How to Write a Book Cover Blurb

 

In as much as book covers lure readers to your book, a professionally written and persuasive book cover blurb will grip your reader and persuade them to buy or download your book. In this article, you will learn how to write a book cover blurb that sells fast following these easy steps:

Your book blurb should entice and not summarize

While studying several book cover blurbs, I did a comparison between bestseller book blurbs and non-bestseller book blurbs, and discovered that unlike the book blurbs from bestseller books which entice readers; those from non-bestsellers only summarize the entire book.

Perhaps, another secret to becoming a best seller probably lies in how well your back cover blurb is crafted. After all, getting the label of a ‘bestseller’ lies in how fast your book sells.

Use a third person PoV when writing a book blurb

It doesn’t matter if the book is written from a first-person point of view, or even if it is your book, the blurb should always follow the industry standard which is third-person PoV.

Avoid the use of clichés in your book blurb

Except of course you have it in mind to keep changing your blurb often, for eBooks especially, you should avoid the use of clichés in your book blurbs. No matter how good the cliché seems, as long as it has been overused, they would only elicit an eye-roll rather than a total engagement. Your book blurb is another way of telling your audience what makes your book different from other authors, so why use a cliché?

Your blurb tone should not vary from your book’s tone.

When writing a book cover blurb, it is important to maintain a particular tone, as any form of discrepancy can make your book misleading. A jolly blurb will not fit in for an action-packed manuscript.

Start your book blurb with a hook sentence

Your book blurb should always start with a hook sentence, as this is one of the forces to grip your reader into reading the entire write up. In one of my articles, where I emphasized on “why hook sentences are important”, I mentioned that the first sentence in a piece can either arouse or kill the interest of a reader. This is also applicable to book blurbs; when the first sentence in your blurb fails to capture the interest of your reader, then you just lost him.

Keep your sentences short

Studies show that readers looking to pick up a book for their next read, spend a few minutes if not seconds scanning through book cover blurbs of titles that intrigue them. As such, writing a book blurb that will promote sales should use short captivating sentences. Rather than having a large chunk of words strung together in a sentence. Another trick is introducing a length variety for the sentences. That is, a long sentence should follow a short sentence and vice versa to intrigue your readers, as well as promote harmony in the reading.

Emphasize the purpose of the book in the book blurb

If you want to write a book blurb that sells fast, then you should state the essence of the book in the blurb.  Readers when trying to purchase a book, always have a reason in mind, which is what they also set out to look for on a bookshelf. If your book blurb emphasizes on the needs of your readers, then your book will be their choice of purchase.

Make your book blurb short

While you might have a lot in mind to put on the book blurb, you should note that time is very important. Your readers will not spend so much time reading a single blurb. Rather, they will likely scan through different book blurbs before settling for a particular book. Hence, it is advised you keep your book blurb short, let’s say 150 words. Better still, follow the Amazon guidelines on the book blurb.

Get feedback before publishing

When you have finally written that book blurb, you should give it out to at least two persons and get their honest opinions on their perception of the book blurb. Note what they love about it and what they feel is a turnoff and work on it.

Have more tips on how to write a book blurb that sells fast? Drop them in the comment box.

Chima Rachael J.

The 3 Hiring Mistakes Most Small Businesses Make

 

Each and every employee is an investment made by the company they work for, and for a business to succeed it has to make the most of its investments.

This is especially true of smaller companies and startups, which typically have fewer employees and limited investment income with which to try and net a profit. In these cases, every single dollar a company spends on finding and hiring an employee can affect its longer term success, making it crucial that they avoid making any major mistakes while hiring.

The problem is that running a small business is hard work – very hard work. This means that those involved are often short of time, and when time is short mistakes happen.

The good news is that this means that your competitors are probably making these mistakes whilst hiring too, and an opportunity is present for you to close your own loose ends and employee a better hire whilst wasting less time and money.

The Most Common Hiring Mistakes:

Having Zero Interview Plan

The single greatest mistake that small and new businesses make when hiring is failing to have any type of interview plan. Many businesses go into the interview with little idea of what they are going to do, other than perhaps a few interview questions scribbled on a piece of paper.

Interviews should be treated like a science. You’ve selected the individuals with the best resumes, and you’re bringing them in for a job interview. How do you choose who to select unless you have a carefully measured way of determining who is going to bring value, and who is not.

You do this by coming up with an interview plan. You find the most important questions to ask and make sure that you ask them to each candidate. You figure out what answers you’re looking for, and consider finding a way to score them objectively in order to ensure that you’re hiring the right people. You consider the amount you’re willing to pay, the factors that go into a great employee, and more.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be official, but there does need to be a plan in mind before you conduct your interview. If you wing each one of them, you risk asking some people more important questions than others, or not properly comparing those at the interview and letting your own natural biases kick in.

When it comes to recruitment, everything should be planned in some way, and although there is room for you to go off on some tangents (for example, if an applicant shares with you an interesting story), there should also be a methodology in place to make sure you’re hiring the right people.

Failing to Correctly Value Experience

This mistake goes two ways, and the best place to start is with an American baseball analogy. There are only 30 teams in all of major league baseball, each one employing a General Manager to run the entire team. When one general manager does a bad job (usually due to multiple seasons of hefty losses) that general manager is usually fired.

Some teams find up-and-coming stars to lead their organisation, and although sometimes those teams fail, other times they are wildly successful. Many of the most successful baseball organisations hired General Managers without any previous GM experience and reaped the rewards.

But other teams are a lot more “old school” and risk adverse. They refuse to hire any general manager unless they have previous GM experience.

Experience can be a good thing. But remember that there are only 30 teams in baseball, and at any given time, 25 to 28 general managers are employed for multiple years. That means you’re limited to hiring the 2 or so general managers that are out of work, both of whom were likely already let go because they failed to bring turn their teams into winning organisations. With this “Experience Only” mindset, you’re potentially limited to hiring someone with a history of losing.

This is the fatal flaw in overvaluing experience. Your next great employee may be someone that has limited experience but significant aptitude. If you focus too heavily on experience (either by requiring a considerable list of “qualifications” in your job description or hiring the person most experienced without considering other factors), you may be overlooking or turning off someone that could have been a better contributor.

On the other side of this, however, is the recent trend of business owners to hire those without experience at all, hoping to find people that are “cheaper” and just as productive. Many individuals with excellent experience are being ignored in favour of saving a few thousand dollars a year on an unproven individual. While there is significant value to be found in those that may not have traditional experience, there is also nothing quite like good experience that relates directly to your company.

Assuming Hiring Stops After the Job Offer

Finally, a very common mistake with small business owners is assuming that recruitment stops with the job offer. It doesn’t.

An employee’s productivity is 50% ability and 50% factors that occur after they have been hired. Employees need to be properly on-boarded, with excellent training (including not only their tasks, but also where to go to ask for office supplies, how to find files in folders on the network, etc.), programs in place to improve job satisfaction, and even smaller issues like opportunities for growth, objective job performance evaluation methods, and more.

You can hire the best employee available, but with poor training, no access to resources, and little in your office to ensure job satisfaction, that employee is going to struggle. Recruitment doesn’t stop after the job offer has been made, and no matter the size of your business you should be committed to making sure that employee adapts properly.

Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes

Small businesses can’t afford to waste money on a bad hire. Always keep in mind the above hiring mistakes, and the tips that you’ll need to consider in order to avoid them in the future.

Culled from Recruit Shop

How to Build a Social Media Community: Content and Collaboration

 

I like to be on the cutting edge when it comes to utilizing social media and content. With the social landscape changing so often, we have to constantly be students of it, striving to find individuals whose content stands out from the crowd - to learn from and emulate.

Being "more interested than interesting" means that I take the opportunity to learn from the top social media influencers, allowing me to duplicate their social media fundamentals to improve my online presence.

I often consult my team members about the content that they enjoy most on social media. This is how I came across Eliot Robinson, the young entrepreneur and operator behind the @dunk account with more than 2 million followers on Instagram. Robinson has built a massive community based on his unique brand of basketball content. His community-building talent even caught the attention of superstar entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who asked Robinson to help expand his social media profiles, resulting in more than a million new followers across Vaynerchuk’s platforms.

I was eager to learn more about what makes the @dunk community special. So, I phoned Robinson to get his input on my two keys for creating an engaged social media following: content and collaboration.

Content is still king

Today’s best social media strategists focus on aggregating content on their platforms. They elevate their own brands through collaborations with others, leveraging their content, while also minimizing operating and production costs. And the better your reputation for social media excellence becomes, the more users you'll find who are willing to work together for little-to-no compensation. This technique allows you to aggregate valuable content on your social media platforms and avoid content creation processes that waste time and money.

According to Robinson, incorporating humour and putting your own personal spin on the content of others adds personality to your posts and allows for personal expression, which pulls in your audience. You must find a frequency, a combination of truth and awareness that resonates with others. This is key for any public figure, and especially true on social media.

Be sure to bring an energy of creativity when it comes to your content. As Robinson advises, “Post things the viewers want to see, rather than satisfying your own preferences."

Originality and emotion build better relationships

One important facet of social media success is maintaining strong relationships with viewers, readers and listeners. That's why I make a point of replying to almost everyone who interacts with my content, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.

Experts in this field, like Robinson, advocate building long-lasting relationships with your audience by consistently posting content that is 100 percent your own. Original content gives followers insight into your life (and mind), which aids in developing a stronger connection.

 

Emotion is another tool heavily utilized by many social media strategists. The best social media pages use emotional pulls to develop connections between themselves and their audience. In my content, I do my best to address and solve common problems that my followers experience, such as being told “no” or experiencing the emotion of embarrassment. This provides value that they might not get elsewhere.

These days, there's a vast amount of focus on negativity. But, if you add components like humour, excitement or hope to your content, you'll generate a stronger attraction to your community.

The role of partnerships

Social media professionals like Robinson are able to create and maintain partnerships with other talented content creators by leveraging their internet popularity and success. Robinson also cites a need to have the first rights to the content of others, however, as original content is much easier to monetize.

This strategy of combining lots of valuable and unique content gives users the ability to stand out and flourish as a one-of-a-kind social media account. For this reason, I leverage my own brand to connect with icons in the sports, business and inspiration fields, in order to collaborate on new content.

One of my best recent social media collab opportunities came from working with the @motivation_mondays Instagram account. I did an interview on Instagram Live, along with the curator of the account, and answered questions about inspiration and motivation from the account’s followers. Not only did I help to create some great original content for @motivation_mondays, but I captured content to share on my own page and gained many new followers in the process.

This mutually beneficial exchange is the essence of a community. Both giving value and gaining value is what collaboration is all about!

David Meltzer

9 Tips to Get More Preorders for Your Next Book

 

There are a lot of great reasons for you to boost your book's preorders:

• Preorders allow your biggest fans to express their enthusiasm for your work
• Having a book available for preorder gives the impression that you're a successful, "must-read" author
• Preorders give you yet another useful marketing angle to promote your work (while extending the promotional timeframe)
• Making your book available for preorder gives you an opportunity to identify your most ardent fans
• Preorders help you build hype and anticipation, making it more likely that your book will be a bestseller

But you can't just make your book available for preorder and expect people to buy it en masse; you have to do some work to ensure that your preorder campaign is a success. Thankfully, that's where we come in.

We've got some great tips to help you maximize the preorders for your next book!

How to Drive Book Sales Through Preorders: 9 Tips

#1 -- Tell Everyone You Know   One of the best pieces of preorder advice we've encountered was given by author and entrepreneur Julian Hosp back in Episode 66 of The Author Hangout. Julian is a master of getting preorders, and one of his recommended methods is simple but incredibly effective: contact everyone you know personally, whether they're in your phone's contacts, your email, on your Facebook friends list or elsewhere.   Making this personal connection means a lot to people, and it can help you spread awesome word-of-mouth promotion for your book. This takes time and effort, but it's something that can pay off in a big way!

#2 -- Take Advantage of Your Email List   Your email list is the cornerstone of your author platform, and getting preorders is a wonderful way to make use of it. The people on your list are more likely to preorder your book, so be sure to let them know about it!

#3 -- Set the Price Low   It's much easier to get people to preorder when you provide incentives for them to do so. Set your preorder price low and you'll give people a great reason to get on board!

#4 -- Build Your Social Media Following Early   Promoting your book on social media is essential, but if you want to ensure that you maximize your preorder sales, you need to build a strong following. Don't wait until you make your book available to start getting followers and fans!

#5 -- Reach Out to Online Influencers   Identify podcasters, bloggers YouTubers and social media mavens who can help you build excitement about preordering your book. Provide them with something of value in exchange for preorder promotion.

#6 -- Use Goodreads   Obviously, you're going to be promoting your upcoming release on your website (you're doing that, right?), but be sure to use the Goodreads platform, as well, so you can reach the world's biggest book fans where they hang out.

#7 -- Run Promotions on Existing Books   If you have a back catalog of titles, now is a great time to promote them aggressively, which will enhance your author profile and get more people interested in your existing output. By doing this, you stand a much better chance of getting them to preorder your next one.

#8 -- Update Existing Books' Back Matter   Another great way to leverage your existing selection of books is to update their back matter to include the preorder link for your next book.

#9 -- Build Your Marketing Plan as Early as Possible!   Don't make your book available for preorder and then create your marketing plan; instead, create a solid marketing plan (which will involve you doing something significant to promote your book every week, at minimum) and then make your book available for preorder. Have a great week, authors!

Culled from: Book Marketing Tools

4 Top Reasons You are not a Successful Writer

 

There are some clichés that go with being a successful writer. A Chimamanda Adiche, for instance, might tell you that hard work and perseverance are prerequisites to becoming successful. But there are so many talented hard-working writers who do not get the credit and accolades that they deserve. And others who, though not as good or hardworking, become quite popular. The truth is, even geniuses do not attain success by just their intellectual capacity and diligence alone. There are other underlying factors that we have found to be a common factor.

So, we are going to look at real-life reasons you are not a successful writer.

1. You are not Famous at Doing Something Else: Toke Makinwa comes to mind. Many may be able to write better, more thoughtful books than Toke, but her book quickly became a bestseller simply because she is Toke Makinwa. Even some politicians who can’t string words together to make a correct sentence now write books through ghostwriters (like us) and they become bestsellers. This is simply because you are more important than what you do. You need to have a core following that will buy and help you broadcast the arrival of your book.
2. You are not Well Connected in the Publishing Industry: When you are not someone famous, nor connected to someone famous (most especially a successful writer), your writing dreams can become really bleak. If in future, Chimamanda Adichie’s child decides to write a book, chances are it will blow up way more than an ordinary writer can ever dream of. This isn’t because the child of this legend is more talented and hardworking than others, it is simply because they are associated with a name that sells.
3. Privilege is a Great Head Start: Do you know if William Shakespeare was female, no one would have known he even existed? This is simply because at that time, women, in general, had remarkably fewer opportunities than their male counterparts. Of course, today, women have greater opportunities but that is not to say there aren’t other hindrances to becoming a famous writer. sometimes, race might be a factor. But let us bring it down to Nigeria where race might not be an underlying factor. The biggest barrier to you becoming a successful writer will be…yup, you got it, Money!
4. Luck: Truth is, you might not have the first three privileges but might just hit a bit of luck. You might be writing for a small magazine that immediately blows up. The right editor might come across your manuscript and decide to read it or a wealthy humanitarian might come across your short story on Social Media. But one needs to continue to place oneself in situations where one might get lucky. Get into writing competitions, create a blog and get active on social media, send your works to magazines and big publications, etc.

This isn’t to say without any of the above, you cannot be a successful writer. There are many writers today from humble beginnings who achieved remarkable success by applying themselves consistently and taking advantage of opportunities, even the ones that seemed so small.

There is a saying in football that the better teams tend to have more luck. The same applies in life: the better you become as a writer and through taking advantage of opportunities, the more likely you are to become a best-selling author and successful writer.

7 Ways to Get Your Customers to Actively Promote Your Brand

 

In the startup realm, certain principles stand out as essential to lasting growth in a company. Customer retention, for instance, trumps customer acquisition in terms of overall value. And brand loyalty is one of the most important elements that lead to higher customer-retention rates.

Brand loyalty is worth prioritizing in any business, of course, but there’s one level of brand commitment that goes above and beyond just loyalty: brand evangelism.

Whereas "brand familiarity" describes a customer's awareness of a brand (and, hopefully, his/her comfort with it), and "brand loyalty" describes a customer's commitment to one brand over competitor brands, "brand evangelism" describes customers who are more than loyal -- they’re outspoken and active advocates of your brand.

So, not only are brand evangelists more committed than the average brand loyalist, they’ll work on your behalf to attract more people to your brand. Clearly, brand evangelism is a nice setup. Now, how can you encourage it?

Here are seven ways:

1. Differentiate your brand, sharply.

Some of the biggest fan bases in sports have arisen out of a response to a fierce rivalry. By similarly giving customers a diametrically opposed “enemy,” you'll steer them into being more likely to vocally and deeply align themselves with your brand.

Take advantage of this tendency, by sharply differentiating your brand from those of your competitors’ -- not necessarily making enemies of them, but still making the average customer experience dramatically different.

2. Focus on loyalty first.

Brand evangelism is the last threshold in a series of increasingly intense brand relationships; first comes familiarity, and loyalty must come after that, if you hope to cultivate more evangelists.

There are several stages to this, as loyalty warrants its own article, but the basics should be under your control; give users a great experience, keep them coming back for more and be consistent and visible in your branding efforts.

3. Dole out individual attention.

If you want stand-out customers, you have to give them stand-out experiences. That means doling out individual forms of attention to make memorable, unique brand impressions on certain members of your community.

For example, go above and beyond the call of duty during especially tough or unique customer service cases, or call out specific social media followers and promote their material to show your appreciation. Those people will remember you.

4. Create a community.

Brand evangelists’ loyalties deepen the more they feel that they’re truly a part of something. As users on your app or website, they have a certain degree of personal investment.

But as members of a thriving community, they'll offer a level of loyalty that's even stronger. For example, you could create a user-driven help forum, or have some other on-site feature where users contribute their own content and talk to one other.

5. Encourage active participation.

Participation does a few things for you. First, every act of participation makes your target evangelist more loyal to your brand -- think of it as a kind of ritual action that becomes a habit.

Second, every act of participation increases the overall visibility of consumer brand affection, and brand affection is contagious, to say the least. Get your customers posting frequently about your brand by making new announcements, asking engaging questions, and generally contributing to the community.

6. Incorporate feedback.

This is the mark of a champion brand, and it’s going to help your company on all three levels of brand relationship. Collect and really listen to feedback about your brand, products and services, and when you encounter pieces of information that make sense, implement them.

That kind of response shows that you listen to your customers and care about what they say, which in turn inspires more loyalty. You can even give shout-outs to the individuals who submitted those pieces of feedback, to make them feel like an even more ingrained part of your brand community.

7. Make it easy to be an evangelist.

No matter how excitable they are, most people are still lazy. They're not going to go completely out of their way to evangelize your brand -- you have to make it easy for them. Offer ample opportunities for your users to post about you on social media (with contests, discussion opportunities, etc.), and make signup and participation in your community constructs both simple and rewarding.

These strategies aren’t foolproof, and you’ll need to allow some wiggle room for adjustment and development, but with these seven tactics in place, you’ll equip your startup with almost everything you need to cultivate a community of brand evangelists.

Don’t expect every customer to become an evangelist, of course, and don’t try to force it to happen unnaturally. Just know that a few nudges in the right direction can make a huge difference for your customer enthusiasm -- and your bottom line.

Culled from Entrepreneur

Being Able to Publish Without Editing Doesn’t Mean You Should

 

“The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway

Since I joined Medium a few weeks ago, the sheer volume of incredible writing on the site has left me floored. Unfortunately, I’ve also encountered my fair share of great articles bogged down by the most rudimentary writing infractions, ranging from repeating the same word twice to failing to include ending punctuation.

As I’m sure you can guess, I’ve sent many a private note discussing these grammatical hiccups. I don’t send them to show that I’m a grammar snob and that they should be ashamed of their mistake — that’s not what any of us should be here to do. I simply do it to demonstrate to even well-known writers that they, too, would benefit from reading over their work before publishing.

These minor issues don’t eliminate the article’s intrinsic value — I’ve seen articles with these issues written by Medium-famous authors with well over 10,000 claps and hundreds of comments — but they certainly call the authority of the author into question. After all, if you’re publishing a piece about your writing process but confuse they’re, their and there, are you really someone whose words they should take seriously?

In a writing economy where we are desperate to capture the eyes of dizzyingly inattentive readers, minor grammatical errors can, at best, throw off a reader’s flow, but at worst demonstrate to the reader your piece isn’t worth their time.

This isn’t to say that everyone needs to achieve perfection the first time; after all, a litany of articles on this site explain that unchecked perfectionism is an obstacle to creativity. Everyone deserves to have a moment to simply unload their thoughts on the page without the pressure of checking or editing.

But to make that first draft your final draft is like serving soup right after putting all its ingredients in a pot together. Sure, it’s edible, and certainly won’t get anyone sick, but it lacks the complexity of a dish that’s simmered for hours, one that’s had the time to let all the individual flavors meld together and intensify.

What’s more frustrating is that a thorough read over the work or an advanced writing aid like Grammarly would catch most, if not all, of these issues. The ubiquity of these typos makes it clear, though, that writers aren’t taking time to proofread their own work before hitting that precious publish button. Deliberately choosing not to utilize either of these last defenses does a disservice to your reader, your writing, and yourself as a writer.

I know why people do it — the publish button’s temptation is palpable. Sometimes, the idea of sharing work can be so anxiety-inducing that blindly hitting publish is one of the only ways you send your piece out into the world. Other times, you think about what you just wrote and you’re certain that the piece you just wrote is perfect, that your prose rivals the literary greats, your topic is amazing, and you know it’ll get tons of claps, comments, and maybe even make you some cash.

Regardless of how your work makes you feel when you put that metaphorical pen down, a closer look can always improve it.

Editing helps you to be more certain of what you’re saying and how you’re saying it, stymieing the stress of sharing your art in the process. Even if you’re certain you’ve laid out your thoughts as eloquently as you can muster, editing gives you an opportunity to ensure that your memory matches your reality. Whether it’s taking time to consider a different word choice to realizing a hole in your argument or research, editing your piece can improve your confidence in your work and your readers’ ability to comprehend it.

We all want to be better writers — that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? We all dream of the day when we show up to our word processor and write the next great novel or the most moving personal essay, as if the words were always at the tips of our fingers and all we had to do was sit down at our desks and bring it to life in one go.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works, even for some of the greatest writers in history. But we can be a bit more like them and edit, edit, edit, for it’s in the revisions that we find the best ways to say what we’ve always wanted to say.

 

Credit: Writing Cooperative

 

  

7 Common Mistakes Made by Novice Novelists

 

Professional writers of all stripes will agree that writing is both easy and hard. For novelists, the challenge exceeds composing well-written content. Agents reject flawed work. It is better to create a less mistake-riddled work given the high rate of rejection by agents.

Novice novelists make a number of common mistakes. Weed out these weaknesses while drafting the novel. Keep in mind the following common mistakes made by inexperienced writers.

1. An Undistinguished Manuscript

To get out of the slush pile, the novel needs to have a concept, an angle, or a pitch that is outstanding. Think big. Develop an aspect of the novel that makes it fresh, even if you are writing for a genre in which readers expect to see certain elements in their books. If your manuscript is good, but not good enough, do not be surprised by a rejection letter.

2. Extreme or Inefficient Language or Cliché-Riddled Writing

Strong language is useful, when used with discretion. Overuse is off-putting. Make every sentence economical; make your words count. Excessive verbiage is dead weight that hampers the reader you want to impress. Descriptive language or content that is too familiar is a cliché. Keep that in mind, and you will see that agents and editors will appreciate your efforts.

3. Absent or Bland Descriptions

Readers enjoy being transported into a different world. Provide a context and setting that will engage readers.

4. Pretty Prose, Lack of Clarity, or a Literary Writing Fail

Showy language overwhelms content because the disruptive power of pretty prose impedes the flow of the narrative. Optimally, prose clearly and economically conveys meaning. Be aware that sloppy prose may signal sloppy thinking. If you aspire to write literary fiction, competence is insufficient. Literary fiction must be well written.

5. Pointless Detail and/or Distracting Research

Avoid unnecessary details to keep the reader interested. Even if you have done extensive research about the background setting of your fiction, do not smother the narrative with facts. This also applies to information about location and scenery. You are writing fiction, not a travelogue.

6. Plots, Character, and Conflict Weaknesses

Is the plot discernible? Your manuscript should not be a sequence of events affecting your characters or have bland, non-relatable characters. Add depth to your characters with insights into their inner lives or background stories. The backstory provides more information about the character. It can even just hint at the inner motivations of the character.

7. Dialogue and Pacing Weaknesses

Believable dialogue can be challenging for first-time novelists. Read each character’s dialogue to catch inconsistencies. Stick to the same points of view in a scene. Handle the transition from one character to the next carefully in a scene. Uneven pacing makes the narrative disjointed and could turn off readers.

Writing a novel is a major undertaking. The next challenge is to get past the slush pile. Avoid common mistakes to create an outstanding first novel that launches your writing career.

Culled from AIPWE 

How to Create & Use Data-Driven Content for Link Building

 

If you want to grab the attention of readers and journalists – and attract links – then your content must be exciting, eye-catching, and unique and data journalism is the easiest way to create content that stands out from the crowd. 

Basing your content on statistics and facts about engaging topics ensures that you’re creating content that is interesting, newsworthy, and sharable. And it should also help drive more traffic to your site.

One of the coolest things about creating your own proprietary data is that it’s kind of reminiscent of playing “Jeopardy!” The thoughtful questions, simple responses, and the basic simplicity of being the first to have the knowledge.

 

Be the Source

Creating your own data for an article is typically one big headache.

If you’ve ever tried to survey customers, you know what I’m talking about.

But, as SEJ’s own Loren Baker says, “Be the source.”

When you create your own data, people will want to link back to the place they cited.

Using tools like Google Trends and Google Consumer Survey, you can search for trending topics and build your own data.

 

Pick Your Topic

Good data doesn’t always equal good content.

You have to figure out how to tell a story with the data you have.

First, you must decide what your content is going to be about.

With data, this can be a chicken and egg situation – do you use the data you have to form your topic or do you choose your topic and then collect some data around it?

It may depend on whether you have pre-existing data or whether you already have a subject matter in mind that’s newsworthy or trending.

When researching what topics I may want to cover, I’ll start researching with Google Trends and BuzzSumo. These tools are built for research and exploring trends.

 

Gather Your Data

The first step to creating data-driven content is to actually find the data.

I begin to gather my resources of data, whether I’m surveying users or using my own data.

Important note: When building content with your own proprietary data, it’s not about quantity. Traditional content strategy suggests more content equals more leads, but that’s not true. You only need one major piece of killer content to achieve your goals.

 

- Conduct Surveys

The go-to place for collecting fresh data, surveys are a fantastic way to gather information and to get statistics and data around subjects that you specifically want to focus on.

Think carefully about your questions before asking them. You want to get the best results possible to generate a variety of angles for you to use in your content.

Make sure your questions will support your story and limit the number of open-ended questions you ask. Include a variety of demographic questions so that you can cross-reference answers given with details about the respondents. This will allow you to create multiple sub-stories and angles to push out to local press.

 

- Ask Your Community

Do you have your own community of customers or fans? Then ask them a few questions or send out a questionnaire!

If you work for a bigger brand and have forums where your customers come together to discuss a range of different topics, this is a great place to start a conversation about the topic you want to create content around.

Many businesses also have a large database of customer contact details and some regularly send out newsletters. An easy way to obtain data is to send this database a set of questions or forms to fill in via email and reward them with a discount code or entry into a prize drawing once they have returned their answers.

If you have a large social media following, you can use Facebook and Twitter polls to gather data.

Or simply run a competition on your site to find out the information you need using a data capture system as a form of entry.

 

- Use Your Own Data & Reports

Many SaaS companies don’t realize the amount of data they are already sitting on.

You likely have some analytical tools to track the success of your own website and marketing efforts. These tools could be used to give you useful insights and data you could use as part of your content marketing strategy.

Google Analytics is a good place to start, as you can look into different consumer demographics such as their age, gender, and location of your customers, along with the industries they work in, what they buy, what devices they use, and more.

You can also carry out your own tests and experiments to generate data and insight that will interest others in your industry or your customers.

 

Look for Interesting Angles

Once you’ve got your data, you need to analyze it and pull out the angles you want to use to tell your story and make your content as newsworthy as possible.

Analyzing data isn’t always easy, especially if you find yourself staring at a huge spreadsheet of numbers and stats.

Try and highlight any key points and statistics that support the storyline or headline you want to use and pull out any compelling insights in your results. Use conditional formatting and create pivot charts to find correlations between different data sets, and if you don’t get the answer or result you were hoping for, don’t force it — put it to one side and focus on a different angle.

Once you have some strong data in front of you, segment your results demographically. This will help you find a range of local angles you can pull out for your content based on gender, age, location etc. – perfect for pushing out to regional press and publishers for extra coverage.

 

Visualize Your Data

The way you present your data is key to the success of your content.

Data visualization is the first step of making your content engaging and shareable. But it isn’t easy.

Ideally, you should work with a designer to visualize your data. But if you don’t have access to one (or don’t have the budget), you can make it yourself using a data visualization tool.

Once you’ve created your visual, you need to make sure there is still some content around it to tell your story and make your data come to life. Always keep in mind how you want your readers to digest your content and that it needs to be responsive on mobile and tablet devices.

 

How to Structure Your Content Support Activities

If the content is truly a unicorn, as Larry Kim would say, you need to do all the supporting activities around this piece.

Here’s how I structure my content support activities:

• Collaborate with the PR team to create a strategy. PR teams develop some of the highest-quality link opportunities, but they leave a lot of opportunities on the table. This is where link builders come in to do the manual outreach.
• Conduct manual outreach to industry blogs for backlinks and guest blogs.
• Partner with other companies on a webinar to discuss the data.
• Create a blog post series to give further context to the data and optimize for new search terms.
• Utilize the data in presentations at conferences.
• Recreate the data in infographics, charts, and graphs.

 

Awesome Examples of Data-Driven Content

Here are a few pieces of data-driven content to inspire you:

The Guardian has really taken the lead with data visualization and has a whole section on their site dedicated to it. It’s a great place to go for inspiration on how you can shape your data into eye-catching graphics.

Here’s another really cool example of some data visualization based on A Day in the Life of Americans:

 

Don’t Have Any Data?

Don’t have time to collect data yourself?

No problem!

There are plenty of data sources you can use and combine to make a whole new data set.

For example, you could take two similar data sets that were created 10 years apart and then compare and contrast them.

Or, you could analyze someone else’s data and pull out some new angles that haven’t been used yet.

Here are some other resources to find some interesting data to use in your content or as a starting point for a bigger piece of data journalism:

• Pew Research Center
• Wikipedia
• Google Scholar
• The Office for National Statistics
• Reddit’s Data is Beautiful subreddit

You can also simply type into Google “[keyword] market research” or “[keyword] data sets” to find a range of different information available online.

Read this article for a case study and even more ideas: Building Links with Data-Driven Content (Even When You Don’t Have Any Data)

 

Credit: Search Engine Journal 

8 Tested Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

 

Ah, the old enemy. Writer’s block can happen to anybody no matter how good a writer you are. From writers like Malcolm Gladwell to writers like the author of “Nkechi the bush girl.” Not just authors but musicians, speech writers or anyone who deals with content. So, what do you do when you feel like you don’t have a creative bone in your body and everything you pen down finds a home in your trash bin?

Frist, Writer’s block can be caused by timing. Sometimes your ideas need a little more time to get fleshed out before they are penned down.

It can also be caused by Fear. Some writers fail before they even fail. They are so scared of penning down their ideas and showing the world to critic.

The third reason is perfectionism. Many people want their ideas to be perfect in their head before penning it down and when this doesn’t happen, they fail to write. Truth is, perfection comes during the process of writing and not before.

Now, there is no formulaic fix to this problem as different tricks work for different people. You simply have to find something that works for you (which might not work the next time you try it so you have to think up something else again). Here are some creative and practical solutions to Writer’s Block.

1. Go for walk to take your mind off the work a bit. View the scenery and it will help you relax.
2. Eliminate as much distractions as possible. Sometimes, the problem is that the creative space in our head is being occupied by pictures from Instagram.
3. Play a game. Chess will do, or a word game.
4. Change your environment. Sometimes it might just be your village people…ok, seriously, it might just be that the environment isn’t conducive enough for you to be creative.
5. Read a book. This does wonders!
6. Listen to music. This also works wonders!
7. Spend time with someone that makes you feel good. A friend, family member or partner will do.
8. Brainstorm ideas in bullet points. These ideas might look stupid at first but if you drop your book and take a second look later, you might be able to build something around them

If all these still don’t work, then you should probably call us to do the writing for you.

But note that you do not overcome writers block by refusing to write and waiting for “inspiration” to come. Also, do not wallow in self-pity and make excuses to procrastinate. Also, watching TV is a bad idea! And you do not overcome writer’s block by reading articles on how to overcome writer’s block…oops.

Samuel Ejedegba 

Ten Simple Steps to Make Editing a Novel Easier and More Fun

Writing the first draft of a novel or any book is, you might say, the easy part. But it’s at the novel editing stage that we craft our work into something special. We aim to transform our material into work that will compel a reader.

If you’ve recently finished a draft of a novel – or indeed, if you are mid-draft but aware that you need to edit before you continue – the methods that I share here break down the process and make it much more manageable.

When I edit my own novels, I always work through several stages so I thought it might be useful to share a checklist of the things I’m looking for when I edit my own work. This article focuses on fiction primarily, but a parallel process can be used for non-fiction.

Take Time Out:

Once you have completed your manuscript, take time away from the work prior to editing. Have a break for a couple of weeks and consider getting feedback on the work from a trusted writing colleague. Think carefully before sharing your work, however, and choose somebody who you know will be constructive. Opinions can be subjective and if you are not getting professional feedback, it is worth choosing a number of readers, so you can get a balanced opinion on the work. You might like to prepare a list of specific questions for your reader. Alternatively, if you prefer to keep your work private, just taking time out alone will be enough. You need to gain distance from what you have written before you can edit it. Do something fun whilst you’re waiting!

Consider the feedback carefully:

The best part about receiving feedback is that you are free to use it or discard it. Nobody will give you some ‘ultimate truth’ on your novel. Some feedback will be valuable.  Some you can discard. Go with your gut feeling. It might take a few days for the feedback to sink in and for you to sift what is useful. Sometimes we experience a sense of disappointment that the work is not perfect already. It’s a natural response. But learning to accept feedback and use it well is a vital part of our work. The fun part here is the freedom you have to accept what you’ve been told – if it is insightful – and use it well. Take your reader’s notes to an inspirational place and journal on the areas of your work that you now sense need work.

Go for the full read-through:

Take a deep breath and don’t put it off any longer. Just take time out, pick up the entire work-to-date and a pen to scribble with, get comfortable in an armchair (or on a cliff-top, wherever you feel at ease…) and read.  Read it as if you had never read it before – as if you were an outsider, a professional editor. Read the whole document – if necessary over several longish sessions – and annotate your text with any comments that occur to you in relation to changes you want to make, including small line-edits. Just get everything down on that manuscript as this will be your working document. Whatever comes into your head as you read – get that on the page.

Look at the big picture:

As you read, have a separate notebook where you make notes on what I call ‘the big picture’. This is where you can scribble more lengthy thoughts on the over-arching shape of the work.  Is the structure effective? If not, why not? What would you like to change? How might you adjust it? Are there any missing pieces of the puzzle? Get it all down in your journal as you read. You’ll use these notes later.

Use a simple check-list:

As you read your manuscript, look out for the following in particular. Make notes in the margins and your notebook. Keep scribbling freely and don’t let any thought go:

• Structural issues – where does it not hold together? Are there plot holes? Does it go off at a tangent? Is the plot too clichéd? In non-fiction, does the ordering of the material work?
• Voice issues – is the tone right? Is it consistent? Is it written from the right perspective? Do I need to make changes to the narrative voice?
• Character issues. Are the characters believable? Do they take actions that seem real? Do I believe that they are flesh and blood? Is their dialogue naturalistic? Can the reader empathise? Do the characters develop and change in the course of the book? What do they learn?
• Dialogue – Is it a good, condensed version of natural dialogue? Is it too focused on telling a story via dialogue and not realistic enough? Would the characters SAY this? Is the dialogue there for a purpose – to deepen characterisation or to advance the story?
• Telling not showing – Am I telling the reader too much, when I should be revealing the truth through action? Remember, dialogue doesn’t equal “showing”. Good “showing” is when a scene is dramatised and we are immersed in what is happening, unaware of the narrator’s presence. We don’t say ‘he is sad’, his sadness is revealed to us.
• Pace – is the action always moving forwards? Am I certain that each scene is propelling the character towards their goal, even if they are frustrated in that process? Am I wasting time, waffling? Every scene must be there for a purpose and advance the plot in some way.
• Scene structure – Is there movement in the scene? Do the characters shift? Does perspective change? Is there drama and conflict and change and development?
• Sentence construction. Is this working on a line by line basis? Am I overusing adjectives? Am I using adverbs? (They rarely work!) Do I repeat myself? Are there phrases I overuse? Does it flow? How’s my grammar?

Condense your actions down to a short list:

Once you’ve completed the read-through, take a separate session to look through your annotated notes. Then, choose a notebook – or a document if you prefer to work electronically – that relates specifically to your editing process and begin by making a list of all the major ‘big picture’ changes you want to make. Then ask yourself –  can you condense this list to five key areas? Examples of such areas could be:

• The character of Isabelle is too passive; I need to change her actions and responses to make her more feisty and thus engage the reader.
• The pace in the first third of the book is too slow – cut down on extraneous scene-setting and cut to the chase. Keep the scenes more focused on action.
• Work on my tendency to over-describe and lay-on the adjectives. Remember that less is more
• Get clearer on Simon’s motivation in the novel. That needs to be built at an earlier stage if the book is to have drive.
• Find a different resolution to the love affair. At present, it is too clichéd and the end of the book doesn’t have an impact as a result.

Don’t forget the line edits:

These are simply examples of the kind of points you might make, but there’s something very powerful in having key focus areas. It means that as we go through the book, we know where our main attention should lie. In addition to these larger points, you will also have a list of smaller points. However, you can work directly from the manuscript in relation to the smaller points rather than noting them separately.

Keep excellent records – be organised:

When you are editing, work on your main document but draw from all of your sources. Have the annotated manuscript(s) at your side and your list of key points. Editing can be an organic process, as when you make changes to a book, other aspects of that book can shift and change. Keep your editing notebook open as an ongoing document. From time to time, print up your newly edited work and read it through. It’s so satisfying to read a new draft and to feel how much smoother and more believable it is becoming. When working with clients, I’m often amazed at how swiftly work can improve with good editing. It is always a pleasure to see how work can be transformed in this way.  Don’t let your filing get disorganised at this time. You need to know where everything is so that you can draw everything together with ease.  Generally, I save a copy of the old full manuscript, then take a fresh copy of it and ‘over-write’ the new version on the word processor. You can start a whole new document if you prefer, but I generally find over-writing works best.

Be a perfectionist:

Once you’ve edited the document – if you are preparing for submission – you need to read the final manuscript through at least twice more. This might seem like the least fun part but if you approach it in the right way, you can gain a lot from this stage. No literary agent or publisher wants to receive a manuscript full of typos and often-repeated words (we all do it!)  When I was finishing my last book, I did the final read-through on a Kindle. (You can forward the ms to your freekindle.com address). There’s something empowering about this, as it enables you to see the manuscript as if it were a finished book. But also – when you read it like that, all the little errors leap out at you. The final read-through is the most fun of all because (if you’ve done your job!) you can really enjoy the pleasure of reading your work in a fully polished form and you can take huge pride in this.

Remain true to your own vision:

Finally, remember that if we don’t edit, we don’t learn. Even when we think a book is finished, it will then go to an agent or a publisher who will notice aspects of the work that will improve with further editing. As a result, the book generally gets stronger and stronger. At the same time, remember that it is important to hold tight to your own vision of the book. Stand your ground if you need to. We do learn so much in this process and it strengthens our abilities as a writer.

Essentially, aim above all for the best possible work you can do and for a vision that is uniquely yours. Then your own pleasure in the work and your skill will shine through to the reader, agent or editor. Don’t forget – you don’t have to do all of this at once. Just make that commitment to the read-through, pick up the manuscript and a pencil to scribble with and before you know it, you’re engaged in the process.

Why not try beginning today and let me know how it goes? You can break the process down into simple thirty-minute chunks if you’re busy.

Culled from: The Writing Coach 

Content Marketing: How to Attract More Customers

 

Are you looking to attract prospects, convert them to customers and keep them coming back? Then social media and content marketing are a match made in heaven.

The key to success is to make the connection between content marketing and social media. Let’s look at the content needed to get your marketing to that lucrative intersection.

#1: Attract Prospective Customers

The first question on a prospect’s mind when considering a purchase is, “What solutions are available?”

Your goal is to create awareness and make sure that your solution meets the buyers’ need when they’re ready to make a decision.

According to data from Google and Shopper Science’s Zero Moment of Truth report, consumers in 2011 consulted an average of 10 sources before making a buying decision. That’s up 100% from five sources in 2010.

The number of sources a buyer consults before making a decision doubled year over year.

Successful businesses are communicating with prospects on social networking sites and directing them to the material the prospects need to make an informed decision. How are they doing this?

One way is to create informational articles.

Social network users are constantly sharing, curating and consuming informational content. Often, the headline or a short description of the content appears on the social network together with a link to view the content on a company website.

Businesses need to share this informational content and have it written for prospects who are in research mode, learning about the solutions that are available.

Charles Schwab, a financial planning company, distributes links to resources via social networking sites and makes them available for prospective leads who reach out via social media.

Charles Schwab diverts this prospect who is early in the buying cycle from Facebook Page to a free resource on their website.

Another method is to raise awareness of your products and services through informational webinars and seminars.

Informational webinars and seminars can demonstrate your expertise while providing prospects with the information they need during the research stage of the buying cycle.

This tweet from Cleveland Clinic is an excellent use of social media to lead those interested from Twitter to the informational content a decision-maker needs to make a choice.

Cleveland Clinic provides a link via Twitter to register for a webinar for those considering epilepsy surgery.

In this case, the conversation begins on Twitter, but continues to a registration page and ultimately to informational content delivered via webinar.

Key Takeaway: Conversations about your products and services often begin within social networks, but additional content may be needed to assist the prospect. Make sure that those who are communicating with prospects via social media are aware of all of the resources your business has available for prospective customers.

#2: Convert Prospects

The second question on a person’s mind when considering a purchase is, “Which is the right solution for me?”

Businesses that successfully convert new customers from social media create and distribute content that provides proof points to the sale. Content that assists in meeting this goal proves that your solution provides more value than the other solutions the prospect has researched.

A very effective piece of content to meet this goal is the demo video or “explainer” video. The social media tool Little Bird provides a demo video on their home page that displays the tool in action and details the benefits.

Little Bird investor Dharmesh Shah provides a link from Twitter to see a demo of the application.

A second piece of content that will build the type of trust that closes the sale is the case study. Case studies close sales because they prove that others have had success with your solution.

The Mayo Clinic has dozens of success stories on their website that they distribute via Facebook.

This Facebook link leads to a Mayo Clinic success story that provides proof of their expertise.

A third piece of content that can convert leads into sales are white papers. For B2B marketers, the white paper is a staple piece of content used by possible buyers to assist in the decision-making process.

Gene Marks, an author, writer and speaker, makes good use of social media and white papers.

This tweet diverts those interested in CRM software from Twitter to a white paper download page.

Key Takeaway: Create content that provides the proof that prospects are looking forbefore they will part with their hard-earned dollars. Distribute that content through social media channels.

#3: Keep Existing Customers

The last question on a buyer’s mind is, “Am I happy with the decision I made?”

This goal is about retention and referral. Successful businesses will use social media and content to keep customers satisfied.

One type of content that retains existing customers is support documentation.

At the Crazy Egg software company, part of their content and social media strategy is to reduce the number of support tickets and raise customer satisfaction by resolving as many issues as possible through the use of online content.

Crazy Egg efficiently handles this technical issue with a link to support documentation on their website.

They could choose to divert these questions to a tech support phone call or email-based ticketing system, but in many cases this is neither convenient for the customer nor efficient for the company.

A second content type that increases loyalty is documentation of best practices.

Businesses that create content that teaches customers how to get the most out of their product or service will increase customer satisfaction.

Charles Schwab provides in-person workshops that teach their customers how to better manage their money.

This tweet leads interested individuals from Twitter to a registration page and ultimately an in-person workshop.

Another content type that increases retention of existing customers is case studies.

While the function of the case study in converting a new customer is to provide a proof point, the case study is also useful in retention because it provides guidance to the existing customer.

Unbounce, the landing page software company, does an excellent job of providing case study material to existing customers.

Unbounce’s Ultimate Guide to Landing Page Optimization report has numerous examples of the do’s and dont’s of using their software.

This Unbounce customer is grateful for the additional value the company provides through its content, so he shares a link to it on Twitter.

Key Takeaway: We’ve all heard that it’s much cheaper to keep existing customers than to find new ones. Use social media and content marketing as a customer-service tool to increase satisfaction and referrals.

Final Wrap-Up

Social media and content marketing are joined at the hip.

Social networks like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn are not always where a conversation begins and ends. To attract, convert and keep customers, social media and content marketing should be parts of a seamless marketing, sales and customer-service strategy.

Your current and future customers are using social media. Make sure you have well-planned content marketing and give your social media team the information they need to share the content your audience needs.

What do you think? How do you integrate content marketing with social media? Leave your tips and comments in the box below.

Social Media Examiner

10 Tips and Tricks to Stay Safe on Social Media

 

Many of us spend a large amount of our time on social media - Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or other sites. We share our pictures, our feelings and our memories. However, we also share a lot of personal information on these sites, whether we know it or not.

Because of social media’s large presence and the amount of information we share through it, it is extremely important to be a smart social media user. Follow the tips below to help you stay safe while using these platforms.

1. Don’t Overshare

It’s easy to share information on social media, and much of it is content you may not deem important. But individuals with bad intentions can use the excessive personal information you share to commit crimes, such as stealing your identity, breaking into your house when you’re on vacation or stealing packages off your porch.

This also goes for LinkedIn; the more work and education history you share, the easier it is for thieves to steal your identity or guess your passwords. Be careful of any specifics and details you share online, and before you hit “post,” consider how the information could be used by someone of ill will.

2. Check Your Privacy Options

On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all of the other sites, make sure your security settings are where you want them to be.

It’s wise to make your Facebook profile private to users that aren’t your friends and to request the approval of your Instagram followers. Limit the personal information that other social media users can see by adjusting your privacy settings on each of your profiles.

You can also edit your privacy options to require a security question to be asked when logging on to the site from a new IP address, which will help prevent your accounts from getting hacked.

3. Verify People and Pages

Before you accept a friend or follow request, look at the individual’s page. If you know them and can verify that through the information available, then it’s probably safe to approve them (if you want).

If the information on their profile page doesn’t seem to add up, or you’re not sure if you know them, don’t be afraid to deny (or just ignore) a request.

If there are a lot of typos, only limited pictures or posts that just don’t sound like the person you think it might be, you should proceed with caution. It is not uncommon for people to impersonate other users or even brands on social media and use it to take advantage of other users. Keep this in mind and do a thorough check before you accept.

4. Do Not Violate the Social Media Policies of Your Company

Be familiar with the terms and conditions that regulate social media use at your work. Some obvious no-no’s are using company property to check your personal social media pages or posting on social media about co-workers.

You should never share company-specific details online - for some companies, this may even qualify as the sharing of trade secrets and can land you in big trouble.

5. Know How Sites Use Your Information

Many social media sites sell some of your information to advertisers; that is how they keep the use of their sites free. You have a right to know, however, exactly what information is being collected and how it is being used. Most social media sites will have this policy posted somewhere on their company website, but if you can’t find it, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for a copy of this policy.

6. Don’t Buy into the Popularity Contest

Contrary to popular belief, the more is not necessarily merrier when it comes to social media friends. Make sure your “friends” online are actual real people that you know. For any “friends” that you’re not sure about, dig into their profile a little bit more and if you still have concerns, don’t be afraid to remove them from your network.

Having the most “friends” out of all your friends is not worth the risk if it leads to imposters knowing too much information about you.

7. Check Your Password

Make sure your password is something that could not easily be guessed by someone scrolling through your Facebook, YouTube channel, Instagram or Twitter (e.g. if all of your posts are about your dog Binkie, then don’t make your password Binkie123).

It’s also best to have a different, unique password for each social media site. If you access social media from your phone, be sure that your phone also has a unique, difficult-to-guess password.

8. Sounds Too Good to be True? It Probably is.

When a social media account gets hacked, the account will likely start posting offers for various goods. A common example is RayBan sunglasses for $19.99!.

Do not ever click on these links, no matter how tempting. It’s nice to also let your friend know if you think their account has been hacked.

9. Install Antivirus Software

Make sure that any computer you use to access social media has antivirus software.

Because of the sheer amount of posts and links and profiles related to social media sites, it’s very easy for viruses to sneak into the content, particularly if you do inadvertently click on a malicious link. Good antivirus software will also protect your pages against viruses that are trying to steal your information.

10. Lose the Location

It’s tempting to tell the world exactly what you’re doing exactly when you’re doing it and exactly where you are. That, however, is not a smart practice. As was already previously mentioned, this can make it easy for thieves to take advantage of the fact that you’re in Aruba for a week. But it also makes it tempting for individuals to stalk you during your everyday routine.

Make sure to turn off all location settings on your social media sites so that Facebook or Twitter doesn’t announce to the whole world that you posted that picture at the gym Monday morning (when you were supposed to be at work).

As with most things, it’s important to listen to your gut when it comes to social media. This friend request looks a little weird? Ignore it. That ad has too many typos? Don’t click on it. The friend of a friend of a friend that you approved keeps commenting on all of your pictures? Delete him. Remember that your safety is always the number one priority.

You can never be too cautious when it comes to social media. However, if you follow these tips listed above, you’ll be off to a good start.

 

Sophie is a technology enthusiast at Security Gladiators. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is specialized in tech and cybersecurity. When she is not behind the screen, Sophie can be found playing with her dog.

6 Secrets to Success as a Social Media Manager

 

Being a social media manager is a multifaceted job: You’re a data analyst one minute, a community moderator the next and an innovator and entrepreneur after that. Whether you’re a freelancer looking to score your next big client or a job seeker eager to land a new opportunity, here are tactics you can employ right now to rise up in social media management.

How to Succeed as a Social Media Manager

1. Know Your Channels

You won’t land gigs, or an interview, if you’re not experienced in programming content on the top social media channels. Being comfortable in Facebook and Twitter is a good start, but depending on your skills and client list, consider taking some time to work with other platforms like StumbleUpon, Pinterest and YouTube. Also on your to-do list: Keep up with channels that are gaining momentum like video hub Vine, shopping site Wanelo and slide hosting service SlideShare.

 

2. Beef Up Your Graphic Design Skills

You don’t have to be a Photoshop god, but having a keen eye for design will place you far above the competition. Social media is saturated with content, and the posts with fine-tuned images are the ones that stand out. Graphic design skills carry over into every corner of marketing, as well.

3. Make an Infographic to Show ROI

One of the biggest challenges in social media management is showing return on investment (ROI): in short, proving to clients and potential employers that your hard work generates real results. Take the data from your best campaigns and put it all in one place.

Then, use that finely tuned graphic design skill (or hire a designer) to make a stunning infographic that you can send to future employers and hand out at conferences to promote yourself. The benefit is vast: Not only will an infographic support your claims with stats, but you will demonstrate that ability to communicate visually.

4. Demonstrate Your Ability to Handle Sticky Situations

Responding quickly and tactfully to online disasters not only proves your aptitude as a social media manager, but it proves your ability to stay calm amidst chaos—a skill essential to any media job.

5. Get Some Testimonials

Can you think of a time you got some excellent feedback after a stellar social media campaign? Whether it’s from a coworker, client or former employer, a few affirmative sentences from others can go a long way. Post these on your website or solicit them on LinkedIn to lend some real-world credibility to your hard work.

6. Target Your Next Goal

The strategy you employ now will vary depending on the role you seek. If you’re striving for a social media manager job at a targeted company, you’ll want to keep honing your skills as a jack of all trades. But if your long-term hope is to secure a C-level position or start your own company, now would be a great time to build a social media consulting practice. Work on your sales know-how to grow your client base and follow the big players in your field of choice.