Using book-signing events to network with authors and writers is essential if, like us, you offer niche skills.

Here at the very end of 2011 the time is perfect for aspiring writers to launch their books within the digital arena.  

This tidal wave of activity within digital publishing, which has been steadily building up over the last few years, isn't about to end soon, in fact it's probably heading for tsunami proportions.

Computer Weekly's Matt Hamblem reported on e-books in March 2009:

E-books poised for 'huge surge' in 2010

"Fictionwise research also shows that the company's typical customer is a woman, between 40 and 50 years old, who tends to have a higher-than-average income and level of education. In comparison, a few years ago, the typical customer was a man, who might have been a "gadget freak," Pendergrast said.

Analysing the demographics at this particular book-signing event proves the assertion to be correct.  

By far the majority of the audience were ladies of that age, and although they might well have their tablets, or e-readers stocked full of digital books, they don't give up easily on the opportunity to get the authors signature on their hard or paper-backed books.

Photo courtesy of Andy Kropa/Getty Images North America

Allison Pearson the focus of this particular book-signing event, proves to be a savvy lady.

Savvy lady indeed!  

She knows how to 'do-it-right' … a writer and journalist, Allison Pearson decided to write about what she knows best.

She serialised a story about her experiences as a full-time working mother, her story was read by thousands of readers of The Daily Telegraph.

Then on the back of this success she published the book "I Don't Know How She Does It"  and it became a best seller, a smash hit with working mothers across the globe.

It didn't take long for Hollywood to notice her name on the list of best-selling authors :  they came knocking on her door pleading with her to sign a film contract.

So what followed that huge tidal wave of success?

Book #2 of course, in the same popular genre. Capitalising on the success of the 1st book. Here's the savvy bit: she identified her target audience right from the word GO!  And, that is what many, many 1,000's of aspiring authors DO NOT DO! Apart perhaps from the one-and-only John Locke of "How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 months" fame.

This time Allison's book focussed on the teenage experiences of falling in love with a 'pop-star'!

Book #2 is called "I Think I Love You": very apt considering the idol in question is David Cassidy.

I attended a book-signing event at Patrick's Restaurant, Mumbles (in conjuction with Cover To Cover Book Shop) where Allison gave an extremely entertaining talk about the road to success, obviously not lingering long on the pain she'd suffered, while in the grip of depression.

Part of our work here at PBS is helping authors and writers to fulfil their dream: we are helping them to publish their works in the digital world, via Kindle & Nook e-Readers etc. etc. 

In a fraction of time compared to tradition publishing, PBS transfers the precious book from it's raw Word document state, into a digital book, instantly downloadable for purchase by the author's fans, friends and family. 

N.B. ~ Whilst we do not act for Allison Pearson in this niche market, we are able to say that attending 'book signing events' such as this has helped us to network with our target clients.

At this event two new clients signed up for the PBS Digital Marketing Package.  :oD

If you are still not convinced about the power of e-Books read what Mike Elgan at Computer World says:  he recently did a complete U-turn on his views regarding the potential success or failure of e-Readers:

Why Kindle rules

"I've dissed and dismissed e-books for years. But three factors I didn't anticipate reversed my long-standing attitude."

To review the added value features of Kindle scroll through the 4 pages.

Nancy Hopkins Reily says "There's a Book Inside Everyone" or more precisely "inside everyone is a book waiting to be revealed".  

I hope we can help you to reveal your book, at some time in the not too distant future.

Promoting our sister website

VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS IN WALES

Our sister website is heaving with good advice for people needing help with Internet Security, Data Protection for SMEs, Social Media.

We promote their Facebook Page below which some might say has been a while in arriving.  We wanted to ensure that we had given sufficient time to the task of researching Facebook before recommending it to our clients to add to their Social Media toolkit.

With adequate attention paid to the permissions and security settings we conclude that it could be a useful tool for some business owners.

Used in conjunction with other Social Media tools it can help to bring a wider audience of potential customers/clients forward and into the sales funnel.

A screenshot of our Facebook Business Page at Virtual Assistants in Wales

Best possible use has been made of the additional Tabs feature. We have added a Welcome Tab which announces “Hello, this is how we can help you’, and an Enquiry Form which encourages people to send us enquiries for various services.

Virtual Assistants in Wales is also well represented on Twitter so we have added a Tab which relays all of the Tweets from our main account at @LadyBizBiz.

There are subsidiary accounts to look out for on Twitter too:

@ParaTecVA          For more technical work

@BizGodmother     For more family/home based assistance

@GowerBizAngel   For locally based assignments in the Swansea/Gower area

There is also a YouTube Tab that utilises the videos from Ladybizbiz’s Channel.

The main considerations in using the Business Page is that you must have ‘Admin’ Rights in order to add extra Tabs to the account.

If you have used the older Facebook Profile account you will only take a short while to adapt to the structure of the Business Page. The main point to remember is you will be switching between them frequently because for some bizarre reason you can only import the Apps while you are within the Personal Profile.

Controls and Permissions

You have total control over what appears in your Business Page Wall. You might have selected to follow a favourite business, or a client’s business but you don’t have to allow ALL their updates into your stream.  You can select to Hide their updates individually or completely.

Sometimes the volume of updates that people make to their Facebook account is astounding. I repeat, you don’t have to allow them all onto your Wall: you can sift through them, allowing only the ones you want to remain there.  You may have ‘LIKED’ them but you don’t have to like the volume.

On the Personal Profiles we have been used to adding Friends, now with the Business Page, we ‘Like’ other business’ and sincerely hope that they will return the compliment. (But, don’t hold your breath).

Curation in Social Media

Facebook, like all other Social Media platforms, needs close moderation in order to run smoothly.  If you choose it as part of your toolkit it will need attending on a daily basis, at the very least. If you are short on time for curating your Social Media accounts then the sensible option is to outsource the task to professional moderators.

Virtual Assistants in Wales offers a Social Media Curation Service. Let our ‘super Social Media sisters‘ help you.

It really doesn’t matter whether you sell computer hardware, fine handmade soaps, luxury fashion items, cars, bathrooms, garden gates, or dog collars, social media is going to help your business brand get traction in the market.

Why is it that some enterprises still don’t ‘GET IT’?

I liked this video - Chris Pirillo talks about a small business in Seattle called Pooper Trooper.  The company has a very clear understanding of social media.  They use the power of social media to pull consumers to their product … a product they know is of enormous value to their potential customers.

If you would actually like to view the Pooper Trooper’s YouTube Video, then click here.

Samantha Raincock Digital Forensic Consultant and Expert Witness

INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT

& SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES

Sam Raincock, BSc, MSc, CCE, MBCS, CEng MIET

Sam Raincock Consultancy

Sam Raincock is an IT security consultant specialising in providing expert witness services in IT and telecommunications as well as information security management implementation, assessments and auditing.

Sam has produced over 250 expert reports/statements in IT and telecommunications cases for courts in the UK and Ireland principally in serious crimes. She is instructed in the investigation of complex computer cases particularly involving elaborate defences and network/security issues. In the forensic telecommunications field, she provides opinions in cases involving the evaluation of information on mobile devices, connection patterns and cell site analysis.

It doesn't take long to get a grasp on Twitter

Within a few weeks of using Twitter it becomes clear how it works and more to the point how you can make it work for you.  However if you are feeling uncomfortable using it and have thoughts in your mind like:

"Why on earth am I exposing myself to this nonsense"?

or

" I really don't have time for this, it isn't working for me".

Then you might be suffering from a mismatch scenario.  The platform is mismatched to you.  What you need to appreciate is that there are lots of other platforms available that might better suit your skills and personality.

Don't give up, instead change platforms and give it another go!

Micro-blogging is fun for personal interaction and for business, it's a very worthwhile addition to your marketing tools.  Remember though it is not a broadcast medium, people do not want to get the business 'hard sell' all the time, they can after all simply unfollow you.  They want to get to know what makes up the brand.

It's called 'pull marketing': when you like something well enough you gravitate towards it.  So when people on Twitter like your message and begin to understand your ethos, they warm to you and will in all probability want to recommend you to others, at the very least, and may even choose to buy your product over another.

Here's a super screencast production by one of my Twitter contacts Su Butcher who uses the Twitter ID @justprofs, she explains the issues very clearly.

She tells us Twitter isn't the best interface for beginners and shows us how it lets us down.  Sometimes the frustrations we feel with a piece of software can deter us from using it, right from the word go.  Other times when we use something that we like from the word go, it often becomes a favourite of ours.

Did watching the video change your mind?  Will you give Twitter another go?  Do let me know if you found more satisfaction using something else – may be Tweetdeck or Hootsuite?

You might like to follow my Twitter account @LadyBizBiz

Slightly longer version of this blog appears here.

PhotoCredit: Fotolia © Destinyvp

Time's Paces

When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I waxed more bold,

Time strolled.

When I become a full-grown man,

Time ran.

When older still I daily grew,

Time flew.

Soon I shall find, in passing on,

Time gone!

(These lines appear on an old clock in Chester Catherdral).

I think all of us can relate to these words.

I'm advocating immediate action by sole proprietors and business owners everywhere who would like to make a difference to the success of their business enterprise.

There is no time like the present to become involved in the world of social media in order to promote your business and yourself.

I am going to cogitate here on just one platform for social media interaction: the one that seems to have taken the whole world by the scruff of the neck … Twitter.

Tweeting isn't for everyone, or is it?  

I didn't think it was for me, really I didn't until I experienced a sudden intuitive leap of understanding.

If you would like to read about that epiphany here's the link.

I think we will all agree that your brand whether personal, professional or commercial, is definitely something that should be protected.   Why would you allow it to be tarnished when you have endured blood, sweat and tears in establishing it over the years? 

You may have sacrificed a huge amount of family life in the making of your business, so protection for your brand is probably top of your list.

Have you considered how Social Media and in particular Twitter can affect your brand? 

People have the notion that if they aren’t interested in engaging in social media, and stay well away from it, then their brand is protected.   So, it’s a nasty wake-up call when they discover that actually whether they are registered on social media platforms or not, their brand, be it personal, professional or commercial, is probably being talked about in their absence.

You simply cannot prevent people from talking about things on Twitter, or even complaining, so let’s hope they aren’t complaining about your products or services?    This isn’t all bad because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you are being talked about it’s better than NOT being talked about.

Here’s why it’s GOOD …..  you can make sure that the moment someone does complain publicly on Twitter that you are brand monitoring and you then nip the problem in the bud.  

You can turn it to your advantage and walk away feeling proud.  You can help someone who in the first instance expressed a negative opinion of your brand, to change that opinion.  Following your efficient response in engaging with them, you can leave them with a glowing impression instead!

This is precisely why you would want to respond efficiently and effectively to that Twitter comment:

Sue is a Broadband customer of Company A and she’s been attempting to query the low download speed through customer service.  She’s angry and frustrated and she tweets that “Company A has dreadful customer service – I can’t get anyone to appreciate my problem, they just ignore the fact that I’m paying good money for an appalling service.”

Now you are Company A’s person monitoring the brand on Twitter.  And you use various search functions to make sure that whenever anyone tweets about Company A you know about the tweet within a reasonable amount of time.

When you see this tweet by Sue, you immediately tweet her publicly: “@username I can help you. Call me at xxxxx and I assure you I will personally attend to your problem.”

Sue calls you, you take care of the problem, and she’s so delighted she then tweets:“Company A just took care of my problem.  That’s good customer service!”

Now imagine if you hadn’t been brand monitoring and Sue’s tweet went unanswered.  Then her complaint escalates.

For example, someone could reply to Sue: “@username I also had crappy customer service from Company A.”

Sue could then reply: “I wish I could switch to another Broadband provider.  I really dislike Company A.”

Before you know what’s happening because of the viral nature of Twitter, and the fact that it is real-time, a whole load of people – people who perhaps don’t even have a complaint with your company, but want to offer their ‘opinion’ – have jumped on the bandwagon.

It might, or it might not be, too late at this stage to undo the damage.  Without a doubt though, this is the way that a brand can suffer damage.  It could probably have been prevented if you had caught it early, taken care of the problem promptly and efficiently, and then you and the satisfied customer, could have tweeted about the successful resolution.

Brand monitoring can take advantage of positive comments, here’s how:

Track your brand on Twitter so that you can also pick up the positive comments.  Until someone can convince me otherwise I will continue to use Tweetdeck for this purpose because it meets all my needs. If, for example, someone tweets a compliment for your brand, you can re-tweet that compliment and potentially send it farther into the ether.

By tweeting worthwhile information in connection to your brand, there is also the added advantage that the perception of your brand can be emboldened in the public mind.   This will enable you to cultivate goodwill so that, should a problem arise your customers or clients will be magnanimous and likely to forgive you.

Finally I urge you to recognise that brand monitoring is a very important marketing activity in the social networking Twittersphere.

In the words of the minstrel in the light-hearted video that follows

" You might as well not have existed".

THE BALLARD OF TWITTER

Would you kindly leave a comment and tell me how Twitter has been successful in endorsing your brand, be it personal, professional or commercial?

Is your personality suited to home-based working?  

This question is directly related to Virtual Personal Assistants.  This discussion does not touch in any way on the experiences of Virtual Assistants working out of a regular office space; it deals solely with those experiences in working out of a home-based office or study.

It is not as straightforward as one might first imagine.  There are always complicated subtleties to take stock of because the scope for variance is immense.  However, in generalising, because I am not aware of any research in this new field, I would suggest the following: people with the these traits are suited to this mode of working.

• People driven by a rock solid work ethic.

The work ethic when it is strong and durable is more important than top rate skills.  Skills will develop with time, and that's the crux of the matter, it is only those people who are driven by a strong work ethic who will devote the time.

If someone is motivated to work solidly within the recognised work zone viz. 9 to 5 pm, they will strive to complete the task in hand, no matter how long it takes.  They will acquire the skills along the way and in acquiring those skills will feel a huge sense of satisfaction, and that satisfaction in their achievement will spur them on to work longer and harder to complete the task.  They are in fact not bound by the recognised working time zone.

So, these people often exceed the expectation of their clients by working faster and delivering work of a much higher standard.

• People who do not have to consider other demands on their time.

When there are family members to consider there will be less time available for home-based working despite all efforts to achieve a balance, the needs of the family will always come first.

I hear all you working mothers out there disagreeing saying “but we set ourselves targets just like any other individuals”.  Yes, I'm sure this is the case, however families have a knack of diverting the attention of the main carer, who is usually female.

With all the will in the world if the carer is attempting to 'get on with some work', but the family member wants their attention, then I believe the child, partner, spouse, parent or pet is going to get that attention, by hook or by crook.  Be honest with yourselves, if your child is complaining of feeling unwell, or if you can hear sibling fisti-cuffs occurring in the background, if your hubby is pressing you, or your dog is throwing up on the carpet, you will be distracted, and you will leave your desk to attempt to deal with the domestic problems. Thus the work-flow is disturbed.

If the Virtual Personal Assistant has none of those distractions she works like a demon.  The super organised VPA ensures the distractions do not impinge on her work programme.

So what is clear here is that it is only the well-organised and expert time managers within this new field, who can achieve excellent performance levels and keep many clients happy simultaneously.  They will take into consideration that there are natural distractions when they are home-based working, and will construct a work pattern which has equal weighting with their family commitments.

• People who value the benefits of social media as a primary means of communicating win ‘hands down’.

Using the tools available via social media we can work smarter in the home.  If using these tools is second nature to us we will engage more effectively with our clients and colleagues.  Skype video conferencing, chat and calls; MSN chat; Facebook; LinkedIn and Twitter – in no particular order – help us to keep our finger on the pulse of the current issues and allow us to deal with things in an instant.  Nothing has to be delayed till later, we have all we need at our finger tips.  Not forgetting if we are using cloud computing techniques, like Huddle workspace or Google Docs, the client can actually witness the progress in real time.

In building up solid and extensive networks of connections through social media we build an arsenal of resources to make our tasks easier to complete.  If you are not a natural communicator you are disadvantaged, however you can learn how to network effectively without being Miss Exuberance 24/7.  There are, after all, hundreds of 'gurus' and 'experts' in social media out there offering to help us become more proficient.

When we are home-based we are not working in a vacuum we are immersed in a virtual world that is vibrant and dynamic.    There is never the opportunity to feel unsupported or under-valued with such a solid network in place.  Feeling empowered by our network we work more effectively and efficiently.  With social media at hand we become ‘wonder-women’:  super-charged super-VPAs.

If  you are considering becoming a VPA business owner you need to consider whether your personality is right for this role.  I hope the points I have made above help you to reach a position of clarity.

Finally, there is an additional consideration: you must not neglect the legal aspects of working in a home-based business.  It might well affect your Council Tax status.

The SME Hub covers this topic well and I would encourage you to take a few minutes to read their blog on the topic:  'Are you allowed to run a business from home?'