Anyone can throw a Virtual Party for any reason and the set up is fun and free.

CREATE A PARTY WEBSITE

Do this at least two months in advance. It takes information time to travel throughout the web. Create a party website that’s attached to your author website. Build a party blog for the sole purpose of hosting daily or weekly party updates. If you are a multiple book author, keep the blog for all of your parties and invite current party goers to review your scrapbook of previous parties.

Plan out your weekly prizes, posts related to the book or guest, give tidbits about the book and your guest. Even spotlight like works from other authors.

Keep the party going and post monthly games, prizes, post related to your up and coming works. You can always point folks back to your party site and if you keep it going people will always want to return.

PARTY MUST HAVES

Offer party favors weekly(these are gifts given prior to the release day of the party), music, video interview of the author, video interview of guest, book trailer, gifts, contest, book excerpts, chat room, guest book, cover art, book reviews, email box, and anything you would think would improve the fun.

PARTY PROMOTIONS

To promote your party you could do the following; press release, tweet it, facebook it, newsletter, email it, tell everyone in the forums you visit and ask people to pass the word on.

Another author friend of mine used a service to offer up over $1000 in prizes for her Amazon Book Launch Party. She went on a week campaign of countdown advertising and prize offers with games. She updated her blog, sent email newsletters, tweeted, facebook, myspace, evite and the word spread. She’d moved up the ranks in the Amazon ranking system from the millions to around 20K. Not bad for a first party attempt.

COMPLIMENTS TO THE PARTY

Have a real party too! You can have a small local launch party and invite guest to log into the Virtual After Party while they are at the small local party. Sign the online guest book and do videos and pictures that will be posted on the Virtual Party site. After the local party, post pictures on the PARTY BLOG and kick off the next virtual party.

LM Preston is the author of The Pack and Explorer X – Alpha www.lmpreston.com and http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

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Or maybe you have been surprised by a rude, off-the-cuff remark on Twitter?

Social networking offers boundless potential for authors and writers to promote their works to a wide audience online. Just remember to avoid some common etiquette pitfalls.

Keeping a personalized touch makes all the difference. Let the Golden Rule govern your behavior online and treat people and situations as you would face to face:

Share — Provide valuable information that people can use. When I am networking online, I offer great content for free, whether it be seminars, newsletters or even articles that I find that would be interesting for the community.

Don’t just promote yourself — Engage with people online just as you would if you were building a business relationship in person. If someone comes in and all they want to do is promote, promote, promote, that approach is likely to go nowhere.

Be polite — People have a tendency to say things online they would never say face to face. I have seen instances where people on Twitter have a personal beef or a problem with a person and tweet it out publicly. Don’t say anything you would be embarrassed for your loved ones to read.

Don’t lower yourself — With electronic communication, whether email or social networking, there is no way to read facial expressions or body language. If there is a question about a person’s intentions, give them the benefit of the doubt rather than calling them out for being rude.

Be responsible — Not only for what you say, but for your time and your image. It will hurt your credibility if you tell people how busy you are and they see you taking those “Who am I?” and “5 Favorite” quizzes on Facebook everyday. When you are online you should assume everyone is watching and behave accordingly.

Don’t butt in — If you are participating in an online discussion, let other people have a chance to share their ideas and perspectives. Wait your turn and you will get your chance.

Have fun and be creative — Think of ways you can share information about your article, book, writing service or yourself that are fun and make people want to follow you.

These tips work because social networking is all about building community. Just like in the community you live in offline, the people who have credibility online who are those who engage others and provide value for the community.

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed.

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A Facebook “Fan Page” or “Page” is designed for business use and it’s a great way to promote your book. You can set up a Fan Page for your business, book, or even a character in your book, and you can create multiple Pages. Here are some advantages that Pages have over personal Profiles.

• By using Facebook applications like “Static FBML,” you can create customized tabs on your Facebook Fan Page containing graphics, text, videos and even opt-in forms to promote your book.

• You can specify which tab of the Page that you want new visitors to land on.

• Facebook users join a Page by clicking on the “Become a Fan” button and there’s no limit to the number of fans who can join.

• You can send messages to your all of your fans, which shows up in their news feed.

• Pages get indexed by search engines and each tab on the Page has its own URL.

Click here to create a Fan Page. Here are some ways to promote your book by building traffic to your Fan Page:

• Once your Page has at least 25 fans, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to create a personalized URL for your page.

• Beneath the photo or image on your Page, click “Suggest to Friends” to send invitations to your Facebook friends to join your page. The invitation will appear in the In Box of your friends.

• Write an article for your blog and ezine inviting people to join your Page.

• Invite people to join your page by posting updates on Twitter, your Facebook personal Profile, and on other social networks.

To encourage Facebook users to join your Page, be active in posting on the page, maintain lively discussions, and offer some benefits and incentive for becoming a fan. Even though promotion is allowed, you still need to be somewhat subtle and provide value to your fans rather than just a sales pitch.

For more detailed information about how to promote your book on Facebook, see Facebook Guide for Authors, by Dana Lynn Smith. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter and visit The Savvy Book Marketer blog at http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dana_Lynn_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Promote-Your-Book-on-Facebook-With-a-Fan-Page&id=3829973

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Here are some tips for making the most of your character’s presence in social media:

Use a drawing or photo of the character as an avatar if you can. Otherwise, use the book cover or other image to represent them. (Note: Be careful if using a photo of a real person as your character. Make sure you have permission. Take a photo of a friend or model, and get a signed release.)

Make it clear that the account belongs to a fictional character. The purpose is not to deceive anyone, but just to do something interesting to readers and have fun with the characters.

Here are a few places to put your characters:

Although fictional characters can not have Facebook profiles, they can have fan pages. Set up a fan page for your character and let your followers know about it. Use the fan page to keep readers up to date on new books, events, etc., and also about what is happening in the life of your character between books (or after the book in which they appeared ended).

Anyone can have a Twitter account, even if they only exist in your imagination. Drop clues about the latest case your amateur sleuth is involved in, or tweet about the romantic evening your romance heroine enjoyed. Of course, your characters can also mention your upcoming book signings and other events.

Set up a Ning.com network around your books, where your characters can interact with readers.

If you really want to go all out, set up a blog for the character. Or create a blog for all of the characters in your latest book and let them take turns posting. You may find that too much to maintain (along with your own blog, oh, and writing books!) so instead just have a character do an occasional guest post on your blog. Be sure to announce the post via Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Have your characters guest post on other people’s blogs. This could be part of a blog tour, where your character appears instead of you, or be done on its own. To find blogs where you and your characters can guest post, join http://BloggerLinkUp.com/ (free) and submit your offer of guest posts.

Don’t go overboard with this. You probably do not want to do all of these things. Choose one or two and have fun with them. This can be a new way to engage your current readers and attract new fans.

Cathy Stucker writes about marketing, blogging, publishing and more at IdeaLady.com and CathyStucker.com. Sign up for her free IdeaLady Insider newsletter at http://IdeaLady.com/article/newsletter.

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I finished an experiment a few months ago which proved beneficial to my book sales. My first goal was to make over 100 friends a week. The concept here was the more friends I had the bigger my network and the more people would hear about my book. But the reverse happened. Even though I was adding many friends, none of those friends got any personal attention. After several more experiments, I found the perfect number. If you use 4 different social networking sites to make 12 friends per week (with an interest in the subject of your book), by contacting each friend at least 3 times your book sales will increase dramatically. Each friend is getting enough personal attention to be interested in your book, and will possibly purchase it. But, the book sales don’t stop there. Those customers will tell their friends and so on and so forth. In essence, you gave the perfect amount of people a small bit of attention, enough for them to become a sales engine for you.

Give it a try for one week, it takes a bit of persistence but it works.

For more tips and tricks on how to sell a ton of books, go to Michael Volkin‘s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase his new book Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

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1. Think about the other promotional tactics you are already using and how social media fits in with them.

2. Decide how high a priority should be placed on social marketing, compared with other your marketing activities. How many hours a week can you devote to it?

3. Determine what target audiences you want to reach through social marketing. For example:

• Potential new customers
• Key influencers (people who can introduce/recommend you)
• Peers and other experts in your field or genre
• Publishing and marketing professionals

4. Set objectives, describing what you hope to gain by marketing through social media.  Here are a few examples:

• Increase visibility and name or brand recognition
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field
• Develop relationships with others in your field or genre
• Drive traffic to your website (directly and through enhanced search engine optimization)
• Sell books and other products and services
• Develop relationships with potential joint venture partners

5.  Based on your objectives, set specific, achievable, and measurable goals for your social marketing activities. Here are some examples:

• Add five new incoming links to your website this month
• Double the traffic to your website within two months
• Increase your opt-in mailing list by twenty five percent within three months
• Increase book sales by ten percent within two months

6. Develop your branding

• Get a good quality headshot photo, in low-resolution format, to use in all online marketing activities.
• Decide what “user name” you want to be known by online. Nonfiction authors should also develop a short tagline that reflects their specific area of expertise.
• Write standard bios in several lengths.
• Create an online signature for emails and online forums. Include your book title, company name if appropriate, website and blog address, and one or two social networks.

7. Determine which social marketing tactics are the best fit for your book, your audiences, your objectives, and your available time. Social marketing activities can include:

• Social blogging (commenting on blogs, doing blog tours)
• Social networking (Facebook, MySpace)
• Microblogging (Twitter)
• Virtual reader communities (Goodreads, LibraryThing)
• Online forums
• Expert sites and wikis (Squidoo, HubPages)
• Media and content sharing sites (YouTube, Flickr)
• Social news and bookmarking (StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious)

8. Decide how you will measure the effectiveness of your social marketing efforts. What metrics will you track and what tools will you use to measure them. Below are some examples of metrics you might track:

• Friends or followers on social networks
• Articles or pages posted on expert sites or article sites
• Sales  of books and other products and services
• Business contacts (peers, influencers, media, potential partners)
• Weekly unique visitors and return visitors to your website and blog
• Subscribers to your mailing list and blog
• Visitors to your website and blog
• Inbound links to you website and blog

9. Implement your chosen social marketing tactics, one at a time.

10. Evaluate your progress periodically. Can you tell which activities are generating the best results? Are some activities taking up too much of your time? Make adjustments to your strategy as necessary.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing, www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For free book marketing tips visit www.BookMarketingMaven.com.

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Making contacts and being helpful whenever possible, is what anyone using social media needs to do. Social media also consists of blogs as well as sites like FaceBook and others. The blog is the best way for people to find you and learn something about you. This puts a person with the name. Your blog should contain the best writing and content you can do. If your blog is about a niche subject, make it entertaining and useful to whoever reads it.

Content is still king when creating posts to your blog. This will get you read. As people read and tell others, your traffic builds and you will have greater opportunities to find work.

Being proactive and asking people, or guest posting is one way to get known. Let’s face it, if no one knows you, they will not come to you. You need to make relevant posts to your subject, and to offer people something in return for reading your post(s).

At social media sites, you need to be interactive and helpful to others on the site. Post links to articles that are helpful, or to sites that are helpful. Retweet items that have relevance to others, include hashtags on Twitter to various groups that might be interested in a link to information you find, such as #writers, #editor, and more. Be a helpful member. You don’t need to hang out all day, but when you are at some social media site, be friendly and be a part of the community.

At any social media site, be sure to create a bio so people can read about you. Post a recent picture of yourself so that people can put a face to the name. People reading a post like to know that there is a real person posting to a blog, posting links, or information to a social media site.

Will all of this help you with your business or service? Maybe, it depends on what the other people at the site are looking for. Social media is another form of advertising.

Robert Medak built a website where he offers his services, and maintains five blogs. He also maintains two blogs for AllBook Reviews,
and does marketing for AllBooks. Robert created a social networking site for freelance writers at Ning.com. He keeps it an invitation only site to keep spammers out, he has been plagued enough with spammers in other writers’ sites where he is a member. He also maintains a critique group at Yahoo Groups called “critiquings”. Robert created a course for writers at Writers’ Village University (WVU) which he has facilitated, he has facilitated other courses at WVU. He also helped establish a Creative Writing Workshop at WVU.

Website: http://stormywriter.com or blog, http://rjmedak.wordpress.com/.

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1. Be sure to take full advantage of the promotional opportunities on your profile page. Just below your photo is a small box where you can enter a concise description of what you do, including the title of your book.

The About Me box (under Personal Information) is a good place to describe your book and your business. In the Contact Information section you can enter multiple website addresses. Post your book cover in your photo album or another application and display it in the left column of your profile.

Remember, your Facebook profile must be registered in your real name. If you create a profile for your book or business, you risk having your account cancelled.

2. Facebook Pages are similar to personal profiles, but they are created for business use. You can create a page for your book, your business, or even one of the characters in your novel. People join a page by becoming a fan.

You may want to offer an incentive to join (or at least visit) your page, such as a free download, a coupon for one of your products, or a contest. Another way to attract fans is to set your page up as an information hub, offering links and resources.

3. Groups are a great place to meet people who share your interests and find new friends. Search for groups by entering keywords in the Search box at the top of the page and then clicking on the Groups tab. You can gain visibility on a group page by introducing yourself on the wall, participating in disucssions, and posting your book cover, photos or videos.

Forming your own group can also be beneficial. Be sure to encourage discussions and offer valuable information such as free downloads and links to resources. You can direct message the entire group.

4. Joining relevant events is a good way to get visibility because you can write on the event wall and post photos. You can also promote your own live or virtual events by hosting an event. http://snipr.com/higrf

5. Facebook displays pay-per-click ads on most pages on the site, and ads can be targeted by age, gender, location, education level, relationship status, or keywords in people’s profiles.

6. In the Facebook Marketplace you can post a listing to sell your book. There’s no charge for this service, so it’s worth an experiment.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing, www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For free book marketing tips visit www.BookMarketingMaven.com.

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