This is a continuing series of interviews on how various book authors use social media successfully. This week, I interview Jackie Huba. She is the author of the new book, “Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force and “Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message. The book is an indepth look into how word of mouth can be used as a powerful marketing and communications tool. Her blog, Church of The Customer, is one of the leading blogs on word of mouth marketing and has well over 200,000 subscribers. Along with her business partner, Ben McConnell, she speaks to major corporations and businesses on the applications of word of mouth.

The goal of this series is to share best practices in social media and help other aspiring book authors learn to use this medium to increase book sales and exposure of their work. Let’s begin.

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1. What do you think is the biggest challenge that most book authors face when trying to use social media successfully for their book?

Many authors think of social media tactically as a way to promote their book. The advantage of using social media is that these tools are a great way to strategically build an audience for the long term. But building an audience takes time and hard work. Authors should be thinking long before the book is even written how they can start to build that audience.

2. Care to tell us how much time you put into social media on weekly basis? Where is the time divided?

Probably 10 hours a week. My co-author, Ben McConnell, and I both write for our blog and we try to post 2-3 times a week. We also have started a new online community, the Society for Word of Mouth (SWOM) and I probably spend a hour a day care-taking for that site.  Also I have Google and Twitter alerts set up so that I know when people are mentioning us or our books online. We try to respond to these mentions as much as possible.

3. Where can we find you online? Please list the urls of your profiles for these sites (or whichever you feel comfortable listing) (ie; twitter, your blog, Facebook, etc)

• Blog: CHurchoftheCustomer.com (currently at 196,000 RSS subscribers)
• Society for Word of Mouth Online Community: theSWOM.org
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/jackiehuba
• Facebook Profile
  

4. I know you¹re active on both Twitter and Facebook. How have those platforms helped you with the book?

One of the challenges that authors face is that after the initial book promotion is over, how do you keep buzz going for the book? By participating in social media, whether it is using Twitter, or commenting on blogs, people will click to your profile and find out more about you. This way, you will have people who may have missed the initial launch publicity find out about the book. Facebook and Twitter are two such examples of how to connect with people who can check your profile and learn about your book.

A word of warning: resist the urge to constantly Tweet or mention your book in your conversations in social media. No one likes a braggart.

5. What are some practical WOM strategies that you can suggest to book authors trying to use blogging as an online marketing tool?

Use a blog as the main website for the book. Share a sample chapter on the site. Upload a video summary of you talking about the book. Using polls or trivia questions related to the book to get readers involved. Give away copies of books to those who participate in discussion on your blog.

6. Any interesting story or benefit that you care to share from using social media successfully?

It’s important to track what is being said about your book online. Use Google Alerts on the title of your book.  One day I received an alert about a blog post with a negative reviw of our book “Creating Customer
Evangelists.” The blogger outlined some of things he didn’t like about the book. I posted a comment to the blog post, thanking the blogger for posting his feedback and gently corrected a few of the inaccuracies he had assumed about the book. His next blog post was titled “Jackie Huba is my favorite author!” He was amazed that I had seen his comment and would take the time to respond. By participating in the blogosphere, authors can create positive word of mouth and turn detractors around.

7. What¹s the best advice that you could give to other book authors who want to explore how social media can help them and the promotion of their books?

Start building your audience with social media now. Don’t wait until you are ready to promote your new book.

This is a continuing series of interviews on how various book authors use social media successfully. This week, I interview Michelle Miller. She is the author of the new book, The Soccer Mom Myth. The book is an indepth look into who today’s female consumer really is, how she really thinks, and why she really buys – both online and offline.

Her blog on marketing to women, WonderBranding, has won awards from Marketing Sherpa and Forbes.com, and was featured in Seth Godin’s ebook, “Bull Marketing.” Michele is also the marketing columnist for Inc.com, the web companion to Inc. business magazine.

The goal of this series is to share best practices in social media and help other aspiring book authors learn to use this medium to increase book sales and exposure of their work. Let’s begin.

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1. What was or is the biggest challenge that you found when you started to use various form of social media such as blogging as a marketing tool?

When I started blogging nearly five years ago, I was lucky to get advice from other bloggers on the biggest challenge, which really was two-fold. One – be prepared to add fresh content on a regular basis. I’ve seen more blogs die on the vine because of initial enthusiasm followed by the reality of what kind of commitment it takes. Two – the time you need to take to read other people’s blogs, join in the conversation, and build relationships. The old adage “No man is an island” couldn’t be more true than with the blogosphere – it really does take a village, and the more you connect with others, the more success you have.

2. What was the most unexpected result or surprise that you got when you started using social media applications?

The biggest surprise for me was the openness of other bloggers and how they welcomed me into the fold. What an amazing community – I now consider many of marketing’s biggest and best minds to be personal friends, first thanks to the blogosphere and now to apps like Facebook and especially Twitter. For me, the day would be empty without some interaction with my Tweets.

3. With the launch of your new book, what social media tools do you intend to be using the most in order to get exposure for it?

The book has been out for a few weeks now, and Holly (my co-author) and I decided to be judicious with our time and energy. Since we both have long-standing blogs of our own, we decided to just keep writing on our existing blogs rather than create a whole new blog for the book. We do have a website for the book that’s gotten a lot of attention, and that directs visitors to our individual blogs. Plus, web visitors can sign up for a weekly newsletter tip that’s delivered by email.

I’m currently writing a new book for Bard Press which should be out in late 2009, and I am in the planning stages of how I’ll use social media apps like Facebook and blogging to really give the big push… this next book will be a biggie for me and I’m preparing myself to invest the time (and money!) it will take to go for a bestseller attempt.

4. Care to tell us how much time you put into social media on weekly basis? Where is the time divided?

Whoo-boy. I’d say between my blog, the Grokdotcom blog, the Inc.com blog and my time on Twitter and Facebook, I put in about 8-10 hours a week. A big chunk of that is offline, of course, doing the writing, because I want the content to be effective for the reader. And oh yes, there’s the time spent reading other blogs… guess you can add about four hours to that weekly total, at least!

5. What does your social media profile look like? Where can we find you online?

• My blog, WonderBranding, can be found at http://www.wonderbranding.com
• I write the marketing blog for Inc.com at http://www.inc.com
• I also write for the Grok blog (home of web wizards Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg) at
• You can find me on Facebook,
• Twitter
• And if you’d like to follow my dog, Penny the WonderDog, she Twitters as well.

6. What’s the best advice that you could give to other book authors who want to explore how social media can help them and the promotion of their books?

The best thing authors can do is spend some quality time (I’m talking HOURS) reading other blogs and see what it takes to build great content and strong readership. No matter if authors have published a book, are writing a book or are just thinking about writing a book, a blog is the best first step. It builds your writing chops as well as the confidence you need to write with conviction. Authors should also consider Twitter, which is not only fun, it connects you with more people that you dreamed possible.

7. Before the new book, The Soccer Mom Myth, was ever released; you already had a blog at Wonder Branding. How much did that blog help you in the creation and promotion of the book itself?

I’ve been blogging at WonderBranding for nearly five years. I followed the same advice I give authors above, and it really helped build my confidence. Because of the blog, I got the writing gig with Inc.com.

My posts for WonderBranding helped developed my ideas for The Soccer Mom Myth; often, when I was stymied over an idea, blogging about it helped clear my neural pathways and opened me to new angles of approach. Finally, it got the attention of Ray Bard from Bard Press, who also saw me give a day-long seminar last fall and then approached me about writing the book I’m currently working on. And if you know about Bard Press (they only publish a couple of titles a year at the most, and market the hell out of them – most of their titles become bestsellers), that’s quite an honor.

In the end, write good content and you won’t have to do a lot of marketing. If you’ve built a strong readership, been honest and authentic in your writing, and you’ve developed a community of other bloggers, promotion takes on a life of its own. It’s a world I love!

Continuing my series of how book authors use social media successfully, this week, I interview how Rohit Bhargava. Rohit is the author of the book, Personality Not Included. As the tagline suggest, the book is about “Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back.”

The goal of this series is to share best practices in social media and help other aspiring book authors learn to use this medium to increase book sales and exposure of their work. Let’s begin.

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1. What was or is the biggest challenge that you found when you started to use various form of social media as a marketing tool?

I think the biggest challenge is that to use social media well, you really need to invest the time to participate and share your real voice. For example, when I first launched the book – I asked bloggers to send me 5 questions as a virtual interview that they could run on their blogs. I got 55 responses, which meant I had to respond individually to more than 250 questions. The buzz resulting from that one activity was extremely high, but I had to spend quite a bit of time initially to do it well, and additional time to follow up and try to comment on those posts and continue the conversations. When you use social media as a marketing tool, you are making a commitment to start AND CONTINUE a conversation, and that can be challenging.

2. What is your preferred social media-marketing tool?

I am a big believer in not letting the tools define what you do, but rather getting smarter about your strategy for what you want the tools to do. I am alternately using blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Dopplr, and del.icio.us to promote my book. They each have a role and I find them useful for different things. I can’t really choose one favourite.

3. What was the most unexpected result or surprise that you got when you started using social media applications?

I think the biggest surprise that anyone who starts actively using social media tools will find (and what I found when I first started) is just how accessible people are. I left a comment on John Mackey’s blog (CEO of Whole Foods) and he responded. I was able to get interviews with unreachable people to profile in my book. When Mark Cuban was competing on Dancing with the Stars, I could see his updates about how he was feeling five minutes before air time. That’s a pretty powerful idea. In part, that was why I felt my book was so necessary … because as social media offers more direct access to the individuals in your company (at any level), your personality becomes even more important.

4. What types of SM tools are you currently using? Please list the urls of your profiles for these sites.

www.personalitynotincluded.com – the official site for the book
www.thepersonalityproject.com – The Personality Project (a group blog companion to the book site)
http://www.twitter.com/rohit – my Twitter ID
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7995589118&ref=ts – the official readers group on Facebook
http://del.icio.us/pnibook – my delicious account where I am tagging all the reviews and buzz about the book
http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com – my marketing blog

5. What’s the best advice that you could give to other book authors who want to explore how social media can help them and the promotion of their books?

The best thing social media can offer any author is a way to connect with influential voices who are currently talking about your subject, and letting people share your content and ideas with one another. The first point is about connecting your book with the people that can spread the word to all the right audiences. The second is about letting your readers and people who like the book spread the word about it. I would say that for any author, the trick is to try and focus on both of these pieces.

6. Can you quantify the results from using SM?

For me, the biggest benefit was obviously landing a six figure book deal … but more than that has been the ability to connect with more people and share the authentic story behind my book. I have never accepted advertising on my personal blog, so the results are more about reputation, speaking invitations and big things like the book deal. Putting all of those things together, I would say that starting my blog over three years ago was a best decision of my career.

7. What’s the problem with most blogs by book authors today? Do you think many of them lack a personality?

I wouldn’t say they lack a personality, but I think the temptation for many authors is to think about a book website and blog a bit more logically than they probably need to. My book site, for example, does have a blog and the general book information, but I also have a “Making of PNI” section where I share rejected cover designs, my original book proposal that I used to sell the deal, sketches of drawings that made it into the book and even a photo of me holding my week old baby in one hand while he was sleeping and making final edits on my book on the laptop with the other. All of it is meant to give people an inside look at the book and let them know that it is not faceless (and neither am I). I’m a real person that spent time writing the book and I’m approachable. Ideally, a blog should do that, and combine it with more current commentary that can help to keep your book fresh.

8. Before the PNI Book was ever released, you had a personal blog. How much did that blog help you in the creation of the book itself?

The blog was of great benefit in getting the book deal, as I shared above … but when it came to writing the book, I used surprisingly little of my blog content. Readers of my blog will find that there is only one thing repeated from my blog in the book, and that’s the well trafficked Social Media Optimization post. When it came to writing the book and the flow of it, I found that my blog content didn’t naturally fit and wrote most of the book from scratch.

9. I see you are using WordPress for the PNI website as opposed to Typepad for your personal blog? I recently wrote a primer on why I believe authors should use WP as their web publishing platform of choice so I’m glad to see that you are using it.

I am a fan of both, actually … and I use Typepad for my personal blog. To be honest, the main reason for choosing WordPress was that with the customization I wanted, the designer I was working with was going to have an easier time getting WordPress to work. I think that’s the main advantage that most developers and creators of sites and blogs are finding with WordPress – its flexibility.

I am collecting endorsements, success stories, and words of praise as to book authors who love using WordPress.

Comments and feedback is encouraged.

This is the next in a series of guides on how book authors can achieve social media success. The first was a 5-page article on why book authors should use WordPress as part of their web presence.

The following is a 4 page primer on how book authors can use Facebook as a viable social media tool to give more exposure to their book and work. If you wish to read a print version of this, you can download the 4 page pdf guide here. Otherwise, you can read the entire guide in its entirety below.

Sachi Studio is available for Facebook social media consulting for selected book authors as well.

Update 8/13/09: Our new free eGuide, “Facebook Fan Pages for Book Authors” is out. Click on the badge to learn more.

Like many other businesses, book authors are flocking to various social media communities such as Facebook and Myspace. They want to leverage these sites as best as possible to give more exposure to their books. But too many are lost and lack both direction and strategy as to how to best use these communities.

The following is a primer for authors to use Facebook as a viable social media marketing tool.

Before we get into specific methods and activities to use on Facebook, there are five principles that any book author should adhere to in the social media space. It is important you are aware of these fundamentals as they make up the foundation of success in social media.

1. It’s not about you. It’s about the community. Too many overzealous marketers forget this principle when it comes to social media. They focus too much on promoting themselves at the risk of ignoring the needs of their users. Your followers have a voice that want to be heard. Create initiatives that allow your users to voice their thoughts and opinions on your work. Try to focus on their needs while simultaneously meeting yours.
2. Be sociable. It’s not called social media for nothing, folks. This means that you shouldn’t just upload photos of your latest book tours or just promote the book on your Facebook profile. Be personal and allow those connected to you to see some personal stuff of you. In the world of social media, it helps to be three-dimensional.
3. Think long term and be consistent. Don’t quit after a few days of work. Social media is a relatively new field. You have to continually test and benchmark various initiatives before you start to see results.
4. Focus on user generated content. Much of the successful social media strategies today focus on allowing the end user to generate the content for us. There are too many authors who ignore or don’t realize how much power their users have in contributing to their work. Look for ways where you can get the community to do the work for you.
5. Focus on multiple generations of users. Many of the failed social media strategies today are a result of marketers focusing on their first generation users. Successful strategies rely heavily on getting the first generation of users to continue to spread the message to their network and getting that network to spread it to their network. Hence, don’t just market to friends but to friends of friends of friends. As they say in networking, it’s not who you know, but it’s who they know.

Now that we’ve listed the basis tenets of successful social media strategies, let’s get into specific activities that authors can use on the Facebook platform.

1. Create a Facebook page for your book. One of the first things that you should do is create your own Facebook page so that readers can become fans of the book. A page is simply a mini site on Facebook that is dedicated to the product or service that you are selling. Various features to a page are the ability to post videos, messages, pictures, and links to your page. Your work doesn’t stop once you created the page.

Creating a presence is the first step to creating a community. You need to continually nurture and build this community by adding new outreach initiatives and content. Add a question to the message board to encourage participation. Encourage users to add content such as photos, links, and video. Use the page to notify fans of new promotions and contests that you are running. Make it so that people are rewarded for becoming a fan and spreading the word about your book and work.

A great example of a company using a Facebook page is Victoria’s Secret. This is their page;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Victorias-Secret-PINK/26972120470

They have over 300,000 fans to date and over 1,200 discussions to date.
They offer freebies such as allowing you to download wallpapers and AOL Instant Messenger Icons.
Users post messages to the discussion boards with many of them running well over a 1000 posts.

The big mistake that most authors make is that they create the page to promote the book, but only target the first generation of users. For example, they only target their message towards the initial members or users of the community. This creates very little if any type of viral effect.

Remember- this is the Internet and messages can become very viral on the World Wide Wow. We want to leverage the tools on the web to ensure that our message will continue to reverberate throughout the web. The message should continue to carry from one person to the next and to the next rather than immediately stopping at the first person we target. We maximize how far our message will carry in this manner.

2. Create a group. Some authors may think that you should automatically create the group after the book itself. This may not always be true. It can be more effective to create a group that the focuses on the topic that what the book is about.

If the book is about a new trend in marketing for small businesses, then create a group around the topic itself and not the book. The trick here is that you are using the topic to indirectly funnel and give exposure to your book. I know that in the minds of many authors, they think that their book can solve a particular problem, as is the case in popular non-fiction categories such as business, relationships, and self-help. While this may be true, you will find that today’s consumers hate being pitched to. They don’t want to be sold any more things. If they see another group that focuses on a person’s wares, then they run away. Think not what you can do for your book, but what you can do for people.

Equipped with this understanding, you want to create a group that focuses on their needs and current challenges and yet still manages to keep you top of mind.

If you have a very popular book, then you can probably get away with creating a group around the book itself. But with a book that is an upstart, then you have to think more creatively and laterally as to how to leverage a Facebook group to your advantage. Whether the author wants to create a group that focuses on the book or a topic that is close in nature to the book is ultimately a judgment call. This relies heavily on the author to think creatively and strategically about this.

3. Import your blog entries into your Facebook notes. You want to give exposure and capture as many readers as possible regardless of what social networking site that you belong to. Facebook will allow you to import your blog entries into your Facebook account. This helps you capture a new readership base and adds more interactivity to your Facebook presence.

4. Keep your profile dynamic. This means that you shouldn’t just create a Facebook account, add on 5 friends, and then wither away. Admittedly, there is a learning curve to Facebook or any social networking site in the beginning. Once you’ve managed to understand the basic interface, here are some activities that you can do to make for a more interesting Facebook presence. The goal is to allow users to “window shop” into your world. Allow people to see the other side of you rather than just the writer.

• Update your status. Are you heading to a new city for a book tour? Giving a speech? Pissed off at your dog? Thinking of something that others should know about? Just wrote a new blog entry that you want others to read? Update it on your status.
• Post photos. People tend to be very visual and having photos allows others to get a better picture of who you are. People love to browse through photos.
• Answer wall messages and emails. I see a lot of authors make the mistake of ignoring messages from their friends on Facebook. I know we’re all busy but taking the time to be more sociable and personable really does help with your PR. You don’t want to build the reputation as someone who ignores his readers or fanbase. Word about that will spread quickly.

5. Incentivize your outreach strategies. If you want to encourage increased participation from your connections on Facebook or even off of Facebook, I recommend that you offer incentives when trying to get others to spread the word about. A few suggested prizes include a free-signed copy of your book, a special edition of your book, free getaway, free consultation of your services, or anything that may be appropriate. Offering prizes and incentives helps expedite word of mouth.

6. Befriend members who read your book. Do a search for members who list your book as one of their favorite. This is one of the more time-consuming outreach initiatives that you’ll develop. If you have a lot of members listed, look for ways to filter down the list and add only those who are most important. Look for influencers.

Start adding these people to your friend’s list. I would recommend adding a personal note as to why you are adding them to your friend’s list. A simple note that says that you noticed that they listed your book as a favorite would suffice. The absence of a personal note sometimes leave people wondering who you are and why they should bother adding you to their connections.

It should be noted that Facebook allows you to segment your friends into various categories by creating a list for that category. I suggest creating a category called “Fans” and add these people to your Fans list. When you decide to start marketing and developing outreach campaigns, you’ll have a targeted list of people to reach out to. Consider this as a form of database marketing and you have the option to segment your database accordingly.

You now have a targeted group of people you can reach out to and they have voluntarily given you permission to keep in touch with them.

Be sure to not eblast your entire friends network as it’s not as targeted. If you do this too often, Facebook will cancel your account without warning.

7. Create events. Facebook allows you to create events that you may be hosting such as a book tour or speaking engagement. Create these events and invite your friends. But don’t just stop there. Encourage your friends to spread the word by inviting their friends to the event on Facebook as well. One of the wonderful features to Facebook is that their features try to encourage as much user participation as possible. Users are able to take an event that you created and they can invite all of their friends to the event as well.

Of course, you have to realize that most people don’t do anything for free. So remember guideline #5 and incentivize the marketing of your event here. Let your attendees know that if they invite their network and get a certain number of attendees to come, then you will give them some type of giveaway or prize.

Too many book authors are myopic. They create the event and hope people will somehow flock to the event. Successful social media marketing does not work like this. In order for this to be a success, we have to include as many users as possible into our outreach campaigns. Go beyond your first generation of users. Tap into the friends of your friends of your friends.

8. Add a Facebook badge onto your website and blog. Most social media sites such as a Myspace, LinkedIN and Facebook allow you to create your own badge that lets your website visitors know that you have a profile on these sites. This encourages members who are interested in keeping in touch with you to connect with you on sites such as Facebook thus giving you increased exposure to you and your work.

So there you go. You have eight initiatives that you can develop on Facebook to allow for increased exposure to your book and work. It is important to note that any one initiative might help, but if all eight principles are combined into a cohesive strategy, then your chances of success are far greater.

So go forth and be successful in social media.