Tag: schedule

Commit to Consistent Publicity

Posted on by Sue L Canfield
This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Book Publicity Mini-Course

When your book launched, you probably did a lot of marketing and publicity leading up to the launch—and maybe even for a month or so after the book was released. One of the mistakes I see authors make is stopping their marketing and publicity efforts or becoming inconsistent. They may do nothing for a few months, then do another marketing campaign for a month or so, then stop again, around and around.

It takes work to build relationships with media sources for book publicity. Commitment to consistent publicity is important so you those relationships don’t wither. Working with media sources consistently helps them to get to know you, your business, brand, and message.

If, for example, you’ve written a book about how to manage personal finances, there will be many opportunities throughout the year to pitch to media around the topic of personal finances: the start of the new year, tax time, each quarter, etc. By consistently pitching relevant topics to your media sources, you can become their go-to source.

Grow Your Nonfiction Author Business in October

Posted on by Sue L Canfield

social media iconsWhat will you do this month to grow your author business?

Here’s an idea: Create some tweets and social media posts, including creating some visuals, and schedule them to publish this month.

Not sure what to create for visuals? Have a look at some examples we’ve done for clients.

The Series

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Interview Tips for Nonfiction Authors

Posted on by Sue L Canfield

Each month this year one blog post will include a tip or two for nonfiction authors who do online interviews.

Your interview may be as a guest on a podcast, webinar, or teleseminar. Interviews help build your author business, so you want to be at your best.

First, be sure you have the correct date and time on your calendar. Is your interviewer on the East coast and you’re on the West coast? Their 9am is your 6am! Make sure you get it right by using TimeandDate.com.

Set aside enough time for the interview. It may only be a 30-minute interview. But the interviewer may ask you to be on the line 5-10 minutes before and/or after the interview to prep and wrap up.

The Series

January: Interview Tips for Nonfiction Authors
February: Are You Prepared for Your Interview?
March: What is Your Interview Message?
April: Practice Your Interview
May: Your Interview Environment
Your Interview Voice
July: Dos and Don’ts in an Interview
August: Best Practices When You Are Interviewed
September: Handling Negative Comments in an Interview
October: Wrapping Up Your Interview
November: Review After Your Interview
December: Enjoy Your Interview

What’s Your Plan?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Most business folks spend their days being nibbled to death by ducks.

You want to print the meeting agenda but the printer is out of ink.

Your website manager still hasn’t updated your bio.

That new client postpones their call. Again.

The prospect can’t meet for lunch at noon so would 1:30 work? Or next Friday?

The path to success requires relentless focus on what’s important but that’s hard to do with mallards and drakes nipping at your heels.

To Stay on Track, You Need a Track

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably never get there, and even if you do you won’t know it.

In the frantic scramble of the average entrepreneur’s workday, marketing your book is one of the first things to fall through the cracks. If it’s not a priority, it won’t get done, and if it’s not part of the plan it won’t be a priority.

The Plan

You need to have your own plan, of course, but here is the big picture for a business person who has written a book to support their business:

  1. People engage your services because
  2. they read your book after
  3. they followed your blog, Twitter feed, and other social media when
  4. they saw your insightful generous comment on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, or another blog, which happened because
  5. it was on your schedule.

Getting Started

My father used to tell the story of little Billy, who told the teacher he was late because he ran beside his bicycle all the way to school. When she asked why he did that, he said “Because I didn’t have time to stop and get on.”

Make the time to stop and get on the bike. You’ll lose a few minutes now, and gain them back manifold in the coming weeks and months.

Write down your plan. Even if, at first, it’s as vague as my list above, write it down. What’s the path someone will take from total stranger to client?

Until you have that, you’re flailing in the dark.

Once you do have it, you’re ready to create a formal marketing plan.

If you need help with that, or even with the informal plan that comes first, give Sue a holler. We love helping folks figure out social media.

Focused Daily Monitoring for Social Media

Posted on by Sue L Canfield

I strongly encourage clients to spend 10-15 minutes each day to monitor their social media accounts. This can be challenging if you don’t stay focused. It’s so easy to get distracted by what’s going on in social media and especially in your personal timeline on Facebook. Stay focused on your purpose to monitor your business accounts and be determined not to get sidetracked.

You can do it! I’ve timed myself more than once and I spend 10-15 minutes every morning doing this focused daily monitoring on my social media for business accounts. Later in the day I can spend time on my personal accounts.

My Daily Monitoring Routine

I did all this today in just under 9 minutes:

  • Log in to Instagram to check my business account
    1. Check notifications – new likes, comments, messages, new followers
    2. Respond to any comments, messages, new followers
    3. Review and like a few appropriate posts by others
  • Log in to LinkedIn
    1. Check notifications & messages
    2. Respond to any comments, messages, new network connections
    3. Review and like a few appropriate posts by others
  • Log in to Twitter
    1. Check notifications & messages
    2. Follow back as appropriate anyone new who has followed me
    3. Follow at least 5 new profiles
    4. Respond to any comments, messages
    5. Check my lists and like and retweet a few appropriate tweets by others
  • Log in to Facebook to check my business account
    1. Check notifications & messages
    2. Respond to any comments, messages, new connections
    3. Review and like a few appropriate posts by others

The process usually does only take me about 10 minutes each morning. Sometimes a bit longer if there are comments on articles I’ve posted or group discussions I’m participating in.

For each account, I check only my business accounts. I check my personal accounts later in the day.

I’m happy to answer any question you have about using social media if you’d like to leave it in the comments below. You can also schedule a consultation with me here.