Much Ado About Marketing

Courtesy of Majickal Graphics

I like New Year’s resolutions and setting goals. On New Year’s Day, while my husband and I recover from the previous night’s festivities, we watch football and I open the new desk calendar. It has become my tradition to sit with this calendar and copy, from the old one, the birthdays and other important events I will need to remember during the brand new year. I enjoy looking at some of the interesting things that I did during the past year. Then, I close the calendar and put it on the shelf with all the others I have saved. I am sentimental and not a little superstitious. Those who know and love me have used the appellation “hoarder”, affectionately. Continue reading “Much Ado About Marketing”

Tutorial: Socl

Our Jim Devitt wrote an introductory post about a new social media platform called Socl. If you missed Jim’s post, you can read it here. Personally, I’m not crazy about any platform that only gives you options to sign in through other social media outlets. I don’t like giving apps access to my Facebook account. But that’s just me. Being a photographer, I figured this was a platform I should check out, so I sucked it up and signed up for Socl. You’re welcome.

Once you’ve given Socl permission to violate you, I mean access you, through Facebook or WindowsLive, you’re good to go. Now you should set up your profile. At the top of the screen, you’ll see the word “me.” Go ahead and click on that and it will bring you to the profile screen at left. Then, click on settings (pink arrow). Continue reading “Tutorial: Socl”

Is it Time to Get Socl?

It’s that time of year again! Snow is falling, shoppers are bustling and a new social media platform has surfaced.

Just what we needed, right?

Well, since it’s the holidays and you might have a little down time, here’s a new one for you to play with … Socl.

Pronounced social, this new platform allows you to express and share your ideas through collages of images, links, captions and videos. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Continue reading “Is it Time to Get Socl?”

You Asked For It–Building Your Platform

In my last post I talked about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and into a visible venue, someplace where your readers can see and meet you. There are so many different events where you, a published author, are seen as a rarity and even a bit of a celebrity. Here at Indies Unlimited many of us are published authors, and it is easy to forget how impressive this is to non-writers. Remind yourself every day that you have done something many people just dream about. Then, find those local events where you can strut your stuff.

Anyone who asks me about Pinterest will quickly realize that I am smitten. It is a brilliant concept based on the idea that one of the three founders is a prodigious collector. Pinning to your boards is like collecting in a virtual sense. I did research for this post in order to back-up my Pinterest obsession with solid facts and statistics so that you can understand why I spend any time on the site. I believe that time spent on Pinterest is an investment, and another creative way to build my marketing platform by branching out beyond the Facebook and LinkedIn groups I belong to.

Pinterest is now the third largest social media site behind Facebook and Twitter. It is, reportedly, 65% women and 35% men. This is a huge shift from January 2012 when it was over 90% women. I’ve found different numbers as to how many millions of pinners there are. Suffice it to say there are millions. And many of them are avid readers. Continue reading “You Asked For It–Building Your Platform”