Posts Tagged reading
Easy Bake Oven – Looking to share a slice
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on March 23, 2010
A Baker’s Dozen of Easy Share Sites
All of these sites were found by someone to be easy to use in sharing information over the internet.
This first batch allows you to share photos and/or videos.
http://vimeo.com/ video sharing some Easy Bake Oven for you
http://www.youtube.com/ broadcast yourself & Easy Bake Oven
http://www.viddler.com/ the best way to watch and publish your videos about Easy Bake Ovens
http://www.flickr.com/ share your photos of Easy Bake Ovens. Watch the world.
This second batch hosts your blog so you can share anything & everything -
http://www.blogger.com create your free blog
http://wordpress.org/ blog tool and publishing platform
http://www.typepad.com/ simple, social blogging
http://www.tumblr.com/ the easiest way to blog
And this last batch lets you share other items – my favorite is etherpad.com – it just seems to work and I cannot wait to use it. Happy Sharing!
http://www.slideshare.net/ upload and share PowerPoint presentations & documents
http://animoto.com the end of slide shows
http://etherpad.com/ realtime collaborative text editing
http://www.yousendit.com/ send, receive and track large and important files (lite account is free) http://www.meebo.com/ instant messaging everywhere
Say NO to Big Brother! But how about little brother? 5 Tracking Tools
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on March 10, 2010
Why We Love Shopping, Why We Buy, To Buy or Not to Buy, Addicted to Shopping, The Lucky Shopping Manual, Born to Spend, Shopping for Time, Not Buying It, Spent – all titles of books about consumer habits. Here are a few tools that may help you keep track of who and what your customers care about. 
http://bit.ly/ shorten, share, and track your links
There are a couple of reasons to shorten a url and using this site might offer the main reason for doing so…I think the URL shorteners showed up as a response to Twitter’s 140 character limit but this site offers another reason. We learned from Dan Zarrella at the Southern Social Networking Summit that adding a plus mark (+) to the end of any bit.ly url will show the activity for that url and it is really valuable info. See how many times it was clicked, who clicked it, and where they came from. Again, this is data that booksellers would have had to pay big bucks for in the past. And it is all here. Amazing!
http://delicious.com/ social bookmarking
Okay, again, a wealth of info but be careful not to get sucked in to the home page where the most recent bookmarks are displayed. I got sucked into some celebrity news for a minute but now I’m back. This allows you to search anything and see what items folks have bookmarked and it let’s you collect your favorite sites as well. Again, learn a lot about readers and see who is making their mark on Delicious. I’m delighted that http://www.indiebound.org/ comes up regularly in book and bookselling and bookstore references. Your customers are there.
http://digg.com/ the latest news headlines, videos, and images
Okay, don’t get sucked in. Put in your search item and see the sites that have been sited. Once your search results come up, scroll down the page, and on the left you will see Advanced Search Tips that will assist you in getting even more info on who is talking about what.
http://mashable.com/ the social media guide
This is a great site for learning about social media. Lots of nerd news here. Valuable stuff about Facebook, Twitter, eReaders, all things online; from FourSquare to Phishing. Again, it’s easy to get lost in here. So try to use the search function or follow them on Twitter or Facebook, and just check out the things that impact you and your customers.
http://bloggernetwork.org who is in your area?
Okay, this might be a waste of time. Trying to find book bloggers to invite to SIBA and many of the blogs were no longer active or had not ever been activated. Searched for over an hour and found 6 potential southern bloggers. I think booksellers should connect with local book bloggers and create a mutually beneficial relationship. Just not sure Blogger Network is where to find them.
Every Task has its’ Tool – Here’s 11 too good not to share…
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on March 4, 2010
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.
Short & Sweet & Scary
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on February 24, 2010
Scary Excellent – Sites that have Great Reputations but Scare Me
http://drupal.com/#1 drupal helps other open source projects build their communities
http://www.joomla.org/ content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications
http://www.zoho.com/ work.online
http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/ bring your projects into focus
http://www.openoffice.org/ the free and open productivity suite
https://www.dropbox.com/ secure backup, sync, and sharing made easy
15 Links to Twitter Success
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 24, 2010
I hope you have gotten a Twitter account. It is so simple to set up and use…and one day, having a microblogging account will be as expected of a business as having a telephone, or a website. Don’t underestimate the power of this tool. It’s email on steroids
And even if you are unwilling to set up a Twitter account for your store, be willing to search twitter and listen in on what customers are saying about your store. This kind of marketing feedback would have cost thousands of dollars less then ten years ago. The following Twitter tools are great for searching:
http://monitter.com/ monitor twitter
http://search.twitter.com/ see what’s happening right now
http://topsy.com/ a search engine powered by tweets
With an account, there are tons of tools to make posting to your Twitter account easy and effective. A book jacket would be considered a picture. I use tvider.com from my telephone and I am astonished how easy it is to update from the blackberry. To share video or pictures, try one of these:
http://tvider.com easily tweet photos, videos, & audio
http://twitpic.com/ share photos on twitter
http://yfrog.com/ your images & video on twitter
http://twitgoo.com/ share pictures or video
Twitter can also be a great tool for locating content to share with your customers via your blog or newsletter or in store. Here are a few links that will gather twitter content for you and help you manage your own Twitter account:
http://tweetmeme.com/ hottest links on twitter
http://www.tweetdeck.com/ your personal browser
http://hootsuite.com the professional twitter client
And finally, a few for the bookseller that is sold on Twitter and looking for ways to enhance their efforts. These tools allow you to explore twitter aps, find like-minded twitterers, get your twitter ranking, tweet from your phone, and search twitter panels on topics of interest to you and your customers.
http://oneforty.com/ find, rate, collect, share twitter apps
http://twitter.grader.com get your twitter ranking
http://blastfollow.com/ follow people on twitter via #hashtag
http://www.tweetie.com/ tweet panels
http://ubertwitter.com/ twitter for mobile platforms
Vimeo, CrushIt! & GaryVee — all excellent resources
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 12, 2010
Crush It! with Gary Vaynerchuk from Nicki Leone on Vimeo.
Hear Gary Vaynerchuk on indies, silliness, social media, Web2.0, & more.
Southern Social Networking Summit a HIT!
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on January 8, 2010
I’m back from the Southern Social Networking Summit in Greenville, SC. It was an exhausting & exhilarating two days. I want you to know that I am busy compiling the results of everyone’s efforts. I have nearly 40 oversized pages of notes taken by the break-out groups that I am organizing and will be posting over the next week in this blog. So many people have written blog posts, posted videos & photos, twittered and facebooked, and I want to take the time to thank everyone. And I want to share these links with you. The video clips include testimonials and a word from Gary Vaynerchuk.
Video Clips (posted by Trey Pennington)
Photos (taken by Curtis Rogers from the SC State Library)
Calling All Activists, Artists, Booksellers, Bloggers, Chefs, Crafters, Dancers, Designers, Educators, Festival Organizers, Government Workers, Human Resources, Internet Engineers, Jugglers, Librarians, Marketers, Non-Profit Executives, Publishers, Retailers, Singers, Social Networkers, Twitterholics, Videographers, Writers, Wine Guys, & Zookeepers…
Posted by Wanda in Social Networking on November 23, 2009
to the first ever
Southern Social Networking Summit (#ssns)
Meeting on the application of on-line social networking to the arts, humanities & business
Dates:
Wed., Jan. 6, 2010 (starting at 10am) & Thu., Jan. 7 (ending by 3pm)
Location:
Hyatt Regency Greenville, 220 North Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina, USA 29601
Tel: +1 864 235 1234 Fax: +1 864 232 7584
Mention code: SSNS when making reservation
Hotel Reservations Online
Thorny Details:
Registrants should have a working knowledge of the Internet and already be making some social networking efforts. Minimally, you should have a Twitter account and Facebook account set up, and have either a blog or website or both that is maintained somewhat regularly. Meals will be provided except dinner which will be dutch treat.
This event is free to the participants who stay overnight at the Hyatt Regency Greenville. The room rate is $99. If you do not stay at the Hyatt, the cost is $135. There will be no refunds. You will be required to forward your reservation confirmation for the Hyatt Regency Greenville to wanda@sibaweb.com to receive a special discount coupon and avoid the $135 summit registration fee.
You must pre-register by Jan. 1, 2010, Limited to the first 150 people. Every participant is invited to bring promotional materials, products, brochures, or other materials that they would like to share with other participants. Take this opportunity to increase your visibility across the south. We are all in this together.
Motivation and strategy:
The arts & humanities have made strides in applying insights from their field to social networking, particularly those involving reaching their direct constituents. So far, however, it has had a minimal impact on what may be the most significant challenge: reaching the masses. This meeting brings together those from varied domains to brainstorm about policies and programs aimed at invigorating our social networking efforts. The main thrust of the meeting will be to brainstorm about practical solutions to specific problems that are impeding progress in dealing with the ever changing explosive opportunities in social networking. There will be four sessions (see below), each focusing on a different broad topic area. Each begin with a briefing by a domain expert who will provide background information about the topic and propose some concrete problems for the group to address. Brainstorming will then take the form of breakout group meetings followed by larger group presentations. The four topic areas are:
- How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, FourSquare, CloudProfile and so many more…
- What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work?
- What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets?
- Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders?
Schedule (subject to adjustments)
Day 1, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
- 9:00-10:00 Breakfast (please come and meet the other participants)
- 10:00–11:00 Welcome and Presentation on Motivation & Strategy for Successful Social Networking with business guru and wine guy Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It! http://garyvaynerchuk.com/
- 11:00-11:30 Break & Book Signing with Gary Vaynerchuk & David Allen
- 11:30-12:30 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: How to make time for all the social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Glue, Google, Delicious, Wet Paint, Net Galley, Author Buzz, Library Thing, Squidoo, and so many more with the world’s leading authority on personal and organizational productivity David Allen, author of Making It All Work, Getting Things Done, and Ready for Anything. http://www.davidco.com/
- 12:30-1:00 Break & Booksigning with David Allen
- 1:00 -2:00 Breakout group brainstorming (over lunch)
- 2:00 -2:30 Breakout group reports
- 2:30-3:00 Break
- 3:00-4:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What’s on-line that will feed my work? What’s free and how do I get it? Marketing Partnerships and how to make them work with social media marketing & viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book. http://danzarrella.com/
- 4:00-4:30 Break & Book Signing with Dan Zarrella
- 4:30-5:30 Breakout group brainstorming
- 5:30-6:30 Breakout group reports
- Dinner 7:00 Table 301 Family of Restaurants (Dutch Treat with a 20% discount to all)
Day 2, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010
- 8:00-9:00 Breakfast
- 9:00-10:00 Introduction and questions for brainstorming: What does the research tell us? What trends are coming down the pipe? And how do we manage it all with small staffs and smaller budgets? Expert to be named soon.
- 10:00-11:00 Breakout group brainstorming
- 11:00-12:00 Breakout group reports
- 12:00-1:10 Lunch to include SIBA presentation
- 1:10-2:10 Introduction and discussion: Increasing the effectiveness of our combined efforts. How do we move the conversation from insiders to outsiders? Expert to be named soon.
- 2:10-3:00 Group discussion and closing reflections
Twitter Summary:
Southern Social Networking Summit #ssns: Greenville, SC Jan w/Gary Vaynerchuk, David Allen, Dan Zarrella- http://www.sibaweb.com/ssns
“I will never again suggest that SIBA exhibits go to one day.”
Posted by Wanda in SIBA Trade Shows on October 21, 2009
Note the Eat, Sleep, Read bags - Thank YOU Simon & Schuster
First, I had someone from a very large publisher tell me at the end of the show on Sunday that he would “never again suggest that SIBA exhibits should go to one day”. I’d love it if he’d step forward and identify himself in the comments section of this blog. SIBA was rockin’ and rollin’ and whatnot all morning on Sunday. I watched sales reps surreptitously (and in some cases, not at all) try to pack up and booksellers were still there trying to place orders, learn about new books and programs and on and on. It was quite amazing, even to me.
Second, in our survey of booksellers who attended the trade show, among all of the things that happen at SIBA, the exhibits were far and away the most valuable and most well-attended by a margin of 45%. The next favorite events at SIBA are the various meal functions starting this year with the SIBA Supper and the Southern Writers Lunch tying for most popular.
Cowboy Mike and many others support SIBA year after year. Thank YOU!
The other high traffic popular events that competed for the top draws were the Baker & Taylor Bookseller Lounge, ABA’s Social Media and the Independent Bookseller, Writing the South Author Panel, both SignArounds, The Anatomy of Spectacular Author Events, The Taste of HarperCollins Breakfast, The Writer’s Block Auction, The Hyperion Breakfast, The All-STARS Autograph Area, and Ingram’s The Moveable Feast of Author. And one bookseller referenced “the cool Bookazine neckwear” as the item they found absolutely necessary to a successful SIBA.
The Storytelling Stage & Chefs Corner were new this year and a big hit with booksellers.
SIBA Holiday Catalog Consumer Survey Results to Date
Posted by Wanda in Uncategorized on January 17, 2008
Holiday Survey Results as of 1/17/2008 – we had 728 consumers respond to the survey placed in the Winter Holiday Catalog…that is a nearly 6% return rate
70% (down 3% from last year) of consumers say that the make a distinction between local retailers and corporate chains when making buying decisions.
41% (up 5% from last year) of consumers knew that local retailers contributed up to three times more revenue to their communities than corporate chains.
A whopping 89% (up 2% from last year) claimed that knowing that local retailers contributed more to their communities would influence their buying decisions.
Nearly 20% of the consumers who claimed to make no distinction between local retailers and corporate chains then indicated that the information that local retailers contribute up to three times more revenue than their corporate counterparts would indeed influence their buying decisions. While only 8% (down 2% from last year) had visited the Authors ‘Round The South site, 80% (same as last year) of consumers indicated they would visit the ARTS site in the future…
Lady Banks Bookshelf
