What is Social Media?

It is a means to communicate. We have ads on news, radio, TV, magazines and websites; however social media adds the social, interactive element to communication.

Why is social media important in today’s society?

We are living in the personal communication age—people want information from OTHER people, not celebrities, news, etc. People trust information that comes from their friends or “people on the street”, per se.

Why does social media work?

• Social media presents information in a way that appears personal. It creates a “real” or perceived connection; people can interact. Ex: Bill O’Reilly reads his email on his show– sharing other people’s opinions. People have the need to contribute, to feel that their word counts.

• People don’t have the time anymore to sit and read long stories. Life moves too quickly today; people want instant

Tip: Use descriptive words in titles (articles, blogs, newsletters etc) – not “The Author's Corner” but rather a brief description of the story to draw readers in.

Facts:

40 and unders don’t email anymore—they text. Texting works because it’s small bits of info you can control – not like talking. Allows the chance to think it through and be concise, to say what you mean. 99.7% open rate for texting – whereas emails aren’t read much or right away. 

New ways of personal communication is taking precedence, and it’s important and vital we stay with new trends. A good example — Churches are now using iPads for music and to take offerings.

Only 25% of America has a landline (home phone).

Which is the right social media for you?

Whom you seek to connect with depends on age/demographics.

Facebook

Facebook is declining with younger users (<35) as older users increase. (Kids don’t want to share same social site with their parents…) Though average age of Facebook users is 35-40

Facebook vs. Website vs. Email — Facebook is better for promoting specials or events. Facebook is read more often, as it shows up on feed and is instant. It could be days before people read their emails, and websites are only read if someone visits it. People are on Facebook all the time and it comes through on phone. Example – Starbucks runs large campaign encouraging everyone to join their facebook page – because they know how powerful it is.

Detriment: Too many people may want to friend you if you’re well known and have important role; hard to remain private. Suggest having two accounts: One for personal, one for professional.

How you can benefit from Facebook: Promotions via your fan page, cross-promoting

 A good resource on promoting on Facebook: http://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook/

Twitter

Twitter is more popular with younger crowd, and for pushing short info out fast.  Text via social media.

Detriment: Twitter “tweets” are searchable forever, not private… For example if you tweet something like, “my computer is so slow today”, you’ll be receiving promos from HP or the like trying to promote their products. Everything is being followed...

How you can benefit from Twitter:  Follow tweets about authors/books in your genre.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is more for professionals – business to business

How you can benefit from LinkedIn: Join LinkedIn groups that pertain to your service. Read their comments/links. This will give you a good idea of what people are searching for.

Set up your own group and provide good content on a regular basis. Rule of thumb: At least 1 article per week.

YouTube

2^nd largest search engine. People are visual, they watch videos. They don’t read mailers as much.

How you can benefit from YouTube:

Offer a synopsis of your book in video (slideshow?) form. Powerpoint is a good resource.

Google Plus

Right now popular with the IT industry. Still very new for businesses. — Keep an eye on this.

Google + pages are now showing in Google search results.

Blogging

Decreasing in popularity, but is under-utilized. According to a survey conducted by Percussion Software, Only 20-25% of companies actually blog. Of those, 25% do not maintain their blog (over 30 days stagnant).  Why? People are flocking more to other forms of social media to quickly get out their content – so they tend to abandon the blog. However, this still remains a great resource for driving SEO, building credibility, and it works well with other social media platforms. Blogs can achieve higher search engine rankings because of frequency of new content, so this is still considered to be a great tool.

• Blogs should be no more than 400-600 words max. Free word count tool >
• Blogs should be updated 1-2x week.
• Every book writer should have a blog.

Surveys / Polls

Do surveys / polls to help get your name out – indirect advertising – and instant credibility as experts in your field.

Don't know where or how to begin? I can help! Just shoot me an email and we will discuss some simple ways to tame that social media monster and get your business off to a running start!

—Angie

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Because I looked at it and thought, Really? That's it?

I know what happened. The illustrator was asked to render artwork for the cover, but then the cover copy was slapped on by someone else using Publisher or a Publisher-like program (Word, perhaps? Horrors...) without second thought. After all, the illustration is what they see... the style of the title and author name don't matter, right?

Wrong. So wrong.

This is a common mistake I see with budget-minded self-publishers and small presses who decide to take a stab at their own cover without knowing basic design rules. The truth is, anyone can design an attractive cover—with a little education and sense of balance. If you can decorate a room, you can design a cover. Here we'll discuss basics for designing with a full-cover illustration.

The illustration's purpose is to serve as the focal point of the cover, so the title and author's name should enhance, not impede. If the illustration is in full color, and/or richly detailed, it's crucial that integrity remains intact, and that copy and artwork pair in perfect harmony so the overall design appeals, not repels, the viewer. For example:

In the "True Colors" examples shown at left, you see the first cover with basic, seriffed black text typed on, flush center. The subtitle is a little difficult to read over the illustration. Overall, it's a "stamped on" appearance that doesn't really do the artwork justice. To the right is a suggested correction: I changed the title to white and lessened the font size for a softer tone. The subtitle was kept black, but placed over a semi-transparent white bar. These changes allow for easier reading while adding a little creative style. I flushed all the copy left to flow with the direction of the leaves in the illustration—The eye is now drawn from top right to bottom left. And then I applied a slight tracking (spacing) between letters for a more modern look and better readability throughout.

Here's another example of cover copy placement over a large illustration. The copy has been separated by a semi-transparent "box" that still allows the illustration to pass through without hurting its integrity. The title is white for maximum visibility, and the author's name is taken from one of the colors, which gives balance and separation from the title.

On both cover examples, I used Minion Pro, which is a seriffed font. A sans-serif would also work if it's thin enough. You don't want to use a thick or extra bold font, as it would compete with the fullness of the image.

(Covers shown were created in BookCoverPro™)

Illustrations are a beautiful way to design your book cover, and if laid out correctly, will be very appealing to the viewer, not to mention a better chance of prominent display at the bookstore!

 To fabulous design,

Source: What NOT to do with full cover illustrations... (http://www.bookcoverpro.com/blog/) by Angie Underwood

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