The Myth About Being Liked

My heartfelt thanks to PR goddess, Penny Sansevieri for her great ezine!!  This article was just featured and I know you’ll find it valuable! I highly recommend you sign up for your free subscription. This woman  MAKES best selling authors!

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Feature Article: The Myth About Being Liked (on Facebook) – by Penny Sansevieri

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These days it seems everyone is after “social proof,” that elusive number of Likes or Followers that will make you seem part of the “in crowd.” Unfortunately getting someone to like you is only half the battle, you must now get them to stay “in like” with you.

Studies show that the expectation of content does vary by age, but the direction is still the same: it’s more than just getting someone to “Like” your page, you now must learn how to keep them. With all the social media options out there it’s critical to not just build numbers, but maintain them, too. In order to do this, it’s important to know what users want and when they want to see you post new content.

As I pointed out earlier, content expectations vary by age. For example, Facebook users between the ages of 18-26 have the lowest expectations of receiving something in exchange for their “Like” endorsement. When you go up the next rung, ages 27 to 34, they are more likely to expect something solid delivered in a Facebook update. But the users with the highest expectations, and those you are likely serving, is the 35-51 age group. This is also the group most likely to unlike a brand if it fails to meet expectations.

But it’s not only about having great content, it’s also about creating great engagement. A study done by Roost.com evaluated 10,000 Facebook fans across 50 industries and found that certain posts leverage more engagement than others. Here are some of their findings:

* Photo posts get 50%  more impressions than any other type of post

* Quotes get 22 percent more interactions

* Questions generate almost twice as many comments

* Ask questions to spark dialog (questions often see twice as many comments) and consider fill in the blank posts which tend to receive 9 times more comments than other posts

Now you have the content down, and you know about the types of posts that will get more play than others, is there more to posting than just content and post-type? You bet. There are also time-specific posts that often do better than others. Here are some quick tips on how to improve your Facebook Wall posts:

* Posts delivered between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. tend to receive 20% higher user engagement

* Best day for Fan engagement? Wednesday – up by 8%

* How many posts does it take to increase user engagement? If you’re thinking more frequent posts you are wrong. Posting one to two times per day produces 71% higher user engagement.

* When it comes to Facebook more is not better, sometimes it’s just more. Posting with 80 characters or less receives 66% higher engagement. Very concise posts, between one and 40 characters, generate the highest engagement.

Finally, users do vary. How can you really know if your fans are engaged with your content?

Understanding Facebook Content Interaction

Fan Pages now have a fabulous feature called Facebook Insights. Head on over there for some really interesting information and insightful (hence the name) data.

First, you can find Insights on the left side of your page. Once you’re there you can see all sorts of data on the information you post.

1) Reach: This is the number of unique people who have seen the post for 28 days after publishing the post.

2) Engaged Users: These are people who have engaged with your post in some way: i.e. clicked the link.

3) Talking about this: This is an interesting number and you’ve no doubt seen this pop up right under your “Likes.” These actions are: liking the post, commenting, sharing the post, responding to a question, or RSVPing to an event.

4) Virality: This is the number of people who have created a story from your page post.

Watch these numbers for some great insight into what fires up your fans and what leaves them cold.

It’s not just about getting “Liked,” it’s about staying “Liked.” Creating insightful, helpful, and engaging content is one piece to the puzzle, the other is timing and receptiveness of your fans. Though I’ve outlined ‘general’ user guidelines in this piece, be sure to check the Facebook Insights for key data that will help your fan base thrive!

Quick Ways to Promote your Facebook Fan Page

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* Put your Fan Page URL in your signature line

* Email your newsletter list

* Add a Facebook Fan widget to your blog and website

* Add your Fan Page URL to your biz cards

* Tweet the link to your followers

* Notify your “Friends” on your personal profile that you now have a Fan Page

Hope you’ve enjoyed this article! Why not leave me a comment and let me know if any of these tips work for you?

Keep writing!!

NQ

FAMILY CHARACTERS

      We all have them: Kin that we walk away from, shaking our heads.

“Man, what a character,” we mutter.

But seriously, think about it. If you noticed, collected, and applied all the quirks, strange, silly, funny or touching memories to your fictional characters, wouldn’t they just explode off the page?

For instance, I have a wonderful friend who means the world to me. Her parents are aging, their health is fragile, and in addition to the challenges of those two elements, are the family dynamics already in place. She has siblings of various ages, all younger than she is. She loves them all dearly and they make crazy.  The stories make me laugh so hard I cry, and she’s usually laughing by the time I can control myself, but I know she’s frustrated with the whole scenario. So, we’ve made them into characters. Adorable, unique and relatable neighbors for her novel’s heroine. Her folks are now the Weebles. And, she carefully documents the Weebles’ adventures.

They fall down, but they get up albeit with assistance, and they aren’t injured or in danger of ending up in an elder-care facility. They don’t do their exercises either, but it doesn’t really matter.  Someone always makes sure the bills are paid on time and the Weebles don’t argue that they can’t drive any more.  They make the neighbors crazy, but the neighbors look out for them and make sure they eat right and get to the doctors, to church, and the bridge games.

And, in her novel, they’ll ultimately help her heroine solve the latest mystery in their small southern town. It’s great fun to make things turn out the way you want them to, isn’t it?

I’ve got another good friend who is a character all her own. I don’t know her family pesonally, but she’s the eldest. She’s intelligent and passionate and writes a mean mystery. Her precious son is nearing forty and he’s tall, handsome, and handicapped.  She reminds me of Maxine, but she’s shorter. Life’s been hard for her, but she’s as unbent as an oak tree.  One of the secondary characters in my southern mystery is cloned in the image of that friend and readers tell me she’s just the greatest character they’ve met in a long while. And I agree! My life would be much less colorful is she wasn’t in it.

We’ve all got challenges going on–people in our lives who add to the struggles, or create them in the first place. People we love, but think we can’t stand for another minute without shaking them. Or, people who do things that worry us to tears.

We’re writers!! Take those lovable, wacky and even the not-so-lovable “characters” in your life and turn them into the kind of 3-dimensional characters that your readers will adore!! Could be your relationships will be brighter along with your writing.

Hey – it worked for J.K. Rawlings and Sue Grafton. It’ll work for you, too!

Keep writing! NQ

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

BUT, you can use it!

Good writing–the stuff that engages your readers and has them return to read you again and again–requires that characters be believable, admirable, plausible and entertaining. And, of course, your plot needs to meet that criteria, too.

Now, I’m sure I’m not alone when I tell you that more than one of my manuscripts has been nixed by an editor or agent, because the premise or a scene/chapter was just too coincidental to be believable. I have to laugh thinking back to those comments, because every day I’m just amazed at how much more bizarre fact is over fiction.

Case in point: A young man who stole his father’s Oxycodone prescription from home, trekked into the city on the bus, to meet a buyer for the pills. He met with two men who paid him for the pills, but instead of “honoring” the deal, he took their money and fled, pills still in his possession. Running full speed up the street, looking over his shoulder one time too many, Drug Dealer crashed into the back of a man who was fleeing the bank he’d just robbed. Both men ended up sprawled on the sidewalk dazed and just a little confused. They were arrested without incident. I almost felt sorry for Bank Robber on this one.

So, the next time someone tells you that your scene is just too wacky to be believable, ask them if they’ve ever watched the six o’clock news. Or better yet, ask them if they’ve ever read Evanovich.

Now there’s a gal that knows how to ram zanny and unbelievable right down her reader’s throats – and we can’t get her books fast enough!

Happy Writing!!
NQ

The Kreativ Blogger Award…

Last weekend I became the recipient of the Kreativ Blogger Award, my first blog award, and to say I was really surprised (but VERY pleased) is putting it mildly!

My warmest thanks to the talented and generous author Jeff Swesky, who nominated me for this award. Jeff’s background in writing and editing is very impressive. His blog, NOTHING LIKE WE IMAGINED is always unique, sincere and entertaining – like the writer.

The guidelines for the accepting and participating in the Kreativ Blogger Award are as follows:

• list six blogs that I think are outstanding and deserving of the reward
• share ten things that your readers don’t know about you

First, let me tell you ten things about me and get that out of the way:

1) I made my living as a professional singer for a number of years

2) I’ve got a younger brother who lives in NJ

3) I love NASCAR and ice hockey, though I no longer race cars nor play ice hockey. (I was never a contender in either sport, but love them anyway)

4) I shoot a 9mm

5) My lucky number is 13

6) My husband and I have three cats (okay, some of you may know that one…)

7) I’ve been married three times, have raised total of six children.

8) Two of those children actually speak to me more than once a year.

9) Love to read Grafton, Scottoline, Sinclair, Piniero, and Evanovich.

10) I still enjoy motorcycles, 46 years after my first ride on a Vespa.

Okay, the trivia is done – on to my six nominees:

These bloggers have wonderful blogs for both writers and readers. Consider subscribing today!

For those of you visiting my site, please check out their sites as well. I have the links on the right-hand side of the blog.

So without any further ado, here they are:

• C.L. Enuton - GOOBERELLA
• Motherhood Is Easy…As Long As You Have Nothing Else To Do      For The Next 50 Years
• Lois      Winston – Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers
• Michael      Ray King – Poetry in Black and White
• Life’s      a Great Adventure
• Jack      Owens – A Brit with Attitude

Congratulations, bloggers! Keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll keep coming back. Hopefully so will many others. And if you accept this award and decide to participate, give a shout out to the one who nominated you so they know!

Write on!!

NLQ

DAILY WRITING

American Profile (americanprofile.com) Southeast Edition Feb 5-11, featured an article titled, The Power of the Pen: How daily writing enhances lives and relationships.
It was a great piece about the power of journaling and old-fashioned letter writing. And, while I still write letters on occasion, and often encourage people to diary or journal as often as they can (especially during tough times,) the only kind of daily writing that fires me up, is working on a short story or one of my novels-in-progress.
I have a day job that involves a lot of written communication. In fact, I have so little human interaction in a day that I could really do my job from a cave in Nebraska as long as there was a good computer and Internet access. And, at the end of a long day of handling hundreds of pages of documents and generally 150 -200 new emails per day, when I get home, I want to enter the land of Make Believe.
Under the pen name of Lynn Kathleen, JJ Dumont and I are penning our second southern women’s mystery in our Amazing Grace Trucking series, called Old Faithful. As a member of the Rogues Gallery Writers, I’ve just finished edits on my portion of the 4-person novel, THE METHOD WRITERS which is due to be released in about eight weeks. (For a peak, visit TheMethodWriters.com.)
Like many writers, I fit writing into my day the best that I can. I hold myself accountable to 500 words (approx two pages) a day, six days a week. Now, some days those 500 words are blogs. Some days those words are a burning short story that won’t stop bugging me until I get it on paper, at least in first draft form. But, SOME DAYS I get to work on the current novel and get lost in a world that I help to create.
Yes of course, Faith, Hope, and Grace are women who have all the problems and challenges that you and I have. They’ve loved and lost, they’ve had to figure out that forgiveness is stronger than hatred, they’ve had to face losing their homes and their kids. But I know they’ll get justice in their life. I know they’ll eventually accept and appreciate all of God’s blessings in their lives. I know they’ll make it to the third book in the series – because JJ and I control things in the land of Make Believe.
So, while real life is wonderful and I am very thankful for all the grace, wonderful friends, and amazing prosperity I’m blessed with, it’s really nice to visit the land of Make Believe. At least for 500 words a day!

Keep writing!
NQ

QUICK BYTES – Feb 05

SHORT STORIES –
Literary journals based at universities begin reading submissions in the fall, so best to have your submission postmarked the earliest day possible, so there is plenty of space in the journal and editors are not burned out on submissions. Be familiar with the journal: both the styles and length of works published are important to you!

POETRY –
Submit a cover letter with your poems. This is one genre you don’t need to “pitch.” Again, be familiar with what the publication publishes. Don’t send poetry that exceeds the lines requested and don’t send the wrong type of poem(s) to the editor. Publication is about your poetry, not your biography. Keep a spreadsheet to track where you’ve submitted what and to whom.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: Check out Amazon and B&N

Crafting Novels and Short Stories from the editors of Writers Digest. Includes advise and instructions from authors and experts including Nancy Kress, Donald Maass, Heather Sellers and Elizabeth Sims. www.writersdigestshop.com

The First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke. These days, a writer has 1-2 pages to catch the attention of an editor, agent or reader. Don’t leave your opening scene to chance. Learn how to craft a strong beginning from the start. www.writersdigestshop.com.

Writing Books for Fun, Fame & Fortune! By Rik Feeney. Learn to write a book within 40 days with simple effective tips and strategies. Meant primarily for non-fiction work, fiction writers and academics will find plenty of value in these pages, too. Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.

Until next week – keep writing!
NQ

Maximize Media Leads

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert…. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Maximizing Media Leads

Thanks to HARO (www.helpareporterout.com) and similar media leads services, there are media leads out there for everyone, all the time. Media, media, everywhere! The key, however, is to maximize these leads. Often, we think that as long as we respond to them, and give them our information, the hard part is done. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact it’s really just the beginning. How can you get better exposure for your pitches? Here is a quick guide to pitching these media leads services that will provide you with insight and guidance for better placement and better stickiness to the stories you pitch.
Pitching the right lead: First and foremost, you need to define the right lead to pitch. But really, it’s more than that. Keep in mind that for a variety of topics such as finance, dieting and parenting you might find a lot of leads but not all of them are appropriate to your topic. Some people think that you shouldn’t pitch anything that isn’t 100% spot on. If I followed this way of thinking, I wouldn’t have gotten myself into a variety of publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine (issue forthcoming).
So what’s the goal? The goal is to go after as many leads as you can within the appropriate market. For example, if you have a diet book that is focused on a soy based program and you see a lead about getting ready for summer, you might think it seems off, but the idea here might be to pitch them your topic, to help people get ready for summer. The same is true for an article on the high divorce rate and you have a book on making divorce a smoother transition. This could be a great opportunity for you to pitch a sidebar idea on creating a gentler transition for families of divorce.
The idea really is that, to the degree it’s appropriate, pitch yourself to as many on-point topics as you can. When I do this, however, I will always address the issue of the topic they pitched and then ask if they are interested in perhaps taking a sidebar angle to the piece or offering an extended insight into their topic. You’d be amazed at how often this gets a response.
Response time: Basically, as fast as you can. You should never, ever, ever sit on a lead unless you need to gather additional data before responding. Don’t wait. Period. Remember that you aren’t the only person seeing that lead, many of these reporters and journalists get hundreds of responses per lead they send and generally, the first who respond get the most attention. Ignore the deadline and send it right away, if you wait until minutes before the deadline you might get buried in the hundreds of other leads that have flooded the recipient’s inbox.
Responding: Short, sweet, and to the point. While I suggested in the above tip that you take some liberty with some of your leads and responses, I still recommend keeping it on point and short. In fact I’ll often highlight some key points, send the response off and indicate that I’m aware they might be sitting with a flooded inbox and if my response has piqued their interest, I am happy send as much additional data as they need. Also, if appropriate, cite or link to any current articles that you’ve been featured in online so the media person can see the breadth of your knowledge. Oh and one final note, please, please, please spell check your emails. You’d never send a resume to a potential employer with typos in it, right? So it baffles me that anyone would send an email that wasn’t spell checked.
The media are your customers: Remember to always treat media like your customer and like a consumer, they probably have a lot of choices. Serve them as you would a new client. Give them what they need in a timely fashion and don’t under deliver. Ever. Don’t embellish, don’t alter the facts and be ready to prove every single point you are making in your pitch.
Managing the responses: As you get responses you should be ready to act immediately. In fact if you are pitching yourself to *any* media you should be checking your email regularly – several times a day in fact. Depending on the story you are pushing for, you should really be on top of your email, all the time so you can be prepared to respond immediately.
Follow up: Unless you’ve been tapped by the media person to be in the article don’t follow up on a lead you sent, ever. Why? Because if they need you they’ll let you know; if they don’t, a follow-up email is just annoying. Keep in mind that even if the media person doesn’t respond, you might still see some activity from them down the road. This happened to me with an INC online piece. They didn’t need me for the original story I had responded to but kept my information on file and used it later. Had I followed up a few times this might not have happened if I had gotten labeled as a “pest” – be careful the impression you make in email!
You’ve got placement! Great! Congratulations! So, what now? Well now it’s time to promote, promote, promote the lead you were just featured in. Post it to Twitter, list it on your blog and Facebook Fan Page and oh, don’t forget to thank the media person too!
How to find great leads: There are a number of great resources out there for finding leads. Here are just a few of them!

Help A Reporter Out: www.helpareporterout.com
Reporter Connection: www.reporterconnection.com
Blogger Link Up: www.bloggerlinkup.com
Pitch Rate: http://pitchrate.presskit247.com/index.asp
Media leads are a great way to get yourself in front of media who need your expertise. I have found media lead responding to be a fantastic way to gain media attention for our authors. Get on the media leads bandwagon and start responding. You never know where you could land a story!
Good luck!

February we’ll be returning to our author blog schedule, so look for a featured author blog around the middle of the month. We’ll keep posting Penny’s great articles and Quick Bytes.  Hope you’ll send me your ideas for a blog topic, too!  See you next week.

Keep writing! NLQ