Early Bird Special for BlogWorld
If you’re wondering why you should go to BlogWorld and New Media Expo – May 24-26 in New York City this year, there are several excellent reasons why.
First: BlogWorld is being held in conjunction with BookExpo America for the first time! This is excellent news for social media enthusiasts and aspiring authors. As one who has been featured at BookExpo, I can tell you that it is the largest book conference in North America. Your entry fee gets you into BEA for Free!
Second: You’ll have the chance to meet agents, publishers, and other authors who will sign copies of their books for F.R.E.E! As an author who was in the exciting Authors’ Autographing area the past two years, it’s an incredibly exciting experience.
Third: You’ll have the chance to hear social media giants and bestselling authors Gary Vaynerchuk and Jeffrey Hayzlett, who are both Keynote Panelists along with numerous social media experts.
I have attended both BlogWorld and BookExpo America and can tell you this is a marriage made in social media heaven.
BlogWorld pricing increases on 4/15! Save up to $300 on your registration TODAY!
Will You Set Facebook As Your Home Page?
Will You Set Facebook as Your Home Page?
Admit it. You come home and log onto your computer, check your iPad or PDA and look at Facebook before reading your emails. If this is the case and Facebook has taken over your world, do you want to change your browser’s home page to reflect your online behavior?
Apparently Facebook thinks you should do so, or at least they would like to make it easier for you to spend more time on their site. Already most users log on daily for 45-60 minutes to the social networking giant. Today, when I logged onto my account using the Firefox browser, I was greeted with the option of setting Facebook as my home page. Although I frequently look at Facebook before I settle down to write, I still prefer having my own business home page appear when I open up my browser.
For those whose love affairs have Facebook are at the top of the totem pole, this new feature might be for you.
If you plan on making Facebook your home page, please let us know. If you think they’ve gone overboard with taking over your life and the world, we’d like to hear from you.
What was it Like to Be First In Line for the iPad 2?
Ever since Steve Jobs announced on March 2nd that the iPad-2 would be released on March 11th, I waited with enthusiasm for the day to arrive.
The fear of standing in long lines at the Apple store resulted in my calling the Apple sales line early this morning to find out the details on how to purchase my iPhone 64 GB 3-G model. It’s expected that over 600,000 iPad 2 tablets will be sold this weekend and I was determined to be one of them.
The sales representative at Apple was extremely helpful and told me there would be a 3-week wait to receive the device. Impatient as many others were, I called Verizon Wireless to see what their turn-around would be and found out that the local store would be getting their arrival at 4:00pm, local time. iPad enthusiasts had the opportunity not only to purchase their iPad today at their local Apple Store, but the tablets were also sold at Best Buy, Verizon Wireless stores, Walmart, AT&T, and Target.
The sales associate at the Verizon Wireless store told me to stop by just before 5:00pm and assured me there wouldn’t be a wait. It sounded too good to be true, so I decided to arrive 2-hours early at 3:00pm, local time along with a book to read and my own folding chair. I checked in on foursquare and happily tweeted that I was first in line waiting for my very first iPad.
Unfortunately, there was some confusion at the local store and we were told we needed to sign a 2-year data contract. Angry purchasers insisted the information was wrong and a confrontation erupted. The information was indeed incorrect. No apology was given for the miscommunication.
Those waiting in line shared which model they wanted to purchase. I knew I wanted one in white. The gentleman behind me wanted one in black. One woman was buying an iPad-2 for her fiancé as a birthday present.
Unfortunately, the local Verizon store only received four boxes of the long-awaited tablet in their shipment. There were many angry people who waited in line for over an hour, only to find out the store was out-of-stock after the first few in line finished their purchase.
At 5:10pm, I went home with my new iPad-2. Although my first choice of a red leather cover was unavailable, I realized I was one of the chosen few in the neighborhood. I’ll be using the iPad-2 for presentations, editing in iMovie, and to write content for a variety of websites and blogs.
Did you get an iPad-2? Will you wait for the frenzy to be over?
Why You Need a New Google Profile
You may have a social networking profile on Facebook and Linkedin and spend time tweeting with friends on Twitter. What you may not have is a Google profile, which I highly recommend.
I view my Google profile as a combination of Linkedin and Facebook profiles. It allows you to have a bio about all of your work, not just one particular industry or job. As I’m the CEO of two companies, I direct many people to my Google profile. It allowed me to have a photo gallery of pictures from Picasa or Flickr. It allowed me to add links to articles I was featured in as well as links to my book page, sizzle reel and more. I was socially in love with my Google Profile.
Although Google profiles have been around for a while, when Google Buzz, their version of sharing your updates and whereabouts was introduced, they made a big mistake and forced that to become their landing page. Many of us were upset. If you found the profile, you never made it to the beautifully customized “About Me” page. We were stuck with Buzz and I stopped posting. The only way to get rid of Google Buzz as the landing page was to deactivate it, and along with that your entire Google profile which would disappear completely. As an end around, I created a bit.ly/JulieSpira which would go directly to the “About Me” page, but it was a social bandaid.
Finally, last week I took a peek at my Google Profile and was thrilled to share that they did a cyber face lift to make everyone ecstatic. The new look and feel is perfectly aligned with other social networking sites. You could select your 5 favorite photos, looking quite like Facebook’s profile stream. They call it the Scrapbook. Even better than the Facebook profile, you could actually describe what you do at the top under your name.
The only problem with the new version of the Google Profile is they shortened the space for your custom links, so the description appears to be cut off. At the end of the day, it was worth getting my profile back. You can still enjoy sharing on Google Buzz as it now appears as the second tab on your profile. I’m sure everyone is thrilled with this change and I’d like to thank Google for making this long overdue revision.
At the end of the day, everyone needs to have a Google Profile. Click here to get yours at google.com/profiles.To view mine, visit google.com/profiles/juliespira
If you need help with your social media and creating your Google Profile, let us know at SocialMediaMore.com/contact
How Authors Can Use Social Media to Save Time and Money
It was such an honor to speak at the Women’s National Book Association’s BookWoman Day in Los Angeles.
I was so inspired by the panelists who shared their information to help authors become successful in the ever-changing publishing marketplace.
If you missed the day, I have good news for you. I shared some of my best secrets with the group that I usually cover in a full day bootcamp which costs thousands of dollars. Now you’ll have the opportunity to learn these tips while saving $200!
Many of the authors expressed concern about how much time social media would take up and wanted to know what the next steps were. How could they use social media to become a bestselling author? How can they gain media attention through social media?
I know how very precious time is, especially for writers. We need to focus on making sure our manuscripts and book proposals are nothing short of perfect. We have the one moment to capture the attention of an editor or agent. Having the stress of tweeting, using Facebook, creating custom pages just wasn’t viable for many of the attendees.
As a result, I have offered registrants a $200 discount off of my Social Media 101 private coaching sessions. This will not only give you precious time but it will save you money that you can put towards creating a great book cover, going out to dinner, or just putting it in the bank. I’m extending this special offer through March 4th to those writers who didn’t have the opportunity to come to Los Angeles.
More time for you equals more time for writing.
More tips and social media secrets from me equals building a bigger platform faster and becoming a social media superstar.
At the recent Social Media Week in Los Angeles, the introduction of social media was compared to the introduction of black and white TV. It’s powerful and it’s here to stay. I know what it’s like to be an author who needs to build a platform. I was able to successfully use social media to extend the shelf life of my book as a bestseller and I can help do the same for you.
To take advantage of this offer, click here and we’ll schedule your session. But hurry. This offer expires on Friday, March 4th at 6pm/PST.
Social Media for Authors at LA BookWoman Day
There’s an amazing day scheduled for Los Angeles authors on Saturday, February 26, 2011 and you’re invited to attend.
LA BookWoman day is hosted by the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. You’ll have the opportunity to meet agents, producers, and learn how to get published.
I’ll be there as a panelist to teach authors on how I used social media to not only help my first book, The Perils of Cyber-Dating become a bestseller on it’s launch date, but to extend it’s shelf life as a best-seller continuously for two years! My book helped catapult my career as a well-respected expert in my field, where I have now reached millions through media and speaking opportunities. I’m excited to share my tips with other authors on this fact-filled day.
I’ll be joined by Michelle Gilstrap, Ruth Klein, Teresa Moore, Jovita Jenkins, Julia Drake, and Joan Jackson in an all-day workshop. We’ll be talking about Facebook, Twitter, web interviews, TV interviews, how to pitch an agent, e books and more.
Is Twitter Essential for Your Business?
Julie Spira with Lisa Johnson Mandell, host of This Week in Careers on Twitter and business.
How to Get Your Facebook Email Address
Facebook has been slowly rolling out their custom email program, which was by invitation only. Yesterday, I finally was able to access their page to create my personalized email address of juliespira@facebook.com. I urge you to claim your name as soon as you can to protect your personal brand.
Here’s what you need to do.
1. Visit facebook.com/about/messages. A window will appear where your custom facebook url will be seen along with @facebook.com. Go and activate your optional email address.
2. Decide on your privacy settings.
3. Decide whether you want to accept text messages. You can change your settings later on.
If you are unable to automatically receive your personalized facebook email address, make sure you request an invitation to do so.
4. Take the time to read through your inbox and customize your look and feel.
5. Send an email to yourself at your new facebook email address to confirm that it works.
Using Social Media to Create Brand Loyalty
It was an honor to be a featured speaker at the 8th Annual Internet Dating Conference in Miami Beach.
My presentation, Dating 2.0: Using Social Media to Create Brand Loyalty shows examples of how online dating sites are successfully using social media. For more information on how Social Media and More can help your brand become more social, contact us at SocialMediaMore.com/contact
Amazon Wants You to Like Them
In an attempt to be more social media friendly to authors, Amazon has just added their own “like” button, very much similar to the Facebook like button.
As a published author and one who teaches social media marketing for authors, I’m trained to refresh my Amazon page daily to see if there are new reviews or the current status of my rank.
Today I was greeted with the like button close to the title of my book, The Perils of Cyber-Dating. Naturally, I decided to like myself. In addition to video reviews, author blogs, and the ability to post your own book trailer on your author page, Amazon does a great job keeping the social in social media.
In time we’ll see if would-be reviewers and book lovers decide to click the like button instead of taking the time to review your book. As this is a new feature, don’t worry if the amount of likes fits on one hand only.
Naturally if you’re reading this post, I hope you take the time to like it as well.
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