I have a blog, a twitter account, a facebook fanpage – now what the hell do I do?
Having the tools and using the tools are two different things. If you can think of your online outreach accounts whether a blog, myspace, twitter, or facebook, as another way to promote your business to your customers, that will help.
Always go first to content that you already have up on your website. This does two things. It promotes what’s going on and it drives traffic back to your website. Do you do staff picks on your website? Invite folks to meet your staff and include a link back to that page. Do the same with your events, your bestseller list, news, anything that is already on your website that you’d like get out to a larger audience.
Second, feel free to use any content on SIBA for any of your outreach. Looking to let customers know about Okra Picks, point them to it. Use content from Lady Banks’ Commonplace Books e-newsletter or from Wanda’s Wonderful Book Blog.
And finally, here are some sites that can help you share and find content that your customers and you and your employees might find valuable and/or interesting.
Content Tools
http://www.ted.com/ ideas worth spreading
This is a super cool site. Each video is about 20 minutes long and many authors have talked at TED. You can search by topic, presenter, or mood. Both Al Gore and Bill Clinton have done TED talks as has Dave Eggers and J. K. Rowling.
http://helpareporter.com/ help a reporter out – reporters in search of experts
This is a great way to promote yourself as an expert. Three times a day you (or a staff person) will receive a list of opportunities from reporters looking for content on specific topics. They are often in search of small business owners, women business owners, retailers with creative ideas, etc.
http://commoncraft.com/ our product is explanation
These are great little videos that explain many things from Twitter Search to Electing a President, Cloud Computing, and Borrowing Money, and much more. They even explain Zombies.
http://www.futureofthebook.org/ the institute for the future of the book
This content is for the erudite among us.
http://www.socialscoop.biz/ maximize your marketing through social media
DOWNLOAD the White Paper for insights and advice on how the fast moving world of Social Media is about to change… again. Is your business keeping up? Watch this site for their often changing featured resource.
http://regator.com/ the web’s best blog posts
Searching bookseller, I found this. I’m sure you can find something just as entertaining for your customers.
http://shelf-awareness.com/ daily enlightenment for the book trade
Most readers are interested in the industry and sharing industry tidbits lets your customers feel like insiders. There is always something fun to share. Subscribe if you haven’t already, it’s free.
http://news.bookweb.org/ Bookselling This Week
Again, there is always interesting news to share here. Subscribe if you haven’t already, it’s free.
http://www.bulletproofblog.com/category/main-channels/digital-media/ the blog on crisis communication
Insights and analysis of the most pressing issues facing companies, countries and brands today. This is the blog for bulletproof- ing a reputation when it matters most – I mean who knew?
http://www.scribd.com/ Millions of readers. Millions of documents.
This has a ton of cool content to share. And some of them are books that are forthcoming. Again, customers love to feel like insiders. So let them.
http://trendwatching.com An independent & opinionated trend firm
I love this content and you may recognize that I often send stuff from this to you. Again, subscribe to their newsletter. It is free and chockful of interesting info.



FUNCTIONALL | Captures the phenomenon of simple, small and/or cheap products and services designed for low(er)-income consumers in emerging markets, with cross-over appeal to consumers in mature consumer societies. Goods and services especially designed for emerging markets often incorporate one or more of the following characteristics:
A few reasons why these products are of interest to consumers in more prosperous economies, too: