Building your author brand online

Over on Michael Hyatt's blog, he talks about building your author brand online. Mike offers great advice -- from a CEO's chair.

With his genius in mind, I thought I'd write about building an author's brand online and managing social media from an author's point of view.

Just before my first Thomas Nelson book released, Lost In Nashvegas, I joined MySpace to keep up with kids in the youth church. Then I had a brain blip, "What if I use it to announce my books?"

And social media, which wasn't called social media in '05, came alive to me.

I hopped on Facebook the first moment it was opened to non college students. I have a Xanga and MyCCM account. I'm on Shoutlife, Goodreads, and BeenUp2. I have a Tumbr site.

I love Twitter. I blog here and on Faithchick.com.

I created all these accounts, signed up for blog rolls, to keep up with the public, generate buzz or interest in my books -- if possible -- but my real goal in life is to write great stories.

It is impossible to keep up with everything. I decided I had to pick the most traveled and popular cyber venues to concentrate my efforts. I casually keep up with the rest.

Concentration of efforts: Facebook and Twitter are my most active cyber spots. When I'm on deadline, it's easy to to tweet four or five times a day, link it to Facebook, than to keep up with blogging. Blogging becomes hard on deadline because I can't spare my creative brain power to write a comprehensive or slightly intelligent blog.

It's easy to respond to Facebook comments, Twitter replies and blog comments. And part of building an online presence is keeping up with dialog.

The giveaway concept: I'm just going to be honest here. This idea wears me out. One, I barely make enough money to help my household and keep up with business expenses, let alone give away books or gift baskets to keep readers interested and build an online presence. Giveaways has created a community of people who expect freebies. I've had folks sign up for my newsletter to get a chance to win. When they didn't, they removed their name.

I love giving away my author copies -- that's what they are for -- but so many authors are giving away big gifts like GPSs, iPods, gift baskets, and more. I'm not saying I won't ever do this again, but I've not found it to be productive. It's more discouraging than encouraging.

What do you think?

Building a street team or a tribe: This takes time. Little by little readers and fans begin to gather around and tell people about your work. This is the absolute best marketing. But writing books that make readers want to tell others about also takes time and energy. For me, this is my biggest focus and concern. I want to write great books. I believe the majority of my time and effort should be focused on my stories.

That is my continual gift to you. A great book.

For the release of The Sweet By and By, a street team member, April, created a Twitter account for the book. She gives away copies, tweets lines from the book, lets followers know what's up with Sara Evans or me. What a blessing she's been. She's part of our tribe.

You can't make a reader or fan create a Twitter for you, but sooner or later your fans will speak out!

Dialog with street team members is key, BTW.

But I'm not published yet: I recently spent a weekend with a bunch of writers. Between working on their craft, we talked about other things they can be doing to build their name and brand. Susie Warren and I encouraged them all to Twitter and blog.

Blogging is great for several reasons, but the key being to force you to write three, four, five times a week. Editing your blog posts trains you to write well. Blogging forces you to look at life and see beneath the surface. A good part of writing is about observing life and molding it into a story. If you can't observe enough to write a blog, you might not have enough texture and depth to write a compelling novel. Look for life's symbols and metaphors, blog about them. Figure out how to fold them into your characters.

Above all, be kind: If you're trying to build an online presence, and hope to one day see your work in print with your name on the cover, be kind to other authors! Don't blast their books. Don't snark at them in public, or private. Follow industry leaders like Michael Hyatt, Chip MacGregor, Rachelle Gardner, Steve Laube and others. Chime into conversations. If you disagree, do so intelligently. If you can't say anything nice... walk away from your computer. :)

Write reviews that edify. Write blogs that bring insight. I often blog about politics, but I try to do so in a constructive way because many of my fellow authors and readers might disagree with me.

Same with spiritual topics. My main goal is to edify Jesus. Not preach theology.

My sister blogs about her family and it's so funny. But she never puts any of them down in her posts.

What are your thoughts on building an online presence? Any additional advice? Any suggestions or thoughts?

Do Writers Need Social Media?

Yes, writers need social media.

There's been quite a few posts and articles on the web abut social media and the publishing industry. Here's a good one from the NY Observer.

While it sounds grand in the vast scheme of things, how does it work in the real world? Meaning yours.

I discovered Diaryland early 2002 and used it as an online diary. "Hey, here's what's going on with me." I was writing, but not yet published.

Then came Xanga through the youth at church. I joined to keep up with them and to journal. By then the term "blog" was becoming vogue.

I moved to MySpace when the kids abandoned Xanga for a new cyber hangout. My first book release with Thomas Nelson was about to hit the stores and I thought, "What if I use MySpace to get the word out?"

I spent free time making friends, even bought a program to add friends.

Little by little, other authors were joining MySpace.

Meanwhile, I'd put up a web site and blogged there because I enjoy blogging. And one of the things I love about reading is discovering the life behind the author. I don't want to know their favorite breakfast jam, but I discovering how they wrote the book and why fascinated me. Still does.

We live in a voyeuristic society. People are used to looking behind the "camera" to discover more about the people they enjoy.

Plus, I was a new author swimming in a really big ocean of authors. How could I appeal to readers who have a lot of great books to choose from?

As I discovered more social media sites, I joined. Shoutlife. MyCCM, Facebook, Tumblr, BeenUp2, and my all time fav, Twitter.

As a member of a writer's community, I've been in several discussions about "to blog or not to blog," or "to Twitter or not to Twitter."

Between the thoughts of Thomas Nelson CEO, Michael Hyatt, and other editors and publishing marketers, the real answer is simple: Do it.

One of the questions asked is, "Isn't my time spent better writing a great book?" Yes, please, write a great book. But in today's cyber climate where 19-year-old fantasy writers are blowing away the publishing world, the competition is stiff.

You're going to have to dig deep, find the part of yourself you can share with the cyber world and join this social and media phenomenon. There'll be a day when we can't remember NOT being on the web.

I've gained readers due to my efforts with Twittering and Facebook.

So, here's some practical advice to building a social media network.

1. Start slow. If you do too much at once, you'll get overwhelmed. One of my Weight Watcher's instructors says she lost ninety lbs five lbs at a time. To this day if someone says, "How much weight did you lose, she says, "Five pounds."

The idea of losing ninty seemed impossible. So she worked with smaller, more managable goals. Use the same approach for social meida.

2. Decide what you can do first. Choose the most effective tools. But start with a web site and blog.

Brainstorm with your family, editor, agent, writing buddies on how to blog. What is the part of you that fits well for others to discover? I personally love to share insights from the Lord or my day-to-day life. My blog is eclectic. It works for me. Do what works for you.

3. Join Twitter and have your updates write to Facebook. There are tools like Tweetdeck and Tweetlater that allows you to set up tweets in advance and to follow favorite friends so you don't feel overwhelmed.

Spend a few minutes every day adding friends. If you have teens... ;) Hear what I'm whispering on that one.

4. As you have time, add other sites like MySpace and Shoutlife. I do highly recommend Shoutlife for the CBA author.

5. Choose a day a month or so to look for new social media outlets. Update your sites -- add and change information.

Your publisher has limited $$ to spend on promotion and marketing. And they have to spread that over many authors. The more you do to help spread the word about you and your work, the more you'll succeed.

On Twitter for example, a "friend" will post to me, "@rachelhauck, Loved your book. I'm a fan!" Now my friends as well as theirs see this endorsement. Wouldn't you be curious about an author who inticed your friend? I would.

Remember the shampoo commericial from the '70s? "They'll tell two friends and they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on."

That's the core concept of social media. Look, we can all hope for a spot on Oprah, but really, do we want to give so much power to one woman? I hope not.

So dip your toe in the social media pool. The water is just fine!

Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson's CEO

Through Mike's blog, I listened to his talking on blogging at a conference he attended. I was so jazzed and energized by his insight, thrilled I'd had some of the same experience and thoughts, motivated to keep my blog going.

I'm having a web site redesign and was actually thinking of backing off of blogging. But, I'd recently started rethinking my position and Mike pushed me back into line.

If you're a writer, it's such a great way to stay in touch with readers and help the public understand who you are.

One of the points Mike makes in his talk is how we are such a voyeuristic society. So true. We want to know what's going in with people, inside their hearts and minds, what makes them unique.

It's what makes great characters in our stories.

The other point Mike makes that I applaud is our uniqueness. No one has my unique life experiences, thoughts, feelings, desires, relationships. While we are all similar, we are all uniquely created by the Divine and there is no one on the earth like "you."

Let's hear from you.

So, check out Mike's blog. If nothing else, he's articulate and engaging.

What about you? Do you blog? Why? Has it worked for you? What are some of your favorite blogs?