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About Book Marketing Essentials

Tara Kachaturoff is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach, Certified Personal Brand Strategist, Certified Online ID Strategist, and the creator, producer, and host of Michigan Entrepreneur TV. She loves books, writing, and the arts.

Author Archive

Blog Talk Radio is an online application that allows you to host a live or pre-recorded radio show via the internet.  It’s free, easy to set up and all you need to get started is a telephone and a computer.  If you aren’t familiar with Blog Talk Radio, click on over to find out more.  Better yet, search for a radio show that might be interesting to you and listen in for a few minutes. What’s nice about Blog Talk Radio is that all shows are immediately archived and ready for replay after they’re broadcasted.

In a prior post, I wrote about you starting your own radio show.  If that’s not your cup of tea, you can still take full advantage of the great things it offers by being a guest on pre-existing shows.  That’s right, you can search thru the gigantic list of Blog Talk Radio shows and reach out to other hosts.

For the most part, talk show hosts are continuously looking for guests to feature. They want to host articulate, energetic guests who can add value and who are aligned with the goals and objectives of their show. Search thru the radio shows and start making a list of those that would be a good fit for you and your book.

Make sure you have a one-page media summary about who you are, your niche and other informational tidbits that are relevant to radio and/or TV show producers/hosts.  It should include complete contact information, a summary of who you are and why you’re an expert in your area, images of you (color and b/w), and links to your book blog or website.  Keep it to a single page – with plenty of whitespace.  Make it easy for the show host to easily determine who you are and why you would be a great guest for their show. Also include a list of media/interview questions. Again, try to keep this on a single page.

Contact the hosts to see if there might be a good fit. Make sure you have a good system to track all of this information because it can be quite time-consuming to keep track of everything.
You can use this marketing strategy on a regular basis to maintain visibility and credibility. And don’t forget that added bonus that you can tweet and post the link to your broadcast show via a variety of social media.  Give it a try.  You’ll be helping out the radio show hosts and helping to build your online brand at the same time.

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If you don’t know about Blog Talk Radio, make sure you go and check it out.  Blog Talk Radio allows you to start a radio show for free.

With Blog Talk Radio, you can host a live or pre-recorded radio show via the internet.  You only need a telephone and a computer — that’s it!  You can host a show all by yourself or you can invite guests.

How can this help you to market your book?  First, it builds credibility and visibility. You can reference your Radio Show in all of your online social media — from Facebook and Fan Page mentions to links to individual episodes you can tweet out thru Twitter.

Second, it gives you a venue where you can talk about your book from time to time.  Remember, you don’t want to sell it outright.  You might read sections of text and invite listeners to discuss their thoughts with you via telephone or interact with the online chat area.  You’ll definitely want to have other topics to talk about other than your book.

Third, it helps you improve your overall communication skills.  Nothing makes you into an expert faster than just getting out there and doing that which you want to master.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  And if you’re not comfortable doing a live show, you can always pre-record it and upload it and play it back at the time you want it to air.

You do need to do research and put pen to paper when planning to do a radio show.  That being said, if it’s your passion — go for it!  Click on over to Blog Talk Radio to find out more.

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A Facebook group provides you with a convenient venue where you can bring together people with a common interest.  It’s fast, easy and free to start a group on Facebook. Keep in mind you can also start a group at LinkedIn and at other social networks that have that feature.  If you have to choose top networks, however, select Facebook or LinkedIn.

It can take a lot of time to manage a group, unless you have an assistant or others who ca help. Even so, you need to weigh the time and energy it takes and the value that it adds to your followers and to you.  Make sure your schedule can support adding this activity before you decide to dive in.

You can start a group that centers on your book.  You can include videos, discussions, audios, and even schedule teleseminars where you can all come together to talk about content in more detail.  So many good things can come from group interaction including joint business ventures.  Everyone can collaborate and work together on projects of interest.

In a prior posting, I wrote briefly about Facebook Pages. You might be wondering what the difference is between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group.  About a year ago, Howard Greenstein via Mashable published an article addressing this  – Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference? You might want to read it before you decide whether you want a Group of a Page. Still, you might want both.

Before you start a group, be clear on why you want to start it.  Know how much time you can devote to it. Think about the types of material you might want to post, how you’ll engage others and, most importantly, how you’ll sustain it for the long term.  Adding value and regular engagement with followers is key to making it a success.

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A LinkedIn group provides you with a place where you can bring together people with a common interest.  For that reason, it’s might be a great place for you to start a group centered on your book.  If your book is more business-oriented, a LinkedIn group might be preferred over the more casual Facebook Group.

Or, you can do both.  Since it does take a lot of time and energy to keep groups energized, you may want to start with one and see how it works out. Below, I’ve provided some information to help you get started with creating your own LinkedIn Group

To start your own group:

-     Make sure you have some sort of logo. Incorporating design and text elements related to your book is good for recognition purposes.
-    Once you log into LinkedIn, Select Groups from the top horizontal navigation menu
-    Upload your log in PNG, JPEG or GIF format. The maximum size for your image file is limited to 100 KB
-    Check the box to acknowledge that you have full rights to the logo.
-    Name your Group. You may want to use your name followed by the name of the book
-    Select the type of group that best fits for you.
-    Enter a brief description. Make sure to include something that describes the value you intend to provide those who join.  Find ways to get others involved. People promote and further organizations in which they have some sort of ownership.
-    Include a longer, more detailed description.
-    Add a link to your book site
-    Decide whether you want Open Access or if you want to approve requests to join
-    Select “Display this group in the Groups Directory” so people can find it to join
-    Select Language
-    Read the Terms of Service and respond appropriately.
-    Click Create Group and then you can get started!

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A Facebook Fan Page is a wonderful way for interest readers to connect with you.  If you want to get started with creating a Facebook Fan Page, you can find more information at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php You can create as many pages as you want so creating a targeted one just for your book might be a good idea.

Here are a few things you might want to consider when developing your own Facebook Fan Page:

-    Brand your Facebook Fan Page so that it has the same look and feel as your book. Make sure you have a prominent image of your book.  Add design and other page elements that tie in with the book’s style and color.
-    Make sure to include a landing page for new followers that includes a special offer to receive something else of value in exchange for their name and email address
-    Post interesting quotes from your book.
-    Include videos, audios and other resources that you might even have on your regular book block.  Make it rich in value.
-    Actively answer and ask questions. Engage. Collaborate. Build community
-    Add links in the left sidebar to other sites of yours
-    Make sure to publish testimonials here and there.
-    Occasionally, not more than once per month, post a short blurb on your Facebook profile (not the Facebook Page) that entices people to go and join your Facebook Page.

Facebook Fan Pages are another way to gain more visibility for your book — and for free!  Even if you don’t choose to spend a lot of time designing one, it’s worth your while to put up a simple one. Keep in mind that your target market uses many different types of social media. You need to make sure you’re covered — at least on the major networks.

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