What Does It Mean To Build A Brand? - We Grow Media. Last week, I talked about the value of writers building their “brand” by connecting with their community and potential readers.
That a “brand” is not a dirty word that equates to putting a fake surface on yourself in order to sell something. That branding is about learning how to effectively communicate your purpose and value, within the context of the needs and desires of those in your community. I have been spending the last quarter of 2011 considering how to build the brand of We Grow Media. This encapsulates two levels: The underlying purpose – what drives this company, and what effect we hope to have in the world. I want this brand to be something bigger than one person, which is why I didn’t start “Dan Blank Consulting LLC” – I started We Grow Media.
In considering what the We Grow Media brand is, I have been considering the journey of the writer. Financial gain is not the ultimate validation for your work. That you want to truly impact the lives of others, not just move product. 31 Self Publishing Tips for Small Press Month from Brent Sampson, author of Sell Your Book on Amazon. Note: The following is a guest post by Brent Sampson, the author of Sell Your Book on Amazon.
Brent was a popular early Published & Profitable’s interview guest. I’m passing it along to emphasize that authors should carefully evaluating all publishing alternatives. In addition, many of the following tips can also be used for books published in other formats. Since March is Small Press Month, this is the month to promote your self-published book! With that in mind, here are 31 ways you can market & promote your book during Small Press Month, one for each day of March.
Mar 1 – If you do not have enough author’s copies on hand, contact your publisher and order more so they arrive in enough time to pursue these other tips throughout the month. Mar 2 – Contact other independent published authors in your area (through local associations you may belong to) and combine your resources to fully exploit the opportunities during this month. Remember, always pitch with WIIFM in mind.
ShareThis. How to Create a Social Media Strategy: The Ignite Method. One of the questions we get from serious brand marketers is exactly how does a company develop a social media strategy that drives business results.
In December, I had a chance to consult with 7 companies throughout Australia over a fun-filled, but hectic line-up of meetings in Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney. And I shared with them a deck outlining how we do exactly that. We call it the Ignite Method of Social Media Strategy Development and we've taken a number of the world's best brands through it, producing detailed strategic plans that outline the social media marketing execution path for the next 6 to 12 months.
If I'm willing to share it in those meetings, I thought it would be helpful to share on the blog as well. Below I've re-created the 24-minute presentation for you as a screencast. We created the Community Analysis and Community Engagement Plan model in late 2007, at a time when few people were applying serious marketing planning to social media efforts. 1. 2. 3. 4. 50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day. Writing rules.
Self-promotion drools. Isn’t this how most writers think? But as long as you view your writing as art and your self-promotion efforts as the furthest thing from art, your chances of ramping up a successful 21st-century writing career are going to remain slim to none. These days, there’s an art to writing and an art to self-promotion. From the moment you start putting words to the page, it’s never too early to start thinking about how you’re going to share them.
Books aren’t written overnight—they’re developed one day at a time. So, if you’re the kind of writer who prefers being read to being unknown (who doesn’t?) Listen & Learn 1. 3 Ways Google Social Search Should Change Your Marketing. Since the introduction of Google+, Google has been redefining how it can provide more relevant search results.
Recently Google introduced Search, Plus Your World, something I’ll call Google social search. This new enhancement has made it essential to have a Google+ profile and/or Google+ business page. Why? Google is highlighting Google+ content in search results. This article will share three tips you need to know to benefit from Google social search. By the way, if you haven’t already done so, create a Google+ page for your business. Once the page is created, engage with people and other businesses, share great content and post publicly every day. Five advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing social media. By Alexandra Reid Outsourcing social media has received mixed reviews and it seems that this debate is growing fiercer as businesses become increasingly more aware of the enormous impact social media can have on their reputation.
This heightened awareness likely stems from a combination of horror stories of outsourcing gone wrong, such as the well-studied case of Chrysler’s social media disaster, and what seems to be a recent increase in research in this area conducted by social media consultancies, internal marketing departments, PR and marketing agencies and third party publications.