Book Promotion, Part 2: 51 Tactics to Promote Your Book

In the previous post, I discussed that how you promote your book depends upon your strategy: is your purpose book sales or positioning yourself as a thoughtleader who wrote a book. One you have determined your strategic direction, you can then begin to employ a number of the pre and post book publication promotion tactics as outlined below:

 Pre-publication:

1. Add to your email signature “author of forthcoming book_____”
2. Set up book webpage on your current website
3. Include description of the book
4. Include picture of the book cover and table of contents
5. Add testimonials (get your manuscript to key thought leaders and clients and ask if they will provide you a brief testimonial. Rarely does anyone refuse).
6. Include method (web shopping cart) to purchase books in advance at discounted rates
7. Get a number of individuals (noted experts, professionals, clients) to write a review/testimonial of the book
8. Add these testimonials to website and book flaps
9. Include these testimonials in your book promotions and market materials
10. When your book is published, have these same individuals write a book review in Amazon (can use same testimonial)
11. Find periodicals that accept book reviews and send in
12. Write articles based on book for industry specific publications (or publications read by clients and/or prospects)
13. Articles should capture the themes of book
14. Includes phrases such as “as outlined in my book ____”
15. In any bio for articles, note that you are the “author of forthcoming book ___”
16. Promote book in social media

Listen Up! Tips for Giving Great Radio Interviews

(This article was written by Mike Dacri and was published in Consulting Magazine, February 2013 issue)

Radio interviews are a great tool to position yourself as an expert, gain visibility, leverage your services, promote your book, and sell your products. But there are good radio interviews and there are bad interviews—you never want to give one of the bad ones.

Think of a radio interview like a dance: you may have asked her to dance and received a “yes,” but you still have to go out on the floor and impress her. Remember, you are on a mission. You are selling your services as well as yourself.

Here are few tips I have learned over the years as a publicist to help you give great interviews and just maybe earn some business so you can sell your products as well!

1. Don’t Put Everyone to Sleep: The perfect guest has energy and passion, but when you lack energy and speak like you just rolled out of bed, you lose your audience fast! Kick it up a notch without going over the top. Remember, most radio interviews take place during the morning drive!
2. Get to The Point: It’s a radio interview, not a Sunday ride in the country. In your first sentence or two, you must grab your audience and convey your message. Otherwise, everyone will turn their radio dials.

Recruit Better Candidates With Social Media

In recruiting, finding your ideal candidate is never easy and it gets a lot harder when the candidates you need are gainfully employed and not looking for a job. They will never see your ad no matter where you place it. So how do you find them?

 In a recent national search that I conducted for a key executive, my ideal candidate was likely employed and therefore not actively in the job market. He or she also needed some industry specific skills and experiences. Ads, even placed in specific trade journals, would likely not generate the right candidates.

 Two recruitment tools I used produced a number of qualified candidates. One was networking. This tried and true method of identifying individuals within the industry, contacting them directly and “networking” amongst them and their contacts, produced several solid leads. The second and newest tool used was social media. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter were both effective and inexpensive in generating several candidates with specific skills and experience.

 LinkedIn has become a powerful recruitment tool that provides you quick and easy access to thousands of potential candidates. It allows you to review individual profiles, network amongst industry group members, and communicate directly with potential candidates and referrers–individuals you may have not known before you began your search.

 In my executive search, I generated many solid candidates through LinkedIn–none of them was aware of my search prior to my contacting them because none of them was actively looking for a new job.

 Add social media to your recruitment toolbox. Combining it with networking and the other traditional recruitment methods, will allow you to conduct a more focused job search.

Onboarding (Employee Orientation) Raises Performance

When your employees manage their careers, everyone benefits. Organizations grow and continuously improve when and if their employees focus upon and grow their careers, support their team, and position themselves as the “go-to” persons in their respective fields. I recently lead a “Managing Your Career” workshop as part of this company’s onboarding program. There I showed a group of new managers how to think differently about their careers. I demonstrated to them how they could move their performance to the next level, regularly raising the bar, while fostering a spirit of teamwork within their new company’s creative, innovative learning environment.

 By working in a corporate environment that supports, encourages and grows new “thought-leaders,” their career will flourish and the company will enjoy the benefits and value that comes from a fully engaged workforce-higher productivity, innovation, profitability, and retention. The company knows that by developing their employees, they raise the profile of their workforce and their company, expanding the demand for the company’s services, and positioning themselves as the only one to call by prospects and customers. They knew that by employing star performers, they elevate their status. When their employees are successful, the company is successful. The onboarding workshop set the tone early. Establishing clear expectations was the first step in the process. All forward thinking companies should include a component like this in their onboarding program.

FREE COPY of UNCOMPLICATING MANAGEMENT

 Beginning today and through the end of the year, you can download Uncomplicating Management (185 pages) at no cost. This is my way of saying “thanks” for a great 2010.

 To begin reading, simply send an email to rick@dacri.com and put “Free Book” in the subject box. I’ll immediately send your copy to you. It’s that simple.

 Begin making managing easy. This book uncomplicates the art of managing people and provides you with a blueprint for your success.  You will get practical, easy to understand ideas, real life examples, and ready to use tools to make your job easier.

 So get Uncomplicating Management free-and share it with your staff.

 Send an email today to rick@dacri.com and remember this offer will only be good through December 31.

 Thank you again for a great year.  And enjoy the book.

Need Social Media Policy?

Employees are stealing more time taking cigarette breaks than they are visiting Facebook. That’s the finding of a Ball State University study. Yet, many employers are more alarmed that their employees are spending company time on social networking sites, zapping away company productivity. To combat this, companies are writing policies that prevent all usage while others are putting up firewalls to block access.

Before heading down a similar path, employers should step back and evaluate the situation carefully. Survey after survey indicates that employees are in fact accessing Twitter, Facebook and other sites during company time, but their time away from work is limited.

Employers should legitimately be concerned about productivity loss as well as the potential for damaged reputations due to inappropriate postings by their employees. After all you want to control what employees may be saying and posting about your company, staff and customers.

Develop policies that clearly spell out how employees can utilize social networking sites, on and off the clock. Discuss what is expected and what is inappropriate. Educate your entire workforce. Employees need to know the rules governing their activity. But be careful about banning all usage. It is likely that it would not work and frankly, you may lose the legitimate benefits that come from social networking.

Social networking is here to stay. Have open discussions about it with your employees. Use it to your benefit.

Social Networking

More and more organizations are moving to Interactive Media to communicate with their customers and employees. No longer is it merely a toy for young people. Now companies are getting their message out to millions instantly. Jet Blue uses Twitter to provide discounted airfares while Best Buy is updating its workforce on swine flu preparedness. Recruiters are checking backgrounds on Facebook, while marketing professionals are listening to what customers are saying about their product on blogs and Twitter. Bottom line, it’s time to embrace this new medium.