Asking for a Like

Happy Friday, everyone! Today, I'm asking you all for a HUGE favor :)

Would you please go here and like the comment with my page listed. Don't comment, please; just click like. :)

And, this isn't necessary, but would be appreciated by all the bloggers taking part, would you head on over and give a few likes to the participating blogs' facebook pages as well? As authors, we all need book bloggers in our lives. Can't hurt to connect with them, right? Here are the links:

1. A One-Click Addict's Book Blog
http://on.fb.me/1OV8baz

2. Ab Fab Book Blog
http://on.fb.me/1PJVeRF

3. Amazeballs Book Addicts
http://on.fb.me/1kxrxYh

4. Artsy Book Lovin Sisters
http://on.fb.me/1PJVsZ6

5. Bad Boy Book Addicts
http://on.fb.me/1PJVy2V

6. bloggin with m.brennan
http://on.fb.me/1jX9gmz

7. Book Crazy Friends
http://on.fb.me/1Xng2AP

8. Book Fancy
http://on.fb.me/1hYpXwB

9. Book Lovers Hangout
http://bit.ly/1NWSnFO

10. book review virginia lee
http://on.fb.me/1MW3367

11. Bookhooked
http://on.fb.me/1Gl1q0L

12. Books and Bindings
http://on.fb.me/1GXJGTF

13. Books and Warpaint
http://on.fb.me/1Lqx3Vn

14. BookSkater
http://on.fb.me/1Lqx6k2

15. Cupcakes and Vodka Book Blog
http://on.fb.me/1RZS8YW

16. Fictional Rendezvous Book Blog
http://on.fb.me/1PJWe8o

17. Harlie's Books
http://on.fb.me/1Ksa1tl

18. Hellmouth's Bookblog & Reviews
http://on.fb.me/1QYMGVx

19. Here is what I read
http://on.fb.me/1hYr6o0

20. Jazzy Book Reviews
http://on.fb.me/1hYra7h

21. Jazzy World of E's Bookshelf
http://on.fb.me/1LJb35V

22. Love Danielle's Escape
http://on.fb.me/1OV8HVY

23. Loves 2 Read Romance
http://on.fb.me/1NWSTU9

24. Marebare's Book Shelf
http://on.fb.me/1PEosSX

25. My Book Filled Life
http://on.fb.me/1LQ6WIM

26. My Book Obsession
http://on.fb.me/1QYNj1m

27. My Girlfriends Couch
http://on.fb.me/1GtTs53

28. Obsessive Compulsive Divalicious Books Pimps and Promos Blog
http://on.fb.me/1W7rQoa

29. Sassy Book Lovers
http://on.fb.me/1kxu84j

30. She's a Lip Biter
http://on.fb.me/1MHiWsH

31. Sinfully Hot Book Promotions
http://on.fb.me/1jxqeYm

32. Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin'
http://on.fb.me/1GXKDLS

33. Sweet N Sassy Book A Holics
http://on.fb.me/1KsaP16

34. The Book Disciple
http://on.fb.me/1NWTaX5

35. The Book Fairy Reviews
http://on.fb.me/1LQ7s9K

36. This Mom Loves Alphas
http://on.fb.me/1kxuJ65

37. Twisted Sister's Book Reviews
http://on.fb.me/1XnhwLq

38. Under The Cover Book Lovers
http://on.fb.me/1GtTMkb

Not a lot. Just needing a favor :)

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Social Media Mayhem

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today's post is going to be super duper short. To sum up a very long and stressful story, I've been having some issues with my social media stuff. I'm not pissed because it's hurting me, but it's having an impact on everyone I've posted (and wanted to share) stuff for this week.

Because I'm frustrated as hell, I'm writing on my new novel. I'd give you guys an excerpt, but it's wrought with foul language (set in a prison, gotta be true to the environment), and this blog is PG-13 at it's worst.

So, you'll have a cover reveal tomorrow, and a special sale post next week, but I'm planning a short break after that to see if I can get all this crap fixed and get some words written. I need the injection of peace for a hot minute. *grin*

You guys keep writing while I'm away. Planned return date is  9/28.

Hugs all around!

I'll see you again soon!

That's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Facebook Pages Gives You Insights to Your Fans

Happy Tuesday, everyone! What I have for you today is gonna make you jump up and down and squeal. While poking around Facebook one day, something interesting caught my eye. You may know how it works, and you may not. I know I'd never even paid attention to it. Well, you can bet I'll be looking a lot more closely now. Grab a cup of coffee and let's delve into this thing called Facebook Page Insights.

You know those e-mails you get each week with your page stats? Yeah, the ones your eyes glaze over when you open and you promptly delete? You're aware it's great information, but who has time to care? Well, those are insight snippets. It's a tiny look into some of the data Facebook is collecting about the folks who interact with your page, and you need to care. But they give you oh so much more if you know where to look.

Open Facebook to your main news feed and look on the right-hand side:

See that thing titled Recent Posts? Look at the bottom. Here:

Click it, click it! You'll get something that looks like this:

Oh, but wait! Our fun is just getting started! Look at the bottom again where it says See All:

Yeah! Now, click that one and be amazed at what you get. Should look something like this:

Holy Information Overload, Batman! Wait! Don't get your knickers in a twist and start crying just yet. I know it's a lot to take in, but let's get to the juicy stuff so your brain doesn't seize up. Scroll down to where your posts are displayed and look at one that's performed well. You can tell by the length of the pinkish bar under the Engagement heading. Mine is a post on Rachael Brownell.

Click the post text, and you'll get this. Yours won't have Rachael's smiling face, but we can't all be cool!:

Look at all the tasty information your brain has to analyze on the right side! As you can see, that post got 12 likes, comments, and shares. It even goes as far as telling you exactly how the post was engaged with. Wow. Let's look at another one where I did a flash giveaway:

As you can see, this post did way better. Most fans will engage if there's something in it for them. I gave away two copies of Fractured Glass. It kinda went bananas. Let's go back to the Rachael post and click Boost Post. Here's where you can use Facebook ads if you see a certain post is doing well and think more people might enjoy it.

But, that's just a quick foray into the world of Facebook Page Insights. Once you close the popup window, take a look at the top of the page and go bananas with your clicking finger. Check out all the tabs!

This lesson only went over the Posts tab. Can you imagine what secrets the others hold?

What are you waiting for? Go find out!

Did you know about this nifty feature? If you did, how do you use it?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Giveaways You Must Enter - Some Ending Soon!

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Well, today is gonna be lighthearted and fun. Here are a couple of giveaways that are ending soon. If you haven't entered to win, you should. Be sure and check out the giveaway of exhibitor space for UtopYA Con 2015, too! Get your clicking finger ready and let's get going!

Ending in two days: Renaria - Into the Adyton by J. L. Wilson

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Ending in nine days: Crewel by Gennifer Albin 
a Rafflecopter giveaway


This is awesome! Our Goodreads giveaway for Fractured Glass was approved and will run through December 31, 2014. It's international! Here's the widget:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Fractured Glass

by Jo Michaels

Giveaway ends December 31, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

And here are a couple of teasers! *grin*

For this one, you gotta head over to A Book Vacation to enter. This is the one with the exhibitor space! Go, go, go!

CLICK HERE!

If you still haven't had enough, check out the huge giveaway running over on Facebook. You could win one of 7 $100 Amazon Gift Cards. WOW. Click here to join the party!

So? Did you enter? What prize are you most looking forward to?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Rafflecopter Integrates Facebook Flash Giveaways - How to Use it

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! I got some amazing news in my e-mail yesterday. I'd like to talk you through it today. Either grab your pens and pencils, or your mouse and Facebook page, and follow along.

First, the news: Because of recent changes to Facebook's ToS, Rafflecopter now allows you to integrate your Facebook flash giveaways with their app. This means you can select people that perform a duty on your page as entries for your prize drawing. WOW! It negates the need for a third party list randomizer.

If any of you have done a flash giveaway, you know that entries can be missed and, if you get a ton of entries, it's time consuming as hell. Boo! This takes care of that problem and the issue of writing everything down and typing it again, or copy/pasting a zillion things into a form then screenshot, save, upload, announce, etc... I'm sure you get the idea.

Let's get going!

First, open your Facebook page and start a giveaway where folks have to either like the post or perform a task then comment on the post to win.

When it's over, click on this link and go to this page:

You'll be required to log in if you haven't already, give Rafflecopter permission to post (as with any app), and if you have more than one page, you'll be asked to choose the page the giveaway appears on. I'll select my Jo Michaels page and move on.

Next, you come to this screen:

Last, you choose the relevant post and scroll to the bottom of the page where you'll see this button:

CLICK IT!

Rafflecopter will return your results in a few moments.

Now how easy was that? Your time is important! Use the tools available to you so life is easier!

If you've never used Rafflecopter before, now's the time to start. I hope this helps you all with your Facebook giveaways in some small way.

Are you excited about this development? What was your biggest problem with giveaways before?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

A Checklist of Tools

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Wow, what a weekend, eh? Well, on to another week at the fantabulous Jo Michaels blog. You know you love me. If you didn't, you wouldn't be here, reading this post!

What's that? This is your first visit? Oh my... You should take a moment and give yourself a little tour. Check out the link list on the sidebar, grab your free branding PDF, and browse through some of the awesomeness that's found around here. Then, subscribe via e-mail so you don't miss anything new.

I know it's April Fool's Day, but you won't find shenanigans here. Sorry if I disappointed you.

Today's post is a compliment (call it a checklist, if you will) to my Social Networking Schedule. It's a handy little thing you can flash down to be sure you have all the things you need in your virtual tool belt.

Apps:

• Evernote (handy for syncing information across ALL devices)
• Flipboard
• Hootsuite (or Buffer)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook Pages Manager
• Blogger (this got an update and works beautifully)
• StumbleUpon
• Tumblr

Social media you should be a part of:

• StumbleUpon
• Quora
• Squidoo
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Twitter
• A blogging platform (Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress)
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Goodreads

Tools you should be using to streamline your workflow and up your visibility:

• Hootsuite (or Buffer)
• Flipboard
• Some kind of schedule, posted where you can see it every day

If you don't have a tablet, you might think about getting one. It will help you on your quest to becoming a force to be reckoned with online. I don't know what I'd do without my iPad. Seriously.

What's the point in taking the time to set up all these social networks?

The more places you are, the more places you can be found. Easy to explain.

How many of these networks are you on?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Proven Results Social Networking Schedule

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm happy to share with you my results from using my Social Networking Schedule I posted two weeks ago. I used it last week, and here are some of my stats:

I enjoyed several retweets over the weekend and a number of downloads of my free PDF on cleaning up your image.


I gained five new fans and enjoyed two shares of my posts on Facebook.

Stumbleupon sent me eight new visitors to the blog.

I gained two new followers over on Tumblr.

I sold three books.

I got mentioned twice on Google+.

I now have two featured lenses over on Squidoo. http://www.squidoo.com/book-formatting2 and http://www.squidoo.com/things-i-learned-from-my-editor

I answered a question on Quora.

No video last week; but I intend to do one this week, as scheduled.

Ms. Rebecca Fyfe, over at the ChaBooCha, asked me to write a guest post for her. Integrating the Social Networking Schedule has never been easier! Go check out the post here.

Now that's a lot of activity. How many more people do you think I got my voice heard by? Becoming recognized in your field is easy if you schedule your time and use it to maximize efficiency.

If you missed my Saturday post, it was a blog tour stop for Good Ghost Gone Bad. I'm giving away two e-copies of that book. Go check it out and enter!

Remember, branding is important and so is social media. So, get on it!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Facebook Fanatics for Fun and Fancy - WABC Day Two

Happy Saturday, good people of the blogosphere!! Today's post is all about Facebook. How I use it, how others use it, and how you might want to think about using it! Still rolling with the Winter Author Blog Challenge, here's today's prompt:

Do you have a Facebook fan page for yourself/your book? How long ago did you start it? Did you do it yourself or have someone help you? Are you seeing lots of new people liking it? What kinds of things do you post? What have you found to be the most effective way to get fans/have people interact? IF YOU DON’T HAVE a Facebook fan page, tell us about the fan page for an author you know or like. Why do you like them and why did you “like” their page? What do you think they are doing well that you would like to model with your own page? Do you have a goal date for creating your own fan page? Be sure to give us the link.

I have a Facebook fan page. Sure, who doesn't, right? As everything associated with me, the author, it's writejomichaels. I started it over a year ago and I'm up to 452 'likes' as of today. In keeping with my personal branding, I created a custom cover image I update when I release a new book, and have my logo as my avatar. There's no doubt whose page you're on when you land there. I created it myself but used tips from a participant of last year's Author Blog Challenge, Liberty Montano, to tweak it. I still have to take time to customize my buttons, but I'll get there!

I post things related to my books and my blog on my Jo Michaels Facebook page. I occasionally post a funny photo or saying I come across, but I make sure it's always writerly. I have another page as well, but we'll get to that one in a moment.

Something I cannot stress enough: DON'T make a fan page for your books! Unless you have ONE book that sells 50M copies, how the hell are you gonna keep up with all of them when you have twenty (or fifty) books out there? Make an author fan page. One. That way, all your fans are in one place. Think about it. If you have even three pages, with two hundred fans each, that's potentially three hundred you could've had for just one. And fans are busy people. They have a billion posts scrolling over their page to sift through. If you post the same thing more than once, they'll unlike something. I know I do.

My favorite author pages are those that are attractive, well written, and the author is well spoken when they post there. I can't tell you what a turnoff it is when I go to a page and the cover image is grainy, blurry, or badly put together. I click away quickly and vow never to return!

My other page is related to my editing services and site. It's indiebooksgonewild. We're a team of editors on a mission to make indie books what they were meant to be. Click on over to our site and see what people are saying! Our Facebook page is branded the same as our site, to provide continuity and recognition.

My xXx series of posts goes into how to clean up your Facebook page and keep the content relevant to your readers. If you didn't snatch that PDF yet, what are you waiting for? Go get it! It's free to download and keep forever! Feel free to redistribute it.

Getting folks to interact with these pages is pretty easy. I ask questions, do little giveaways, and comment on other peoples' stuff as my page. That's really important to gain a following. If all the interaction is one-sided, people tend to be turned off.

I've found having a Facebook page to be a delightful experience, and I enjoy getting to meet new people via this branch of social media.

What do you think? Are you branded across all your social media?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Book Auction for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Good morning, lovely people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm gonna tell you about something exciting going on over on Facebook. A group of authors have gotten together and donated books that are being auctioned for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. ALL proceeds go to the American Red Cross.

Interested in learning more? Keep reading!

There are bundles of books over there:

• Childrens
• Fantasy/Paranormal
• Erotica
• Romance
• Horror

 Those are being bid on by the BUNDLE and every bundle has at least seven books in it.

There are three more categories where items are being bid on individually:

• Misc.
• Misc eBooks
• Printed and Autographed copies

 There's some GREAT stuff in there ranging from brand new shoes to a KINDLE!

BUT! Bidding ends today! How is the payment/pickup going to work? Good question!

You bid via comment either on the bundle/album or the individual item. Once you're announced as the winner, you must use PayPal to make a donation to the Red Cross. When you send the moderator your receipt, she then lets the author know to send you the book.

Easy peasy!

So get your booties over there and place your bid!

If you're interested in lending a hand, copy/paste this into a tweet: Hurricane Sandy Relief Auction! http://on.fb.me/TSCGQg Scads of books and other items up for bid! RT and go bid! #hurricanerelief #auction

Then go bid.

Did you do it?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

lOOk at YoUr fAceBoOk

Hello, lovely people of the blogosphere! This week will be a designer's look at what you're doing on different platforms and will be called lOOk at YoUr xXx. Follow along and learn! Today I'd like to talk to you all about FaceBook pages. No, not your personal page that you add your best high-school buds to. Your business or fan page.

Go grab those pencils and paper and let's dive right in. You know the drill, right? First, let's see how you measure up.

Answer these questions about your FaceBook page:

1. Is your cover image all about you or your titles?
2. Are your links easy to find?
3. Do you know who you are at a glance (without clicking around)?
4. If a visitor leaves FaceBook after a glance, do they know what you're selling?
5. How many posts do you make per day?
6. Where can visitors find your promotions?
7. Does your cover image fit or is it cropped?
8. Is your FaceBook page branded to match your blog/website/twitter? 
9. Are you using Timeline?

Based on your observations, answer the following:

1. Can you rebrand your cover image and icon(s) so people know more about what you do?
2. Where can you put your links so they're easy to find?
3. How many places can your name go?
4. What kind of content could you include to let visitors know what your products are?
5. How many posts could you make per day?
6. Are your images the best quality they can be?
7. Why aren't you using Timeline?

Now, go check out this post by Liberty on how to add things like cover images for your tabs, install apps, and size requirements. Then come on back and let's implement those ideas.

A few tips on fixing the above:

1. Upgrade to Timeline. Please. It will give you a million more options.
2. Design your cover image in some kind of software (Liberty mentions Gimp and it's a good alternative) that allows you to specify size. Create a new image per the requirements and brand that puppy. On a side note, I've heard authors say their book covers are their brand and they couldn't be more correct. However, what happens when you have more than one book? I strongly suggest branding yourself with either: your face, a logo, your name in a specific font, or a font + a color scheme. If you use your face, have a professional photograph taken, please!
3. Put your links on your about page or add your url to your cover image in a way that's not annoying. For example: If you use YourName in large letters, you can add .com in smaller letters on the end.
4. Make sure your name either appears in your cover image OR your icon. Even if your icon is your face, add your name to it. Won't hurt, will help.
5. Make sure folks know what books you've written or what you're selling at a glance. You have ten seconds to make an impression. Please make one that lasts.
6. How can you add valuable content via posts to your timeline? When you see something you like while browsing with your personal page, share it on your business page as well.
7. Add apps or icons with your promotions. This can be as simple as a rafflecopter embed. Trust me, just do eet!
8. Make sure your images are at least 72dpi. No one wants to look at a blurry photograph.
9. Once you have your name, book covers, and logo or image on there, consider your branded color scheme and add elements of those as well. Remember your icon will overlap your cover image a bit on the lower, left-hand side. Design accordingly.

Remember, you can get tips like these in my book The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book. For just $2.99 I talk branding, formatting, and design for indies.

Don't forget to enter the blog party giveaway! There's three copies of The Indie Author's Guide in there just waiting for you to win!

If anyone noticed, I added ten signed Mystic/WSTW bookmarks to the giveaway! Enjoy and good luck!

Question of the day: Did you know everything above? Are you interested in learning more about branding?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo