Social Media Marketing Requires Continual New Skills Learning

My company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing builds WordPress websites for clients and sets up these clients on Twitter and on a Facebook (business) page. Yet my business partner, Yael K. Miller, and I have come to realize that this isn't enough for effective social media marketing.

Because social media changes so quickly (see, for example, my Miller Mosaic Power Marketing blog post on LinkedIn changes) there's an ongoing need to keep clients and others up-to-date on the most important social media changes.

Therefore we've launched the Miller Mosaic Inner Circle monthly membership program for people to learn more about social media marketing, email marketing and WordPress websites.

Check out this monthly program now to see if it meets your needs for keeping up with the ever-changing world of social media marketing.

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When Should You Start Online Book Marketing?

The answer to this question depends on a number of variables, including:

• Is this your first book?
• Do you already have an online reputation?
• Are you a renown newspaper journalist who is about to write a first novel?
• Numerous other variables, such as do you have a famous last name, which Mary Higgins Clark’s daughter had when she started writing mystery novels?

If we can’t pinpoint an exact right time that applies to everyone, are there general guidelines that can help all authors?

First, if you’re interested in promoting online, the earlier you start establishing yourself online the better. And the first step is to decide on your brand as a book author. What will set you apart from other writers of similar fiction or non-fiction? What will make people interested in you (and hopefully want to buy your book)?

And as part of this brand strategy, it’s very important to consider the proposed title of your book. Does your book title “read” the way you think it does? Or does your proposed title mean something else to other people?

Does your title create an image in a potential reader’s mind so he/she can remember the title? A generic title such as “A Good Trip” doesn’t create a specific image, whereas “Six Sunny Days in Paris” creates a strong sense memory.

Once you are clear about your brand and have a good “working” book title (it still may change), you can begin to add elements to your brand positioning.

The first includes a marketing-driven Web site as the “home” of your book even if the book is not published yet. Next you can start a blog to feed fresh content into your Web site. And you can add a short video to your site by first uploading the video to YouTube.

And then, of course, you start the all-important work of establishing relationships with people on social media networking sites (if you haven’t done this already). Besides joining Twitter and Facebook, join book marketing sites such as bookmarket.ning.com and consider taking a virtual book tour around the blogosphere. And when your book is published, upload part or all of it to freado.com.

If you need help with these elements, including a call-to-action book author website, see Miller Mosaic’s book marketing services.

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Internet Marketing Tools Offer Major Opportunities

Internet marketing tools can cover many different aspects of the Internet. And choosing which areas to start learning about can be an overwhelming task in itself.

Let’s simplify this process by planning a “learning” agenda:

• Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be good places to start because, once understood, these do not need that many hours a week for effective Internet marketing.

Twitter appears to be the simplest with its 140-character tweet (update) limit, but it is actually deceptively simple. It’s best to read as many blog posts and articles as you can before you start on Twitter. You want to ensure that you start off on the right foot for effective Internet marketing.

Facebook and LinkedIn offer more privacy controls for people concerned about privacy. But if you are using social media for marketing your brand, book or business, privacy should NOT be one of your main concerns. You want as many people as possible to connect with you.

While I haven’t found that much interaction opportunities in the Facebook groups, being an active member of groups on LinkedIn can provide networking opportunities if you take the time to answer questions posted in the groups.

If you have difficulties using these social media platforms successively, there are many people who offer free or fee training programs. Do a Google search and you should find a good list of possibilities.

• Blogging is an effective Internet marketing strategy if you are willing to devote the time to writing at least three posts a week and also answering any comments left on your posts.

Here again training can be helpful in choosing which blogging software to use and which applications to put on blogs. (For example, you don’t want to clutter your blogs with distracting elements that interfere with people reading your actual posts.)

There is also a great deal of useful information to learn about blogging, including how to handle negative comments and how to format your posts for ease of reading.

• Article marketing – writing articles that are posted on article directories and as guest blog posts – can be extremely effective for online promotion if you know how to write effective headlines, effective first paragraphs, and content that people will find valuable.

Article directory ezinearticles.com, for example, helps people improve their article marketing by providing numerous information emails.

• Video marketing – posting to YouTube and other free video-sharing sites – can be another effective Internet marketing strategy.

While you don’t need a professional camera to make your videos, some basic tips are good to know. It would be a good idea to learn these tips before you start posting marketing videos in cyberspace.

The bottom line is that, for all your Internet marketing activities, you want to make the most effective use of these activities. Internet marketing training can help fill in the gaps in your knowledge base.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s company has launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program at www.WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people market their brand, book and business online, and she’s a National Internet Business Examiner at www.InternetBizBlogger.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller

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Internet Marketing: Upload Videos to YouTube

If you think uploading videos to YouTube and other video-sharing sites isn’t an effective internet marketing strategy, think again.

It appears that people seem to have an endless appetite for watching short videos of some of the silliest things imaginable. Of course, as book marketer John Kremer discusses in his 10 million eyeballs marketing course, funny videos are much more likely to go viral.

Still, serious videos also get eyeballs (just not as many). And whether you have a small business or a large business, whether you have a brick-and-mortar business or an online business, you should definitely consider making short videos and posting them for free in cyberspace.

These videos should be about different aspects of your products or services. And, of course, the videos should have your website URL in the credits at the end of the video.

And you don’t need fancy video or sound equipment. You do need a decent camera and you need to think about what light source you’re using. And a tripod is a good idea so you don’t have a shaky video. (You also need a simple video editing program so that you can add the credits.)

Here are a few tips for your video:

• Make your videos like a good news story. All the important information first and then the additional information (in case people only watch the beginning of the video).

• Do not have a cluttered background behind you that detracts from people paying attention to your words.

• Follow all the in-person speaking rules, such as not wearing dangling earrings that detract from what you’re saying, maintaining eye contact with your audience, speaking slowly and distinctly, not gesturing too much with your hands, and having good body posture. (Slumping gives the impression that the information you’re imparting isn’t important.)

• Follow the rules of persuasion – don’t tell your audience what you want to tell them. (My widget is the best there is.) Tell your audience what they need to hear to act on what you want them to do. (My widget will solve your widget problem in five minutes, so buy it now and get started.)

• Shorter is better. (Yael made a video for the launch of our Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program. The video came in about eight minutes, so she broke it into two videos: the first announces the launch and the second explains how we got to this point.)

As with all my other internet business/internet marketing recommendations, do not feel that you MUST do all of them. Choose some strategies to start with, and you can add more as you become proficient with the first strategies.

And if you want to learn more about internet marketing in easy-to-implement steps, check out our Miller Miller Internet Marketing Program now.

Note: Here’s our affiliate link to John Kremer’s 10 million eyeballs marketing course. Yael and I took this two-day in-person workshop in LA in May 2008 and found it very valuable.

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How to Explain to People That Twitter Is Not a Waste of Time

A good friend said to me: “Why would anyone be on Twitter?” Mind you, he’s never been on Twitter and he doesn’t know a thing about it. But he’s a successful lawyer and thinks he knows what’s what.

In reply, I’ve decided to come up with a list of answers for when someone asks you this question:

1. Getting news updates before the news media

2. Asking technical software/hardware questions and getting answers

3. Asking for referrals for a plumber in your hometown area

4. Getting book recommendations in 140 characters instead of rambling book reviews

5. Connecting with people you’ve met on LinkedIn or Facebook and want a quicker way to message them

6. Getting links to specific industry news

7. Sharing valuable blog posts

8. Sharing information about your own projects

9. Giving testimonials

10. Getting tips in all kinds of subjects

11. Getting help when you have a problem with, for example, your Sprint account

12. Connecting with higher-level people than you could through other communication channels

Perhaps the reason I like best is that I use my Twitter contacts as information filters. I certainly don’t have time to read everything I’d like to read. Thus when someone whose opinion I really trust tweets that this is a good article and includes the link, I’ll click through to take a quick look. More often than not, I’m glad I was alerted to the information.

Of course, it’s important when being on Twitter to be a giver and not just a taker. In other words, you have to share good info also – and not just info that you’ve written. For example, when I’ve read a particularly informative article in that day’s Wall Street Journal, I’ll tweet the link if there’s a public link available for that story.

Also, Twitter offers the ability to widen your own world – and to do this from the convenience of your computer. Most of us tend to stick to the people we know. But on Twitter we can have conversations with people all over the country (and globe if they tweet in English) – people we would never otherwise have the opportunity to meet.

For my part, I’m going to come up with a good “put down” line for when people say: “Why would anyone be on Twitter?” Something like: “You don’t know what you’re missing.” Or: “Try it, you’ll like.” Or finally: “If you try it and become a Twitter addict, don’t blame me.”

Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s company MillerMosaicLLC.com has an Internet marketing program that can help people promote their brand, book or business through Twitter and other online strategies. See http://budurl.com/marketingonweb for program information. She is also a National Internet Business Examiner at www.InternetBizBlogger.com.

Your Book Is Judged by Its Cover — 7 Tips
originally posted: June 23, 2009

Books have always been judged by their covers. In a bookstore you look at the cover first, then turn over the book to read the back cover. Or maybe you next read the inside front and back flap covers of a hardcover book.

Now, though, many of us judge a book by first seeing it on the Internet — even if we ultimately buy the book in a bookstore using a 30% off coupon.

And on the Internet, especially on Amazon, the book cover is a tiny thing. And, yes, many books on Amazon have the LOOK INSIDE feature. Still, your book cover has nanoseconds to connect with a potential buyer before that person clicks away to another book.

Here are seven tips for a book cover that gets people interested in your book:

1. Decide on your book cover design by looking at it the exact size it will appear on Amazon. Yes. many books on Amazon have LOOK INSIDE. Still, your book cover has nanoseconds to convince someone to stay around and learn more.

2. Make sure your book cover clearly conveys what the book is about - is it a novel, a how-to book, a memoir? Yes, the title has the heavy lifting duty here, but our brains process pictures faster than words. Use the design cover to speak to our brains.

3. Make sure the title and your name can be clearly read against the cover art. Some books might, for example, use light blue type against a dark blue background. This is not the easiest to read, especially when reduced to a tiny photo.

4. Make sure the size of the title and your name are large enough to be read when reduced to a tiny photo. A great title does no good if it can’t be read when reduced in size.

5. Choose simplicity over complexity. You want the eye to be drawn to the title and a photo that makes an impact on the brain. You don’t want a cover with so many competing elements that the eye doesn’t know where to look first — so the person simply clicks away rather than suffer the confusion.

6. Graphic artists are not necessarily the best people to hire to design your book cover. There are specialists in book cover design who know the additional details that should be considered when designing a book cover.

7. Make sure the cover doesn’t mislead the potential buyer. No nude women on the cover of a how-to about growing roses in your garden. On the other hand, you don’t necessarily have to have a rose on that book’s cover. But the book’s cover should have the look and feel that is complementary with the tone of the book.

Bonus tip: No matter how good the cover is, if your book is filled with grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation and spell-check errors (such as their for there), people will be disappointed with your book. If you’re self-publishing, hire a professional copyeditor before you publish the book. Your reading public will thank you.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and a National Internet Business Examiner. She is also the head of Miller Mosaic LLC, an internet marketing company that helps people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company will launch the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

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Authors Can Use Books as Basis for Internet Business
originally posted: June 23, 2009

Whether you have a fiction or nonfiction book, there’s a lot more gold in that tome than you may realize.

Let me show you what I mean:

We’ll start with a nonfiction book we’ll call 15 WAYS TO START AN ONLINE BUSINESS. And we’ll agree that:

• The book has been published (whether from a traditional publisher or self-published doesn’t matter).

• Each of the 15 ways has an individual chapter.

• You have a website for your book.

Now you take those 15 chapters – and you plan and record a one-hour teleseminar around each one. Voila! You now have 15 teleseminars that you can sell off your website. And as easy as this you now have an internet business.

Of course, as your mindset focuses on having an internet business based on your nonfiction book, you’ll begin to see other opportunities. Perhaps there’s an expert in a related area who you would like to interview and then sell that interview. Or perhaps you’d like to offer one-on-one coaching through the internet or telephone.

Once you’ve done all the heavy lifting of creating a good book, don’t stop there. Keep looking for how you can build on that basis.

And what if you have a fiction book? Yes, it isn’t quite as easy as a nonfiction book to use as a basis for an online business, but we’re writers – let’s use our imagination to think of a possible scenario for this endeavor:

Let’s say your novel, like my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, takes place during the Vietnam War. There are many people alive today who are too young to have any knowledge about this war. What if you wrote ebooks about the war from the point of view of the people in the different countries involved in the fighting?

You could do research and write an ebook about the United States’ role in the Vietnam War and include the U.S. military point of view as well as that of the U.S. war protestors’ point of view. And then you could do research and write an ebook about Australia’s role in the Vietnam War and include the Australians’ opposing viewpoints.

Okay, maybe this isn’t an exciting example. How about – if you’ve written a romance novel – doing research and writing ebooks about dating relationships?

One ebook might be “The 7 Ways You Can Blow a Relationship in Only 10 Minutes.” Would people buy that ebook? I think so. And I also think people might buy a series of teleseminars that you host with different dating experts.

Now does this romance/dating example get your thinking cap fired up? It does mine – if only I could write a good romance novel ….

Step back from being the author of your published book and instead think about how you can develop your book’s “brand” into an online business. You’ll probably be surprised how many good ideas you can come up with.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and a National Internet Business Examiner. She is also the head of Miller Mosaic LLC, an internet marketing company that helps people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company will launch the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

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“Phyllis and Yael have a unique talent that will help any small business owner. Between them they not only combine the best of traditional and modern social media marketing, they are able to create a marketing system that works specifically for you and your audience. You will be more effective in bringing new clients into your business as a result of working with them.”

Barry Plaskow, Chief Marketing Officer, Servana.com

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing, which helps companies and individuals use social media sites to promote their brand, book, cause or business.

Phyllis has a social media marketing blog and her company offers the Miller Mosaic Inner Circle monthly marketing program.

Phyllis is also the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION.