Recently, Facebook launched a new ‘feature’ called ‘promoted posts’ wherein, you can now pay to have your posts appear at the top of the News Feed.  At the same time, they changed the way their algorithms work for ‘normal’ (or unpaid) posts.

If you use Facebook, you’re familiar with the News Feed; this is where posts from the people you follow, the pages you like, are supposed to show up.  You may have noticed with your own News Feed, that certain posts show up from certain users while others you have to dig for.  Which posts appear are what the algorithm figures out, and it’s all based on the actions you take when visiting Facebook.

Your reaction to the people you follow and the things they post, along with other people’s reactions to those same posts, and what type of story the post is, all contribute to whether or not that post appears in your News Feed.  Let me give you an example: Someone you know posts a political ad.  You live in a swing state and, therefore, are sick to death of the media bombardment and you click to ‘hide’ the post.

You have just told Facebook that you don’t want to see political leaning posts, and you also told them that you might not always want to see posts from the person who put the political post into your Feed in the first place.  Continue to hide posts from the same user, and the likelihood of seeing posts from that user in the future goes down exponentially along with the types of posts you are hiding.  If other people click to hide the posts, or even to report them as Spam, Facebook remembers that too.  In September, they expanded their algorithm to take into consideration the possibility someone, somewhere, might complain about/report a post, adding yet another level of complexity to the whole thing.  So now, if they get a lot of complaints about political ads, and someone you know posts a political ad, the algorithm might decide not to put it at the top of the News Feed because people might complain.

Fun, right?

Many people and companies have complained about the new algorithm because they saw a decline in exposure.  In other words, the new algorithm stopped their posts from reaching their audience (others said the opposite happened, and they were suddenly reaching people they weren’t able to reach before).  Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, complained, accused Facebook of trying to extort companies and brands into paying for the promoted posts, and announced he’s reducing his team’s exposure to Facebook and moving its social media focus to other networks.  Like MySpace.

Ouch.

What does this mean to you and how can you get your message to show up in your fans and followers News Feeds?

Well, for one, you could pay for the privilege (promoted posts).  Heck, Facebook has to make money for all those folks who bought shares a few months back, right?

Second, and you may not like this, but, you could play the long game, the organic game:

1. Encourage not only followers, but likes.  The combination of someone following you, and liking the posts you share, will help drive the algorithm to show your posts to those people.
2. Also encourage people to share your posts.  Again, this will tell Facebook that what you’re doing, people are digging, and raise your potential exposure and placement within the News Feed.
3. Post good, quality content.  Put up things people will care about, things your audience will care about, and it will pay off for you.
4. Be social.  Don’t just spam people with your stuff, like theirs too, share posts from other people, companies and brands similar to your own.  Reinforce your message while doing so.

Think of all the marketing tools like social media, websites, emails and the like, as a sort of a la carte menu from your favorite restaurant.  You wouldn’t walk in and order one of everything because you’d make yourself sick trying to eat all of that food (not to mention the monetary cost!).  You would be more likely to walk in and order a couple of things, maybe make a combo, right?

So why treat your marketing any different?

Make a list of all the marketing tools available to you; include email marketing, blogging, podcasting, social media and every other thing you can imagine or have heard of.  Now, go back through that list and circle the ones that you actually wouldn’t mind using.  When you’ve done that, look at your shortened list and ask yourself this: Which of these will you actually use and maintain faithfully?

You don’t want to start a blog if you hate to write.

Nor do you want to join Twitter if it just doesn’t make sense to you.

Build a combo plate that suits your tastes, your habits and your abilities to maintain.  Don’t over do it and you’ll be amazed at how your marketing performs for you.

Here’s a little list of available marketing tools/items to get you started:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Goodreads
• Google +
• LinkedIn
• Amazon (Reviews)
• Pinterest
• Website
• Blogging
• Podcasts
• YouTube
• Email List
• Guest Blogging

A little background: Author Fest of the Rockies is a nonprofit organization operating under the umbrella of the Business of Art Center. The conference is open to anyone interested in the written and spoken word. Author Fest is dedicated to keeping a strong arts-in-education component in its activities and to supporting the Manitou Springs Community.

For more information, visit the Author Fest Website.

Hope to see you there.

Example: when I run into a store, the last thing I want to do is answer a ton of questions upon checkout.  “What’s your zipcode?  Your phone number?  How did you hear about us?”  This usually before they have even begun to scan into the register whatever it is I’m trying to buy, and all because someone, somewhere, decided that it was a worthwhile exercise to annoy some people as long as some other people went ahead and gave them the information they were looking for.  But is it worth it?

I have a pretty decent online presence between my websites, podcasts, twitter and facebook.  As such, I tend to get a lot of PR emails and comments.  This week, I received enough to prompt this blog post about Self-Promotion Spam.

The emails were all form PR releases with a “Hey check out my cool new blah blah…” sort of thing with links and whatnotall.  Two PR comments were left on another site of mine, which happens from time to time, but they were left on a static page and not a specific post and were the same kind of me-me-me thing as I received in my inbox.  Then, to top it all off, I had someone mention me in a tweet along with four other people saying, “My new book is out, buy it here: <link>”. Clicking to view that persons account opened up to a twitter stream full of similar tweets, all tagging four different people each time.  Sadly, there was no interactions or personal tweets from the user that would have let me know them.

What do these things have in common?  First, no personalization or attempt to connect with the audience – in this case, me.  Just a form letter fill in the blanks and blast it out sort of thing.  This falls into the check-out example I started the post with, where you cast as wide a net as possible without any regard for who your audience is or might be, and then cross your fingers and hope the number of people who respond is larger than the number you annoy.  In my opinion, too many people and companies do this and consider it a worthwhile endeavor and use of their time and marketing dollars.

Second, it was all me-me-me.  Self-Promotion Spam, a sad new trend in social marketing.  Of course the goal is to build your audience or sell your wares, but if that’s all you ever do, you won’t win yourself any fans.  Especially when it’s your first communication, as these were with me.  Ask yourself which would be more effective with you, a personal message of introduction maybe with a compliment, “Hey, I enjoy the blog and really appreciate what you do.”, or a cold call form letter asking you to buy something?

Last, in each instance, I tuned them out.  I deleted the emails.  Deleted the website comments.  Ignored the twitter account.  Now that door is closed to them.  I do a lot of promotion for other people on the podcasts, websites and social media accounts I have.  I’m happy to do so because these people have taken an interest in me and often reciprocate when I have something to promote.  It’s a sort of social currency, and something marketers need to think about, especially in today’s social media environment.

A lot of podcasting out there is about promotion or self-promotion, and so I thought that would be the topic for today’s blog post.

I do a lot of podcasting.  2 episodes a week for SFSignal.com, plus another 45 minutes to an hour for FunctionalNerds.com, and I produce roughly 2.5 hours for IShouldBeWriting.com, the podcast for wannabe fiction writers hosted by Mur Lafferty.  As such, a lot of people ask me what a podcast is.  Wikipedia provides this definition:

A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.

A typical RSS icon you might see on a website

So essentially, it’s something that you create and distribute using RSS – Really Simple Syndication.  People can subscribe however they like – through a browser, a media aggregator, an iPod, whatever – and receive updates as they are made available.  In my case, I produce and host audio podcasts.  People can subscribe via the RSS feed or through their iTunes and every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, as I upload new episodes, they automatically receive them and can consume them at their leisure.

Podcasts, and specifically audio podcasts, have grown in popularity in recent years.  All you need is a computer and an Internet connection to get started, and a lot of people from large corporations to actors, authors and sales people, are flocking to the medium as another way to connect with their current and potential audience.

While in Chicago for WorldCon, I moderated a panel on podcasting.  After, I had a Realtor come up to me and explain that she was looking at getting into podcasting to help boost her credibility with her sphere – not a bad idea at all.  Email marketing is wonderful, but there is something about listening to another person’s voice that helps to make a connection, and any one in a sales or marketing position will tell you that making connections is huge.  That really is the core of social marketing.  She and I had a quick conversation but it stuck with me because I know a lot of people locally who are doing the same kind of thing, but are using YouTube as their medium of choice.

YouTube is visual, obviously, and the practice of using it to create episodic ‘diary’ type posts has become known as Vlogging or Video Blogging.  With my background in real estate and mortgage, I have seen a lot of Realtors and Mortgage Loan Officers turn to Vlogging, producing quick, 2 or 3 minute videos about specific topics like available loan types, or neighborhoods where they are focusing their attentions.  These videos work because they are quick, they impart useful knowledge to the audience, and they reinforce that the person, whoever they are, knows what they are talking about.  They also add that extra element of a personal conversation giving the watcher the opportunity to connect.

I don’t really have a recommendation here today, except to say that there are a lot of options available to you if you are looking to market and connect beyond the form letters and emails most people send out.  Do a little exploration and find the tools that work best for you.  If you are uncomfortable on camera, YouTube is probably not for you, but maybe an audio podcast is.

But there are affordable options and solutions for everyone out there, from the author looking to start their platform, the sales person looking to connect with existing and potential clients, all the way up to the small business owner needing to jazz up their online presence.

Today, I want to look at the pros and cons of free website services, concentrating on three very popular offerings; WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Weebly.com.  Each has strengths and weaknesses, but provide solid platforms for folks working with a tight budget.

1)  WordPress.com

The WordPress software is called a CMS platform, or Content Management System.  It supports third-party software packages in the form of plug-ins, and custom themes via their robust theme system.  WordPress actually has two sides; a non-profit software suite distributed through WordPress.org, and a commercial version available at WordPress.com.  The differences between the two are many, but it comes down to ‘do it yourself’ versus ‘we’ll do it for you’.

With WordPress.com, you don’t install anything, don’t have to pay for hosting, don’t have to do updates to the software or any of the other technical things that can be a barrier for some folks.  You visit the site, sign up for an account, and you can be blogging within minutes.  54.5 Million Blogs are currently hosted on WordPress.com.

Can a WordPress.com blog be my website?  Absolutely.  WordPress offers a lot of options ‘under the hood’, including the ability to create a home page people see when visiting the site, rather than automatically taking them to ‘the blog’.  Just look at the site you’re on right now – I built it using WordPress and the home page is a welcome page, not the blog.  They even offer up a tutorial on how to make this happen over on WordPress.com.

Here’s a WordPress.com site:

Upside: The UPS Blog

Pros of WordPress.com: Free to setup and host (basic site), lots of basic options to play with, social media integration, tracks traffic, links, etc., little or no maintenance required, easy to update and maintain, live within minutes.

Cons of WordPress.com: You are limited to a subdomain of WordPress.com, ie, http://mygreatsite.wordpress.com.  If you wanted http:///www.mygreatsite.com, you would have to upgrade to a paid hosting plan for that.  You are also limited in the themes you can choose from and, again, you can expand the list by upgrading to a hosted plan or purchasing a ‘premium theme’.  Same goes for plug-ins and widgets, you are limited to a small number of each unless you upgrade.  Last, any real customization of your theme will cost you $30 a year.

Blogger.com’s Template System

2)  Blogger.com

Like WordPress, Blogger.com offers a quick and easy setup, free hosting, themes/templates, widgets and plug-ins (called gadgets).  Since Blogger is part of Google, they also offer integration with Google’s suite of tools, like Analytics, AdSense, YouTube and the Google+ social media platform.  Everything is tied together through your Google Profile (which you create).

Unlike WordPress.com, Blogger doesn’t have a premium package – it’s all free.  This also means that what you see is what you get.  There are a lot of bells and whistles, so getting your site up and running quickly can happen, but you might find yourself delving into the different areas to see what’s available, slowing down your progress.

Here’s a Blogger.com powered site:

It’s Google – they Own Blogger, so they might be cheating here…

Pros of Blogger.com: Easy integration with your other Google products, plenty of options to customize your theme, 100% free.

Cons of Blogger.com: Slightly more complicated on the setup, theme options can be overwhelming for a new user, I am not a fan of Google’s help documents and Blogger, sadly, isn’t an exception to this – while writing this post, I went round and round within their knowledgebase trying to find things only to come across dead ends or links to videos that had been removed.  Disappointing.

Weebly.com

3) Weebly.com

My next pick is definitely more of a business oriented site.  Like the WordPress.com above, Weebly offers both a free and premium version.  Features include a drag and drop website builder, custom themes, blogs, image galleries, image editing, stats, etc.  Sign up is free.

As for other costs, well, they don’t list any.  For me, that’s always a speed bump.  Two kinds of companies don’t list pricing; the one’s that don’t charge anything at all, and the ones who charge so much that they’re afraid to advertise those prices because it’ll turn people off.  Most ‘free’ sites subsidize the site by having ads of some sort – Weebly says they don’t do that (they do have a small footer ad on every site).

After a little digging around, I did come up with some pricing:  Basic Plan/Site is free with the above mentioned footer ad.  The Pro plan will cost you $3.99 per month if you sign up for a whole year.  (The prices show up only after you sign up for the free version)  There are discounts if you sign up for multiple years.  Domain names (if you want your own http:///www.mygreatsite.com) is an extra fee, which isn’t any different from the other services mentioned above.

Here’s an example of a Weebly.com Site:

C3 Enterprises

All of these services have pros and cons to consider.  When looking for a website service, remember to keep in mind not only what you need right now, but what you might need later on and choose the service that can best accommodate both.

Ooops.  I was eleven, so I could be forgiven.

Today, I can’t remember the last time I looked inside a phone book, and that’s huge.  Even more important, I’m not the only one.

I met a 25-year old just last year, and I was talking to him about how he makes the decision who to do business with.  At the time, he was thinking about buying a condo and I was working for a mortgage banker, so I was really curious about his thought process.  He told me that he’d been using Google to filter out Realtors based on a simple search of their name.  If that search didn’t return a website or LinkedIn profile (which he considered the most basic online profile every professional should have), he moved on to the next person on the list. So, it didn’t have anything to do with what the person knew or didn’t know, or how long they’d been in the business – it all came down to their online presence, or lack thereof.

These days, he isn’t alone.  People take to the Internet to find someone, whether it’s an individual, a company or a service provider.  Google has replaced the phone book for most of these folks.  This makes it imperative that you have an online presence.  If you own a business, are a sales person, independent musician or an author with a brand to promote, this means you have to have a website.

The good news is that it’s easier than ever before to make that happen.

The absolute easiest way to have your own website these days is to sign up with a service like WordPress.com, Blogger.com or Weebly.com.  Each of these services offer quick, free websites that can be setup in just minutes that are search engine friendly.  You don’t even have to have a domain name of your own, you can use theirs and have http://mycoolsite.wordpress.com, for example.  Plus, if you blog often, that raises your online profile significantly.

The next step up would be actually registering a domain name through a company like GoDaddy.com, and purchasing webhosting.  This can cost anywhere from $3 a month all the way up to $100 depending on the host.  Companies like GoDaddy bundle webhosting with easy website templates you can use to build and maintain a quick site.

A step up from that would be hiring someone like me to build a custom site for you.  The developer might use WordPress.org, Joomla, Drupal or a host of other programs to create a site built to your specifications that you can update and maintain on your own.  Finding a reputable person can be as easy as doing a Google search of your own, checking on Craigslist, (clicking on the ‘Consulting‘ link in the menu above!   ) or asking someone you know who has a decent site of their own, who their developer is.

Any of these options will provide strong long-term results for you, and is definitely better than having nothing at all.

My next post is going to be a follow up to this post and talk about the services mentioned above, and how easily you can create your own hosted website in just a few minutes.

Even if you have an older edition, the core tenets of this book can be applied to your 21st Century marketing plan, but I’d recommend picking up (or downloading to your Kindle) the latest edition.

If nothing else, grab this book for the updated case studies, examples, and the Marketing and PR Strategy Plan template.

Official Description:

The one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing is back with the very latest digital trends in marketing and PR. Learn new tools and techniques to communicate with buyers directly, raise online visibility, and increase sales. For professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, and professors alike, this pioneering guide offers actionable strategies that can be implemented immediately. In this new edition, author David Meerman Scott examines recent changes to the world of marketing and PR, including mobile marketing, new measurement tools, and fresh case studies. The New Rules of Marketing & PR once again brings you all the hottest insider tips so you can confidently market any product, service, or idea—for a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and PR programs.

This is the book every ambitious, forward-thinking, progressive marketer or publicist has at the front of their shelf. Business communication has changed over the recent years. Creative ad copy is no longer enough. The New Rules of Marketing and PR has brought thousands of marketers up to speed on the changing requirements of promoting products or services in the new digital age. This is a one-of-a-kind, pioneering guide, offering a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet to communicate with buyers directly, raise online visibility, and increase sales. Its about getting the right message to the right people at the right time – for a fraction of the cost of a big-budget advertising campaign. This new, updated edition includes:

• A new introduction discussing recent changes to the world of marketing and PR
• A brand new chapter on mobile marketing
• An additional chapter on real-time marketing and PR
• Updated information on how to measure the success of your campaigns
• A range of new tools
• Fresh case studies

Here’s a list of 5 rules for social media I think will help.

1.  No politics, religion or BBQ

This has been my mantra for several years now.  Easily the three most polarizing topics in America (or any country), talking about your politics, religion or BBQ preferences will alienate you from 50% of your audience.  Democrats will wonder about Republicans, and vice-versa, same with people of different religions or folks who put sauce on meat and call it BBQ…  You want people to think about you as the person who can help them with ____, not as a member of X, Y or Z group who they don’t identify with.

2.  Obsessive self-promotion is a turn-off

The easy thing to do with social media is to plug it into your website and have a long list of links spit out to fill your stream with every update, or to jump on, manually link off to whatever you have going on right now, and then disappear, never to engage or comment with anyone.  This is an immediate turn-off for most people who are looking for value, and to connect.  At most, self-promotion should be 5-10% of your social media output.  And yes, that means 90% of your time should be spent being social.

3.  Don’t overdo it.

This one is difficult even for me.  I have the gift of gab.  You have to find a sweet spot where you are putting out just enough to engage, but not so much as to make people tune you out because you are spamming their streams.  Rule of thumb is to start out slow.  I suggest 15 minutes here and there, maybe in the morning, at lunch and before you head to bed.  Do a little update, engage with a few of the people you are following, and get out.  You can always increase activity later if it seems to be paying off for you.

4.  Be literate

With most social media sites limiting how much you can say with any one update (Twitter is 140 characters, for example), it can be very tempting to shorten words or use abbreviations to get it all in.  I would suggest you think before you tweet, and take a second look at what it is you are trying to say.  U dnt wnt ppl gssng ur int.  (You don’t want people guessing your intent).  Be clear and precise, it will be appreciated.

5.  Be careful what you link to your social media profiles

A lot of sites are offering things like Facebook login or connections to Twitter when you visit.  This has the benefit of being convenient for you (which is one of the reasons they do it) but connects that site to your profile even to the point of allowing the site to post your activity to your profile (which is the other reason they do it).  I had this happen to me recently with Pinterest.  I had no idea it was posting every single thing I pinned to my Facebook friends, but not my wall.  This meant I didn’t see it, but they did.  I cut that cord when someone clued me into the spammyness of what was going on.  So be careful when a site asks you to use your social media account to login on their site.  There’s usually a checkbox or something you have to click that will warn you about what, exactly, you are agreeing to allow the site to do.  Like post to your wall/stream.

Everyone will tell you, when it comes to social media, you have to be a real human being, someone people can identify and connect with.  An endless stream of links and in your face selling will not get you anywhere.

Likeable Social Media lays it out for you in clear, concise language with plenty of examples and success stories.  Highly recommended for anyone looking to be successful with social media marketing.

Official Description:

The secret to successful word-of-mouth-marketing on the social web is easy: BE LIKEABLE. A friend‘s recommendation is more powerful than any advertisement. In the world of Facebook,Twitter, and beyond, that recommendation can travel farther—and faster—than ever before. LIkeable Social Media helps you harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to transform your business. Listen to your customers and prospects. Deliver value, excitement, and surprise. And most important, learn how to truly engage your customers and help them spread the word. Praise for Likeable Social Media:

“Dave Kerpen‘s insights and clear, how-to instructions on building brand popularity by truly engaging with customers on Facebook, Twitter, and the many other social media platforms are nothing short of brilliant.“ Jim McCann, “Alas, common sense is not so common. Dave takes you on a (sadly, much needed)guided tour of how to be human in a digital world.“ Seth Godin, author of Poke the Box “ Likeable Social Media cuts through the marketing jargon and technical detail to give you what you really need to make sense of this rapidly changing world of digital marketing and communications. Being human—being likeable—will get you far.“ Scott Monty, Global Digital Communications, Ford Motor Company