Babette Pepaj, Julie Spira, Brian Felson, and Kevin Winston

It was an honor and pleasure to be a panelist at the Digital LA Books Go Digital Panel held at The Churchill in West Hollywood.

Moderated by Digital LA’s founder Kevin Winston, I was joined by Babette Pepaj of Bake Space and creator of CookBook Cafe and Brian Felson, CEO and founder of BookBaby.

A lively discussion included how to build your platform through social media, advances and royalties, Amazon’s Singles, and ways to self-publish your book. As an author of a book whose sales on Kindle are at a 3:1 ratio compared to the paperback edition, I was happy to share Kindle’s 70% royalty rate to authors who sign up directly with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service.

Whether you self-publish or have your book traditionally published, you must have a digital online strategy. For my first book, I offered two free chapters on my website and wrote daily on my blog to create buzz for the book. For my second book, The Rules of Netiquette, I created two websites and am offering a free chapter to download with 200 Acronyms.

Babette gave demos of CookBook Cafe, their new free iPad app which will allow you to publish your cookbook on their digital bookshelf. Anyone can download the app for free. You can charge for your book or provide your favorite recipes for free.

Brian explained BookBaby’s revenue model costs $99 upfront which will give you an .epub and .mobi version of your content. After the first year, with an annual fee of $16.95 after the first year. BookBaby gives 100% of the royalties they receive to the authors. This is a terrific way to distribute your books if you own the rights and appear on multiple platforms including Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Amazon’s Kindle, iBooks, Sony Reader store, and more.

At the end of the digital day, you must have an electronic strategy as an author, publisher, and content provider.

Julie Spira is a social media strategist and CEO of Social Media and More. She’s a bestselling author and works with writers and authors on how to create a social media marketing plan to become successful with their books. Visit SocialMediaMore.com and like us at Facebook.com/SocialMediaAndMore

The story appeared in the Ottowa Citizen, Cyberstalking turns web technologies into weapons. The article headline is pretty powerful and will raise several digital eyebrows.

Before you accuse me of being a “Debbie Downer,” you should know that I absolutely love social media. It’s changed all forms of communication, marketing, journalism, and helped develop strong bonds between people who have a voice that should be heard.

When it was pointed out to me that the U.S. National Violence Against Women Survey reported that 60% of cyberstalking victims were women, I realized that we all have a responsibility as friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter to take notice if any of our digital friends are in trouble.

In the U.K., a cyberstalking study conducted by the British Electronic Communication Harassment Organization at Bedford University found that harassment via social networking sites, mobile phone, and email was greater than stalking in-real-life.

As an estimated 4% of cyberstalkers appear on traditional online dating sites, my advice in the article was as follows:

“If a date goes bad or someone breaks up, the jilted person can use the very sites through which they met their victims to turn around and harass them,” says Julie Spira, creator of the site Cyberdatingexpert.com.”

It’s my mission to help people safely navigate the web, both in matters of the heart and in everyday life. Cyber-safety is at the top of my list and I hope you join me in making the the world-wide-web a safer place to reside.

Julie Spira is a cyber-relations and online dating expert and the author of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating. She’s the CEO of Social Media and More and Editor-in-Chief at CyberDatingExpert.com.

Photo Credit: © MacX – Fotolia.com

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Julie Spira and Frank Mottek

It was an honor to be a featured speaker at the Society of Professional Journalists’ “Best of the West Conference 2012 Spring Conference” with the latest trends in social media marketing. Being held the day after Facebook officially transferred to the Timeline for their Pages, there were many questions being asked about privacy, accuracy, and how you become your brand as you curate and report on news stories.

With breaking news stories online, accelerated deadlines of instantly reporting the news, often journalists and web enthusiasts have made mistakes rushing to the digital plate to post the first tweet.

Some key points for journalists to note are:

• Deadlines are now immediate.

• Breaking news and trending stories are online.

• Reporters are now real people posting videos.

• Glossy magazines and newspapers have been replaced with blogs.

• How social media played a key role in the Arab Spring: Protests in Egypt, Tunisia Revolution and Middle East.

We looked at the example of social media and death reports. When Osama bin Laden was reported dead on May 1, 2011, it was tweeted over 5000 times per second. With the excitement, many broke the rules of netiquette and used the incorrect hashtag of #obamadeath instead of #osamadeath.  Fortunately, our President was alive-and-well.

Maintaining your digital and journalist reputation, often you need to pause to be certain of the facts. Once you press the send button, you can’t take it back and may create a permanent digital footprint.

We reviewed the latest social media statistics including:

• Twitter:  Over 225 million members with 250 million tweets being sent daily.

• Linkedin: Over 150 million business professionals.

• Facebook: Over 845 million members.

• Pinterest: Over 10 million members and drives more traffic to websites than Google+, Linkedin, and YouTube combined.

Ellen Olivier - Society News LA

I was joined by Ellen Olivier, founder of Society News LA who discussed her career as the society columnist at the Orange County Register to the Los Angeles Times. Olivier successfully migrated from print journalism to online by creating her an online magazine covering society news stories in the region. In less than one year, ranks #1 in her keywords.

Following our presentation, we attended the “Mark of Excellence Luncheon,” where the keynote speaker was Tom Goldstein of The Bay Citizen. Goldstein is interim dean, professor of Journalism and director of the Media Studies Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

After the awards ceremony, Frank Mottek, host of the “Business Hour” on KNX – Los Angeles, moderated a panel entitled, “Freak Out!”

Mottek shared the details of his radio career, where he started on the air at WINZ in Miami. He then covered the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on October 3, 1985. At the young age of 23, Mottek covered the tragic Space Shuttle Challenge launch with CBS Network’s correspondent Christopher Glenn and shared that experience with those in attendance.

Mottek was joined by KNX reporter Diane Thompson, CBS News editor David J. Singer, and Crisis Intervention Specialist Leslie Seppinni. Together, all four discussed how reporters can become emotionally devastated while on the job covering tragic events. One can only imagine if Twitter were around during the Rodney King riots or the Challenger explosion, what photos would be shared via Twitpic, Flickr, and Instagram.

At the end of the digital day, I reminded everyone to “Blog like you’re the best, Tweet like no tomorrow, and have them fall madly in Like with you on Facebook.”

Many thank to Jeff L.Wald for inviting me to speak at SPJ’s Spring Conference on Technology and Social Media.

Follow @JulieSpira on Twitter

With Facebook’s Timeline change comes a list of rules that you need to adhere to as part of Facebook’s Terms of Service and Guidelines.

Changing your Facebook thumbnail cover is no easy task, so we’ve listed detailed instructions on how to do this on your own.

First of all, review your page apps (formerly tabs) that might have been coded as FBML, Facebook’s version of html code. Your old applications may appear like these below:

To customize them to one of the four allowed boxes, follow these instructions:

1. Click on the upper right side of the photo box. In the drop down, you can swap positions with the other four you’ve shown and delete apps you aren’t using.  Decide whether you want a map to your location, photos, likes, email sign up, or videos.

2. Go to your Admin Panel at the top of your page and click on “Manage.”

3. In the drop down, select edit page.

4. On the left side bar, click on “Apps”’

5. Click on “Go to App” and you can change the Title of the Box.

6. Click on Edit Settings and you’ll find “Custom Tab Image.” This is where you upload your thumbnail photo to replace to pale blue default image.  You can also change the name here of the title of the app.

7. Click on OK and then you can move around the location of that particular app to appear on your page.

This is a perfect for you to build your mailing list or offer a free eBook on the front of your Facebook page.

Remember, while it might be easy to add a photo to your new cover, there are some things Facebook just doesn’t want you to include including your URL, requests to like your page or follow,  or any direct sales action calls. Facebook wants your contact information with links to your business or offers to appear in your “About” section as shown above on our Rules of Netiquette page, where we also added a custom app with a cover providing a free chapter of an upcoming book.

To sum it up remember to optimize your new page by:

• Add a cover photo of 851 x 315 pixels that describes your business and is pleasant to look at.

• Add hyperlinks in the “About” section of your page to draw traffic to your website or specific offer.

• Customize your thumbnails and upload videos directly to your page so your customers can engage with you.

• Include your email subscriber embed code from your email provider and make sure to rename your offer.

• Remember to “Pin to the Top” your important posts, which will remain at the top of your page for seven days or up until you decide to pin something else.

Do you have any Facebook timeline tips that you’d like to share? Please add them in the comments.

Julie Spira is a social media strategist, bestselling author, and CEO of Social Media and More. Visit SocialMediaMore.com for more social media and facebook tips and like us at Facebook.com/socialmediaandmore

Not a day goes by that I don’t see an interesting Infographic on a variety of subjects, which I happily add to my pinboards on Pinterest. Infographics are engaging, pleasant to look at, are filled with interesting statistics, and loved to be shared in the social media world.

The fine folks at visual.ly have a few free infographic tools based on your Facebook and Twitter profiles.

You can choose from the following topics:

• Life of a Hashtag
• Facebook Monster
• Twitterize Yourself
• Twitter Showdown, where you can go solo or compare yourself to one of your digital idols.

To do so, visit their site at create.visual.ly, like the on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Then select the template you’d like to use. You can share the link, or embed it in a blogpost as I’ve done below.

Enjoy!

For more information on social media strategy, like us at Facebook.com/SocialMediaandMore and follow @JulieSpira on Twitter.

BOOK SAVVY 2012 Sunday,March 4th

On Sunday, March 4, 2012, join me at Book Savvy 2012, a full day of book promotion, social media marketing, publishing and publicity options in Los Angeles.

This annual event, produced by the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s National Book Association will help aspiring writers and published authors learn everything they need to know to be successful in the digital age of publishing.

It’s an honor to be the moderator at the first session in the morning program, Book Promotion and Publicity, where you’ll learn how to become a professional speaker;  the art of social media for authors including Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Google+ and Pinterest; how to promote your book and brand; and learn about using video for book promotions and trailers.

The panelists include:

• Liora Mendeloff, founder of Women’s Speakers Association
• Erin Reel, writers coach and editorial consultant
• Lon Levin, an expert on book trailers and promotional graphics.

Our panel will be held at 9:15am – 10:15 am.

Other sessions include:

• Pre-Program Pitch Prep Session, 7:30am – 8:30am (*$25 extra)
• Learning to Self-Publish, 10:45am – 11:45am
• Lunch, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
• Pitch Your Book to Agents & Producers, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
• Literary Agent Panel, 1:30pm – 2:30pm
• eBooks and Apps: Where Technology and Publishing Intersect, 2:45pm – 3:45pm

The event will be held at the Marina del Rey Hotel, 13534 Bali Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292. Parking is free at the event and includes a light breakfast, coffee, snacks, and Italian buffet lunch, and dessert.

Register now at wnba-books.org/la

Follow Julie on Twitter @JulieSpira and at Facebook.com/SocialMediaandMore

Here’s your last chance to save 20% on tickets to BlogWorld, being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on November 3-5, 2011.

Save 20% NOW on BlogWorld and New Media Expo LA 2011 registration with the code “BWELA20″! Register now to save!

I’ll be a featured speaker on Friday, November 4th at 1:45 pm in room 518 to talk about The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Virtual Manners.

Following my speech, I’ll have a quick meet-and-greet and will head over to the Barnes & Noble BlogWorld bookstore to sign copies of The Perils of Cyber-Dating at 4:00 pm.

If you’re planning on attending, do connect with me on Twitter @JulieSpira during the conference.

For a sneak peek of my presentation, you can watch this video.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Julie Spira – Social Media and More from Julie Spira on Vimeo.

With all of the changes on Facebook, hangouts in Google +, and monitoring your SEO rank, it’s impossible to keep up with all of the trends. Find out in our video, why you need a social media marketing plan.

Just announced today, Facebook has partnered with Bing to help you read posts from pages in different languages.

In the past, we’ve enjoyed Google Translate from web entries in a foreign language.

Here are some simple steps to activate this feature:

1. Click on account on the top right hand side of your page and change your settings to View as a Page.

2. Click on Edit Page on the top right hand side of your page.

3. Click on Your Settings. You’ll have four choices to pick from:

• Admin, community, and machine translaters
• Community and machine translators (default)
• Machine translators
• None

Under each post, you’ll now see the options to Like, Comment, Manage Translations, or Share each for each post.

Need more help? Straight from Facebook, here are the details on how you can enjoy this new feature. Not every language is presently available.

Today we launched a new translation tool that enables people to translate posts directly inline on Facebook Pages through Bing Translate. With this service, we are making it even easier for people to enjoy Page content on Facebook regardless of the languages that they know.

When someone clicks on the translate button on a public Page post, a Bing translation will appear in a popout window. People then have the opportunity to submit their own translation by opting-in to using inline translations. After their generated translation has received enough positive votes, it will replace the Bing translation and will appear each time someone clicks on the translate button associated with the post.

Page admins can always control how their content is translated within the “Your Settings” tab in the Edit Page view.

Also, effective October 31, 2011, Facebook will eliminate the discussions feature. Their reasoning? They’d rather have you interact on posts and comments.

What languages will you translate your facebook posts to?

Julie Spira is a bestselling author, social media strategist, and CEO of Social Media and More. Connect with Julie on Twitter @JulieSpira and at Facebook.com/SocialMediaandMore

I’ve attended numerous events including BlogHer, Social Media Week, SXSW, the 140 Conference, as well as shows with a social media element including NAB, CES, and AdTech. When I attended BlogWorld last fall for the first time in Las Vegas, I was welcomed into the community with open arms. The amount of shared knowledge that I experienced over the course of several days was enormously helpful. The building of personal relationships with those you have either communicated with on Twitter or Facebook, or admired from afar is something you will easily accomplish by attending the BlogWorld and New Media Expo. BlogWorld’s CEO Rick Calvert really makes you feel at home, even with the thousands of attendees and exhibitors on site.

This year, I will have the honor of speaking and presenting The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Virtual manners on Friday, November 4th at 1:45pm. I’ll be talking about Internet etiquette during BlogWorld’s largest expected audience yet. Even for those who have mastered social networking, we’re all guilty of breaking the ever-changing rules from time-to-time.

I had the opportunity to meet some of the already announced featured speakers in real life at the 140 Conference and other social media gatherings including Peter Shankman, Liz Straus, C.C. Chapman, and Jeffrey Hayzlett. Their voices and experiences will help transform your blog and brand.  I look forward to meeting and mingling with the other speakers and attendees during the 3-day event on November 3-5, 2011 in Los Angeles.

The Social Media Business Summit is promising to be the world’s largest social media business conference. Monetization won’t be just a buzz word of something we hope to achieve at some point, but we will be educated on specific examples on how we can find an ROI on our tireless and passionate writing skills, master SEO, and engage through video and other social networking channels.

Whether you’re just using Twitter to chit-chat in real time with like-minded others, or are responsible for the brand identity of your business, information will be shared in November and I’m super-excited to be a part of it. From podcasting to sales letters, everything you need to know to be successful in Internet marketing will be covered at this event.

I invite you to join me at BlogWorld and New Media Expo – Nov 3-5 in Los Angeles!. And yes, I’m proud to be an affiliate of this wonderful conference. Prices go up on September 21st, so you still have time to get an early-bird ticket. I look forward to seeing you there.

~Julie Spira, CEO Social Media and More and author, The Rules of Netiquette

@JulieSpira