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.

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

The weather may be cold outside, but book buzz surrounding our projects has been heating up the office. The publicists here are hard at work vying for precious exposure at a time when everyone is scampering for attention during the holiday shopping season. Perseverance has paid off, though, in the form of solid placements that have caught the attention of web viewers everywhere. Below you’ll find a sample of some of our recent favorite placements.

The Network is Your Customer by David Rogers

On The Huffington Post consultant and author David Rogers borrows from his book, The Network Is Your Customer, to share “Five Strategies for Business Growth in a World of Customer Networks.” This article represents important social media trends that are poised for greater action in 2011.  The Network is Your Customer from Yale University Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Now Build A Great Business! by Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy

Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy, the business dynamic-duo behind the book Now, Build A Great Business!, speak to a young generation of entrepreneurs with advice on team building in the article, “Being A Great Leader Means Not Doing It Alone,” on Under30CEO.com.  Now Build A Great Business! from AMACOM is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone

Those with celiac or on a gluten-free diet can shed worries over a lack of variety when they see the kind of spread author Silvana Nardone has to offer in her cookbook Cooking For Isaiah. Silvana Nardone and friends share an extravagant wheat-free feast while demonstrating what’s possible with a little kitchen ingenuity in the article, “Gluten-Free Potluck Dinner,” on ivillage.com.  Cooking For Isaiah from Reader’s Digest is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Nighttime Novelist by Joseph Bates

In The Nighttime Novelist, author Joseph Bates takes the labor out of writing for aspiring novelists by breaking fiction into small easily digestible sections and making the most out of daily time constraints. An article on suite101.com does an equal job by effectively outlining the contents of Joseph Bates’ book in, “The Nighttime Novelist is a Succinct Guide for Part Time Writers.”  The Nighttime Novelist from Writers Digest is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

ZooBorns by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

Authors Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland, who have compiled a high-resolution collection of irresistible photos of newborn animals in their book ZooBorns, share the joy of nature’s precious creatures on pawnation.com in the article “Zoo Babies From Around the World.”  This book is sure to be a hit for the holiday season.  ZooBorns from Simon & Schuster is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

John Lennon: Life is What Happens by John M. Borack

John Lennon’s monumental contribution to music and society is easily seen through the  wealth of attention the late Beatles member received this month surrounding the anniversary of his death on December 8th. For John Borack’s book, John Lennon: Life is What Happens, we created a slideshow presentation that eventually was chosen as a feature slide presentation by Slideshare.net on their “Books” page.

While we were able to secure coverage on multiple websites for John Borack’s tribute book, the article “Bros Before Hos: Lessons From John Lennon” on AskMen.com stands out for its connotation of equality. Despite his superstar status and advocacy for peace and freedom, John Lennon was not pardoned from the bitter laws of romantic relationships.  And that makes him closer to us all.  John Lennon: Life Is What Happens from Krause Publications is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Dead Or Alive by Tom Clancy

The FSB Associates Web Site Development team continues to create and maintain a wide variety of Web sites for authors and publishers. One recent project that we’re particularly proud of is Tom Clancy’s website, www.tomclancy.com, which features excerpts from past titles such as The Hunt For Red October and a video book trailer for his newest novel in almost a decade, Dead Or Alive.  Dead Or Alive from Penguin Group is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.