From the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop - Blogging, Branding, and Social Media, Part 2

As promised last Monday, here are more tips gathered at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.  Last week we focused on blogging, this week is on branding and using social media.

I'm going to admit up front that I'm not social media savvy.  I don't Tweet, I'm only slighted LinkedIn, and I started my Facebook page because that's where my kids kept putting the grandkid pictures. Right now, maintaining my blog and visiting/commenting on yours is as far as I go.  So what you're getting here is what I heard from people in the know, passed along to you without any testing or endorsement. 

Of course, if you can add to what's here from your own knowledge and experience, please do.  Including disagreements, if you have any.  We all benefit from a good exchange of ideas.

That said, here are:

14 tips on branding and using social media.

Branding:

Voice lives on the page, brand takes the voice beyond the page.

The most critical part of voice and brand is consistency. Make is easy for people to "get" you.

Keep the same voice from your blog to Facebook to Twitter to whatever.

 

Coin a word or phrase that becomes your verbal logo and use it everywhere you post (this was also mentioned in Part 1).

Using Social Media:

Define your brand, community, objectives, and goals

Build a list.
• Gather contact info (e-mails and such), get sign-ups for a newsletter and/or RSS
• Use this list (judiciously) to ask for help in promoting an event or new release

Survey your community on their social media preferences
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. 

• Ask about schedule – when/how often would they like to hear from you

 

Plan your updates to fit their schedule and likes.

 • Keep these sort of updates conversational (small talk), not promotional.

 • Toss out ideas and see what attracts interest

Schedule your updates in advance and use auto-post features

Use tweets to drive people to your blog and Facebook page. Promote the same blog multiple times with different tweets.

Link everything together - Blog to LinkedIn to Facebook, etc.

When you're re-posting those graphics with your watermarked  link (see Part 1), add a text link as well.  Watermarked links aren't "clickable' and you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find you.  

Add the buttons – Facebook Like, Tweet It, etc. – to all your posts.

SHARE every blog post, guest post, whatever you do

Okay, what do you think?  Do you do any or all of these?  How do they work for you?

Groaner of the Day:  (a little something from Confucius)  Man who runs in front of car gets tired, man who runs behind car gets exhausted. 

From the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop - Blogging, Branding, and Social Media, Part 1

As I mentioned last week, earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.  The overall event was wonderful, with members of Erma's family on hand to read some of their personal favorites from her work and some excellent (FUNNY) guest speakers. 

From a writing standpoint, the Erma probably wasn't the best fit for me.  The focus, naturally, was on humor and I write mostly mystery and suspense, but there were a number of breakout sessions that crossed genre lines.  Three that I enjoyed were on blogging and using social media to create and promote your brand.  These were led by Debba Haupert, Anna Lefler, and Nettie Reynolds. 

I planned to do a post today on all the good tips I gathered from these three sessions but there were just too many for a single post, so this morning I'm going to focus on blogging and I'll follow up with the rest next Monday.

13 (gasp) tips on blogging from the EBWW:

Know why you're blogging.  Have a mission statement (even if it's just for yourself).

Keep your voice consistant.  Your regular followers should be able to pick out your voice in a crowd.

If you're a writer, your blog voice should be the same as your writing voice.  (More on this when we get to branding).

Have your own set of blog rules and stick to them, i.e. In my blog I always _____, but I never _____.

Maintain a common thread throughout your blog.

Coin a word or phrase that becomes your verbal logo.  (This one ties into branding, too.)

Add related magazines, web sites, etc. to your blog roll or sidebar.  Search engines check for incoming and outgoing link activity so you want as much traffic flowing through your blog as possible.

Include at least one link (if it's truly relevant) in every post.

Keep your blog roll fresh.

Embed a good quote in a graphic and add your blog link as a watermark.  People are more inclined to share pictures and wherever the graphic goes, your link with go with it.

Use numbered lists in your posts, i.e. Five tips for..., Ten reasons to ...

Use categories on your posts, in addition to tags or lables, so you can pull up all related posts in one block.

Keep an inventory of "evergreen" content - old posts that won't become dated.  Consider these your "classics" and re-use and/or promote them when appropriate. 

Okay, that's it.  How about you - got a blogging tip you'd like to share?

(Please forgive the late post this morning. Blogger and I are not playing well together today.) 

Groaner of the Day: A fellow received a mouse for his birthday and he loved it so much that he never parted with it. He took this mouse everywhere, to work, to parties, to the opera... One day, a good friend of his died and he was asked to serve as a pallbearer. Naturally, he took the mouse, which was perched on his shoulder.

On his way home from the funeral, he realized that the mouse was gone! He retraced all his moves for the day and realized the last time he had seen the mouse was just before they placed the casket in the hearse. He raced back to the funeral home and searched everywhere but the mouse was gone.

The man was filled with grief as he remembered the old adage his mother told him when he was a kid:

Never lock a gift mouse in the hearse.