New CloudAge™ Author posts

When I first started this blog, my original intent was to do research and discover ways that a mobile author—what I dubbed the CloudAge™ Author—could ply their craft with an iPad and occasional Internet connection. Since some time has passed since I first started blogging about it, it’s time I went back and reviewed the state of the field.

Previously …

Earlier in this series, I reviewed some tools for writing while on the go. Primarily, these tools were iPad based, and I’m going to go back and revisit some of them to see where they stand today. In particular, I will revisit Storyist, iA Writer, and Simplenote, as well as their connectivity to storage and desktop tools.

New Stuff

There have also been some changes in the CloudAge™ Author landscape in the past couple of years. Notably, Microsoft finally released their Office tools for the iPad, with full creating and editing abilities (a previous version only allowed users to view documents). I will review Word for iPad, and also look at some other new or significantly updated tools, such as Apple’s change in the iDisk (oops, I mean iCloud Drive).

Marketing with Social Media

One of the best, and worst, marketing tools in the CloudAge™ Author’s toolbox is social media in its varied forms. Best, because it can be done completely free and is reasonably simple to do. Worst, because that simplicity and lack of cost can make it a festering cesspool of sludge for your potential readers to wade through if they are to discover you.

One way to help your readers discover and follow you is to follow the tips in my previous blog on social media. Just as a reminder, social media is a two-way street, so retweeting/reposting the good content other people create is important and will help your readers. Don’t just flood your readers with ads for your book other writing projects, they’ll eventually tune you out if they don’t stop following you outright. Follow other authors, and when they find things you connect with, share their insights.

Marketing can overwhelm you if you aren’t careful. While word-of-mouth is absolutely the best way to get readers, someone has to start spreading the word initially to entice someone to read it. As a CloudAge™ Author let that someone be you, at first, but adopt some strategies to automate aspects of it whenever possible. Since I wrote an article specifically covering some of the automation of social media posting for a different blog, I’m not going to duplicate that here. Instead, head over to WritersLife.ORG to read my original post.

With that in mind, allow me to recommend a specific product: Hootsuite. I have a paid subscription to Hootsuite, and it is not necessary to pay for yours if you are the only person using it and you don’t need more than 3 social media profiles. This would be you if you only want to use Hootsuite to help mange your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, for example. One of the main advantages to a tool like Hootsuite (or SproutSocial or Buffer) is the automation tools. It is easy to get lost in the weeds (or, as Whitney Avalon sings, Going Down the Rabbit Hole) while finding good content to share. By using a tool like Hootsuite you can spend a little time searching for content to curate and schedule it to appear later in the day (or week), as well as schedule your own posts. By taking a few minutes to find and schedule these posts, you can create a stream of useful media postings for your readers to find. I will also do a how-to on Hootsuite, hopefully helping you to set up a solid social media marketing campaign while also entertaining and delighting your readers.

CloudAge™ Publishing

One other significant change in the landscape is the vast number of options that now exist for the CloudAge™ Author to publish their finished products. There is also a much wider availability of editing and proofreading services, many of which can be ad-hoc purchased from websites dedicated to brokering connections between people who need, and people who perform these services. I will look at a few of these and review their services.

In Conclusion

So, what comes next? In this series, I will be posting some updated reviews of older software, and including some new tools as well. I’ll help with the task of using social media to market yourself as an author, and give you some insights into the new publishing era that has evolved alongside the CloudAge™.

The CloudAge™ Author: Social Media discussion

Another part of the wonder of the CloudAge™, especially for an author, is social media; that is, the Internet-connected apps and software ecosystems where people congregate to create, exchange, and/or consume information (my definition, and not necessarily comprehensive). An author in the present time has an opportunity to create a brand around themselves before even being published, and can leverage that brand later when communicating with agents or publishers. Indeed, many agents & publishers now require an existing social media presence for debut authors, because it demonstrates a willingness by the author to be fully present in marketing themselves and their work—which alleviates certain burdens of the agent or publication editor & their marketing departments. Here are some of my observations, and collected experience and advice, on how CloudAge™ Authors can leverage social media to their advantage. In a later blog, I will go over some specific marketing advice I've culled and collected over time; for now, I'm just going to go over some of these entities.

First, some limitations: there are dozens and dozens of social media networks and apps around. Since we don't literally have all day and night and all day and all night tomorrow to go over them all, and I am reasonably certain that I don't know them all, I'm going to focus on a few that will either:

1. have the most potential reach (that is, you will get the most eyeballs for your time); or,
2. the most focused audience(s) (ones that target writers & readers in particular).

Next, let's talk about size. As of August 2015¹, Facebook was the largest social network in terms of active users, with nearly 1.5 Billion active users. The next four in descending order are the Chinese IM service QQ with 832 Million active users, WhatsApp with 800 Million, Facebook Messenger with 700 million, and QZone, the social network counterpart to QQ, with 668 Million. The next five after that are WeChat, Twitter, Skype, Google+, and Instagram.

With these sizes in mind, the stats are a little bit misleading. Although there are a lot of users on the QQ, QZone, and WeChat sites, they are primarily in China (all of them are properties of Tencent, a Chinese holding company). If you publish and distribute there now, then these will be good networks on which to market, but keep in mind that advertising is strongly regulated in China. I would certainly advise communicating with a marketing or PR firm with extensive experience in Chinese marketing, rather than trying to go it alone (at least at first)². I also will not be terribly concerned with Facebook Messenger; although now it can be used without a Facebook account, it is still largely populated by users already counted in the Facebook count.

Leaving these four out, the six left over are Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, Google+, and Instagram.

Third, let's discuss "purpose" and "suitability for a particular use," as far as CloudAge™ Authors and social media are concerned. More to the point, what is a given social media's core function and how to best use it to your brand's advantage, as a CloudAge™ Author.

For all its various changes, upheavals, and acquisitions, Facebook remains largely a friend-network medium. That is, it is still primarily a way for individual people to stay in touch, and keep up, with other individual people. There are some business features, and Facebook is certainly trying to incorporate more ways for people to interact with paid advertising (and, in the process, largely alienate the businesses that use Facebook), but for all that, it's really just about individual people interacting with each other. Because of its sheer mass of active users, it is going to be essentially a requirement for an author to have a Facebook Page for their brand. I do not, however, advocate the use of Facebook as a primary marketing tool; instead, focus on making your Facebook page a replacement for the portal of days gone by. Today, it should be a gateway to your other marketing efforts. There are a couple of main reasons for my feeling on this. First, Facebook has made it nigh-on impossible to have any "organic" reach until you expand your Page Likes into the thousands—even then, they make it difficult to reach your audience in their News Feed—instead forcing Page owners to spend money advertising with questionable results (and metrics), as well as questionable reach³. Second, your best bet to grow your Facebook Page likes will be through the same word of mouth that will accompany your book promotion anyway. Instead of spending additional money to drive Page likes, spend it instead on other media which includes an option to "Like" your Facebook Page as well, and kill two birds with one stone. Put your Facebook Page URL everywhere you have your blog, website, Twitter handle, or other social media links.

This is not to say that you shouldn't have a Facebook Page; to the contrary, simply due to the enormous reach of Facebook, it is virtually required to have one. Instead, I recommend using the Facebook page as essentially an extended "about me" and a portal, and that most of your Facebook posts be links to other resources, such as your blog or website. Use the Facebook page to give Facebook users a place to find you, and then click on your blog posts to read your updates. Definitely use the "Shop now" button though; the "call to action" can drive potential sales straight to your Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other website page where the Facebook user can immediately purchase your latest writing.

WhatsApp, along with Facebook Messenger (if you consider it separately) is an instant messaging service; think of it as a replacement for your phone's text messaging application. All three of them are direct-to-device communications; that is, you compose a message—from the phone's messaging app using SMS/MMS, or with the WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger app—and send it directly to the devices registered for the recipient(s). All of them support messaging lists (although, not all the same way, or well), enabling you to "blast" information to multiple recipients directly all at once. Unfortunately, this is often considered bad form, and will likely rapidly result in your brand being unfollowed.

Twitter has been referred to as a "microblog" service; while that might be one way to describe it, I have always seen it basically as Facebook Lite; basically all you have are status updates. Right now, those status updates are limited to 140 characters (including URLs and image links), so they must be very brief. What is great about Twitter is exactly that, though: short, descriptive entries, with images and links to more comprehensive information. In addition, it is an excellent place to find content you can "RT" (re-tweet), which is one way to gain respectability: when another author posts a blog you find useful, or an editor or agent posts a "call for submissions," retweeting them will get other people's attention. Don't underestimate the ability of a network of other authors and editors to get you noticed!

Skype is essentially a video-conferencing app; in many ways, it is a replacement for a telephone. One innovative use of Skype, however, is the creation of video (or audio) blog entries; if you are interviewed over Skype (and have obtained the necessary permissions, if any), record the interview—and do any post-production needed—then post it on your website or blog, and link to it using your other social media tools. This can be especially useful if you happen to land a large-impact interview, you can use the buzz generated from it for a long time⁴.

Google+ is Google's foray into the social media marketplace. For a while, it was a required element for anyone with any Google account—from gmail to youtube—to tie their account to Google+; Google has since relaxed this requirement significantly. The Google+ team also recently lost its head honcho, and seems to be languishing. It does come with a couple of extremely useful tools, however; Hangouts (which can be used without Google+, although it does require a Google Apps account in that case), and YouTube (which is not technically part of Google+, but since it is so useful I will definitely cover it here). Hangouts is a great tool for interacting with your fans or followers, as well as the media; you can schedule events where fans can ask questions and get instant feedback, and you can conduct multi-user video chats. Recording these (again, with permission when needed) and producing them for inclusion in your blog can reap multiple, long-reaching benefits. YouTube can be a very useful marketing tool for hosting your recorded videos, and you can create content specifically for YouTube as well—see, as an example, the Princess Rap Battles by Whitney Avalon, among others. A software company might post a series of "how-to" videos, showing how their software works; an author might post those video or audio interviews we discussed earlier, as well as short blurbs about their work(s).

Instagram is primarily a photo sharing network, now owned by Facebook. Since Instagram and Facebook share a lot of photo publishing connectivity, it makes sense to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and then post your images through Instagram to both sites simultaneously. While an author may not necessarily use this as a specific marketing tool often, you can certainly think of ways it might help build audience (organically, I might add!): you could post the photos of your trips to interviews, selfies at book signings with your fans, even just your goings-on about town. It can also be a great place to get feedback and/or exposure for your book by posting book covers.

One final site that deserves special mention for authors is Goodreads. Although it does not have nearly the user base as the others on this list, the users it does have are readers. The vast majority of people on Goodreads are book lovers, and that makes Goodreads a highly self-selected, targeted group for exactly what you do: write. There are also many authors on Goodreads, with whom you can connect and exchange information, tips, and spread goodwill.

Finally, let's consider that all of these social media platforms are two-way streets. It is not enough to merely sit and announce your own projects, but also to use the platforms to connect with other people. If your postings are all you tooting your own horn, eventually people will become inured to your sound and ignore it. Instead, use your platforms to announce as well as delight, inform, and also to help spread the reach of other people whom you find interesting. In a later blog post, I will discuss some specific strategies for overall social media marketing, as part of a general marketing plan, but for now remember that your fans will be much more likely to stick with you if you can not only write amazing books, but also inform them about the amazing works of other authors, as well as information they will find entertaining, useful, and enlightening.

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Footnotes:
1: Statista, "Leading social networks worldwide as of August 2015, ranked by number of active users (in millions)", August 1st, 2015, http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ (back)

2: Henry Fong, Forbes, "5 Things You Need To Know About Chinese Social Media", October 25th, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/10/25/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-chinese-social-media/ (although a blog entry aimed at software developers, the general advice is applicable to anyone interested in leveraging Chinese social media marketing) (back)

3: I have a Facebook Page for my Author self (see what I did there? ;), and I have also worked with startups helping manage their social media. In all cases, "legitimate" likes purchased in "Promote your Page" campaigns from Facebook's official tools resulted in a vast majority of Page likes who were almost certainly fake, despite having come through legitimate, narrowly targeted Facebook ads or like campaigns. As is explained in a YouTube video from Veritasium ( https://youtu.be/oVfHeWTKjag ), this actually makes the organic reach of a page worse, since Facebook distribution of posts to your network of Likes is dependent on the engagement the post gets from the random subset of profiles Facebook selects from the outset. If that random initial post doesn't get much engagement, the rest of your network never sees the post at all; if there is a large percentage of your Page 'likes' from these fake likes, then the engagement will be low at the outset, which will damage your reach significantly. Despite the constant complaints of businesses small and large, and Facebook's insistence they are combating it, absolutely nothing has changed in the past 18-20 months on this issue, as my latest test (from August of 2015) shows. It is due to this ongoing fake "like" issue, even for "legitimate" like promotions through Facebook itself that I strongly discourage anyone trying to run an Author brand from paying Facebook for likes or ads (and, definitely don't pay anyone but the most vetted social media promoters for them, either). For additional reference and information on the problem with Facebook Likes and Ads, see also these blogs (many of which reference the Veritasium video, but also other sources, as well as their own experiences in some cases):

• African-American Literature Book Club, "Serious Problems with Facebook Promotion", October 11th, 2015, http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2015/10/11/problems-facebook-promotion/
• Jim Edwards, Business Insider, "Facebook Advertisers Complain Of A Wave Of Fake Likes Rendering Their Pages Useless", February 11th, 2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertising-fake-likes-2014-2
• Jennifer Sleg, Search Engine Watch, "Facebook Ad Fraud: How Can Advertisers Combat Paid Likes?", February 19th, 2014, http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2329878/facebook-ad-fraud-how-can-advertisers-combat-paid-likes

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4: As discussed in Guerrilla Marketing, the savvy guerrilla marketer inside any author will get big bang for small bucks, when re-using certain content. In the book, the author describes re-using a one-time ad in popular magazines (Time, for example), putting it on a great big posterboard inside the front office with the blurb "as seen in Time," and reaping the rewards from that for as long as possible. This, it seems to me, would certainly apply to interviews via Skype or other video chat apps (Hangouts, for example) as well. (back)