It was the first time that Michael [Drew] and Andrea [Reindl] were teaching a person with my level of computer skill and understanding how to blog.

This has been difficult lately, not knowing what to do. And frustrating for my masters also, as they were challenged in how best to teach me. The one thing that became evident was that I have to become known in the social media world. There are great benefits in doing so.

The lesson or gem that I became aware of is that I needed to join a bunch of social networking groups.

The easiest way to do this is by using a site that such as ping.fm, that will get you signed up quickly and easily.  On that site, there are multiple other sites all inter-connected, so that if I put a message on the ping board, that message gets broadcast through all of the social media places that I join.  Easy!

My assignment for the month of December to join the sites and take notes.

So far, I have joined Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Linked in, MySpace, Tumblr, and Plurk.  So, if you want to go and join those and add me as a friend, that would be wonderful.

Let me know when you join, or what you join.  Just think…a whole new batch of friends!

How am I going to succeed?

In order to be successful, with blogging, I have to make myself known amongst the Social Media group.

To be known, I need to be acknowledged – the world needs to be able to hear me. To hear me, I need to be visible. How do I become visible?

How? Not so hard. Join all the social media groups.

There are many places to be seen within the social media world. More than I knew about, there is a web page called at www.pingfm.com. When I went to pingfm, I am able to join as many as I like. There was Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumblr – I am not going to name them all. But there are at least 30 different sites.

I am in the process of joining them all now. To the best of my understanding, now when I post something, Ping will distribute it through all the sites I joined. I am not quite sure how all this works yet. I will keep you posted.

This is like in the days of old when people used television, newspapers, or radio to let the customer know about a product or service being offered.

My assignment until Christmas is to join the groups.

Here’s the thing, it brings up the question ‘How real is too real?’.  How much do you share with people you only kind of know (or don’t know at all)?  How much is too much?  How do you evaluate what may or may not be too much?

Each of us must answer the above questions for ourselves.  Wether you like it or not, transparency is really no longer an option. Things like social networks and social media have made it easy to find information for just about anyone. Reality is, we have to consciously decide what information about ourselves we’ll be putting out online.

Gretchen Rubin of ‘The Happiness Project’ has some standards that she keeps as part of her checklist before she posts something.

•           Am I being funny?

•           Am I giving interesting information from science, history, literature, etc.?

•           Am I revealing my character?

•           Am I telling stories?

•           Am I showing what it’s like to live in New York City?

•           Am I linking to other bloggers?

•           Am I comfortable with my parents reading this? (I never work blue.)

•           Am I criticizing anyone except myself?

Facebook and other social media were not something that I was automatically comfortable with.  It took me some time.  Honestly, I’m still not sure where my line is. How much information I really want out on the big world wide web about me and my personal life.  I think a checklist is a great starting point to gauge what I want to post.

Below is a video that shows some of the details about social media, the web and how things are changing.  While you watch it pay close attention to the words and what’s being said. What do you think?  Have you thought about it?  Have you really put conscious thought into what kind of personal information you want exposed?  I would love to know where you stand, might help me come to some of my own conclusions

With social media, the key to success is outlining a strategy that takes into account the amount of time you can realistically dedicate each day to your online marketing efforts, and to be consistent.  People have a tendency to get online at random times and start clicking away. Then something mysterious happens in the “space-time continuum” and all of a sudden two hours go by and they have nothing to show for it!  Here’s how to avoid falling victim to that trap . . . have a plan and work it! Write up a plan for how often you will work your social media and for how long.

Sit down and map out a weekly schedule that outlines specific days and times during which you will spend developing your social media strategy. Figure out what’s realistic and what makes sense for your company and go from there. For example, you might schedule yourself simply to post one update at 9 a.m., one at 1 p.m., and one at 5 p.m. daily, and then dedicate 10 minutes to responding to comments and direct messages at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you might then dedicate 10 minutes at 10 a.m. and 10 minutes at 3 p.m. to re-tweeting people’s comments that you find valuable and also thanking people for mentioning you or for re-tweeting your posts. This is just an example, but you should definitely take the time to devise a social media strategy along these lines that specifically makes sense for you.

Leverage your time! Be sure to utilize the various tools currently available that are designed specifically to save you time in your social media efforts. For example, sites like http://ping.fm, www.seesmic.com, and www.tweetdeck.com are designed to send your social media updates to multiple social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook, with one click.

Some sites even allow you to link multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you have more than one) to one desktop application where you can post updates to all sites as well as view and respond to your friends’ posts on those sites and keep a log of all your past posts. This means no more logging into multiple social networking sites . . .  you can manage all your social networking accounts from one place!

Also, there are sites such as www.cotweet.com where you can schedule updates in advance so your updates will be posting even while you’re not online. With all the traveling I do, this is a tool that I’ve personally found to be very useful.

Once you have your strategy in place, you will no doubt be anxious to start seeing a return on your online networking investment and it’s very important to remember one thing: Networking, whether online or face-to-face, is more about farming than it is about hunting.  It’s about cultivating relationships with people. The bottom line is – it takes time. It is about building the credibility of your brand. That doesn’t happen overnight.

Return on Investment (ROI) is directly correlated to either:

1.     Dollars spent (online paid marketing), or

2.     Time and/or effort spent – in saturating and building strong profiles on whatever social media channels are deemed effective for the brand (including blogging).

Don’t forget that some businesses will benefit much more from spending more effort on “niche” networks that may have less traffic, but that are more targeted to the brand’s ultimate consumer.

If your network is a mile wide and an inch deep it will not be successful. It is important that you create a network that is both wide and deep. You do this by being visible and engaging in the conversation. Over time, this gives you credibility that leads to building your brand and your sales and that will ultimately give you the biggest ROI for your online marketing efforts.

Most of what I’ve discussed so far has focused on what you should do in order to carry out an effective and profitable social media campaign for your business. But there are also some things you should be sure to avoid in order to be successful.

Below are the top five common mistakes that businesses make when it comes to social media networking—avoid all of these:

1.     Spending too much time on sites you enjoy and not fully evaluating whether those particular sites are the most effective ones for your efforts.

2.     Going onto a site for “work” and then running down rabbit holes getting distracted by friends who may have posted something interesting or something that requires a response.

3.     Not being able to properly define when it is more cost-effective to delegate certain social media responsibilities to someone else to handle.

4.     Setting up a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter page and then not keeping it populated – consistency and fresh content are key.

5.     Forgetting that social media is about engaging in the conversation and not just about selling.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author.  He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization.  His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com.  Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

Ignore the fact that blogging your book will help you create the book your audience wants in the style they prefer. On a more pragmatic level, blogging a book works because it compels you to actually pen the beast.

My former boss and best-selling author Roy H. Williams once posed the question: “Chris, what do you think is the most important factor in creating a best-selling book.” Without a hint of irony I said, “writing a book.”

Before there was such thing as a blog, Roy would dutifully pen his “Monday Morning Memo” each week, to be faxed in the wee hours of Monday morning to a consistently growing list of fans. I recognized early that one of Roy’s many talents is a relentless capacity to move forward – even if just a smidge – every single day. That drive, and its application in the form of his pre-blog faxes, had Roy creating book after best-selling book without having to face the monster of creating an entire manuscript. (http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=Home)

Its that monster that keeps most of us from writing the book that’s inside.

Piecemeal plans for book writing abound. “Write for an hour a day.” “Write 5 pages a day.” “No matter how you feel, just write.” The trouble with these old tricks is that they still rely on you. They require a self-motivation that, if you’re like me, can simply disappear from time to time.

But when you blog you have – or will have – an audience. They’ll be expecting another entry. As their numbers grow, so will their gravity, compelling you to post another blog. Good bloggers don’t want to let their fans down.

Surely in the weeks and months to come, there will come a sunny, lazy day which will accost my resolve to dutifully move forward with my writing . On my own, I’d surely fail to show up. But while I imagine that there is even one body out there hoping to skim my scribblings, I’ll likely suck-it-up and blog. We’ll see, right?

Sure, there are thousands upon thousands of non-fiction books written each year. And certainly only a few hundred make best-seller status. But those tens of thousands are dwarfed by the huge number of books rattling around in the heads of would-be authors.

If you’re like me -you’re probably are too lazy to write a best selling book.

I’m gonna blog mine. What about you?

First, both blog advertising and email advertising reach targeted audiences. A blog has a well-defined niche, as does a good email newsletter. They are both voluntary in that no one is forced to read a blog or sign up for an email list. This makes the targeted readers also willing participants. If your book is something that interests either the blog visitors or the email newsletter subscribers, then your ad has a good chance of catching the eye of your customer. Certainly, that is a better chance than persuading tough-as-nails bookstore buyers through pre-pub journals or actually reaching your reader through general newspaper ads.

BLOG ADVERTISING

If you have considered blogs in your marketing plan, good for you. Blogs just may be the most powerful way to market. There are lots of ways to market with blogs, but for now we’ll just cover advertising. If you read a blog and notice they have advertising, you can probably figure out how to advertise with them. If not, try these blog advertising options and in very short order you can have a blog ad campaign running.

b5media
With more than 290 blogs, 15 vertical channels and over 10 million unique visitors a month, b5media offers advertisers a large, loyal and growing audience for companies looking to promote their brands and products. For more information, click here.

Federated Media
Federated Media sites generate more than 365 million page views every single month across a small portfolio of hand-picked, leading independent sites. You can see rates right on the site and even launch your date-specific campaign by hand selecting on which sites you want to advertise. Find out more here.

Blog Ads
The original blog advertising service. Compare blog traffic and ad prices on 1500 of America’s most influential blogs or handpick blogs from among more than fifty niches. More can be found here.

EMAIL ADVERTISING

In addition to sending out your own email newsletter, you should consider placing advertising in other email newsletters. This is a great way to expand your audience. The best place to start is newsletters you already receive. If other folks are advertising in them, so can you.

If your book targets a business audience is in one of the following industries you should look into advertising in one of the SmartBrief email newsletters. Industries covered: Aerospace and Defense, Business, Construction, Distribution, Education (K-12), Energy, Finance, Food/Consumer Products, Health Care, Hotel and Lodging, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom/Media, and Travel. It is not cheap to advertise here, but if you are reaching your exact B2B target audience, it may be worth it. Check into SmartBrief here.

Resource for Ad Design
If you need someone to design the ad graphics for you to use, I can recommend BannersMall.com. I’ve used their services before and they are very affordable, fast and the ads look amazing.

One Last Thought
Since you’ll be doing online advertising, the call to action in your ads will be to go to your website. A click on the ad should take them right to where they can learn everything they need to know about your book to make a buying decision. Your site must be selling books for you to see any results. Make sure that you have a strong conversion rate before launching an ad campaign. If you don’t know what that means, read this article to get started.

My blog.

Both journalists found me by doing a web search. My blog showed up in their search results and consequently I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and will be on Chicago radio. While these opportunities for me were accidental, you can certainly launch a purposeful publicity campaign with your blog.

As it always does with a successful blog, it all starts with good, solid content for your readers. If your blog is a high-quality one, you will have completed the first step towards impressing journalists who find you online. By reading a few posts they can tell that you are an authority on your subject, can communicate effectively about it, and that your audience responds to you.

You will want to have an easily found Contact page on your blog. Not only will your readers be grateful to have a way to reach you to ask questions about your book, so will media people trying to find a way to interview you. Include a phone number, an alternate phone number, your mailing address (so they know where you are located), and an email address that you check often. You might even consider sharing your cell phone number so they can text message you. If you are the only expert they find who is text-able, you might get the story just because of that.

If you put all this information on your main contact page, you may find that you get too much contact from the general public. After all, it’s one thing to get an urgent call or text message from a big name reporter and an entirely different thing for that to be coming from a fan. To reduce the mainstream use of your contact data, put all the detailed contact information within your press kit. Granted, this is open to everyone, but most people will not venture into a press room if they are not media and, even if they do, can see your disclaimer that certain forms of contact are for media only.

By all means, create a robust press kit and put it online. This just makes a journalist’s job so much easier to find certain things at their fingertips. Your photo, bio, company or industry statistics, press releases, story ideas, and even sample questions and answers are all great resources for them. (If you need an online press kit, I highly recommend the ones at www.247presskit.com.)

But how do these reporters find your blog in the first place?

Most likely, it will be through search engines. And while search engine optimization (SEO) often sounds as complicated as solving world peace, I assure you it is not—okay, it is. But you honestly don’t need to go through all the gyrations that the heavy duty SEO guys do. Just blog regularly, take a few extra steps to help your ranking, and then sit back and let Google do all the work.

By blogging you are already doing the best thing you can do to help search engines find you. They are looking for regularly updated sites. By definition, a blog will get better ranking than a static website. Another very (make that VERY) important strategy is to use keyword-rich headlines. This is what will help the engines determine what you have on your page and serve it up when someone searches. And, of course, do all the usual traffic-driving techniques of a blogger as well.

If you want to get started blogging or make your blog better, check out the free Audio Workshop I did with Yaro Starak about how to use a blog to market your book. It has tons of great blogging tips and ideas.

See you in the blogosphere!

So… you’ve chosen your blogging software, designed your template, and started posting articles. You’re feeling good about your content… but where are the readers? How do you get the word out about your blog and get the attention you deserve?

1. Give your blog maximum exposure. Surprisingly, many professional bloggers forget to tell clients and colleagues about their blog. Make sure to have your blog URL printed on your business cards and letterhead; create an email signature with a link to your blog. If you are a presenter, design a slide for the end of your presentation with a photo and URL of your blog page.

2. A ping is a lovely thing. Depending on the blogging software you use, a “ping” or announcement is sent out to the Internet community each time you publish a post. While most software will ping one or two tracking sites, a service called Ping-o-Matic! is a one-stop shop for all things ping. Simple enter your URL, choose the tracking services you wish to signal, and hit the submit button. Voila – you have pinged the universe!

3. Create memorable but searchable headlines. In addition to writing excellent content, it’s critically important to make your posts relevant and attractive to search engines like Google. Say you’ve written a post about Dove’s new anti-aging product line. You may want to give it a cute headline like, “Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall,” but you’ll get lost in the black hole of search engines. Write a headline such as, “Dove Launches New Pro-Age Line,” however, and you’ll be amazed who finds you the next time they’re searching for information on Dove (including Dove executives!).

4. Content links are also important. When writing a post, make sure you create links within the content to relevant outside material. This can include news articles, media samples, posts from other bloggers you respect, etc. The content links you create will automatically be folded into the web of connections about a topic and are also searchable by search engines.

5. Comments, trackbacks, and tags. While a few business bloggers don’t include an area for readers to comment, you should. It gives readers the feeling they’re important to you and allows them to participate in what should really be an interactive experience. Yes, you sometimes need a thick skin, but you could also learn something. You should also spend a portion of your blog time reading other blogs and leaving comments. The more active you are in the community, the easier it is for readers to find your blog and for bloggers to put you on their blogroll (see number 6).

When possible, you should always send a “trackback” (a signal letting a blogger know you’ve referenced something he or she has written). This not only helps you with visibility on search engines, it also promotes the blog you’ve referenced, creating goodwill. Some blogging software, like Typepad, also allow for “tags,” which are pretty much self-explanatory. It’s an opportunity to attach “keywords” or “tag words” to a particular post that will make it more relevant to search engines.

6. Go for the honor roll. Visit a few business blogs and look for what’s called a “blogroll.” It’s a blogger’s list of “favorites,” with links for easy surfing. Don’t promote too hard to get placed on someone’s blogroll; self-promotion doesn’t go over big here. Create a blogroll of your own favorites, then, when you read a post you like, drop the blogger a note to say, “Hey, loved your post on ice cream. Just wanted you to know you’re on my blogroll – hope you’ll visit my blog soon for a look-see.” Blogrolls are a slow go, but exponentially powerful once those links start rolling in.

7. Experiment with AdWords. I’m not a big advocate of paid advertising, but if you must, you might want to give a pay-per-click ad service like Google’s AdWords a try. This service allows you to create a compact, no-nonsense ad, attach search words and manipulate how high in the ad rank you get according to your budget. It’s fast, but if you’re not careful, it can quickly drain your budget dry.

Blogging can be rewarding, both personally and financially, and it’s even more fun when people start paying attention. Try some or all of the tips above, give it enough time to grow (at least six months), and it won’t be long before people start talking about you as “the expert.”

Bad news first. With more than 300,000 titles published each year, it’s increasingly difficult to get the attention and promotion your book deserves. Without a strong marketing platform and a large number of “people connections,” all the blood, sweat, and tears you poured into your writing will go for naught.

The good news is–thanks to ever-expanding technology and forms of new media, it’s never been easier to build the marketing platform you need. You can begin fortifying your platform today with one of the most popular and easy-to-use tools out there–the blog.

Blogs, or weblogs as they were originally called, began as a way for individuals to share news about daily life with friends and family. In recent years, blogs have expanded into the business world and are now considered an important tool for developing a professional platform. A blog is a type of online journal, allowing you to write and post articles on your topic of choice. It’s self-publishing on steroids–write a post, hit the “submit” button, and your expertise is immediately there for the world to see.

Blogs level the playing field. Bloggers like Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and Guy Kawasaki (experts and best-selling authors in their own right) are now in the company of bloggers just like you–ordinary professionals who have something extraordinary to say about their niche. And people are listening.

A blog is all yours. Choose the business category and/or niche you want to write about and fire away. Post original articles to share your knowledge and expertise on your topic. Lend opinion about something you see or read. Link to articles and other blog posts you find interesting. This is your opportunity to resonate with and attract readers who are interested in what you have to say. Blogs are also interactive, allowing readers to comment and generate discussion about something you’ve written.

Getting started on building your blog is easy:

1. Choose a blogging software program. Three popular and easy-to-use services are Blogger, Typepad, and WordPress. Blogger and Typepad both offer user-friendly blog software, with a large selection of customizable templates, step-by-step directions, and online hosting services. You can have your blog up and running in as little as 5 minutes. If you choose to host the blog yourself, WordPress may be the software for you. WordPress has some templates, but it’s a favorite among novice bloggers because it allows for uploading of custom templates and offers a higher degree of control.

2. Start posting and keep posting. This is your online journal, and you can write whatever you like. Just make sure everything you write is relevant to the topic of your blog. Blogs are distinctly different from regular websites in that your goal is to persuade visitors to return to read more. The fresher and more relevant the content, the faster you’ll build a readership.

3. Don’t hide your originality. The most successful blogs are those that honestly convey the “voice” and personality of the author, setting themselves apart from the masses. Write in your voice, with a style that is genuinely and authentically your own without taking away from the importance of the content.

4. Connect yourself with readers and other expert opinion. Trying to blog on a frequent basis by writing original material can be daunting. Spend part of your time reading other blogs, news sites, etc., and link to material outside your own. Post about recent news articles or material by other bloggers you respect (and always give credit to the author). You’ll quickly emerge as the central resource for news, information, and expertise on your topic.

5. Have a separate link to a website or page that lists your services. Blogs should be considered a form of journalism, not an overt sales tool. By building your platform and positioning yourself as the expert of choice, you will automatically attract the kind of client that wants to work with you. The more they get to know you and like what you have to say, the easier it will be for them to click on the link that explains more about you and the services you offer.

A blog is an excellent way to begin building your marketing platform, enhance your credibility and connect with readers of your book. It’s an opportunity to write without the limitations of the traditional publishing world, and it’s an instant form of communication to the world.

Once you get started, you’re sure to ask, “How can I let the world know about my blog?” Stay tuned for Part 2, “ Seven Ways to Promote Your Blog.”

Let me give you six specific ways that being a blogger will help you sell books.

1. A blog will help you get more traffic to your website.

Because the search engines give a higher priority to sites that have frequent updates and more incoming links, you are more likely to get search engine ranking with your blog than you are your static book site. However, search engines are not even really the best traffic source for your blog – other blogs are.

By being a blogger, you join a group of people who, by definition, connect other people to resources, such as readers to your book. It is like being in a crowded room of people who are constantly introducing everyone in the room to everyone else. And there’s a steady stream of new people coming into the room all the time.

2. You will forge relationships with your blog readers who are then more likely to become readers of your book.

Let me ask you this–isn’t it much easier to sell a copy of your book to a friend than walking up to a stranger on the street? Of course it is. Well, a blog reader is like a friend, while a website visitor is like a stranger on the street. You have to give a pretty hard sales pitch to get the stranger to buy on your first meeting.

3. Your blog will help you build a community of people interested in your niche/genre.

Working in a coordinated effort with other people often yields better and easier results than a solitary person can on their own. Your blog will attract readers who will comment and interact with each other. Your blog will attract other bloggers who, in addition to being readers, could be evangelists for you. None of this happens with a static website.

4. Blogging will keep you active in your market – connected and up to date.

Since there is more frequent and regular communication through blogs than websites, you can expect to know what’s happening all the time. You’ll know the latest goings on with books and publishing deals in your genre. You’ll see the latest industry news right when it’s breaking. You’ll know who the new and influential players are.

Blogging is all about connecting. You’ll be connected.

5. Build your Share of Mind with your blog.

Michael Drew wrote a great three-part article about the PR Performance Equation. (If you haven’t read it yet, do it now. It is brilliant and explains so clearly why some book promotion efforts work and some don’t. Don’t be discouraged by the equation and sub-equations; Mike walks you through them.) Anyway, in the article he talks about Share of Mind – the ‘mental equity’ your name carries in the minds of the audience compared to the names of your competitors.

And having a bigger, better Share of Mind means you can spend less effort on your promotion and need less repetition than an author who is not a blogger (or otherwise more famous than you.)

Being a blogger increases Share of Mind. If you don’t believe me, ask Time’s Person of the Year for 2006.

6. Blogging will increase your chance of getting picked up by a publisher for your next book.

Editors actively seek out new authors in the blogosphere. If you’ve got a great blog and promote it, there is a chance you will be courted by a publisher for your next book. Failing that , you at least have the blog to add to your book proposal as an example of what you’ll do to help market and sell your book. Either way, it’s a good thing.

Here are a couple of blogs you can look at to see what’s out there–

• Non-Fiction Book Blog – Freakonomics — Notice how they have a blog and a static website – the way they’re tied together is excellent.
• Fiction Book Blog – The Lipstick Chronicles — This blog has several authors and links out to all their static websites. Well done.

Resource about Blogging – Blog Profits Blueprint – Free 50-page report about blog building. So good you won’t believe it’s free.