The explosion of social media in the last few years has brought with it a whole slew of social media applications and tools designed to help publicists deliver and monitor better results. As I have written before, I think social media has been a huge help for publicity. However, choosing the tools is important in helping you save time and be effective. I’ve compiled a list of 12 tools that lighten the social media workload at FSB, and I hope you find them helpful as well.

Blog Searches:

Blogpulse: You can search for a URL, name or topic. I think it gives good results for a given topic, even though I’m not always crazy about the results. However, every now and then I find things here that are missed by Google or Google alerts.

Google Blog Search: This is the most thorough blog searching tool around. You can find blogs for any topic.

Technorati: This is a great site of blogs by topic and ranking. Very helpful.

Digital Presence Assessment and Management:

Addictomatic: This site is very helpful in gauging a digital footprint as it searches the web for latest news, blog posts, videos and images. A cool element is that you can customize the dashboard by simply dragging the boxes around.

Hootsuite: We use Hootsuite in the office and even pay for the pro version. I think it is an excellent program that we find more reliable than Tweetdeck. You can manage several accounts and schedule posts for Twitter and Facebook.

How Socialable: This site gives you an evaluation of your brand’s visibility. It’s not great for personal brands, but a good tool for big brands, like your company.

Klout: One of the most popular Twitter popularity tools, Klout measures influence rather than just followers.

Social Mention: This site allows you to search an author, company or topic across the Web. You can get results from 100 social media sites in one place. My favorite part is that it gives you sentiment (positive, neutral or negative) of the mentions all over the Web, along with top keywords and top hashtags. It’s handy.

TweetReach: This is one of my favorite sites. It allows you to search a topic, author, handle or name and see how many people were reached by those Tweets. You can also see who sent the Tweets and how many followers they have. Very helpful for publicists looking for influencers.

TwitterCounter: I love this site. It allows you to see the Twitter stats for any handle. You can see if the trend is for gaining followers or losing them. Also shows you how many Tweets are made everyday by any handle. Good for research and for monitoring the success of your company feeds.

Topic Search:

Google Trends: If you are working on a news topic, this is an excellent source as it gives you insights into the traffic and geographic visit patterns.

Twazzup: This site allows you to filter news from live Twitter content. It’s good to see trending topics and influencers for a given subject. Better for topic than an author’s name.

Having a social media platform for communicating is extremely important for the success of your publicity campaigns. The majority of the tools presented in this list can make communicating your messages on target and easy to manage/track. I invite you to choose the ones that help make your social media experience more productive and better still, enjoyable. Do you have a favorite tool not on this list?

For the latest on web publicity, social media news, and personal branding, follow Fauzia on Twitter: @FauziaBurke.

To celebrate 16 years of online publicity business, FSB founder and President, Fauzia Burke, has taken the company to the Javits Center in New York City to officially debut at this year’s BookExpo America 2011. Being a recognized vendor at BEA is a big deal for FSB as it allows the company to better inform the public about its services and how they fit into the ever-changing publishing world which is right now abuzz with digital technologies. The online component of book publicity has become an integral process of today’s successful branding and marketing campaigns and FSB is proud to be at the forefront of this movement. See Fauzia’s BEA digital marketing presentation online if you missed it at the show. You can also hear her discuss these trends in a special podcast presented by BEA.

Each day at the FSB Associates booth a different set of members from FSB’s team along with Fauzia and Vice President John Burke will be greeting attendees with an in-depth presentation on the latest trends in book publicity and personal branding. Keeping with the digital theme, the company’s social publicity brochure and valuable resources are presented on USB flash drives for participants to take with them for later reference. There’s even an Amazon Kindle up for grabs for those that enter FSB’s giveaway.

Midway through BEA, there have already been tons of celebrity sightings and friendly exchanges with the big movers and shakers that make the publishing world go round. The photos below capture a taste of the fun and excitement FSB has experienced so far. Catch more up-to-date happenings on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. Or better yet, come to booth #4304 and visit us in person if you’re in town!

Whether you attend or not, make sure to visit BookExpo America’s web site for information on the large number of programs and events taking place.

BookExpo America (BEA) is North America’s largest gathering of book trade professionals attracting an international audience. It is organized with the support of association partners including the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the American Booksellers Association (ABA).  BEA is recognized for the media attention it brings to upcoming books as well as for the notable authors it attracts to the convention itself.

With over 15 years of experience in online marketing, I can say without a doubt or any reservations, that developing a personal brand online is crucial to your success as an author.

Personal branding is new to all of us, but its importance is growing exponentially. So the question I get asked most is, “What’s in it for me? Why should I invest in building my brand online?” The most important element of a personal brand is that it helps you be yourself and stand out from the crowd. After all, there is no competition for you.

The essential elements of personal brand development include: web publicity, blogs, syndicating content for guest blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  The benefits of these activities increase considerably when conducted in a well-planned and cohesive manner. First, it is best to establish goals for developing your personal brand.

Two of the most important goals of Personal Brand Management are:

• To increase brand awareness through consistent social media interactions
• To increase credibility and establish expertise via web exposure

Developing your personal brand takes time, but the good news is that the tools are free and you already have the knowledge. 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 publishers and agents as well. In my opinion, personal brand management is today’s resume.

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, a constant availability of learning opportunities, as well as a myriad of ways to communicate and interact with others. All of these tools, which were nonexistent just a few years ago, now make it possible for us to be proactive in maintaining, building and protecting our good name.

Credibility — Web Publicity allows others to lend credibility to your work by posting reviews, interviews and mentions of your book on their site or blog.

Expertise — The benefit of a regular blog is that it allows you to show your expertise and share your knowledge. Four out of every ten Americans read blogs, according to a study by Synovate/MarketingDaily. This trend is increasing daily.

Syndication — Once you have a blog written, it is best to submit it on other sites such as The Huffington Post. If possible, you should also submit your articles to other blogs and sites for guest blogging opportunities. Each time your blog gets mentioned or posted, so does your name and the link to your website. Over time this is the best way to increase the Google ranking of your site.

Relationship Development – More than 500 million active users spend 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. It is no exaggeration to say that without a Facebook presence you are at a great disadvantage. Engaging with your readers will lead to higher book sales and career advancement.

Share Expertise — At first, Twitter may seem overwhelming and difficult to use, but as you spend time on the site you will likely discover the benefits of sharing resources and collaborating with others.

Networking — About 35 million people use LinkedIn. It is the most professional of social networks and essential for showcasing your professional experience, contacts and recommendations.

Show Yourself — The popularity of YouTube is growing hourly, currently it gets 2 billion views a day. Today, people are looking for an authentic connection with you. Posting a video of yourself allows potential fans and readers to learn more about you, your expertise and your passion.

Although social media engagement may not provide instant gratification, it should be viewed as an investment of time and money in your career and your future. I have experienced first-hand the benefits of personal branding, both for my clients and myself. I have witnessed the difference between launching a book for an author who has work to develop a strong personal brand, versus an author who did not invest any resources in building an online presence.

In the coming year, I urge you to devote some time to developing a plan that includes all of the aforementioned elements. Decide how much time you can devote to each aspect of building your brand and also where you will need to invest in receiving help from experts.

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!