Week 9 - Blogging

Blogging is becoming a powerful way to draw traffic to a business website. The fresh content that appears on the page is identified with online search engines and increases the probability that you will appear on searches. It also provides customers with fresh content and information they can share with others. 

The question posed by the class is how professional does one need to be with a blog and how personal can one get. 

When to be professional

Blogs can take the form of news posts and the reporting of facts. For the Social Publishing House blog, we have a section specifically for press releases and information updating the status of writing contests. In these areas, its important to be very matter of fact and professional. It leaves little room for discussion and personal opinion. 

When to be personal

The use of the first person in a blog post can make it feel very personal to the reader and allow them to connect more to the content. It can be effective, but it has to be used in the right matter. 

For example, blog posts that I write for the company normally are impersonal and do not use the first person. Most of the time I use the second person, addressing the reader directly, which can also be just as personal. In these posts, the topic usually covers ways they can improve their writing or things they have to look out for. 

Audiences respond to different posts, and its a good idea to diversify the posts. So where I am more impersonal and matter of fact, I bring in writers who use more "I" in their posts to draw in attention. One writer give his opinion on books that are read that will eventually turn into movies. Sarcastic as they may be, they appeal to particular kinds of readers that would shy away form the matter of fact posts. 

What Makes Sense

At the end of the day, it matters what you are writing about. If its reporting, be impersonal. If its about a new book or movie coming out, its more opinion and can be more personal to the writer. But as a business owner, its important to have a balance of content that can reach to several different target audiences that you are looking for. 

Week 8 - Businesses Similar to Mine

Major publishing houses of the book publishing industry use very quiet tactics to promote themselves. Their main efforts are in promoting their individual authors and their work, thereby driving interest and revenue into their company.

As these large companies focus on branding themselves quietly through their main authors and stay behind the scenes, we will take a look at social media accounts for two of the largest book producers on the planet: Penguin and Random House.

Penguin

Penguin maintains an active Tumblr account. They focus on displaying the covers of the books that they produce. Although some of the book covers are simple, they actively display the Penguin logo on all covers. Due to the fact that they mostly rely on words for their actual product, displaying the visual part of the covers is essential and is a great way to draw in audiences

Random House

The Titan of the book publishing industry, Random House uses a variety of media that include a very under used social media tactic, GIFs. They also have, dispersed throughout their platform, images of the covers of their books that they sell along with antidotes by the authors. Interlaced with those are promotions and calls to action. 

Visual Social Media for Social Publishing House

The use of visuals for Social Publishing House is very difficult in the beginning. This is a book production company, which focuses on the written word and prose. Photography and visual arts are not my forte. However, in order to draw in attention to the company, we have to have some type of image based content. Therefore, the best of both worlds is to exist on Tumblr, where the target market is most likely to read content as well as engage with visuals. 

Here is the Tumblr Account use for Social Publishing House. It has been connected with the Facebook page. 

Week 8 - The Visual

Images are the most powerful thing you can use to enhance traffic and engagement on social media. As the social media world has evolved, there are four major platforms that focus almost entirely on the visual, and they are now holding most of the sway and power for a business.

Right for my brand

For Social Publishing House, the use of images is difficult. As a book publishing company, the target market is mostly for individuals who take time to read articles and posts. However, the stopping power of an image still appeals to these readers, the fact is that reading mostly takes place in the imagination. 

Despite this case, using visuals to attract readers is still important. And the images could be used as a stopping power to draw in people to read what is posted on social media. Here are the four visual networks and how they relate to the brand of Social Publishing House

YouTube

This is a video based social media network and rely on video production methods. Videos are almost the complete opposite of the production of books, which can pose a problem if I were to use this site mainly to promote the company. There are ways that this platform could be used to draw traffic to the brand, such as the creation of commercials associated with particular books that are produced, or small commercials that talk about the brand. But outside of that, and for the start up phase for my company, it is not the most effective platform. 

Instagram

This social media behemoth is on the rise and is quickly becoming the choice of millennials and generation Z. Due to the younger target market and the fact that this platform is completely photo based, this area would not be an effective area for developing the brand of Social Publishing House. The target market is much older (35 to 45). Additionally, users are going to be more visually based than they are creative based, meaning that people who read are less likely to be on these platforms. 

Pinterest

This platform is more promising due to its target market and sharing ability that focus around products. The clientele is mostly affluent women who are in the target market range for Social Publishing House. They will make boards and pin products that they want in the future. Some of those include the covers of books that they want to read. So, this is an ideal place to start marketing the brand of Social Publishing House and the promotion of its books. 

Tumblr

This last platform is the most effective one to spread the brand of Social Publishing House. Although this is an area where individuals share photos and videos, it is also blog based. Articles and written work permeate through the feed. The target market also excises on this platform, and many of them are also writers as well. Social Publishing House will build the brand in this area and recruit its writers from this platform. 

Week 7 - Twitter

Twitter is a powerful tool for business. Although most would say that Twitter is for people to follow celebrities and post what they had for breakfast, its actually much more than that. 

Finding Connections

I looked for people who are in the publishing industry and write about publishing. Specifically, I look for people who are talking about the Amazon vs Hachette ordeal that is taking place and rocking the price of eBooks. So I searched "Amazon vs Hachette" and found several articles written about the topic. I looked to the authors of those articles then found them on twitter and started to follow them. 

I found about a half dozen authors who write for Digital Book World, Huffington Post Books, and the New York Times. Some of these individuals even started to follow me back. 

Lists

I created two different lists: One for the major ebook distribution companies and publishing companies out there, then one for some of the major writers in the industry that I just described above. This helps me keep things organized in several ways. For example, when I want to see what tactics and books that these publishing industries are doing currently, the list allows me to get a good glance on their activity in the last few hours. With the list for the major writers, this allows me to see what the reaction to these promotions and books is and see how it is shaping the industry. 

Lists for Goals

Creating lists helps to keep things organized by keeping a finger on the pulse of companies, competitors, and trends in the industry you are operating in. This way, you can easily look at what is going on and get the most up to date information you can about what others are doing. This helps you daily gather intelligence to make decisions about your own company.