Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

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Home Run Food Fun

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

We have three new books on our shelves that will set you on an exploration of your home kitchen like never before. Save time and money by investing more in family and friends with Teen Cuisine and DIY Cocktails, turning your home into a playground of unforgettable experiences. At the same time, discover a revolutionary doable diet that encourages healthy wholesome foods without the restriction of those sinfully delectable delights in Carrots ‘N’ Cake. Together, these books will help you celebrate food, family, friends, and yourself without having to call for the check.

Teen Cuisine by Matthew Locricchio

Whether you’re a first-time or seasoned chef, you can prepare and take pride in the more than 50 mouthwatering recipes in this book for all times of day.

Here are just a few examples:

  • Sunrise Muffins
  • Grits and Cheddar Cheese Souffle
  • Pizza from California, Chicago, and New York
  • 4th of July Shortcake

And there are so many more flavorful dishes!  All the recipes feature organic ingredients and foods that are available in supermarkets from coast to coast.  No recipe is too hard for the beginning cook.  Just follow the step-by-step directions and enjoy making your favorite dishes from scratch.

With stunning photography by award-winner James Peterson, this one-of-a-kinda book will provide a show-stopping culinary experience!

Teen Cuisine from Marshall Cavendish Corp is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

DIY Cocktails: A Simple Guide to Creating Your Own Signature Drinks by Marcia Simmons and Jonas Halpern

Black Rose, Blood Orange Tequila and Soda, Kentucky Apple Sour: the newest trend in cocktails is creating your own! Now, the editors of DrinkoftheWeek.com have concocted the only guide that teaches you to create your own infallible thirst-quenchers. Using a simple system of basic ratios, you will learn to:

  • Mix new flavor combinations for the perfect new blend using the Flavor Profile Chart as a guide
  • Master advanced mixology techniques from infusing liquors at home to creating custom-flavored syrups
  • Serve the perfect drink every time, whether it kicks off a rowdy party or winds down a romantic evening!

With only ten ratios to master, you’ll shake, stir, roll, and build literally thousands of unique and exceptional cocktails. All you need is a good thirst, an active imagination — and DIY Cocktails!

DIY Cocktails: A Simple Guide to Creating Your Own Signature Drinks from Adams Media is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Carrots ‘N’ Cake: Healthy Living One Carrot and Cupcake At A Time by Tina Haupert

Let them eat cake! From one of the most popular blogs on the internet comes an innovative, even fun way to diet. Carrots ‘N’ Cake is all about eating your carrots. . .and savoring your cupcake, too.

For some people, losing weight means restrictive dieting, obsessive calorie counting, and constant hunger. Not Tina Haupert! She learned that it didn’t have to be that way. Tina shows how to drop the pounds and keep them off by adopting eating habits that are healthy, balanced, and above all, livable. She serves up easy-to-follow fitness routines, food tips, and her most popular feature: cookie Friday.

TINA TELLS HOW TO:

  • Hang with your friends on a Friday night without packing on the alcohol pounds
  • Navigate buffet tables at parties
  • Handle the holidays painlessly.
  • And more!

Carrots ‘N’ Cake: Healthy Living One Carrot and Cupcake At A Time from Sterling is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Developing Your Digital Marketing Blueprint

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

by Fauzia Burke

Here are seven steps to developing a digital marketing blueprint. Many people skip the first four, but these first few steps are the crucial difference between success and failure. I have also uploaded slide presentations to help you along.

  1. Assess Your Situation – This first step is perhaps the most important. Before you can commit to doing more digital marketing, you need to know what’s working and what’s not. Take a snapshot of where you stand. Think of the following questions: how well is my website working for my goals? Do I have email addresses of my customers? How many fans or followers do I have on Facebook or Twitter?When you are assessing your website, look over the traffic numbers. How many people come to your site, which pages do they visit, how do they find you, and how long to they stay? These answers should give you an idea about the effectiveness of your site. If nobody is staying on your website for more than a few seconds, then something needs to be changed.Another element of assessing your situation requires an honest assessment of your resources. How much time, knowledge, technology or money do you have to devote to digital marketing? If you don’t have a lot of time you might need to hire somebody. If you don’t have a lot of money you might have to set aside some extra time to do this work on your on.
  2. Know Your Customers – Understanding your target audience will help you devise the best digital marketing strategy for you. Digital marketing is customized and personalized so it is essential for you to know your customers so you can serve them best. Learn about their age group, their gender, their industries. It’s also important to know the tech savviness of your customers.
  3. Designate a Storyteller – For any digital marketing strategy to be effective you need a designated storyteller, marketer, brand evangelist. If you skip this step, your digital marketing strategy will not be sustainable.
  4. Set Goals and Timelines – Without setting realistic goals and timelines you will not know when you are achieving success and when you are missing the mark. Some realistic goals are: improve your website; build a mailing list; start a fan page on Facebook or get more fans on Facebook; start making videos and getting them distributed; start writing a blog, or syndicate your blog; look into twitter or grow your followers.
  5. Implementing Digital Marketing – Once you’ve taken the first 4 steps you digital marketing strategy will become much more obvious to you. Then you can start implementation a plan. I find a lot of people jumping from new thing to new thing without really setting goals or having assessed their situations. In my opinion, the six essential elements of digital marketing are: website, enewsletter, blog, Facebook, video and Twitter. For more details on these elements you can read my blog on 6 Elements for Digital Marketing.
  6. Monitor Your Progress – Although a lot has changed in marketing in the last few years, the most exciting change is the availability of free monitoring tools. You can set up email alerts for your name on either Google or Bing, and use Google Analytics for analyzing your website traffic. If you set up a fan page on Facebook, you can use Insights to gain valuable information. My favorite tool for monitoring Twitter is still TweetReach.
  7. Be Flexible – Digital marketing is new to everybody and we’re all trying things out. It’s important that you just keep an open mind and experiment. Experiment with your time, and experiment with your money. If you succeed learn from it and try it again. If you fail, just smile. Take a deep breath, and try something else.

Digital marketing is a very innovative field right now and everybody is trying different things in different combinations. You just have to find the right combination for you and your customers.

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Making It In America

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

What does it take to make it in America? There are so many business, economic, social, and cultural conditions to consider and arguments to be settled to know where to even begin. But the following books will get you on the path to understanding what makes this nation tick and who’s tugging at what ropes so that you can decide for yourself how you’re going to live within one of the most colorful nations in the world.

Divinity of Doubt: The God Question by Vincent Bugliosi

Vincent Bugliosi, whom many view as the nation’s foremost prosecutor, has successfully taken on, in court or on the pages of his books, the most notorious murderers of the last half century – Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Destined to be a classic, Bugliosi’s Divinity of Doubt sets a new course amid the explosion of bestselling books on atheism and theism – the middle path of agnosticism.  In recognizing the limits of what we know, Bugliosi demonstrates that agnosticism is the most intelligent and responsible position to take the eternal question of God’s existence.

Divinity of Doubt from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Where Does the Money Go? Rev Ed: Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson

Now revised and updated to include current predictions about the effects of the Great Recession and President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, this guide to deciphering the jargon of the country’s budget problem covers everything from the country’s $12 trillion and growing debt to the fact that, for 31 out of the last 35 years, the country has spent more on government programs and services than it has collected in taxes. It also explores why elected leaders on every side of the fence have so far failed to effectively address this issue and explains what you can do to protect YOUR future.

Where Does the Money Go? Revised Edition from Harper is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking In Your Organization by Daniel Forrester

There’s an intangible and invisible marketplace within our lives today where the products traded are four fold: attention, distraction, data and meaning. The stories and examples within Consider demonstrate that the best decisions, insights, ideas and outcomes result when we take sufficient time to think and reflect. Including interviews with leaders such as General David Petraeus, attorney Brooksley Born and global investor Kyle Bass, Daniel Forrester shows us that taking time and giving ourselves the mental space for reflection can mean the difference between total success and total failure.

Consider from Palgrave Macmillan is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst by Vikram Mansharamani

With the increased complexity and volatility surrounding financial bubbles, we need a more effective way to spot and understand these events. Based on his popular seminar at Yale University, Boombustology presents Vikram Mansharamani’s multi-lens framework for evaluating the extremely elaborate social phenomenon of financial market booms and busts.

The framework found within these pages offers a robust understanding of the dynamics that precede, fuel, and ultimately reverse financial market extremes. Regardless of your economic or financial background, Boombustology will put you in a better position to spot financial bubbles before they burst.

Boombustology from Wiley is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

What Could Happen If You Do Nothing? A Manager’s Handbook for Coaching Conversations by Jane Murphy

“What could happen if you do nothing?” offers managers clear, usable tools to enhance the way they listen and engage their people. Mini-dialogues, sample questions, listening tips, and suggestions use familiar situations to show how to transform business challenges into coaching opportunities. This is an essential resource for developing employees to their full potential and for fostering better working relationships for individuals, teams, and the business itself.

What Could Happen If You Do Nothing? from Giraffe Business Publishing is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Social Networking Importance

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

By Fauzia Burke

We recently posted a Twitter basics blog post that covered the fundamental parts of tweeting that many beginners find confusing. Well, the response has been quite positive and a few of our clients have expressed an interest in knowing whether or not social networking was really worth the extra effort for authors. The overall answer is yes. We’re getting to a point today where authors are thought to be behind the curve if social media tools are not being equipped. Does that mean it’s too late for those who haven’t taken their campaigns online? To that we say no. And to help those who have not adopted social media skills yet, we have decided to share why an online outreach is so important.

The Importance of Social Networking

Social media has given us great ways to protect and build our digital reputations. Today we have the ease of searching conversations, the ability to set alerts to help us monitor our names, the constant availability of learning opportunities and more ways to communicate and interact with others. All of these tools, which were not available just a few years ago, now make it possible for us to be proactive in maintaining, building and protecting your personal brand and help spread word-of-mouth about our books.

Here is also an inspiring video about the importance of social networking.

Developing a personal brand takes time, but the good news is that the tools are free and you already have the expertise in your field. Social media now allows you to share your knowledge and build a following. Once you “know” your readers you’ll have a lot more control over your career and will be able to promote not just your books but also your apps, conferences, videos, webinars, websites and more. Your personal brand will make you more valuable to your publisher and agent as well.

Some Resources

How to Create Your Social Media Presence
How To Make Your Personal Brand Visible With Social Media
5 Easy Ways to Build Your Digital Reputation
10 Golden Rules of Social Media

FSB also provides clients with regular updates on social media. We recommend that you sign up for our newsletter, visit our blog and follow the tweets on two handles that provide resources and tips for digital marketing.

Newsletter: http://www.fsbassociates.com/company_newsletters.php

Blog: http://www.fsbassociates.com/blog/
HuffPo Blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fauzia-burke

Twitter: http://twitter.com/FSBAssociates / http://twitter.com/websnapshot

Facebook

Do I need to be on Facebook? Quick answer is yes. Facebook has 500 million users worldwide. Together they are creating a community of savvy consumers, connecting with friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances to share advice, information and yes, recommendations. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month.

People on Facebook read books and tell their friends and colleagues about books. Engaging on Facebook also allows you to be closer to your fans and prospective readers.

Instructions are provided at the end of this post.

You may want to start by watching this video on Howcast to get oriented and get step-by-step instructions.

An excellent place to start is the Mashable Facebook Guide.

For general questions and step-by-step instruction, please visit Facebook’s help center.

Some Resources

5 Things That Don’t Work on Facebook Pages (and 5 That Do) by Aliza Sherman
Facebook 101 Business Guide on Social Media Examiner by Mari Smith

Everyone on the FSB staff is available on Facebook and you can find us all there. You can also “like” the FSB Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/FSBAssociates

Twitter

If you are hesitant to join Twitter, you are not alone. However, we want to encourage you to give it a shot. Set up an account, follow some people and learn some things. People on Twitter are very generous with their time and knowledge. Yes, you will spend time on Twitter that you already don’t have, but you will also learn things that will make you more valuable, smarter and “in the know.”

Even if you don’t plan to be very active, it is important to get a handle and follow others. It is also a good way for your publisher and friends to discuss your book by referencing you. You can use Twitter to provide links to your blog posts, media events and reviews. However, no one enjoys a 24/7 advertisement. A good rule of thumb is to have a 4 to 1 ratio for self promotion. One self-promotional tweet to 4 that will help others or engaging in the community through reply or retweet.

The best advice is to spend time just observing and seeing what others are doing before posting much yourself. There are people you already follow (favorite authors, must-read columnists, magazines, newspapers, influential friends) and now you can follow them on Twitter.

Some Resources

Best first step is to watch this video for starting with Twitter

Twitter Tweet Anatomy
Twitter 101: Tips to Get You Started
Twitter for Business by Twitter
Learn the Lingo
5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence by Problogger
A Personal Branding Checklist for Twitter by Social Media Today
Twitter Hashtags by Marketing at About.com
8 Ways To Find Relevant Followers On Twitter by Small Business Trends

Together we have 14 Twitter feeds here at FSB. You can find and follow us here:

http://twitter.com/list/Ishii_Ken/in-house

www.fsbassociates.com
Web Marketing . Social Publicity . Online Branding . Consulting

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FeatureMe2 Website Reviews: FSB Media

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

by Ken Ishii

Recall the short story “The Elves and the Shoemaker” by the Grimm Brothers about a shoemaker who went to bed expecting to work hard in the morning and woke to find his job had been miraculously and masterfully completed by a pair of spirited supporters.

The bunch of us here at FSB work hard for our clients, but we also put great effort into letting others know what our mission is and hope to get noticed for the services we provide.  But yesterday we had our own “shoemaker” moment when in our Twitter stream we caught a tweet from the fine folks at the FeatureMe2 blog about a review of FSB.  Unbeknownst to us, FeatureMe2 had written a thorough review of one of our websites, FSB Media, and featured it on their blog.  It was a surprising and terrific discovery that let us know how many of our authors feel when they see their hard work recognized in front of millions on the web.

We would like to thank Kay and Mike from FeatureMe2 for taking the time to review our company, website, and services when their list of priorities is already so long. We’re proud to feature the review below and look forward to answering any questions from the comments section.

For honest, thoughtful and balanced reviews of books, games, movies, software, TV shows, and websites, we hope you turn to FeatureMe2 as they have both the expertise and experience of running an outstanding review site.

The following is a review of FSB Media from FeatureMe2 Website Reviews posted on February 15, 2011 by Mike@featureme2.com. For more reviews on the latest media on or offline, visit featureme2.com.

FSB Media will be of interest to many of you bloggers out there like myself who not only have a love for reading great books but also enjoy discussing or reviewing them as content on your blogs.

FSB Media is an arm of FSB Associates, one of the most talented Book Promotions companies in the business. How FSB Associates was founded and grew into the company it is today is a great story but one perhaps better saved for another day. My interest in this website review is to bring book bloggers a fabulous source for possible content.

FSB Media provides the book blogger with free content from published authors and publishers that helps publicize their book. Their client list is a very long and prominent one so no matter what genre you’re blogging about you are sure to find something that interests you at FSB Media.

Having great content to work with is a blogger’s dream and FSB Media comes through in flying colors. You will not be disappointed in the selections available to you as a book blogger or reviewer. You may be thinking that there is some gimmick here or something you will end up being asked to purchase. Simply put, FSB Media is a business and like any other business they have a duty to their clients (authors) to place books in the most appropriate places on the web. So the only catch here is that you need not apply if you’re running a spam site, link farm or if your site has nothing to do with book reviews/discussion.

Also you need to understand that some books you request may be deemed not suitable for your site. This would have nothing to do with your talents as a writer or reviewer but the audience you cater to. For example if your blog is about tractor pulls and speed racing how many of your readers do you think would be interested in the latest release of a book on ladies fashion?

Ok so you pass the test you say. You love books, you love blogging, you have a great looking site with an excellent readership, and getting a free book now and then to write about sounds like a gift from heaven. So what is the next step?

Use the “Click Here to Visit Site” button located in this review and visit FSB Media. Spend some time there learning what they do and how they do it. Get to know some of the authors by reading their bio’s on the Authors pages. Then contact FSB Media with some details about you and your site and explain why your site would be a good fit for their program.

Once accepted you are in for another wonderful surprise….the helpful service you get from the staff!

Leyane Jerejian, Anna Suknov and Julie Harabedian work very hard to liaise with bloggers and ensure your start with FSB Media is a great one! My wife Kay has reviewed books from FSB Media for a couple of years now and she has yet to need assistance that was not provided in a fast, efficient and friendly manner. It really is like you become part of the FSB Media family once you start blogging about the authors and books they make available to you. The staff are a real pleasure to deal with and their enthusiasm for their work shines through.

Now to be honest it is a give and take situation. FSB Media provides you with the latest content by well known and bestselling authors, as well as the new author just getting that first publication date. In return you as a professional writer/reviewer are expected to give each book you select the best possible open and honest review you can. This is the magic that makes FSB Media such a delight to work with.

Use the red button located at the top of this review and take a little nosey around their site. Meet some of the authors that you may soon be writing about, then contact FSB Media if you feel you’d be a good fit. Their standards are high. Who knows, you may be a perfect match!

FSB Media Connects Bloggers With Books!

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Twitter Tweet Anatomy

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

by Ken Ishii

For authors, Twitter is an incredible platform for promoting not only your book(s), but publicizing you – as an author, as an expert, as a person.  Twitter gets compared to Facebook and texting when, really, it’s a social networking platform unlike anything out there.

There are millions of people on Facebook and it’s the top social networking service for good reason.  Using Facebook is a great way to connect with friends, family, and people that have decided to “like” you.  But if you’re looking for new users to introduce your book to, it can take a great deal of time and effort to get outsiders to visit and interact on your page.

Using Facebook is arguably becoming one of the most time consuming activities in the US that many simply can’t afford.  Some would rather email or text each other.  A bit too direct for most marketing campaigns to be successful.

Twitter combines the economy of texting with the networking power of Facebook to create something too fast and far reaching to ignore.  Getting started is as easy as signing up on the Twitter website.  Enhancing your experience and finding marketing success, however, is a whole other game.  We collected several resources that will help you get engaged with the millions of people that are having just as many conversations every second of the day.  Fauzia Burke has an article, Twitter 101: Tips to Get You Started, on The Huffington Post that will get you up and running so you don’t end up spending time wondering what retweets or hashtags are.  What the heck is a Bit.ly anyway?  You’ll find out soon enough.

One of the difficulties I notice people having even after reading a tutorial is getting used to the endless streams of confusing text racing back and forth between users.  To that, I say there’s nothing like hands-on experience.  But for now, I’ve put the brakes on a few tweets for you to examine at your own pace.  Bonus!  Click on the messages with links to go to the articles that are mentioned in the tweets below!

Twitter’s 140 character limit may be the very reason for its success.  It forces conversations to get straight to the point.  With this limitation, though, you’ll find users getting creative with their tweets using abbreviations and compressing text.  While an entire list is hardly practical, it is good to know some of the basics and we have them listed below to help decode the tweet-speak.

Going forward you’ll probably be interested in employing Twitter to help promote your book.  Twitter Power by Joel Comm will show you how to use Twitter for marketing purposes which will help build awareness for your book and strengthen your personal brand.  See the video below for more information.

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Looking for Balance in a 24/7 World

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

By Fauzia Burke

It is not uncommon for me to get business e-mails at 6:30 a.m. or 12:00 midnight. Until recently, it was also not uncommon for me to answer them. However, this year for my birthday I’ve decided to give myself the gift of balance.

We live in a culture of 24/7 work and it has become normal to many of us. We have raised the expectation of availability to a point that is unhealthy. Recently, a potential client wrote to me on a Saturday, then wrote back on Sunday wondering why I had not e-mailed him back. Another prospective client emailed me at 10:30 on a weeknight and by 8:30 the next morning had written again, a little frustrated, asking for a response. Another person asked to talk to me on a Saturday, and when I informed her that I don’t work on the weekends, she was irritated.

I realized that by trying to always play catch up and accommodate the 24/7 expectations, I was feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and unbalanced. To get some solutions, I turned to an author who has written a book on the challenges we face at work today. I asked Tony Schwartz, author of “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working,” how to handle the 24/7 expectations. He said, “We can’t control the expectations of others, but we can seek to manage them. Above all, it makes sense to try to invest your energy in what you have the power to influence.”

What I am discovering is that living on this crazy cycle is a choice, being “open” 24/7 is a choice. We ourselves have set up these expectations. Everyone I know seems to be tired and overwhelmed because we are trying to stay ahead of the information overload.

And we are not alone. According to Daniel Patrick Forrester, a client and author of “Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking In Your Organization,” “25 percent of our workdays are spent immersed in information overload.” I asked him for some advice on how to tackle all of the information coming at us.

Information abounds and will forever compound as the world further connects. What we all can do is to force time into our habits and routines to simply think and value reflection as much as we value responding to the onslaught of data that will forever pour over us.

We are taking no time to think, to consider, to plan or to dream. All we are doing is trying to stay ahead of e-mails, Tweets, DM, status updates, LinkedIn invitations and more.

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog called Lost in a Digital World which was retweeted 952 times within 24 hours. He recommends that we turn off the noise and turn on the productivity.

One of the biggest disadvantages of technology is the lack of “thinking time.” Forrester tells us that the reason we have so little time to think is because, “our habitual use of technology and bias for immediacy and rapid response has contributed to fragmenting our attention across many issues at the cost of allowing deep exploration around any one issue.”

Many of us depend on multitasking as the only way to get everything done. However, there is a cost to all this multitasking, I worry that we are doing nothing to the best of our abilities. Schwartz talks about the myth of multitasking: “The brain can’t do cognitive tasks at the same time, so you end up dividing attention between them, as your brain switches back and forth. The result is that you do an injustice to everything, and everyone your splitting time between. We’re sequential beings, not simultaneous. One thing at a time: it’s been around as a basic principle since the dawn of time!”

In the last six months, I have made some small changes in my life. Twice I took two weeks off completely unplugged. To tell you the truth it takes a few days to find a rhythm, a few days to remember how to “be” without the noise, but after that it is blissful. And you know what? The world did not stop, nor did anyone miss me. I just slipped in and out of the river of digital information with no consequences. I found that when I returned I had better ideas, more energy and fully formed thoughts. This year I plan to take more steps for creating balance in my life. Like anything else it’s a choice and like anything new it will take some practice.

Why not join me? I say to my fellow workers, set some office hours and stick to them, take back your lunch hours and unplug during dinners, family times and vacations. We deserve our own time and even more importantly our own attention.

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Balancing New Books

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

We’re nearing the end of the month, but there’s no slowing down for the crew here at FSB.  Our third week into the new year brings us four new projects that are spread across a range of topics including books in fiction thriller, health, adventure memoir, and business management.  Whether we’re getting wiser, healthier, laughing, crying, or gripping the edge of our seats, we’re sure to enjoy this busy balancing act.

From New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich, comes Rock Bottom, a debut thriller and first in a series of novels that introduces one of the most fascinating and memorable characters in suspense fiction. In Rock Bottom, Erin Brockovich combines passionate intensity, first-rate story-telling, and her real-life experiences in a novel that will leave you breathless. Rock Bottom from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

If you’re one of the 13 million Americans who have survived a heart attack or been diagnosed with heart disease, Dr. Janet Bond Brill offers a delicious and foolproof plan that can lower your risk of a second heart attack by up to 70 percent.  Inspired by the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, the Prevent a Second Heart Attack Plan is based on satisfaction, rather than deprivation. Prevent a Second Heart Attack: 8 Foods, 8 Weeks to Reversing Heart Disease from Crown/Three Rivers Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For Conor Grennan, what began as a footloose adventure volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home in war-torn Nepal becomes a commitment to reunite children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war.

Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.  Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal from William Morrow is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

What Could Happen if You Do Nothing? offers managers clear, usable tools to enhance the way they listen and engage their people. Mini-dialogues, sample questions, listening tips, and suggestions use familiar situations to show how to transform business challenges into coaching opportunities. This is an essential resource for developing employees to their full potential and for fostering better working relationships for individuals, teams, and the business itself. What Could Happen If You Do Nothing? A Manager’s Handbook for Coaching Conversations from Giraffe Business Publishing is available on Amazon.

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Winter Hits

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Winter is here and the view out our windows is pristine as you can see from the picture of our office park.  Once we step into our office, though, things really start to heat up.  We’re just halfway through the first month of the new year and overjoyed with the traction our current campaigns are picking up.  Here’s a look at some of the big places around the web you’ll be able to see our recent projects.

Revealing the high-stakes drama behind the scenes of the hit television show American Idol comes a new book by veteran journalist Richard Rushfield, American Idol: The Untold Story.  On the heels of the book’s release, American Idol: The Untold Story has been creating quite a buzz in the media and we’re proud to have it featured on cnn.com, Can a reboot save ‘American Idol?’, villagevoice.com, American Idol Dish about Kara vs. Ellen, and collegecandy.com, The Top 10 American Idol Scandals.  American Idol: The Untold Story from Hyperion is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Simplicity isn’t about what you give up. It’s about what you gain.  That’s the focus behind Tsh Oxenreider’s book Organized Simplicity featuring simple outlines to organize your home and bring balance to your life.  Read her article, Learning value of stuff by moving overseas, on cnn.com for a lesson in cutting the clutter.  Organized Simplicity from Betterway Home is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Naked Fitness by Andrea Metcalf is not about working out in the nude.  It’s about stripping away all the clutter that stops you from getting your wonderful, beautiful body into the best shape possible.  And what better time to start building a new you than the new year?  We’re planning on seeing many start their plans after reading this article, Are You An Emotional Overeater? on mamapedia.com.  Naked Fitness from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

From the world’s leading authority on mind-body healing comes a revolutionary process for accessing the power of your true inner voice-the voice of wisdom, intuition, and the unconscious.  Dr. Brian Alman calls this voice TruSage in his book The Voice: Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Discover Your Inner Wisdom.  The author shares three steps on dealing with any physical or emotional challenge in an article, How to Find Your Inner Voice, on beliefnet.com.  The Voice: Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Discover Your Inner Wisdom from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Drowning in Oil by Loren Steffy is the first in-depth examination of how a lack of corporate responsibility and government oversight led to the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion; the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.  An in-depth review on seattlepi.com of the Houston Chronicle business reporter’s book will help readers discern the important issues this book presents from those in the general media that float on the surface.  Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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2010 Social Media Stats and Insight

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Happy New Year to everyone out there. Hope you had an enjoyable, safe and sound holiday with all your loved ones.

Now that “2K10” is set tidily in our past, a collection of social media reports and statistics detailing top trends from last year have surfaced to help anyone lost at digital sea get back on route to where the online action is. Now that there are over 300 social media services vying for your time, it’s wise to know where the pack is heading. Hopefully you’ll find the information below helpful when planning your social branding or marketing strategies from here and into the rest of the year.

Facebook

As reported by AddThis, a social sharing service, Facebook continues to lead the race with 44 percent of the total social networking service volume in 2010. That’s a growth of 33 percent from 2009.

Twitter

After examining over a billion tweets, social media monitoring company Sysomos revealed some interesting information about the service nearly everyone has heard of but has taken time to embrace.

The number of Twitter users with over 100 friends has tripled since 2009 which could say the platform is good at forming tight communities. Still, 2010 could be seen as the year of experimenting as 80 percent of all users have made fewer than 500 tweets and that 90 percent of all Twitter activity came from less than a quarter of all users. The company also states that more and more people are disclosing location, bio, and web information to Twitter profiles. Looks like these users have found a service they find valuable and worthwhile.

MySpace

With Facebook now a household term, it’s hard to believe that MySpace was once the most popular social networking site. ComScore, a web measurement firm, reports MySpace worldwide total unique visitors to be less than 13 percent of Facebook’s visitors. At the same time, AddThis shows a backward growth for MySpace of 20 percent. For marketers, it seems pretty clear where time investments are going to be cut.

Services Growth

As important as it is to recognize which services are hot and cold now, it’s crucial to track how these services are growing. AddThis has put together a chart that shows the rate at which the most well-known services are moving. Note that while Facebook is leading the pack, other services still have their eyes on the prize.

Whether you’re posting updates on Facebook, experimenting on Twitter, or transitioning from other services, being active with social media is essential to any branding or marketing campaign. We were glad to see authors embracing social media with roughly 50-70 percent of our clients on Twitter in the summer.  By the end of the year, 100 percent of the clients we represented in December had Twitter profiles they used to market their expertise and books. For 2011, the question is no longer whether you should participate, but rather how you’re going to connect with your online audience.

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