Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 48

Google Plus Could Help Businesses Find Content to Share on Other Social Media Sites

First, a disclaimer: I have not yet been able to snag an invite to personally try the new Google+ social network.

But I have read several articles about this new offering from Google, and there appears to be something very promising for businesses.

According to the articles, Google+ is for individuals and is not yet set up for brands (read businesses) to use effectively.

But there is a feature of Google+ that may be very helpful for businesses looking for an efficient way to find content to share on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Google+ has a feature called Sparks, which allows you to identify what info you're interested in knowing about. Google then uses its search engine capability to deliver this info to you from all over the Internet.

Thus you could set up an individual account on Google+, get the content of interest delivered to you via Sparks, check out the material, and then share on Facebook, Twitter, etc. what is best suited for your business social media outreach efforts.

The Sparks feature of Google+ definitely sounds as if it could become a handy tool for businesses to find quality content to share on other social media sites.

Now if I could just get a Google+ invite I could try out this concept …

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC



Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people effectively set up their accounts on these sites.

Revisiting Sharing Info on Social Media

Often when I speak with people about using social media to create relationships online for their brand, book, cause or business, their major concern is how much time it takes to actively participate on, for example, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

And my response is that, while it is very important to share info rather than "sell" your products or services, it doesn't have to take a lot of time to do this.

Yes, in an ideal world you or someone in your company would post original blog posts at least twice a week on subjects related to what your company offers.

But we have to accept that we don't live in an ideal world.

In other words, ongoing blogging may just not be realistic for you or your company.

But don't despair, there are numerous ways to share quality info.

Here is one imaginary example:

Let's suppose you have a retail store in Los Angeles that sells specialty items. You've just been able to obtain several Belgian lace items and you want to interest your connections on social media in buying these Belgian lace items.

You don't want to just tweet "buy this Belgian lace" nor do you have the time to blog about how beautiful these pieces are.

What can you do?

You can do a Google search and find an article someone has written describing Belgian lace. (Someone who doesn't sell this lace.) Now you link to this article in your tweets and your Facebook Page updates.

Then in one or two follow-up tweets and updates you can state that you've just had the luck to obtain some Belgian lace items for your store. You still don't say "buy these items" but you've already shared info about the value of these items and people know you have a retail store.

In following this strategy, you've provided information that creates an interest in a niche market – Belgian lace items – and then you've established that your store has several such items.

And you've done this without writing any blog posts. You've simply shared information through your social media activities.

Yes, this does take some strategic planning. But as you get more and more familiar with this type of social media info sharing, you will be able to accomplish your objectives in a relatively short amount of time.

If you're still concerned how much time social media participation might take, start slowly with just one site. Then expand to additional sites as your comfort level increases.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help book authors and other professional service providers set up their accounts on these sites.

Prediction: J.K. Rowling's Pottermore Will Change the Entire eBook Landscape

Because of J.K. Rowling's hugely successful Harry Potter books, I believe that her new site Pottermore will impact the ebook landscape for all authors.

To begin with, there's the question of DRM (Digital Rights Management), which if placed on an ebook prevents the ebook from being read on multiple ebook platforms:



Just as I was wrestling with this question for my upcoming ebook release of "Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders," articles about the Pottermore announcement stated that Rowling will NOT use DRM on the Harry Potter ebooks.

That made my decision very easy. I'm going to emulate J.K. Rowling and not put DRM on "Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders."

Second, there is the comfort level with reading ebooks that should increase thanks to Pottermore:

People who up to now have not been reading ebooks may decide to start so that they can carry around with them all of Harry's adventures on a small device rather than lugging around even one of the heavy Harry Potter tomes.

Of course, once these people get accustomed to reading on an ebook platform, they can be expected to read other books on an ebook platform.

This second point is extremely important because many people have difficulty deciding to try new technologies. But with Harry Potter ebooks paving the way, these difficulties may be more easily overcome by millions of Potter fans.



Third, more people will be able to legally obtain a book than they can now:



For example, people in South Africa speak English but often an American or British book is not released at all in South Africa or only released many months after the book is released in the U.S. or the U.K. Thus South African fans of a particular author may be reduced to trying to obtain an author's new book whatever way they can.

The Pottermore site will enable people all over the world to buy the ebooks at the same time, thereby overcoming this obstacle of a country-by-country publishing pattern.

Imagine how this ability can encourage other book authors to make ebook versions available when their books first come out. This way everyone around the world who wants to can read the book when it is first available.

(On a personal note, the Pottermore site description gave me an idea for Yael's website www.HurricaneHoodoo.com for her as yet unfinished Middle Grade fantasy novel "Jack Strom and New Orleans Hoodoo." She can add games and interactive activities to the site to get Middle Grade readers interested in the proposed book series.)

These new ebook opportunities being championed by J.K. Rowling are very exciting for book authors and book readers. And it will also be exciting to see the even more new opportunities that will undoubtedly soon arise.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at @ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at @MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help book authors and other professional service providers set up their accounts on these sites.

Using Social Media for a Public Service Project: Theodore Knell and Wounded Warriors

Social media platforms offer tremendous opportunities for businesses to get in front of prospective target markets.

And social media platforms also have an equally important role in providing tremendous opportunities to offer public service to a niche group of people.

I first met author Theodore Knell online through a mutual connection who, if I remember correctly, found me on Twitter.

Theo is an ex-British Special Forces soldier who saw combat all over the world during his 22 years of service in the military. His memoir FROM THE CORNERS OF A WOUNDED MIND is incredibly compelling.

He uses both narrative and poetry to convey the emotions of soldiers who, in order to protect those of us safe at home, must undertake dangerous and psyche-crushing missions.

Theo was new to social media when his book was published, and he was very open to learning from others.

Now he has taken his use of social media to another level by creating a forum called "Hushed Voices." Here is the intro to the forum:

Are you the spouse, family member, or close friend of a serving or ex-serviceman or woman? Are you struggling with the changes in your warrior after an operational deployment? If so, then "Hushed Voices" was created with you in mind.

This community is open to service families across the world, regardless of which flag your warrior fights under. Whether it's American, English, Australian etc, we all suffer in the same way, and it's you, our families, who are left to pick up the pieces and cope with the fall out.

In a very short period of time Theo has gone from using social media to get out the word about his book to using social media to help others who have experienced the trauma that he and his family have experienced.

I immediately joined his new forum to give support to this project, and I hope you will also consider joining. Public service projects such as this one truly deserve our support.

Visit Theo's forum Hushed Voices right now.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

What Is the Deal With Book Authors Following Other Book Authors on Social Media?

Here is another question I got about social media marketing:

I see that fiction (romance) authors friending others from their publisher on Facebook, following each other on Twitter, following blogs, and tagging each other's books on Amazon. And even linking on Linked in.

My question is these "friends" aren't fans and they are unlikely to read blogs or buy the books or even recommend to their fans.

The authors already have ways to connect and support each other. So is this artificial pumping up of numbers a brilliant idea or not? For one, I'd like to keep Linked in for real professional contacts. What's your opinion?

I'm never in favor of doing things just so that a number counter on a social media site goes up. But I'm always in favor of creating concentric circles of people who might like your product or, as in this case, your book.

Let's think about this. I'm Author A and you follow me on Twitter. And let's say that I'm not going to buy your book but your book is in the same genre as mine.

Now here is what could happen: People following me on Twitter might notice a tweet by you. And they might click on your Twitter username to learn more about you. If you've done a good job of writing your Twitter bio, they might click through to your book's website to learn more.

Or perhaps my Twitter followers might notice your photo in my list of followers. Again, this may lead them to click on your username and then on your website.

Remember you're not looking for everyone in the world to read your book – you're looking for the people who enjoy the type of book you wrote to read your book.

With this perspective, it definitely makes sense to connect with fellow authors because the concentric circles to promote your book can start from anyone of them.

And, in exchange, I would hope that you would promote their books to your followers if their books are appropriate for your target markets. Do NOT say you have read a book when you haven't. But you can say, for example, that here is a book in the same genre as your book.

While there's no guarantee, I personally find that helping others on social media is a big game of "paying it forward." The person you help may not help you, but then some other person may have already helped you.

P.S. In terms of keeping LinkedIn for professional contacts, I believe that connecting with fellow book authors is professional. See the Book Marketing open group I manage on LinkedIn.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC



Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Social Media Accounts

I've recently been using Hootsuite, a software system that enables users to post updates on several social media sites at once, including what I consider the big three: Twitter, Facebook (Profiles and Pages), and LinkedIn.

I've been trying this out as an alternative to continuing to use the "Selective Tweets" app for Facebook and LinkedIn.

One advantage with Hootsuite is that for each update I can decide which of my Facebook Pages actually gets the specific update, something I couldn't do with "Selective Tweets."

You can get the FREE Hootsuite account, which allows five "tabs" — you can have your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook Page, Twitter, your Facebook personal profile and one more site if you want.

(I'm actually using the $6 a month option because I manage more than five profiles/accounts.)

One tip: I could not set up my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts on my Hootsuite account while using my usual browser of Firefox; I had to switch to Internet Explorer.

When I was frustrated trying to set up my accounts, I tweeted to http://twitter.com/hootsuite_help and found out about this browser issue. (If you usually use Chrome or Safari, you could try those first.)

Once my Hootsuite account was set up, I could go back to using Firefox for updating through the Hootsuite software.

Check out the FREE system now — www.hootsuite.com — to make it easier to participate on social media for your brand, book, cause or business. (This is NOT an affiliate link.)

P.S. And while we're on the subject of social media tips: If you're not yet using your Twitter account on a regular basis, do NOT put your Twitter username on your LinkedIn profile. Wait to do this when you are active on Twitter.

Otherwise having people click on a link only to find you're not active on Twitter doesn't look very professional.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

Beware of Copying Your Competitors on Social Media

If you are new to using social media for your business or company, you may decide that emulating how your competitors present themselves on social media is the best strategy for you.

Before you take this path, it's important to know if your competitors are using social media effectively. If they aren't, instead of copying their practices you should improve on their practices.



Now this objective to pull ahead of your competitors on major social media sites requires several steps:

First, you have to learn effective social media strategies in general.

Second, you have to adapt these strategies for the specific messages you'd like to get out on social media.

Third, you have to commit to these specific strategies consistently over the long haul.

Another important part of your social media strategies thing you must decide early on is:

Which target markets are you trying to connect with? In other words, who do you want to reach on social media?

This decision of who you are targeting is very relevant because otherwise your social media activities can be all over the place without a clear focus.

Effective Twitter profiles:

When it comes to Twitter, because Twitter profiles are so brief you may easily misjudge how to present your business or company.

As I've written before, I do NOT automatically follow back on Twitter. I check out the profile of every person/company who follows me.



Here are some of the most obvious Twitter profile problems I see (and which you might mistakenly believe are correct based on what others are doing):

1. No bio. Now why people don't understand the power of the 120-character bio is beyond me. Why should I follow you if I don't know what you're about?

2. No link. Again, why not make it easy for people to be interested in you? You can use a link to another social media site if you don't yet have your own website or blog.

3. No photo. Really? Why should I trust you?

4. Photo so bland it is unmemorable (such as a piece of technological equipment that doesn't look like anything).

Because social media can be so powerful for connecting with prospective clients and customers, spend the time to learn "best practices" and then put this information to good use.

Instead of playing follow the leader with your competitors, strive to become the leader yourself.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

Comparing Video Marketing and Email Marketing

Here is another question I received when I asked for questions about social media marketing:

Will email marketing be replaced by video marketing? Is video marketing and/or video email marketing more effective than email marketing?

First, I don't have a crystal ball so it is impossible to say for certain what the future will hold.

Second, I do have some opinions on this – and these opinions are probably valid for the next five years or so.

Video email marketing:



I do not believe that video email marketing will replace email marketing, at least for the near future, and here's why:

• Video has to be listened to (in most cases). If you are checking your email at work or at a restaurant or numerous other places, you are not going to want sound to be produced. If you have to wait to check your video email until later, you may never get back to it.

• Emails are much quicker to skim than listening to even a short video. Thus busy people will probably continue to prefer email messages than video messages.

• Not everyone has high speed Internet access. The time required on a slower speed computer to load a video email message may discourage viewing.

Video marketing:

Video marketing on websites, LinkedIn company pages, etc. is a different issue than video email marketing.

I believe video marketing can be extremely powerful – and my personal opinion is that most websites should have at least one short video (2 minutes or less) of the head of the company talking about the company.

But these videos are supplementary to the content elsewhere on the website, LinkedIn company page, etc. People can choose to watch these videos. And even here it's important not to have the sound come on automatically because people may be watching the video at work, for example.

In addition, different people enjoy messages in different formats. To rely exclusively on videos would seem short-sighted to me. And on the other hand, as videos become more easily available, it is no longer necessary to only rely on text emails if you would prefer to occasionally send video emails.

I realize that this is not a definite answer to the above questions, but there is no way to predict the future.

Who knows? In five years or less there may be something better than both email marketing and video email marketing – something that at the moment is only an idea in the mind of one person.

P.S. I particularly like videos for testimonials. See one for Miller Mosaic at the bottom of our home page (scroll down).

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

Do Your Social Media Profiles Make It Clear What Your Business Offers?

I belong to a weekly networking group – www.BeverlyHillsLeadsClub.com – and each week we have the opportunity to do a 30-second promotional at the beginning and also at the end of the meeting.

As we each take our turn to stand up and say our promotional (with a timer to stop us at 30 seconds), it's interesting to see how many people cannot clearly and succinctly describe what their business offers.

This same inability extends to social media profiles, where it is especially important to quickly convey what you offer.

First, though, let's understand that you do not need to describe your business in a way that casts a large untargeted net. Instead, you should cast your net over a very specific segment of potential clients or customers.



Let's say you're a financial planner:

You might say that your business is to help people plan for their financial future. But that is a very broad statement that doesn't bring to mind a specific mental picture. What does financial future mean? Are you a career coach? A business coach?

Instead, you might say that you help people prepare for retirement by advising on the best financial options for providing the kind of retirement income they would like.

True, if you talk about retirement planning, you probably won't attract a large number of young people. But you should have a better opportunity to connect with people who would like help planning for the specific goal of retirement rather than the general goal of their financial future.

We humans have been attracted to stories since cavemen started drawing on cave walls. Pictures caption our attention. And words that produce images in our minds are more powerful than non-visual words.

That's why, for example, planning for retirement — a word that produces mental pictures (although different for different people) — can resonate more than non-visual words such as financial future.



Review your social media profiles to see if you're speaking in visual terms or non-visual terms. If the latter, try changing your descriptions to visual words.



P.S. You might like to read my blog post "5 Reasons Why You Should Say Yes to Weekly Networking Meetings."

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC

Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.

Making Time for Social Media for Your Business or Book

I asked people on the Miller Mosaic email optin list what questions they had about social media and WordPress websites.

In response there were several interesting questions. And here is the first one I'm going to answer:

I've been soaking up information on social media and blogs for over a year now, and it is a staggering amount of stuff to process. With a new, first book due out this fall, I barely have anything in place online — there haven't been enough hours in the day.

An online presence is a necessity, but how can a new, self-published author possibly build a decent presence in short order without involving substantial dollars?

Very true that there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done for one's business or book and still do social media without spending tons of money.

So what should all of us do?

Prioritize our time after starting with a good foundation.

What's a good foundation?

Whether for a business or a book, a self-hosted website on which you can easily add information and which is search engine friendly and social media friendly is a necessity.

Yes, this usually involves money unless you are good with html code. Unfortunately the alternative, using a free template to instantly create a website or a hosted blog, is unlikely to be search engine friendly and possibly not even user friendly.

Once you have a good website home base established, you need a strategy for allotting a small amount of time for social media participation — perhaps 30 minutes a day in 10-minute segments once things are set up properly.

(Now if you want to blog, which is a good way to add content to your website (and thus make the search engines happy), this will take more time. Or you can have guest bloggers and not do any blogging yourself. )

Yael and I are partial to having effective accounts on three major social media sites: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (a Page for your business or book and not just a Profile – see Miller Mosaic post "Clarifying Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages.")

We also like YouTube for up-close-and-personal videos of real people talking about a business or book. But, of course, these can be added at a later date.

Yes, I know this sounds like a lot. But you don't need to do everything at once.

Remember the saying "Slow and steady wins the race"? It's a good motto for learning how to use social media to connect with prospective fans of your business or book.

In other words, you can't build an online presence "in short order" without spending a lot of money on outside help. But you can start building slowly to continually gain more connections.



LinkedIn: If you are a writer (and a book author by definition is a writer), setting up a LinkedIn profile should be relatively easy to do. Yes, there are some techniques to make your profile more effective. But if you don't do these at first, you'll still be fine.

And while you should join some LinkedIn groups (and have the group logos display on your profile), you do not have to engage in conversations until you are comfortable doing so.

You can even start your own group if there's a topic related to your business or book that you think isn't being sufficiently covered by other groups.

When you are comfortable with LinkedIn and can manage your participation in about 10 minutes a day, then you can expand.

Facebook: Next I would recommend going to Facebook and getting a Profile account in order to enable you to set up a Facebook Page for your business or book. Again, once the Page is set up, you don't have to spend so much time on it. But you do want to share good content on it.

Twitter: Finally, Yael's and my favorite. Now we admit Twitter may not be for everyone. But oh is it powerful! Here's one example that happened a couple of hours before I wrote this post:

I'm the research assistant on Yael's Middle Grade book project (see www.HurricaneHoodoo.com). She wanted to know exactly which neighborhoods flooded in which order during Hurricane Katrina.

Do you know what I did? As a former newspaper journalist, I searched on Twitter for people from the Times-Picayune (the well-known newspaper in New Orleans) and I tweeted my specific info request to three people I found through searching.

Within a few hours I had the most amazing answer from Times-Picayune arts and entertainment editor @AnnMaloneyTP – the newspaper has an interactive timeline show of the flooding by neighborhood. (If you want to see this incredible interactive show, go to http://bit.ly/iU0h7p )

I tweeted thanks to Ann and she tweeted back that she was glad to help. (And, no, I don't know her and she doesn't know me. But the Twitter community is a shared info site.)

I tell this story as a small sample of why it can be worthwhile to commit to spending a little time each day on your social media activities. The results that you may get with your commitment and persistence may lead to totally unexpected and rewarding places.

Just keep in mind the turtle and the hare.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller and Yael K. Miller can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC



Miller Mosaic has a set of three how-to social media videos – Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn – to help people set up their accounts on these sites.