Not Getting Ink? Then Self-Publish

I recently came across a blog post by investor, writer, entrepreneur James Altucher.  In it, he talks about his decision to move from traditional publishing to self-publishing, and the benefits and process of self-publishing. In fact, Altucher says entrepreneurs should also be self-publishers.  I have written a couple of  books myself (although I've only published one of them), but those books had nothing at all to do my business. So his piece is quite timely because my plan is to self-publish an ebook or two on marketing and small business development.   Self-publishing can be a low-cost way to create new marketing and promotional opportunities, to expand your brand and create another revenue stream (though probably a small one, but then again, you never know).

Altucher has published eight books, of which three were self-published.  He says that after considering the dwindling profit margins in the publishing industry, along with numerous other headaches such as the time it takes between having your book accepted and it being published ( usually about a year), he'll only self-publish from now on.  This makes perfectly good sense given that technology can shrink the timeline to two or three weeks from when you write your book to it being available for people to read it.

You may have heard of Altucher, especially if you're into investing, he's built a couple of successful financial websites, written for the Wall Street Journal and featured weekly on CNBC.  You'd think that with his high profile he'd rather skip the grunt work and stick with traditional methods. Not so. Granted, he's had some rocky times with traditional publishers, but he says he'll never go back.  And that's understandable.  He spent a whopping $70 to self-publish his first book, using Amazon's createspace.com (that included formatting for Kindle).  From what I know about self-publishing, that seemed unusually low. But after reading how he did it, I can see how it's possible.  By the way, I'd appreciate it if you'll use the Amazon search box on this site when looking up createspace.com.

Also, drop me a line, or post a comment, and I'll tell let you know if you qualify to have your ebook published and marketed for free.

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What's In a Brand?

Just pick up any marketing or advertising trade publication, or visit the numerous websites focusing on these industries, and you'll come across endless articles about the brand.  I've have read many definitions of what a brand is, even what it is not.  I've also found that there are as many different definitions, or interpretations of what constitutes a brand, as there are experts.  My own definition is really quite simple.  A brand is the essence of your business, represented distinctively and consistently.

What Color Are You?

What color are you? I'm talking about your brand color. It's something that can be easily overlooked, but shouldn't be. For years, marketing professionals have applied their knowledge of the psychological effect of colors when branding for large corporations. Who doesn't know about the golden arches or Big Blue? However, I must admit that I associated the orange ball with "I-N-G", long before I even knew what ING was (just in case you still don't know, ING provides financial services).

Carefully selecting your color when branding is important whether you're branding a company, product, service, or yourself (you don't have to be a celebrity to have a personal brand). Lots of research has been conducted and shows a strong relationship between color and marketing. Research from CCICOLOR Institute for Color Research, reveals that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

Color theorists have more extensive descriptions of value judgements and color, but here's my Cliffsnotes version.

WHITE – purity, peace, contentment
BLACK – boldness, seriousness, elegance
Gray or Silver – high tech, authority, practicality
GOLD – wealth, prosperity, happiness
BLUE – sanctuary, faithfulness, confidence.
RED – warmth, power, excitement
YELLOW – spiritual, happiness, warmth
GREEN – freedom, healing, tranquility
BROWN – richness, politeness, helpfulness
ORANGE – contentment, pleasure,
PINK – gentleness, romance, well being
PURPLE – royalty, spirituality, dignity

In my next post, I'll look what colors have to say about your website.

Maximizing Your Marketing Efforts on Facebook

Facebook has become a favorite destination for anyone wishing to market a product, service, organization or even themselves.  And why not?  It's very functional.  You can post photos, videos, links and customize your page with an assortment of applications, just for starters.  If you are conducting a campaign, you can send updates--even targeting those updates by age, gender or location, set up an events calendar or engage in discussions.  With an investment of time and creative energy, you can succeed in the all important areas of branding, customer engagement, new customer acquisition, reputation management and lead generation, the very things that make a marketing, advertising or public relations campaign successful.

Thanks to a study conducted by Buddy Media, Facebook's marketing firm, we are learning more about best practices for posting on Facebook's brand pages.  Yesterday, we looked at a finding from the study which showed why customized URLs are important for extending a user's length of engagement.  Another key finding is that we should KISS our posts.  Not literally of course, but keep it short and sweet.  According to the study, posts containing 80 characters or less on average, had a 27% higher rate of engagement than those with more than 80 characters, however, these accounted for only 19% of all posts.  This can be a real challenge because we have so much to say, and of course it's all so very interesting. Perhaps one solution might be to post more often, using shorter posts.  Think Twitter, or maybe that's think micro Twitter since you can post up to 140 characters there.

Other key findings from the study:

• Thursday and Friday are peak interaction days.  The rate of engagement jumped by 18%.  More people commented and "Liked" posts on these days. (Data from Facebook reveals that there are actually certain days when we are happier and Friday appears to be that day as activity on the site jumps by 10%.  Read more about the Gross National Happiness Index.)
• Monday through Wednesday, engagement rates dropped by 3.5%, and by 18% on Saturday.
• As for the time of day, the Buddy Media study reveals that 60% of posts are made between 10:00am and 4:00 pm.  However, engagement rates are 20% higher outside of traditional work hours. "By posting within business hours, brands miss the critical opportunity to get the visibility they need for maximum engagement," according to the report. "So schedule posts to appear early in the morning or late at night. Don't publish simply because you're in front of your computer," noted the report.

Other recommendations from the report include:

• Avoid the hard sell.  Use promotional keywords like "winner" and "events" rather than the more direct terms "contest" or "coupon.
• Keywords like "how," "who," "what" and "when" are useful for driving interaction -- but "why," is not. "'Why' has both the lowest 'Like' and comment rates and may be perceived as intrusive and/or challenging,"
• Be direct in asking users for "Likes" and comments.  Place questions at the end of a post (rather than the beginning or middle) to increase the chances of getting a response. Posts ending with a question have a 15% higher engagement rate.

The bottom line:  Facebook can be a great tool for business.  But don't just rely on the site's bells and whistles, use a strategic approach to your Facebook campaign to maximize your marketing efforts.