews different people for her podcast and taught us how to easily download the software needed to produce a podcast. She's also offered to help people set up a podcast.

We were shown the future of book blurbs--book trailers. A new company is producing what they call Book Screeners which is a comparable to a movie trailer, except it is for books. They showed us what they produced for James Dashner's book, "The 13th Reality" and for Candace's book, "Forged by the Refiner's Fire." It's quite an interesting concept.

It looks as though the Internet will become even more important in book promotion.

News Article

By Rebecca Talley

I've been attempting to promote my book, Heaven Scent. I contacted the local newspaper where my kids attend school and asked if someone would be willing to do a feature article and/or review my book. I was told a resounding "no" because my book has religious/spiritual content and the Editor felt it wasn't right for the community. I then approached an area newspaper and asked the same thing. The Features Editor agreed to read my book.

Doug Johnston, our Public Relations Director at Cedar Fort and resident wannabe, sent her a copy and within a week she contacted me. Not only did she enjoy the book, but she also mentioned she might pull out a Book of Mormon someone had given her and read it again. Is that cool or what? She was so complimentary and so kind. And, she wrote a great 1/2 page article for the Religion section of the newspaper. I'm thrilled she liked my book and I was very pleased to see the article with a large image of my cover. I've had positive feedback from people who've read the print edition and the online story.

In case you're interested, here's the link to A message of hope: LDS writer makes debut with novel "Heaven Scent."

I so appreciate the article and all of the comments online about it. It was fun to see it in the newspaper and my sweet husband brought it home already framed for me.