Dictionary BANNED in L.A. Elementary School

Miriam-Webster Dictionary banned in L.A. elementary school!!! Yes, I said DICTIONARY!
 



And you can read more about it here.
 

Facebook Fan Page Benefits

Of all the email I receive about Facebook, no other topic results in more confusion than Fan Pages.

Fan Pages have several huge advantages:

--Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends. But you can have an unlimited number of Fans. Remember, your profile has friends. Your Pages have Fans.

--Fan Pages are the only place on Facebook where you can actively promote. If you're caught promoting from the status update on your profile page, Facebook can close your account.

--Fan Pages drive traffic because Google indexes them.

--Customers can interact with you, even if they do not have their own profile pages on Facebook. They can leave testimonials, ask questions about your products, offer suggestions for other products and services, and give you valuable feedback that doesn't cost you a penny.

--You can communicate with your fans many different ways: through articles, tips, videos and photos.

--Your Fans can recommend your Fan Pages to their friends.

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a Press Release."

McGraw-Hill Starts Selling Chapters

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 2/22/2010 10:59:49 AM

Another publisher has entered the chapter-selling business. McGraw-Hill professional announced this morning that it has begun selling chapters from a variety of its books in a program it is calling Select: eChapters in an Instant. Select's collection contains more than 750 chapters pulled from MHP's business and investing and business process management (Six Sigma) categories. MHP will be sell the chapters through a variety of e-reading devices including the Kindle, Nook, and iPhone, as well as other vehicles serving libraries and institutional markets, and can also be purchased at MHP's site: www.mhprofessional.com/echapters.

 The move to e-chapters "gives us more depth in the digital distribution area," noted Philip Ruppel, president of MHP, who noted that MHP has been selling e-books and other digital products for a number of years. The chapters are priced between $6.95 and $9.95. Ruppel views the e-chapter price as extremely fair, observing that the content is expensive to compile and is aimed at a target audience that is willing to pay for critical information that may give them a competitive advantage. Among the works from which the chapters are drawn are Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, When Markets Collide by Mohamed El-Erian, The Six Sigma Way by Peter Pande, Robert P. Neuman, and Roland R. Cavanagh, and Lean Six Sigma by Michael George. Ruppel said MHP is considering offering e-chapters in some of its other areas, such as engineering and architecture.

NPR 3-Minute Story Contest: Deadline February 28!

Click here for the NPR 3-Minute Story Contest: Deadline rules. Three minutes is about 600 words. Deadline is February 28 so warm up your keyboard (or pen) and start writin'!

What We're Reading

Check out "What We're Reading" from NPR

7 Keys to Developing Your Social Media Strategy

1. Define your outcome – This is the most important aspect of your social media strategy.  What are you trying to achieve?  What is your ideal outcome -- Sales? Lead generation? Promotions? Branding? Buzz? Corporate brands use social media as part of their larger strategic initiatives for reputation management, product launches, and customer engagement tools.  Those methods apply to personal branding as well because social media is a cost-effective marketing and PR vehicle in comparison to the traditional media marketing.

2. Focus on your audience’s needs - If you want to sell a product such as a book across social media, you must focus on your audience: solve their problems, add value by providing free, helpful advice (NOT something anyone can just copy and paste from a source like a blog).   For example, instead of relaying mainstream news, focus on syndicating news gear towards a specific niche area so you become the go-to source for it.  Better yet, compile the content and provide your own insight so you act as a filter for your audience.

3. Implement measurable ROI – This is somewhat abstract because social media is still a relatively new medium, so the best solution is to gauge the time spent versus the result you are able to measure such as inbound traffic, clickthroughs, impressions, comments, fans, followers, subscribers. Ask prospects how they find you. You may be surprised to find what people are saying about your brand (and you) and how effective your marketing is.

4. Participate in discussion groups – If you have something valuable to offer, people should know.  Joining discussions and participate in forums will bring you opportunities to brand yourself and create awareness in the form of constructive promotion. Knowledge transfer in social media is very powerful especially given as freebies. It creates reciprocation from the recipient who will want to return the favor in the form of purchasing your product or endorsing your brand.

5. Get in front of the right people – High profile people -- i.e., key opinion leaders in your niche area, give you a great boost of traffic. Get in touch with them and do something for them first.  Contribute to their cause and the reciprocation factor will work on them as well.  Instead of asking for endorsements, participate in their discussion groups, leave comments on their blog, send them useful information, and interact with their channel to gain visibility.  Building the right relationships will also drive TheLong-Tail affect in which your brand impression will be distributed amongst high profile people’s fans in significant numbers.

 

6. Blend online and offline social networking - Offline networking is one of the most overlooked  networking tools.  Offline networking can add more fuel to the fire especially when people aren’t able to hide behind their user name, emails or avatars.  There is nothing quite like a face-to-face conversation to get a nice dialogue started. Not only can you hear the voice of the other person but the body language, eye contact, and physical interaction in the same space makes you more “real” and believable.  Although it can be time consuming, offline networking is more powerful than 140 words in a tweet or a two liner comment in Facebook.  It also encourages word-of-mouth marketing which is by far the most effective marketing tool today. Attend conferences and tradeshows, take a training course, get together with other social networkers locally, start a MeetUp group or a monthly seminar.

7. Nurture relationships, build momentum – As you start to implement social media strategies, get feedback from your network.  You should stay true to yourself but also know what worked and what doesn’t; keep doing what works and find new ways to strengthen your relationship with your audience. Start your own discussion group, do an online survey, create joint ventures, exchange opportunities, and continue to provide free information are all ways to foster your social media relationships. 

Ideas for Selling Your Books

Focus your promoting on your market. Pitch people interested in your message. Don't annoy the rest. ~~ Dan Poynter's 15th Edition of The Self-Publishing Manual, www.parapublishing.com

Speaking is a "must" for today's author. Don't just think major cities - it's the little places that may be craving for your words. Creating a workshop or keynote talk that is centered on the topic of your book is one of the single best ways to move them. Recently returning from speaking in two weeks in remote villages of AK, over 500 copies were sold ... from Juneau to Nome. Residents were gracious and hungry for new faces and books. ~~Judith Briles, www.TheBookShepherd.com

Become a Guest Blogger! Expand your social media visibility by submitting occasional posts to blogs created by other experts serving your market. Your guest postings will introduce you to new prospects interested in your topic, many of whom may have never been to your site. At the same time, your host benefits by the new ideas and perspectives you bring to their blog, plus they'll like the day off from blogging. It's a win-win situation for both guest and host. Start by identifying, studying, and- -then- - contacting other blogs in your area and describing the types of topics you would like to blog about. Ask about their preferences, i.e., suggested length and find out whether or not the posts have to be originally written or can be based on posts that have previously appeared elsewhere. ~~ Book-Marketing Tips by Roger C. Parker

Marketing to Non-Bookstore Buyers or negatively. Although buyers read publishing industry reviews in Publishers Weekly, they are more likely to give credence to reviews and articles in specialty retail magazines such as Gourmet News or Home Center News. An article about "slow cooking" in Gourmet News might catch a buyer's eye. One buyer says, "then I know it's an important category and I will look for books on that subject." ~~ Brian Jud, www.bookmarketing.com