No, if you’re just looking for a one time sale. One book, one sale, and you’re done. You’ll never see that person again.

Yes, if you’d like to develop a relationship with ongoing customers who will buy your books (plural!) services, and other products.

A book is sometimes an impulse buy. It’s something someone might pick up after hearing a talk by the author, or at a bookstore, or another venue. Twenty bucks isn’t much of a commitment. But what if the book is a lead-in for a more expensive course or a consultation? You’ll want to stay in touch with that book buyer to broaden your relationship.

Maybe they’ll never buy another thing. But, maybe they’ll pass your emails on to someone else who becomes a client. Or, they’ll buy other expensive services down the line. Or, maybe they’ll become a friend and a cheerleader.

How should you use your mailing list?

Like you’ve been given a gift.

People have been gracious enough to invite you into their lives. Thank them by sending them good information – not just sales pitches.

But there’s an interesting phenomena that happens every time I’ve presented. I get emails and phone calls from people saying, “I can’t make it to your talk, but would you let me know when you’re doing it again?”

One or two people have done this twice.

To which I say, if not now, then when?

Now, I’m not the only person who teaches this stuff. You can Google “social media marketing” and easily get several million hits. There’s lots of good stuff out there that will teach you how to blog, tweet, and Facebook with the best of them.

But you gotta start in order to get good. So, to get you started, I present: 

The Procrastinator’s Guide to Social Media Marketing.

1. Decide why you’re going to use social media for your business. Do you want to promote your book? Get booked as a speaker? Set some objectives. If you don’t have a reason to do social media, maybe you shouldn’t bother.

2. If you do have a good reason, then Just start. Read a blog on social media marketing. (Hey, read this blog!) Watch some videos on YouTube. Go to a class. Come to my presentation when I give it again.

3. Then, pick one social media site and create a profile. Work on getting really good at that one site. I’d suggest starting with Twitter. It’s only 140 characters at a time. Very low pressure!

4. Spend 15 minutes a day tweeting. To really save time, use Hootsuite to schedule your tweets throughout the day.

5. Follow interesting people in your field. Respond to questions, ask questions, converse. Have fun.

There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?

So, yes, you do need one if you want to give people a reason to pay attention to you as you sell your book or your services. What makes you different from the other people who write and talk about in your field? Why should anybody care?

Try this exercise is creating your USP:

It’s the age-old quandary.

An author client of mine is deep into his first book. Or rather what could be three books, according to his editor.

He asked what book should he start with?

My reply: What topic are you most passionate about?

His reply: Well, I love topic A. But topic B is more commercial. I think it will sell better.

But, I asked, will you enjoy writing it? I don’t know about you, but if I’m not really into something, I get bored and it’s really a chore.  And if I hate it, I really suck at it.

I’ll be curious to see which book he writes first.

What would you do?

I’ve been working with a lot of people lately who are changing their websites over to WordPress. I changed my whole website over to WordPress a few years ago. I love being able to make changes on my own, instantly,  instead of relying on someone else who knows html and has Dreamweaver.

But, as much as I’m a fan, I know WordPress is pretty confusing at first. So, for anyone who’s new to using it, here’s a list of good resources to help you over the initial bumps. (And when in doubt, Google: “wordpress, yourproblem” and see what pops up.)

WordPress.org Forums – chances are somebody, somewhere has had the exact same problem you have and posted it to this forum.

WordPress.tv – Also part of WordPress.org, WordPress TV features videos of how-to’s and interviews from various Word Camps. (Word Camps are community events put together for WordPress users. There’s one here in Denver in July.)

WordCamp Central – Where to get the skinny on Word Camps near you.

Webdesignerdepot.com – 300+resources to help you become a WordPress expert.

WordPressMax – WordPress guides for the Geek impaired.

WordPressHelp.org

WPBeginner.com – a beginners guide to WordPress.

There’s way more than this out there, but start here and let me know what you learn. Happy blogging!

(Not so much “I am the personal secretary of the Sultan of Brunei and I have a business proposition for you because you are a good person…”) But I digress.

I have 4 email accounts, all overflowing with mail that I don’t always read. I finally realized what was causing some of the logjam.

Blogs. I subscribe to a lot of blogs. Really good ones. But half the time, they just pile up in my inbox, trying to get my attention. Which is unfortunate, since I get a lot of really good information through them. But having that big list of emails to read “someday” drove me crazy. “Someday” never came.

If there’s one sure thing in this world, it’s that there will always be something new to read on the internet. So I decided to stop trying to take big drinks from the Internet Fire Hose and start being a discriminating sipper. I opened a Google Reader account and started to subscribe to the blogs I follow through the reader. Just click on the chiklit (that square orange thingy on the blog site you want to subscribe to ) and the next screen will ask you if you want to subscribe in a reader. Click the Google one and follow the prompts. Then unsubscribe from the email version, if you have one.

Now, I can scan the day’s new blog entries in a few minutes in the morning, or browse when I’m waiting on hold on the phone. Adding new blogs is easy, and deleting ones I’m not reading is also a snap. Best of all, I can stay current with what’s happening in internet marketing and the book world and NOT have it all in my inbox.

My fitness coach, Carol McAnally, always reminds me to be mindful as I’m trying to perform specific exercises. You don’t get good results if you just flop your way through a routine in order to just get through it. So, I try to remember to “drive my kidneys into the exercise ball” as I do crunches and pay attention to form. Slowly, I’m beginning to get it.

By the same token, it’s important to be mindful when you’re marketing online. Keep a list of your marketing objectives next to your monitor as you network on Facebook, load your advance Tweets into Hootsuite, or write your latest blog post. What do you want to accomplish?

Well, everybody has to start somewhere. You might be writing at first for just you and your mom and a friend or two, but that will change if you just keep going. Here’s a few other ways to attract people to your website and your blog:

1. Give away some free stuff. A report, a checklist, that people would find useful.
2. Keep publishing fresh content – a lot. You should be updating your blog at least once a week.
3. Promote your blog by telling people about it – on Facebook, Twitter, even by adding it to your business cards and your email signature.
4. Watch what keywords people use to find your website – and use them in your blog posts.
5. Write thoughtful comments on other people’s blogs in your genre. This will help to draw traffic to your blog.

1. Have a blog on your website and update it regularly. I’m amazed how many web people think it’s okay to just have your website linked to your blog on WordPress.com. You’re just driving traffic to WordPress.com, who’s doing quite well, thank you very much.

2. Import your blog to your social media profiles in Facebook and LinkedIn. If people like your posts, they’ll check out the rest of your site.

3. Use a Twitter plugin like Wordtwit to notify Twitter when you’ve updated your blog and provides a link to your post.

4. If you have a brick and mortar store, get a free listing in Google Local Business Center and Bing Local Listing Center.

5. Use keyword descriptions in your blog posts and in your listings that people are likely to use if they’re looking for your services. I get a lot of traffic from people searching for “book marketing” “self published books” and “sell your book on the internet.”

6. When you start doing these things, be consistent. I had a client a while ago who was concerned he wasn’t getting any traffic to his blog. Trouble is, he hadn’t updated it in a month. Search engines love new content. When you don’t update your blog, the search engines lose interest in your site and favor the ones that are putting new stuff out there. (Kind of like us – always attracted to what’s new and shiny.)

That being said, I’m one of the biggest offenders of succumbing to BSO (Bright Shiny Objects) syndrome. I’m always chasing down rabbit holes, all in the name of research. I do learn a lot of good stuff, but it sometimes results in wasted time and missed deadlines. Not good.

So, here are some of my strategies for staying on track:

I allow myself some “play time” to catch up with friends and family members on Facebook, twitter and the like. Usually I combine this with watching tv or on my lunch hour. Last week  I had a long, fun chat with a high school friend and caught up with my cousin’s wife on Facebook.

During work hours I have a post-it of objectives next to my monitor that has a cryptic list of marketing objectives. As a consultant to self-published authors, my primary objective is to establish my expertise in online marketing and self publishing. So most of the comments I make are related to those topics. I automatically send a tweet to Twitter and post to my wall on Facebook when I update my blog. My blog is also on my LinkedIn profile. I comment on my friends’ status, and pass on articles that I find interesting. I also have Google Alerts relating to marketing and publishing that gives me plenty to comment on and write about.

Does this take hours every day? No, for the most part I spend about half an hour to an hour a day on social networking sites and checking the feeds for my alerts in Google Reader. Can it be done is less? Absolutely. I spend more time because I enjoy it! And, it’s my business to spend time doing this.

I’ll be presenting a talk “Social Media Marketing in 15 Minutes a Day,” on March 25 at EduCyber in Wheat Ridge, CO (my day job.) You can sign up at EduCyber’s web site. I’ll also be presenting that talk at CIPA College in Denver on March 27. CIPA is the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. The college runs from March 26-27. It’s everything you want to know about self publishing. Check it out!