Claire McKinney Public Relations, LLC
Communication Strategies for the 21st Century
Happy First Week of Summer! The 21st was the summer solstice, and now it’s official!
What publishing compromises are you making? [Booklife]
New book focuses on the people of Yellowstone National Park. [Wyoming Public Media]
A press release or a pitch? You need both! [Jane Friedman]
Pamela Paul on her new book – My Life with Bob. [Lit Hub]
My new book – Do You Know What a Publicist Does – came out this month and is available for sale on Amazon! [Amazon]
I wrote a book, it is releasing today, and I can hardly believe it.
It’s called Do You Know What a Book Publicist Does? A Guide For Creating Your Own Campaigns and the actual publication of it has been a pretty scary endeavor. Not so much because of the mechanisms of publishing, but more so because it is very humbling to put your own words out there for everyone to read (and criticize). So far, the feedback I’ve received has been good. I’ve even been told that the book will help a lot of authors, which is my ultimate goal.
I wrote the book because I know that all kinds of authors need information. They need to know what book promotion is and how it works. So many people come to me either after they’ve been taken advantage of by someone else, or when they simply have no idea of what comes next. This book is for them.
I also am hoping my colleagues will appreciate that what we do and the amount of work it takes is now organized in a readable form. Some people will definitely use the book to organize their own promotion efforts, which is terrific. Others who have the means to will hire their own publicists. Great! I plan to give it to entry level people I hire for my business who need to learn about campaigns. The process I’ve described and the stories contained in the book are all things I’ve told people I’ve trained along the way and I am happy to say that my previous staff members have moved onward and upward in their careers.
The methods and skill set we use as publicists are not a secret, and the stories we provide are all around us. How we do our jobs can be transparent as well. Now we can let others decide what it takes to promote a book, and maybe working together we will all have even greater successes.
Thank you for your readership and if you do delve into the book, I hope you will leave a comment here, tweet at me @McKinneyPR, or put a review on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. Enjoy!
The other night, while delivering a presentation on social media, a familiar question was raised: “Excuse me, but I’m not totally sure what a hashtag is or how to use one?”
I have found that what is most confusing to new social media users is that they are unaware of the dual identity for the common symbol “#”. On the one hand we know it to be a pound sign, but it also goes by the name hashtag. So the old, “press the pound key” you hear on voice recordings is the mild mannered version of “#”, whereas the hashtag has grown to be a huge part of online marketing and social media.
What does a hashtag do?
For phone calls, a hash/pound will help you get to a certain voicemail box or person (or robot) to speak with. For social media, it’s a whole different ballgame. On Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, a hashtag acts as kind of “file cabinet” that contains information related to one idea.
For example, say you write on Twitter, “Ugh. Today at work I dropped the birthday cake for Jane. And then I tripped and landed face first into it. #FAIL.” When I type in FAIL with the # symbol in front of it, it will turn into a blue link that, when clicked, will send you into a Twitter stream where everyone else is posting about fails. By adding a hashtag in a social media post, you are allowing your post to be filtered, curated, and discovered.
Hashtags are used for all sorts of reasons, including: news items, funny moments, branding, ways to relate to others, labels, and much, much more. Here are some examples:
News Items: When Director James Comey was dismissed last week by the White House, many media outlets that are active on Twitter reported on it using the hashtag #ComeyFiring.
Comey was fired before Justice Department could complete an internal probe into his election actions: https://t.co/JYAZxiJ3MI #ComeyFiring pic.twitter.com/CuDMkUK96F
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 10, 2017
Funny: Once in a while somebody will start a hashtag that gets picked up virally and everyone joins in on the fun. For instance, the hashtag #explainafilmplotbadly gets attention now and then, like this one about Star Wars VII: A Force Awakens:
https://twitter.com/ExplainAPlotBad/status/861221079485882368
Branding: If you have a company and want to start a brand campaign, you’ll want a single hashtag that you can use over again. When Coca-Cola started making Coke labels with names on them, their hashtag for the campaign was #ShareaCoke.
Labels: On Instagram, it is becoming increasingly popular for people to create a cutesy hashtag for their weddings; and make sure that guests who post pictures also use that hashtag. For my wedding, we will be using the hashtag #WinterbottomsUp as a play on Winterbottom and “bottoms up”. Hopefully everyone who posts on Instagram at my wedding will label pictures with that hashtag so that when we click on it, Instagram will filter and we will be able to see all the photos people posted at our wedding. You can do this on Twitter too. Are you planning to run in a marathon and want to chronicle your journey from running 1 mile a day to 26? Create a hashtag that is unique to you, so that you can click on it and search through those specific posts (such as #LucysRunningJourney or #TomsMajorMarathon).
Relating To Others: Are you a writer struggling to make it big? #WritersLife is used by other writers and authors. If you’re a college student, #collegelife might be one you can relate to. Other examples are hashtags like #FridayReads where you can join thousands of people discussing what they are reading this weekend. This NPR post below included both #FridayReads and a Free Comic Book Day hashtag:
Whooo, it's #FridayReads! Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, so I'm going to tackle my Massive Pile of Comics. How about you? #FCBD2017
— NPR Books (@nprbooks) May 5, 2017
Some other good hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook that are popular with writers and readers include: #FridayReads, #amwriting, #amreading, #writerslife, #authorlife, #bookstagram (Instagram specific), #authorsoninstagram, #writersoninstagram, #bookshelfie (taking a photo of a current book you are reading on your shelf).
Twitter, Facebook, or any social media outlet can be daunting when you’ve never really been a social media fanatic. But the best way to practice using these hashtags and to begin to cull an audience is to just start doing it! Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there. If you really aren’t sure of where to start, even just tweeting about a book you are reading or a movie you watched the night before (with the hashtags #book #StephenKing #DarkTower or #movie #GuardiansoftheGalaxy) will help you test the waters of social media!
For more information on social media terms, check out our introduction post.
We’re publishing a book! Keep your eye out for it, or preorder it now!
Do you feel like your always at the supermarket? [Brad Graber]
Check out this review on Presidential Conclusions by Douglas J. Wood. [Toot’s BR]
5 Crucial Tips for Maintaining Brand Consistency. [Small Business Trends]
When self-publishing it’s important to hire the best! [PW]
Make more time for your writing. [Writer’s Digest]
Great review of Gretchen Archer’s Double Whammy! [Reading is my Superpower]
A new podcast – IndieVoices – allows all authors to be heard. [Foreword Reviews]
When I worked for publishing houses in New York City there was a debate about book review coverage. Does seeking book reviews really sell books? The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no, but with a bit of knowledge of the media and how things work, it is possible to influence some control the of the results.
Keep these tips in mind when you are seeking book reviews to maximize your outreach to book bloggers and media outlets!