I thought that I would share a few communication tips to help everyone build up their business platform. Now to me that means, places where visitors can view your product. For authors, our product is our books and we want people to know where to find them. On the Internet, each location has an URL <Insert link> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Locator .
I guess the most basic ability that I recommend for everyone is to know how to copy and paste links. It seems simple enough, yet each browser is set up slightly different as to where you see the web addresses. If you locate that web address on your browser then place the mouse over it then highlight from right to left or right to left. Then right click scroll down to copy, then place the web address or link into whatever place you want it. Then right click and scroll down to paste. That should put your web address or link onto the document for you. If all else fails there is the Ctrl button + C for Copy then Ctrl button + V for Paste. When doing a blog post you can highlight a word such as URL then find the link button. When the button pops up you can place the link you want in the appropriate place. The result is that you have a word with a link without the distraction of seeing the link.
I highly recommend that you keep a document program such as Microsoft Word replete with a list of the different links that you might need. For example, Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC has a website, blog, and Facebook fan page, each with a unique URL. Of course on the website there are the links where our book can be found. I also use this list of links when I’m tweeting out information for our book.
On twitter, I saw an interesting tweet from Karen Baney regarding twitter profiles. The article <Insert link> http://www.karenbaney.com/archives/917 talked about profile black holes. After reading this article, I tweaked my twitter profile so that anyone who visits it will know what our book is about and where to find it.
While marketing, no I don’t mean for food although these days you can do that on-line as well, you may need to know the direct link to your twitter or Facebook page. The lesson that I recently learned on LinkedIn is that when copying the URL from twitter it comes out looking like this: https://twitter.com/#!/LynnHallbrooks
The symbols #!/ seem to be thrown in to make it difficult for you to be found. If you see them when you post your twitter address then kindly remove the symbols. You should have a clean twitter address that anyone can click on and find you right away: https://twitter.com/LynnHallbrooks
I’ve also noticed that those symbols sometimes come up on some Facebook page addresses as well and simply remove the offending #!/ and you should provide a direct link to your Facebook fan page. I’ve also seen people ask, “Why do I need a separate page for my book?” If you have an author page and no co-author then you don’t. I highly recommend not using your personal page for business if you can avoid it. I’m sure potential readers don’t wish to read all the latest gossip from your BFF or even your siblings. Now if authors are “friends” with one another, well then that is another story altogether.
Our Facebook fan page has a RSS feed <insert link> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS that comes from our blog. Once I finish posting a blog it goes to not only our Facebook fan page <insert link> http://www.facebook.com/CallSignWreckingCrewStormWarning but also to Amazon.com <insert link> http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Hallbrooks/e/B0050ZOGAA/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_3, Goodreads.com, <insert link> http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4950577.Lynn_Hallbrooks/blog and Triberr <insert link> http://www.triberr.com so that my tribe mates can help spread the word. To be honest, I had some one find my RSS feed so I can’t explain that one to you. I did however, copy and paste the link on my growing list of links. It has saved me many headaches having my list. I hope my tips help you out as well.
Lynn Hallbrook is the Texas based co-author of Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning) and together with her co-writer David McCoy will be the first author to be interviewed on our new upcoming Blog Radio Show on 12 Dec. More about that exciting new venture next week!
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