Social Media Marketing Books flood the shelves! Which ones have you read?

1. 30-Minute Social Media Marketing. This book has 22 short chapters packed with real-world examples, templates, sample marketing procedures, and screen shots taking you step-by-step through the essentials.
2. Socialnomics. Love this book. This video speaks for itself of why you must have this book.
Get for your mother too!
3. Crush It. The key to really making a social media strategy work is passion, consistency and authenticity. If you want to get excited about social media and hit the big time use twitter, facebook and video, “Crush it!” will be the book you want to read first. Once you read it, you won’t be able to sleep.
4. eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.Another best-selling social media marketing author, David Meerman Scott (bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave) said: “This book shows how smart business-to-business marketers learn about buyers, tell a story, and greatly influence the B2B lead-to-sale process. This is your guide for Web marketing success.” Get this book to learn about sales and social media and get David Meerman Scott’s book to learn about PR & social media.
5. Social Media Metrics. You must launch a social media campaign – that’s a given. But how to measure it? This book is the only guide devoted exclusively to social media metrics. So get it!
6. Facebook Era.Facebook is THE Social Network of 2010. And this is a simple book with non-obvious ideas for how to really get sales using Facebook.
7. How to Make Money with Social Media. Hear me interview the author, Jamie Turner on the Synergy Energy show. He is the 60 Second Marketer. Awesome book that teaches strategy and application. Great endorsements from Scott Monty and David Meerman Scott too.

Want to learn all this stuff? Get the books. Become a student of social media. Need personal, hands-on training or a coach?
See http://www.pamperrysocialmedia.eventbrite.com

Bonus book I love too > Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web by Brian Solis. A must for every PR professional.

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“The time to start working on your author platform is three years before your book is published.”

Sharing that common notion with my clients usually brings a blank stare. Many writers want to just write without worrying about selling or promoting their work.

Other writers, however, now realize that their responsibility as an author extends to the marketing of their books. At the request of publishers, authors are routinely submitting marketing plans along with their book proposals. One book shepherd told me about the 20-page marketing plan being prepared for an author-client.

The reality is that you are in charge of finding and cultivating your own readership, regardless of whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. If you’re successful enough, you will attract the attention of a big publisher with a marketing and advertising department, broadening your efforts into a much larger space.

Community

We all participate in various communities based on specific situations or interests: our children’s school, our neighborhood, our church, our place of employment. One of my communities is self-publishers, independent publishers, and soon-to-be-publishers.

The internet and its various social media (i.e., any method for interacting with other people on equal footing) is how writers find their communities of interest. Some of the tools used include author blogs, writing forums, other people’s blogs, Facebook groups and pages, LinkedIn discussion groups, Twitter #discussions and lists, and specialized social groups like ning networks.

It may be tempting to want to jump into all of these at once for maximum exposure, but that’s not feasible. A plan or strategy is essential; faced with so many options without a plan in place leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed, which typically leads to doing nothing.

And you don’t want to do that.

Stop Waiting!

Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest writes that merely having a book published does not translate into readership. Readership must be cultivated on a daily basis, starting NOW. She explains that readers want more than to read your book; they want to interact with you online to learn more about you, and it’s a relationship of sorts that continues as long as you want to have a readership.

Setting up a blog as a first step is a terrific way to find the community revolving around you and your writing. You have an audience; you just need to find them and let them know that you’re the writer they’ve been waiting for!

It’s not difficult starting a blog. It takes about 10 minutes to procure a domain name, sign up for a hosting account, and install the blogging software. And that, according, to Friedman, is the hard way.

Friedman suggests that if we are writers who want readers, then the best thing to do if you want to publish a book, is to write and see who reads. That is where our community begins, and it will only grow with cultivation. There is no reason not to get started right now!

Writing and Community-Building: Double Duty

In the new world of writing, authors write and build community around their writing. Choose the social media that appeal to you and use it to share your work, interact with your readers, reach out to even more readers in different formats, and start now to build the community that will support you in your writing endeavors.

There are plenty of resources, free reports, strategies, and information available online, so I would suggest that you don’t pay for programs, tutorials, or anything else until you see what’s available for free. The main thing is to get busy!

Joel Friedlander is the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, a publishing services company in San Rafael, California that has launched many self-publishers. Joel is an award-winning book designer, a self-published author, and blogs about publishing and book design. To learn more about self-publishing a book, book and cover design, and the intricacies of the publishing process, please visit Joel’s blog at http://www.theBookDesigner.com today.

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What is Branding?

Many people think that having a logo, tagline, great photos, and maybe a website, blog and Facebook page is all they need to set up their brand. NOT!

However, brand, as we know it today is not a logo. A logo is the tangible identity of a company in the market. Logos can be emblems, signs or symbols designed to portray the image of a company. So you see a logo (which is essentially a piece of art) is not a brand. However, it is integral to the brand.

By branding – you are creating a PERCEIVED image – SO you must distinguish yourself, your book or your organization from others who do similar stuff or offer similar products.

The most critical part: KNOWING WHAT YOUR BRAND STANDS FOR!

What is your brand promise? Who do people say YOU ARE? Are they confused? Are you?

Said another way, branding is a way you can:

• Affirm your value to the market place

• Highlight your unique selling point

• Establish your reputation and create a loyal “fan” base

• Attract your core target audience and garner customers

It takes a long time build up substantial “brand equity” – don’t destroy it because you have a new idea. Stick with your logo, tagline and other elements you have set in place. You want to get to the point with your brand so that it is embedded into the subconscious minds of your audience.

When it is in the psyche of consumers, they will automatically connect a phrase or photo with you. When you hear a name – you get a mental picture or think of a quality. If I say, TD Jakes or Oprah – you have an idea of what to expect from those “brand names.” They are famous, true, but they are also a brand. And a brand translates in business into dollars. That’s the bottom line.

A good example is the “Just do it” campaign. That phrase and “swoosh” logo are their brand. Whether their shoes are better than others – well, that’s how you see it. But regardless, you’ll pay a premium price for their shoes because they’ve branded themselves that way.

Branding in business is about building an empire. What does your brand say about you? You can gage by checking sales figures. That is a good indication of how well your brand is doing.

What will bad branding do? NOTHING. Meaning you be invisible! NO action. No reaction! FLAT!

And there’s nothing worst than that in the marketplace. A BRAND MAKES YOU STAND OUT!

Your visibility gives you credibility.

Ministry marketing pioneer, social media strategist and PR Coach Pam Perry helps authors and entrepreneurs garner publicity and leverage online strategies. For a free MP3 of “What Every Author Should Know,” go to http://www.PamPerryPR.com. She offers free branding and marketing help at her blogsite: http://www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com with videos, emails and teleclasses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pam_Perry

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