Stacey Myers

Making the Most of Book Events

Stacey Myers — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:00:52 +0000

Making the Most of Book Events

Today we have a guest post from Priya Desai.

If you are an author who has self-published, developing relationships with books stores and organising regular book events is essential! You need to get yourself out there and be seen, promoting your book.

Booksellers are on the shop floor for the majority of the day and don’t have as much times as us, for e-mails/phone calls etc. So, bare this in mind when you are arranging an event, as it may take some time to set something up. It took me six months to arrange my first Waterstone’s book reading!! Just be patient and don’t get disheartened.

Now, when your event is booked, you will feel fantastic, confident that you are heading in the right direction. This is a great feeling – use it to propel you forward. And think positively, you never know who you might meet!

On the day of the event, come prepared and bring fliers, business cards, colouring for children if you have a children’s book etc. If you are not doing a reading and are just ‘in store’, there will be an area designated for you. Whatever you do, don’t sit and wait for customers to approach you! They will not know who you are unless YOU tell them. Find your inner strength, get up and talk to customers; let them know who YOU are. I know it may be nerve wracking but you must make the most of your opportunity! Your endeavours to engage customers will encourage shop staff to further support you and help you sell your book. They are not going to be inspired if you are a silent, passive author!

So, try not to be too shy, be brave and leap into the unknown. After all, your book is really a part of you and who best to advertise it than yourself?

I would love to hear your experience at local book events – either as the author or a reader. Leave your comments below.

Author Bio: Priya Desai is a speech and language therapist who has written and self-published two children’s books; Benjamin Writer-Messy a story about a boy who has messy handwriting and Jake Monkey-Tail, a colourful story about a monkey that cannot spell! Both stories are perfect for children aged between 4-8 years of age. For more information about Priya’s work, please visit her website www.priyadesai.co.uk. Priya will be publishing more children’s books later on this year. You can also follow Priya on Twitter @priyaauthor.

Launching Today: Allergies, and Awesome You

Stacey Myers — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:00:32 +0000

Launching Today: Allergies, and Awesome You

Do you have a child with allergies? Can you imagine life allergy free?

The AmazingAllergist will show you how!

Allergies, and Awesome You: Believe You Can Get There Too!

This book, through a life story of an allergic child, will empower you and your children.

"Allergies, and Awesome You” is a part of the AmazingAllergist’s Awesome Series that empowers allergic children to live and lead great lives, allergy-free. It is a by-product of the author’s extensive medical knowledge, vast experiences as an allergy specialist, and the desire to make a difference, one allergic child at a time.

Learn more here - http://amazingallergist.com/book/

About the Author

Atul N. Shah, MD, FACAAI, FAAAAI, is a celebrated author of this AmazingAllergist book series, founder of www.AmazingAllergist.com, and the medical director of www.Center4AsthmaAllergy.com. He is a board certified allergist who has earned an honor of fellowships in both the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

He has personally treated more than 20,000 patients, made a significant impact on more than 100,000 lives as an allergist so far, and earned the nickname “AmazingAllergist” from his patients and peers. His work is rewarded daily with numerous compliments of smiling patients and their families. He has been recognized with various awards, including the America’s Top Physicians’ Award, the Patients’ Choice Award, and the Most Compassionate Physicians’ Award. He believes that every allergic child and individual has a potential to live a great life, allergy-free. His desire to empower allergic individuals translated into this series of books.

Meet the Author

Buy the book - http://amazingallergist.com/book/

Join our online community

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AmazingAllergist

Twitter – https://twitter.com/LifeAllergyFree

~ ~ ~ WIN A FREE KINDLE FIRE! ~ ~ ~

AmazingAllergist is giving away a FREE KINDLE FIRE! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below to win! This giveaway is only open to U.S. and Canada citizens. Deadline is June 1 and announced on June 2. If you are the winner, contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife (at) gmail.com or Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner (at) gmail.com. You have 48 hours to reply. If we do not hear from you in 48 hours, another winner will be selected. Thanks and good luck!

Click on this link if you cannot see the Rafflecopter form - http://staceymyers.com/allergies-and-awesome-you. The page will look the same, but scroll down the bottom. Thanks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Twitter 2012 Infographic

Stacey Myers — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:29:11 +0000

Twitter 2012 Infographic

Here is a great infographic from Infographics Lab.

This visual analysis takes a look at all the latest statistics on Twitter – with a few projections for the future as well.

Twitter 2012: The Freshest Statistics on the King of Microblogging Services by Infographiclabs

How Do I Create My Own Avatar?

Stacey Myers — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:33:44 +0000

How Do I Create My Own Avatar?

Have you ever wondered when commenting on blogs why some people's photo comes up and your's doesn't (or you get some randomly assigned cartoon type image). That is probably because they have set themselves up on Gravatar and now have their own avatar that they can use on any site.

It is really easy to set yourself up with an account and then you can comment to your hearts content and your image will show up. Here is a great video from the Gravatar website that explains it all.

In the video it talks about being able to hover over a picture and a hover card would appear with their information. I did not realise you were able to do that and thought it was a great feature. I went to check it out on my page but it did not work. Maybe it only works on certain types of sites. Shame really – as that is a great feature.

Setting up an account is easy peasy!!

Go to Gravatar, click on 'sign up' and then add an email that you would like to use when commenting. I use the email attached to my website. Once you are all set up, you can actually assign other email addresses to the same account, so don't worry if you are not sure which one to use – just choose one for now.

After you have added your email, they will send you a link to click on.

Then you will select a username and password for your account.

It is at this point that you can upload an image that you would like to use assign any other emails to the same image.

Viola – now you have your own avatar that will follow you around the web when you post on people's comments.

Go off and get yourself an avatar and then come back and try it out in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you!!

Stacey is a coach, trainer and speaker who supports Authors and Aspiring Authors create an online presence through WordPress and Social Media training. Stacey's hands-on style, supportive nature and extensive knowledge make her the perfect go-to resource.

I Need Someone to Like Me – Anyone Will Do!

Stacey Myers — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:00:40 +0000

I Need Someone to Like Me – Anyone Will Do!

Something I am seeing more and more of lately is people purchasing fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter. This really is not a very good thing to do and I am going to explain to you why.

There seems to be two types of people that purchase follower/fans.

People that are not really sure what they are doing. They know they should be on social media and they think that the larger the numbers the better. They do not realise that it is better to have 10 people on their page that are highly engaged, than 1000 on there that never interact with anything that has been posted.

The other ones know better, but fall into the ‘keeping up with the Jones’’ mentality and buy people so they can catch up with their competitors, want to look good or are impatient.

I can see why people feel the pressure to buy fans.

I just recently shut down the page for one of my friends. She had bought herself 2000 fans from one of these companies. She then had about 15 real fans also. She was getting very disheartened that every time she posted something on her wall no one would comment on it, or the person commenting would be writing in a different language.

Having bought that many fans there was no way she was probably ever going to get the interaction on her page that she wanted. To her great dismay, I said the only way she was going to be able to build a page with an engaged audience was to start again. After a slight tantrum and a tear nearly shed, she agreed that that was probably the best way forward.

This was a hard lesson for her as she had been beating her head against the wall trying to get engagement, with no results, for months and months. I had explained to her how the Facebook edgerank (see below) worked many months previously, but until she was able to see it for herself and see all of her hard work reaping no rewards that she finally conceded to starting again.

Please don’t let this happen to you or anyone you know.

The effect does not seem to be quite as dramatic on twitter but it is still there. You will miss out on the relationships and interactions that are only available on accounts that have been fostered organically or in a targeted way. It is quite often the people that have purchased followers that don’t comprehend the power of twitter for building relationships – both with readers and other business owners.

I mentioned the word Edgerank before. Facebook has an algorithm that determines who gets to see your posts. You may be very surprised to know that not everyone that has liked your page sees every post you make – they may not ever see one. (I can hear the collective gasps of horror!)

I will go into this further in a follow up post but here is an outline of how it works. There are 3 factors that distinguish if people see your posts.

Affinity

How well you are connected with your audience. The more someone interacts with you the more likely they are to see your posts. Someone I know asked me why I never commented on any of her posts. I said that I did not ever see her posts in my newsfeed and as I didn’t visit her page specifically had never seen them. She, of course, was mortified to know that not everyone saw what she posted. I went to her page, liked a few things and commented on a few posts and voila she started showing up in my news feed. By liking and commenting I had let facebook know that her information was important to me, so they started showing it in my newsfeed.

This is why engagement on your page is so important, the more people engage with you the more likely your content is going to show up in their feeds.

Weight

This is the weight of the content – how popular and what it is. The general concensus is that videos, photos and links have more weight than an update without those and they are more likely to be shared by followers. I know myself, I am much more likely to share a great picture than a quote just written as an update. The interesting thing is that is also takes note of what you find most interesting – if you watch a lot of video in your stream then more video will show up.

Recency/Time Decay

How fresh is your content? This one is quite obvious, your post will be seen more in the few minutes after you post it with diminishing returns the older it gets.

If you have bought fans or followers, please do not feel disheartened. You may have to start your page again or you may have to work even harder to get more genuine likes/followers, but it will be well worth it in the end. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Do you have any stories about people paying for fans or followers? I would love to hear them.

Leave your comments below!!

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages – Thanks Mari Smith

Stacey Myers — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:00:24 +0000

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages – Thanks Mari Smith

Mari Smith has written a very comprehensive and informative post on the Facebook Timeline for Business Pages. She covers 21 Key Points to Know.

I have here the initial part of the post and if you click on the image it will take you to her page, where you can get the rest of the graphic and read the complete the post.

If you have not yet converted your Facebook fan page over to the new Timeline design, your page will automatically convert on March 30th, 2012 which is coming up fast. This post covers the majority of basic settings and features you need to know. Even if you’ve upgraded, you’ll find some tips here!

First, review this marked up screenshot for a tour of most of the features — click the image to view full size (you may need to click again on the image on the next page):

Leave the link to your Facebook Timeline below, I would love to take a look!!

Collection of Author Websites

Stacey Myers — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:00:02 +0000

I have put together a selection of simple but effective author websites. Make your way through them and use on your site what you think works well and leave behind what does not. I am not critiquing these sites I did that in my post – 'Author Websites – The Good, The Not So Good and the Well… Excellent!!'

The One and Only Ivan

Carol Adrienne

Mary Kay Andrews

Louisa Young

Nicholas Sparks

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above.

Leave your comments below!!

Author Websites – The Good, The Not So Good and the Well… Excellent!!

Stacey Myers — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:00:27 +0000

Author Websites – The Good, The Not So Good and the Well… Excellent!!

I have been looking at a lot of Author websites to see what works and what doesn't. I have found some that I am going to share here with you.

I am starting with the very amazing site of Dan Brown. The site does not come under any of the above categories – it has one of its own – WOW!! This is not the type of website you should aspire to, but it is worth a look and a mention purely for its wow factor. Very impressive and I can imagine – very expensive!

Lulu Taylor – I really like that as soon as you look at Lulu's page you can see she is an author. Her book takes up a big part of the front page – which is great! Her page is warm and inviting and I think straight away that she is a person I would want to spend more time with. The only thing for me is that she is missing many opportunities to connect with her readers. The link to her Facebook page is written in small writing on her front and contact page and her Twitter link is hidden away on her contact page.

One Apple Tasted. The first thing I noticed was a video on the front page, which I thought was great, but it would not load. The next thing was that the dates have expired. The book again, took pride of place on the page which if fantastic. I did find it a little difficult to follow when certain bits of information ended and new began. I do like how she has a lovely picture of herself on the front page, so you know whose website you are on straight away.

Victoria Alexander, I love this website. It is a little flasher than needed but I think it is beautiful! It has the book on the front page, there are links to social media, a lovely picture of the author. I think this has been put together very nicely!! You can even sign up to her newsletter on the front page.

In my next post I am going to show you some websites you could easily put together yourself with some knowledge on how to use WordPress. The Lulu Taylor and Elizabeth Alexander sites are both WordPress websites but you would need the help of a designer to create the Elizabeth Alexander site, whereas you would be able to easily learn how to put together a site like Lulu Taylor's yourself, or get it done for you inexpensively.

A few points to take awaway are:

Put your book on the front page – you spend all of that time writing it, you may as well show it off as much as you can.
Have links to your social media sites highly visible so people can connect with you there.
Have links on your page so that people can share your content out through their social media channels.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above.

Leave your comments below!!

Timeline for Business Pages – Creating Quite a Buzz

Stacey Myers — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:00:52 +0000

Timeline for Business Pages
- Creating Quite a Buzz

Well, Facebook has done it again. Made a massive change that has everyone in a whirl. The latest: timelines for Facebook Pages, just like they have on the profile pages.

There were literally hundreds of blog articles appearing yesterday. I have looked through and found the best of them for you.

Here you will find Facebook's own tutorial - http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/.

It starts with a brief overview and then goes into more detail.

Likeable Media put out a great post written by Cara Friedman. Aptly named:

Everything You Need To Know (And More) About Facebook Timelines For Brands

It lays out all of the changes with a brief description of each.

One of the most interesting things and important to note are the restrictions on what you can put in your cover image.

If you would prefer to watch a video, Cas McCullough from Support a WAHP has created one.

The article referred to in the video is – Timeline for Business Facebook Pages – an Overview

Then, after all of that, if you still have questions, check out Facebook's question page.

I am going to wait a bit before changing over as I want to get all of my graphics prepared first. I think like with most things on Facebook, once we get used to them we like them.

If you have any questions or are not sure exactly what to do, please leave a question for me below or on my Facebook page.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the changes!
Leave your comments below!!

Manage Flitter – Twitter Application

Stacey Myers — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:00:31 +0000

Manage Flitter – Twitter Application

People have been asking me which 3rd party applications I use to manage my Twitter account. Here is a video showing you how to use Manage Flitter. I use this approximately once a week.

This is 'Manage Flitter'. It helps you to:

Clean up and manage who you follow.
Find out who isn't following you back.
Find out which inactive accounts you follow.
Easily search inside your Twitter stream.
Link Google+ to your Twitter account.

Stacey Myers

Making the Most of Book Events

Making the Most of Book Events

Launching Today: Allergies, and Awesome You

Launching Today: Allergies, and Awesome You

Twitter 2012 Infographic

Twitter 2012 Infographic

How Do I Create My Own Avatar?

How Do I Create My Own Avatar?

Go off and get yourself an avatar and then come back and try it out in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you!!

I Need Someone to Like Me – Anyone Will Do!

I Need Someone to Like Me – Anyone Will Do!

Affinity

Weight

Recency/Time Decay

Do you have any stories about people paying for fans or followers? I would love to hear them. Leave your comments below!!

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages – Thanks Mari Smith

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages – Thanks Mari Smith

Leave the link to your Facebook Timeline below, I would love to take a look!!

Collection of Author Websites

The One and Only Ivan

Carol Adrienne

Mary Kay Andrews

Louisa Young

Nicholas Sparks

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above. Leave your comments below!!

Author Websites – The Good, The Not So Good and the Well… Excellent!!

Author Websites – The Good, The Not So Good and the Well… Excellent!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above. Leave your comments below!!

Timeline for Business Pages – Creating Quite a Buzz

Timeline for Business Pages - Creating Quite a Buzz

Everything You Need To Know (And More) About Facebook Timelines For Brands

Would love to hear your thoughts on the changes! Leave your comments below!!

Manage Flitter – Twitter Application

Manage Flitter – Twitter Application

Would love to hear which applications you use for twitter! Leave your comments below!!

Do you have any stories about people paying for fans or followers? I would love to hear them.

Leave your comments below!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above.

Leave your comments below!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the websites above.

Leave your comments below!!

Timeline for Business Pages
- Creating Quite a Buzz

Would love to hear your thoughts on the changes!
Leave your comments below!!

Would love to hear which applications you use for twitter!
Leave your comments below!!