#B2BCyCon Think Tank discussion
2017
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Notes 2017
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I barely saw any traffic in my booth. Genres may help that, or there may have just been too many people participating. I think that having everything set up ahead of time in my booth didn't help. It stays at the bottom of the threads, with all of the people posting new stuff in their booths popping to the top. You have to actually be posting during the event to get attention.
I think on the second day the map got broken too. Up until the second day, I could find my booth under my categories, but then on the second day, I wasn't seeing my booth. I got some traffic, but not nearly as much as several other booths. I think because I was participating in so many other activities. I still saw a wonderful increase of traffic on my website, and got several new subscribers.
I am going to spend the next week re-sharing everything I was a part of on social media to help everyone get more traffic.
If everyone does the same thing, it will increase your exposure significantly!
Mod
I think that having everything set up ahead of time in my booth didn't help...."
We have many ideas already presented to help with this issue.
1 - Next year all booths will be sorted by genre allowing authors to post multiple booths (1 booth per genre)
2 - The genre sorted booths will make the booths less condensed so readers can find you easier
3 - Too many Facebook events happening spread readers too thin.
Solution: We will be organizing everything by genre and applying some hefty scheduling, which will communicate "Fantasy Morning" to readers or "Romantic Evening" (Oooh! I like that!) to readers.
I was thinking Aurelia's Panel Discussions start as the romance Blog tour is featured... Following the panel discussion, Facebook Romance takeover events launch. Romance readers will KNOW their genre will span from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST .... or something like that. You get the idea.
Mod
I got some traffic, but..."
Yes! Exactly!
great idea Heidi...I'm in and will be posting stuff this week...thanks!
The genre idea is great. The live cons often organize by venue and activity, so it would essentially be the same thing.
P.D. wrote: "I barely saw any traffic in my booth. Genres may help that, or there may have just been too many people participating. I think that having everything set up ahead of time in my booth didn't help...."
It was exactly the same for me. I had my booth up and running long before the event, but nobody came.
I seemed to get some views, but only a few comments. I don't think there was a lot of random traffic wandering in and out. I found visitors interacted most when I actively posted about something.
I'm intrigued by comments A.F and P.D. as I also saw very little traffic to my booth. I'm hearing you say action at the time of is a better way to go on this than being prepared ahead of time. Here's the puzzle...how to pull people in...walk-ins may be few and far between, but I seem to be thinking along the lines of genres. For instance I have a year to build up communiques with memoir writers to have them come to the Fairgrounds, and interact with my booth, as I will with theirs, next year. Vaguely, something I'm aiming at...how about you all ?
Charlene wrote: "I'm intrigued by comments A.F and P.D. as I also saw very little traffic to my booth. I'm hearing you say action at the time of is a better way to go on this than being prepared ahead of time. Here..."I think one area that could be improved on is cross promotion between authors. I was tweeting booths with the hashtag all weekend, and I saw some activity from other authors doing the same or with other events, but I think it's an area that could be improved. I also think I'll use more photos next year. Kelly Evans did a remarkable job with her Viking themed booth and people seemed to really like what she posted.
Yes, cross promo between authors while the event is on sounds like a super good idea...one I did not do enough of this time through. And photos always gain attention, the right photos that is so that's another good idea. I think some cross promo is limited according to genre...what do you think about this?
Ha ha, I agree that all of this is great... but man, the work I am going to have to do next year since I write across multiple genres!
Charlene wrote: "Yes, cross promo between authors while the event is on sounds like a super good idea...one I did not do enough of this time through. And photos always gain attention, the right photos that is so th..."True, you do want to have a certain amount of targeting when promoting, but that's the advantage to using the hashtag, especially on Twitter. You have a ready made list to scroll and retweet. So you can tweet your own booth and other authors and readers of your genre can see it and share. Likewise you can find things that would interest your followers.
You clearly understand tweeting! Yes, yes, that will help. And maybe that is what I need to make clear to my fellow memoirists, many of whom are my age and so may not get twitter in this way...thanks A.F.!
I'll still be trying to think of ways on site, if that's possible, but maybe twitter is all we need...
Charlene wrote: "You clearly understand tweeting! Yes, yes, that will help. And maybe that is what I need to make clear to my fellow memoirists, many of whom are my age and so may not get twitter in this way...than..."I actually find many authors don't use Twitter to their advantage; I know I didn't for a long time. I'm planning a Facebook event later (probably around May) as a sort of Twitter workshop.
Please count me in! I need to learn more about how to use twitter to the best...and thanks for this!
Charlene wrote: "Please count me in! I need to learn more about how to use twitter to the best...and thanks for this!"Consider yourself counted.
As far as traffic goes, I myself took the same approach to "manning my virtual booth" as I do my table at a live event.Activity draws activity.
If you sit behind your table and say nothing, people are likely to pass by. They don't see you engaged so they move on to something that's happening. Worse still are the authors who are looking at their phone or reading. People don't want to interrupt you if you look busy.
On the other hand, talking and engaging passersby makes them stop and look. Makes other people come over to see what's going on. And when you stand in front of your table, you remove a huge barrier and make yourself available. That's the best engagement of all.
I did get the majority of my info posted to my booth pre-con. But I updated, I tagged, I responded--and that keeps your thread lively and active and more likely to hook a skimmer.
I had good traffic that was quite lucrative. But I applaud the authors who were so busy they couldn't keep up with their threads. Having multiple booths are going to help with some authors if they are more static but the super-kinetic authors will need to be in multiple places at once.
Time-turners, anyone? :)
A.F. wrote: "True, you do want to have a certain amount of targeting when promoting, but that's the advantage to using the hashtag, especially on Twitter. You have a ready made list to scroll and retweet."This is a tactic we use in another group. We have a document/thread with everyone's handles, break them into groups, and leave enough characters open for relevant hashtags. Makes shootouts easier.
Dallas wrote: "P.D. wrote: "I barely saw any traffic in my booth. Genres may help that, or there may have just been too many people participating. I think that having everything set up ahead of time in my booth..."
I had three-four people visit my booth. I set it up way ahead of time, and though I participated and answered them and kept an eye on the booth all that busy weekend, traffic was next to nil. I know my books are not everyone's cup of tea, but I've done far better with Blog Hops in that regard with giveaways. Perhaps it was because I'm new to this type of thing and I could not participate in many of the activities because I could not sit at the computer 24/7 that weekend. The facebook thing was fun, but I could only come in on open author hours. . did not appear to increase Booth traffic for me.
Maybe we had more authors than readers? I did picl up a few interesting books tho.
Mod
Fascinating... I think—because we had our booths public ahead of time—readers could walk in, view, and leave all before we had the Convention on. Chess DeSalls had this problem a lot. I think this is why traffic was so deflated.
SOLUTION! In 2017, we can plan and post back stage like we did in 2015.
Mod
A lot of authors aren't using hashtags. I will be reviewing this in my Brain to Books Podcast coming up. I'm starting classes soon.
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I have the same problem and already have the solution... Will discuss more later on b2bcycon.com ... Saturday's meeting
http://b2bcycon.com/forums/?view=foru...
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I want in on this :) Please let me know. I can also bring you in to the Brain to Books Podcast to discuss further. Thoughts?
Mod
Activity draws activity.
If you sit behind your table and say nothing, peop..."
CANDY! WE NEED TO PASS OUT CANDY!!! I have a live con in 2 weeks. I'm going to sit in front of my booth and have a candy bowl!!!
Mod
What about a live discussion assigned to 5 people or so? Like teams? Keep the thread alive and "at the top" of the discussion, lure people in, then pass off to booths. AND authors aren't isolated. They will have buddies :)
Mod
I think that having everything set up ahead of t..."
We had 318 authors and 459 readers totaling 777 total. I think the Facebook events were competing with each other and I think Goodreads was picked over by the time the convention started.
I LOVED the open author hour and will have that next year along with a tight schedule revolving around genres.
Angela thanks for summarizing the holes in our buckets...yes, an author hour, with select people sending up reviews of the author's work at that time and tweeting them so we support each other's efforts...does this make sense? is it a good use of time/energy?
Angela wrote: "A.F. wrote: "Charlene wrote: "You clearly understand tweeting! Yes, yes, that will help. And maybe that is what I need to make clear to my fellow memoirists, many of whom are my age and so may not ..."I'd love to have you come to my Twitter event, and be involved in your podcast. And a live Twitter chat might be something to consider.
Hey A.F. yes, let's arrange a podcast interview on my site and the station, and your twitter event and a twitter chat with you...email me and we'll arrange times...
Charlene wrote: "Hey A.F. yes, let's arrange a podcast interview on my site and the station, and your twitter event and a twitter chat with you...email me and we'll arrange times..."
Sounds good. I'll email you this weekend.
My takeover hour on the Facebook event was really slow. I've done a few takeovers for author launches, and always get good engagement, but no one even participated in my scavenger hunt. I had two people who participated in my takeover hour - my hubby and an old friend from school.
My Facebook event didn't get much action during (Of course, is was Saturday at 7 am EST, 5 am MST, so not terribly surprised) but I got a surprising amount of engagement later in the day.
Heidi wrote: "My Facebook event didn't get much action during (Of course, is was Saturday at 7 am EST, 5 am MST, so not terribly surprised) but I got a surprising amount of engagement later in the day."Heidi,
That has happened to me at FB Take Overs too and like I experienced I have had some nice engagement after the event. Days later sometimes.
I would like to try one here. I seem to end up in FB Jail LOL
Mod
I'm in the process of building forums at http://www.b2bcycon.com and Ani is helping me add "login with facebook" and "login with Twitter" this month...
My plan is to move the Facebook takeovers to the forums on b2bcycon.com to boost the visibility. One author per thread... I think... I'm putting things together still...
with your help I had a total blast doing my Facebook takeover. I'd do that again in a heartbeat.
Thinking that P.D.'s problem wasn't his alone. I didn't do a takeover, but even in the Fairgrounds, I was dead empty. As I said earlier, if someone had a good back-and-forth session going in their booth, everybody else that posted was assed-out.So there was a problem, but dwelling on that does not move us forward. My idea was to have a sort of banner for each author. On it can be the book cover or author pic and an itinerary list. Now here comes the good part...clicking on the banner brings the guest to the author's preferred site. Website, Facebook, twitter...wherever they want to be. So now people come to the Fairgrounds and they look at the banners and choose fantasy. They end up in the fantasy area and again have a bunch of banners to look at. They see the cover/author, read the blurb and then check the itinerary. If it stimulates them, they go and they can chat for hours without taking away from the other writers.
End of the day, tired and sweaty, but that popped into my mind. Let me know what you all think.
So sorry P.D....again, end of the day and wicked tired. I will however find the time to administer some type of self-punishment. Maybe along the lines of reading a few chapters of Twilight or watching the last season of Face Off again.
LOL. I liked your banner idea, so you are forgiven.
Mod
Good! We'll need you :)
Mod
Hi, Ed! I love it and am logging it in with the "ideas" on the forums. We have a lot of things in motion already to
1 - Improve traffic
2 - Prevent die off mid-convention on Goodreads and Facebook.
I think... sorting this by genre will help...