Barb Drozdowich's Blog, page 29

I don’t care about blog comments – you shouldn’t either

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Happy Sunday all!

It’s a bright sunny day in my neck of the woods – but given our summer of fires, maybe some of you in the southern states can send us some of your rain, and we’ll send you some of our sun – win/win.

Today’s topic comes from a number of authors’ questions. This topic has come up in various forms recently.

As “click-baity” as today’s title is, I truly believe that comments are not important. Let me explain.

 

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Comments are the basis of a little conversation between you and your readers or between various readers of your blog. Most blogging platforms have some sort of commenting system and many early bloggers felt that the conversations that occurred because of their posts was one of the most significant parts of blogging.

I know that chatting with readers from other parts of the world about the books that I read were, and still are, one of the wonderful parts of my book blog.

To a large degree commenting has gone the way of the dodo bird. Are there blogs that still have chatty audiences – YES! They are few and far between, though.

Many of the blogs that get a lot of comments have always gotten a lot of comments and this particular audience continues to be chattty. As an example, I’ve been following Anne R. Allen’s blog for many years.  Her blog has always had a chatty audience. It is directed at writers and is filled with great information and lively discussion.

I hear a lot of complaints from authors about the lack of comments on their sites – usually these complaints are tied into assumptions that no one reads their blog posts. The number of comments has no correlation with the number of visitors.

In fact, many experts will suggest that only 1% of visitors will leave a comment. 

Although a comment might make your day, what you should be focusing on is engagement. Yes, comments are a form of engagement, but we want to focus on engagement on a larger scale.

We want to focus on Social Shares.

“Always controversial, the number of social shares a page accumulates tends to show a positive correlation with rankings. Although there is strong reason to believe Google doesn’t use social share counts directly in its algorithm, there are many secondary SEO benefits to be gained through successful social sharing.” ~Moz Blog

As indicated in the quote above, for quite some time, the prevailing wisdom was that Google uses social shares in determining the rank of a blog post. This post with quotes from Matt Coutts from Google lets us know that Google used to do this, but were blocked by the various social media. Rather than putting more engineering hours into something and having it blocked, Google moved in another direction to determine the hallmarks of authoritative content.

Let’s move to talk more about Social Engagement. What is it?

 

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As you can see above, Social Engagement is equal to the number of people who engaged with your post out of the total number of people who saw your post. So if very few are going to engage with your blog post in terms of comments, what should we be encouraging?

Remember above I said that comments are a type of engagement – and they are – and we don’t care about them.

Why?

A comment is one action – between the commenter and the owner of the blog (and yes perhaps read by other visitors to the blog). That’s pretty limiting.

Compare that to me visiting a blog post and rather than leaving a comment, I decide to share it with my followers on Twitter by clicking on the little Twitter share button. I have almost 17,000 followers on Twitter. Once a link to that blog post has been shared on my Twitter stream, it is pretty likely that some of my followers will catch sight of it, and click on the link to go read it. Once some of those folks share it with their followers, the same will happen again.

So a comment is one action that generally goes no further. A share is an action that could potentially have hundreds of further actions.

If Google cares about engagement – or social engagement – you will be much further ahead to stop asking for comments and encourage your readers to share your posts on their various social media platforms with their friends and followers.

Does this make sense?

This week’s action items:

make sure you have share buttons on your blog posts
encourage your readers to share your posts
focus on engagement methods for your blog that don’t include comments

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Are you breaking the law with your newsletter?

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Happy Sunday to you all! Today’s topic comes from questions from subscribers as well as observations of my own.

If you send out electronic communications, do you know what laws you need to follow?

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The analogy I like to use is the one of speeding. When we are teaching kids to drive, we don’t teach them to speed. We (hopefully) teach them the rules. If they choose to break the rules once they know them, that is their choice.

Authors are expected to wear so many different hats and I find that many stumble their way through quite a few of the tasks they have to perform without being taught. Sometimes it doesn’t matter…but with respect to newsletters and other electronic communications, it does. There are laws governing what can and can’t be done. There are huge fines involved. And yes, these rules are enforced. And not just to big corporations…

The two main problems that I see are:

Not putting a mailing address contact point at the bottom of the newsletter
Not understanding that you need to follow every country’s law about electronic communications

Let’s talk about these two points in reverse.

Pretty much every newsletter service is based out of the US. The CAN-SPAM act 2003 is the name of the American legislation that is enforced in the US and that is the one that these services focus on. Most civilized countries have developed a law that covers what you can and can’t do when communicating with someone electronically.

Like how I phrased that?

Some of the laws are concerned with newsletter type of communications but some countries – like Canada – include all electronic communications in their laws. That’s right – every email is included not just newsletter/sales or promo types of notes and so are text messages or other types of instant messages.

If you are sitting in the US, you might say to yourself – so what?

The point than many miss is that the enforcement is from the country of the receiver not the sender. If you send a newsletter to a Canadian subscriber and you have broken Canadian law, you can be dealt with by Canadians.

Let’s talk about the similarities in all the laws and then we’ll talk about the differences.

 

Don’t use deceptive headers or header graphics for your newsletter. Don’t use deceptive subject lines or deceptive reply-to addresses
Always provide an unsubscribe link or an easy method of unsubscribing
Always include your physical mailing address

Headers and Subject lines

Most of us understand that impersonating someone else is not a good plan. And most of us understand that using a subject line like “Open this newsletter and you will win a new car” is also not good. As you see above, it’s against the law, but most of us understand that it just going to piss off our readers.

I’ve gone into more detail on this in my book, The Complete Mailing List Toolkit, but let’s briefly explain. Our readers probably get a large number of email addresses each day. I know I read a lot and although authors probably don’t want to hear this, I have trouble remembering the names of all the authors I read. I recognize the book covers or websites, but frequently have trouble connecting names with books I’ve read without help. Using a header on a newsletter that matches a website or that displays book covers helps me put the pieces together. Makes me and other more likely to pay attention to the note.

The topic of subject lines is highly debated. I cover many of the theories in my book and there are a huge number of blog posts available on the topic also. We want to encourage our readers to open our notes, but our subject line needs to reflect the content.

Unsubscribe Link

One of the main reasons to use an email marketing service like MailChimp or aWeber or CampaignMonitor is that they make unsubscribing easy. They generally supply an unsubscribe link in the footer of every newsletter. If a reader clicks on that link, they may be asked questions, but the email marketing service ensures that their email address is removed from the active portion of your lists and labeled ‘unsubscribed.’ This is more difficult to do if communicating via Gmail or other email program.

It should go without saying, but don’t remove the unsubscribe link from the footer of your newsletter. It needs to be there.

Always include your mailing address

As I mentioned above, this is a sticky point with many authors. Most authors I work with are female and we are very aware of guarding our security. Putting our home address on a newsletter that may go out to thousands of readers is not something that many of us are willing to do. I often say that the rule of including a mailing address stems from businesses that have an actual bricks & mortar location. Most authors work from home (or a coffee shop). To comply with this rule without actually putting your home address on your newsletters is to rent a PO box and use that address. Yes, there is a cost. Depending on which country you live in, renting a PO box may be an easy and relatively cheap thing, or may be quite difficult and relatively expensive.

Since the requirement for a mailing address stems from the ability to reach you via snail mail, you might be able to find a different option. Perhaps you can use your publisher’s address. If you are employed full time, perhaps you can use your employer’s address. Be creative!

Let’s go back to the beginning of this note – you need to understand the rules and if you choose to break them, it should be a choice. I have chosen to rent a PO Box because I don’t want a crazy person showing up on my doorstep. The money I pay helps ensure my family’s safety. I feel it is worth the money. You need to make your own informed choice and be ready to accept the consequences if you choose to not comply with the law.

Opt-in law vs Opt-out law

The United States has a law dealing with electronic communications that is different than any other country. It has what is generally considered to be an Opt-Out law. In other words, it isn’t against the CAN-SPAM Act (the American law) to add people to a mailing address without their consent and send newsletters or other electronic communications to them. You just need to honor their choice to unsubscribe from your list if they request.

Every other country that has a law concerning electronic communications requires people to Opt-In to your list of subscribers. They must enter their own email address in a form and confirm this choice (also known as double opt-in) or indicate in another way that they WANT to be on your list. In Canada as well as other countries, records of this choice must be kept for 3 years. This is clearly why using an email marketing service is a good idea for your communication with readers!

As an author who is sending electronic communications to readers, this is information that you need to pay attention to. In many countries the fines are quite large and the powers that be are sanctioning people as well as businesses. For your reference, I’ve included links to a few of posts with specific country information. A quick Google search will offer information on details from other countries. And because I’m fond of Infographics – I’ve included a handy infographic below from the Canadian site!

For great information on the Canadian law, click here.

For great information on the UK law, click here.

For great information on the Australian law, click here.

For great information on the US law, click here.

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A Beginner’s Guide to SEO: 2017 (Infographic)

Welcome back!

Today I’m sharing an infographic all about SEO – that word that no one can wrap their head around. This infographic contains some tips and tricks that even a beginner can start to put in place.

Don’t hesitate to read the blog that originally shared this post. You can find it here.

Enjoy!

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The post A Beginner’s Guide to SEO: 2017 (Infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

How to Post on Facebook using your Page Persona – how to post as a page (Video)

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Today’s topic is the combination of several questions that I’ve received over the past few weeks. One Facebook rule that authors are constantly trying to live with is the rule requiring your personal profile to be in your real name – not a pen name.

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Facebook has a mechanism to allow people to not use their real name – it’s intent it to allow people who are marginalized or have been bullied, etc to have a personal profile on Facebook under something other than their real name. I have heard of examples of Facebook allowing profiles to be opened up under the name of fictional character names or pen names using this system.

However….the ‘real name’ issue is one that dogs many on Facebook.

It is possible to post on a Facebook page that you own as the page. In other words, it is possible to post on your author Facebook page using your Author name – or as I entitled my latest YouTube video, How to post on Facebook using a Page Persona.

Rather than trying to describe this in words, I’ve created a video to show you how to do this.

 

 

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Next week’s post is about some Facebook terminology and how to manage your Facebook account – not have it manage you

The Top 8 Social Media Trend to Watch Out For in 2017 ( #Infographic)

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What’s going to change this year? What do you need to look out for? 

I found another little infographic that does a great job of breaking down the upcoming trends. If you are interested in reading the full article, you can find it here.

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The post The Top 8 Social Media Trend to Watch Out For in 2017 ( #Infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

Targeting on Social Media: Back to Marketing Basics ( #Infographic)

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Welcome to today’s cool infographic. I’ve found this little gem on targeting folks on social media. As we talked about here and here, there is no point talking to an empty room. Make sure that you know where your audience is.

If you are interested in reading the full article, you can find it here.

Enjoy!

 

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The post Targeting on Social Media: Back to Marketing Basics ( #Infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

Pimp your Facebook Page part 2

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Happy Monday! I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to put a video in place of where the header graphic is on a Facebook Page. This is a functionality that has been in place for quite some time according to Facebook, but has been spotty in terms of actually working. According to articles online, Facebook claims that everyone should have access to this functionality now.

As it is easier to describe some things rather than write instructions out in words, I’ve created a little YouTube video showing how this process is done.

Video dimensions: 820 x 312px

Time of video: 20 – 90 seconds (but I got an error message when I tried to upload a 20 second video that it was too short so I created a 34 second one)

Video source: I created an easy video of my book covers by generating a Power Point presentation and then taping it with QuickTime while I manually moved through the slides. I’m sure that you can purchase a slicker video from a professional (and I likely will), my creation worked fine for the demonstration.

Enjoy!More videos are coming! I got a lot of questions about Facebook this week and I have several videos created and they will appear in this space in the coming weeks.

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If you have enjoyed this video please subscribe to my blog to receive the posts in your inbox. If you struggle with technical things, I have 40+ YouTube videos to help. Although they can all be found obviously on YouTube on my business channel, I’ve created a page on this blog to summarize. You can find that page here.

Be sure to use the share buttons below to share with your friends and I’ll see you next week for more helpful hints.

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139 Facts and Stats about #Instagram for 2017 (#infographic)

[image error]Today’s post is a follow up on last week’s Instagram post. Since so many of the authors that I deal with are fairly unschooled when it comes to Instagram, I encourage learning about this platform – for those who are graphically oriented, but also those who write for the younger set.

The infographic is fun and informative and the article is interesting also.

 

Enjoy!

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The post 139 Facts and Stats about #Instagram for 2017 (#infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

Why Your Business Needs to use Instagram

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This week I’m sharing a neat little infographic that I found in my weekly reading. There is a lot of chatter about Instagram. Why should I pay attention to it, who is using this social media and so on.

The population on Instagram tends generally to be younger than other sites, but it is a population that is very computer literate. And as a mother of this demographic, I know first hand that content is gobbled up!

I hope you enjoy what this infographic shares for this week. If you choose to read the full article, you can find it here.

 

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How to “Pimp your Facebook Author Page” simply & easily

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Are you gradually moving into summer?

Since I have kids in school, I was happy to get to the end of Friday and declare school over for another year! We are lucky here as our temperatures are still mild. I’m not a fan of hot weather and I’m enjoying the weather that we have now.

I’ve been busy creating some helpful videos!

I’ve turned my attention toward the Facebook Author Page – or what some call a Facebook Business page. Many people seem to live their lives on Facebook – I frequently get complaints from authors who claim they can’t get their audience to look at other parts of their social media platform – perhaps they have some YouTube videos, like I do – or they are particularly proud of their Pinterest boards.

Today’s post bring a straight forward solution to that issue.

Do you remember the show from some years ago called “Pimp Your Ride?” In this show a car is acquired – ok…let’s say the owner thinks it is stolen – and it is given all sorts of work – a new paint job, fancy new tires, a new sound system, specialized modifications to the interior – maybe all of that – and then given back to it’s owner.

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My husband loved this show and would be in awe of what changes could be made to a car each week.

I thought I would steal the title for this week’s post as it gives you the idea of what can be done to a Facebook page. Honestly, this functionality has been around for some time, but it used to be quite awkward to accomplish. Most of what I’m going to show you today uses the free functionality of an app called WooBox.

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WooBox – found at http://WooBox.com – has paid functionality as well as free. In today’s videos I’m going to show you how to use the free functionality.

Two of my Facebook pages have been “Pimped.” Feel free to take a look at my Business page or my Author page

And now for the videos! I’ve got one video for each of the following:

display your website/blog
display your Pinterest boards
display and play a YouTube video
display and play all the videos on a YouTube channel
display your Twitter stream
display your Goodreads account (this one doesn’t use WooBox, but I thought I’d round out the videos with this one)

It is also possible to display your books listed on Amazon, but I’ll leave that video until another day.

This how-to video demonstrates how to display your Website or Blog on your Facebook Author page.

 

This how to video explains how to use Woobox functionality to display your entire Pinterest page on your Facebook Author Page.

 

This how-to video explains how to add a YouTube video to your Facebook Author page to be viewed within the Facebook environment using WooBox free functionality.

 

This how-to video explains how to use a free app called WooBox to display your YouTube videos on your Facebook page.

 

This how-to video explains how to use a free app called WooBox to display your Twitter stream on your Facebook Author Page

 

This how-to video shows how to easily show your portions of your Goodreads author presence on your Facebook author page.

 

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I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a lot. I’d love to see what you’ve done to your Facebook page – leave me a link in the comments and I’ll visit! Since I posted last, I’ve put together a summary page of all my YouTube videos here. If you have a topic that you struggle with, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do to help!

[image error]If you enjoyed today’s post, be sure to subscribe to the posts and join my newsletter list – both sign up forms are off in the right sidebar ->>

 

This coming week, The Author Platform is going on sale on Amazon. It will drop to 99 cents for a few days for the Kindle copy.

If you are just starting out, this book explains all the various social media at a beginner level. It is meant to be non-intimidating and basic. It is also meant to be a building block to something more complicated – to give you a basic understanding that can be built on.

Have fun experimenting with your platform until next time!

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