Enter the Internet Let's Talk Promotion with Agent Elana Roth

By the way, have you seen the interview Donna did with Elana over at the GLA Blog?

Subtitle of this talk: How to manage your image, promote yourself, and market your book.

Backstory...

Elana started messing with free things on the internet and eventually learned how to make websites--its a skill that doesnt come to the children's book world the way it should. A lot of people are still dated and unsure of how to present themselves on the internet.

The Internet

The internet is about two things: Information and People

Information is the first thing, but bonus--everyone is on there. Your networks make the internet worthwhile.

Everything on the internet has to do with data and search.

The internet is public! And it's permanent!

If you say it, someone can find it.

If you don't want someone to know something, you want something private--do not blog it!

Elana can find information about anyone and if you are querying her, she WILL look you up. (She's not the only one)

Pay attention to how you say things, where you say it, etc.  Because can see it at any time.


Social Networking

Biggest social networking: Email, Facebook, Blogging, Twitter

Remember these are all tools--you can use them well, or not...

A lot of people misuse these platforms.

----
This talk is all stuff I know...but it's totally making me want to google myself right now and see what comes up.

Quick google...

ok...it's all safe...stuff I knew I had out there...


Back to the presentation

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Facebook

--is mutual connections between people--you have to be friends with someone for them to be friends with you

--Great for organization of people, sharing and content

Twitter

--Non mutual connections

--Conversation

--Crowdsourcing--you can ask a question and someone will respond with an answer (if you have enough followers)

Blogging

Single person broadcast ( except at the FNC)

Your central hub on the internet unless you have a website domain--sometimes you can have both


Rules for Developing Community

You need to have  3 things!

Content, Interaction, and Incentives

--Remember if you don't update, you're not providing anything new

--Make sure you're engaging interest, you have to foster interest

--And you need an incentive for people to come back--companies know that the more free stuff they give away, the more people buy their products

Don't be a "desperate marketer"
You need to balance talking about yourself and talking about others. If all you do is promote your book OVER and OVER and OVER again, people won't like you.

And if you're always commenting everywhere....it can make agents wonder what else you do...

Be careful with twitter--no one really cares what you had for breakfast, or what your kid just did. And be careful of sharing too many personal things. If you wouldn't walk up to someone at a dinner party and tell them something...don't say it on twitter.

Email
Back in the 90's,  everyone had cutesy emails and stayed far from their names. But now its really important to use your name, make it professional, and make sure you have your own email address.

Elana is a big fan of owning your own name. Your name is part of your brand and everything should be the same across the board---same name on twitter, facebook, email, blogger, web domain, etc...

Websites

Check out http://www.elanaroth.com/

Her blog is the main content of the page, and it's easy to find her on twitter, her contact info, etc. It's not cluttered, it gets the information out there.

Elana really likes http://www.squarespace.com/ for websites, it's very user friendly.

And  http://www.wordpress.com/ is also good (and free).

Important to figure out who you are, and what you want to say. Your name is your brand and you should use it.

Internet Security

Change your passwords frequently!


Is it absolutely necessary to facebook, twitter, blog...?

You don't HAVE to do anything, you do what you want and how you want, but do it well.

And remember, once it's out there, it's out there!

So basically, have fun with the internet and be careful with it. But don't do anything you don't want to do. The more fun you have, the more interesting you are and the more likely you'll be able to make the internet work for you.


Hope this was helpful. And now... time for lunch!