How To Tag Another Page on your Facebook Page

Posted on November 24, 2015 by

Tagging is a great tool on Facebook – it’s a way of sharing the love, encouraging people to go and check out other pages relevant to yours. The pages you tag will also see that you’ve tagged them, and will hopefully respond in kind. It’s also rumoured that Facebook looks favourably upon pages that tag other pages. Obviously they change their mystical algorithms all the time, but it can’t hurt to try…

(Click any of the images to enlarge them)

So here’s how:

1. Navigate to your page (and remember I’m talking about your business/fan page here, NOT your profile):

2. Start compiling your message, but stop writing just before where you want to tag another page:

3. Input the @ symbol and start typing the name of the page you want to tag. Various options will start popping up as you type. Make sure you choose the correct one – as you can see, I’m given two options here as there are pages with similar names. Select the one you want and a link will be added to your message:

4. The link is added to the page you’ve selected. You can then continue writing your message. When you’re done, click ‘Publish.’

5. You’ll then end up with your message, with the other page tagged as a live link. Hover over it for more information on the page, and click through to test out your new-found page tagging skills!

NOTE: It can sometimes be tricky to tag pages if they have an unusual name, or there are lots of other similar pages, and so on. A tip that sometimes helps is to go to the page you want to tag and look at their address in the search bar of your browser. It doesn’t always work, but if you input the name however you find it written in the search bar, that can help Facebook to find and tag the correct page. If a page hasn’t set their dedicated URL – for example http://www.facebook.com/lucyfelthousewriter and still has the default one, i.e. http://www.facebook.com/lotsofnumbersandgobbledegookhere it can make things seriously tricky. So avoid that on your own page, and make sure to set up your dedicated URL ASAP.

If you found this article useful, please consider sharing it with others. Thank you!

How to Schedule a Post on your Facebook Page

Posted on October 13, 2015 by

(Click any of the screenshots in this article to enlarge them)

NOTE: A Facebook page is different to your Facebook profile. This article applies only to pages. You can’t schedule on profiles.

1. Navigate to your page on Facebook.

2. Compile your message as normal in the Status box.

3. Click the little white down arrow next to the Publish button. Click Schedule.

4. Select the date and time you want the post to go live. Click Schedule.

5. And you’re done! Up until the time your scheduled post goes live, you’ll see a box towards the top of your page where you can access your scheduled posts.

6. Click See Post to view all the posts you have scheduled. From here you can also edit or delete them if you wish.

Happy Scheduling!

Lucy

What Is Thunderclap and Why Use It?

Posted on October 21, 2014 by

I’m sure some of you have seen messages and notes about Thunderclap floating around the web and wondered what it is. I know I’ve had several clients ask me about it, which is why I’m writing this post.

Basically, it is a free promotional tool (though there are paid options you can explore) to help you get the word out about something. For the purposes of this post, I’ll use books as an example, as it’s what I deal with.

You sign up for a free account at Thunderclap.it, and follow the simple instructions to set up your campaign. Use graphics from your book if you can, as that way you’re increasing visibility of your book to those that click through to support your campaign. Spend some time crafting your message, adding some relevant hashtags if you’ve got room – bear in mind that this message will go out once and hopefully to an awful lot of people, so you want it to have punch, something to really make people want to click on the link you’ve provided. I’d also recommend only opting for 100 supporters the first time around – it sounds like a small number, especially if you have lots of social media savvy friends, but it’s tougher than you think to get people to click that link.

Once you’re happy with what you’ve done, submit your campaign and wait for Thunderclap to approve it (you can speed this process up by paying, but I’ve never done this). Then, when approval arrives, the really hard work begins. You have to get supporters.

Supporters are the whole point of Thunderclap – they’re the ones that are signing up to send out your message on the date and time you’ve selected. I think, since Thunderclap is fairly new, that people may be shying away from supporting Thunderclaps as they don’t fully understand what it means. So, in a nutshell, here goes: supporters are pledging to help you, by donating a Tweet, a Facebook status or a Tumblr post (or indeed, any combination of those three). That’s all. They’ll see the message they’re pledging to send out, hit those support buttons, and, providing you get enough supporters to “tip” the campaign, their social media account/s will automatically send out the message on the date and time you’ve selected.

The point of all this? Well, since we’re talking books – it’s to drive sales. If you have an upcoming book, you can set something up in advance to go out on your release date – then you’ve got a while to promote the Thunderclap, get your supporters and then you’ll get a big boost on social media on the day, which will hopefully get people clicking those buy buttons and pushing you up the respective retailer charts. Cool, huh?

There is more to it than just getting the supporters, though. Sorry to complicate matters 🙂 Ideally you need supporters that Tweet/share/Tumble about books in your genre – so in turn their followers/friends/etc are more likely to be interested in your book. Also, it goes without saying that the more followers/friends/readers your supporters have, the more people are likely to see your message once it goes out. So if you can attract people with a large reach on social media, all the better.

But to keep things simple, maybe start out small, and once you’ve dipped your toe in the Thunderclap water and seen how it all works – you can be more adventurous next time.

Bottom line: make sure you’ve crafted a powerful message to go out, that will catch people’s eyes and make them want to click. Then sit back and (hopefully) watch your sales increase.

Want to see how it works from a supporter’s angle? Here are three Thunderclaps you can sign up for (and I’d be grateful of your help):

Timeless Desire – M/F erotic romance story

Little Boxes – contemporary romance novel

To Rome with Lust – erotic romance novel

I hope this has helped you. Feel free to share far and wide on the web, to help people gain an understanding of how it works. If I get lots of questions and queries, I may do another article at a later date with more specifics.

Happy Promoting!

Lucy

Why Use Triberr?

Posted on March 13, 2014 by

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this post due to popular demand. I’ve had several clients ask me about Triberr, what it is, why they should be using it and how much time it will take up. I’ll do my best to answer these questions, and probably more, without writing a blog post that will be the same length as my latest novel 😉

Here goes…

1. What is Triberr?

Triberr is a type of social sharing site where a user will join “tribes” that are relevant to the content they create on their blogs. So, for example, I’m in several writing, erotica, erotic romance and romance-type tribes. Once a user’s account is set up correctly, their blog’s RSS feed will automatically add each new post into the streams of people who are in the same tribes as them. The idea of this is that because people in tribes share similar interests, the posts they will see in their streams are things they will want to share with their own followers. Which brings me neatly onto point #2.

2. Why should you be using it?

Because it increases your reach. Massively. At the time of writing this post, I have 5,653 Twitter followers. So when I go into Triberr and approve other people’s relevant posts (this is key for me. I don’t want to alienate my followers by Tweeting stuff about children’s books or young adult), they will automatically be Tweeted onto my account. Not all at once, but at intervals set by me, which are half an hour.

Imagine this reversed. Because each of my blog posts are fed into Triberr, they’ll appear on my tribemates’ feeds and they’ll share them. So without Triberr, my Tweets would be seen by 5,653 people and probably then by others because my followers have Retweeted me. But with Triberr, my blog posts are automatically fed to the Twitter feed of every tribemate that approved my post – and because I’m in tribes that are relevant to my work, this is most of them. So, depending on how many Twitter followers each of my tribemates has, you can see how much my reach increases. The biggest reach of the tribes that I’m in is 452,533 people! That’s HUGE!

3. How much time will it take up?

Not much is the short answer. If you simply join us as a member and don’t have a tribe of your own (there are currently enough tribes out there that you don’t need to worry about setting up your own), it’s a quick and easy thing. Now I have everything set up correctly, I probably spend ten minutes per day approving relevant posts. I know we’re all busy people, but this is a tiny portion of time compared to the potential benefits. Because if you’re seen to be active, to be approving other people’s posts, then they’ll approve yours, too. So where your blog posts might have only reached 6,000 followers beforehand, with Triberr this is multiplied many fold with a small amount of time on your part.

I realise this is a really, really short piece which doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty of setting up Triberr, finding tribes and so on, but as I said I didn’t want to write a novel in a blog post 😉 . Ultimately, even if you’re not technically-minded, once Triberr is set up, it’s just a matter of going in once a day, going to your stream and hovering over that share button for each post you want to share. Technology does the rest for you. If you don’t want to share a post, then click the hide link. You’ll soon get into a rhythm. Once your stream is empty, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next item on your to-do list. But don’t forget to watch traffic to your site increase, especially if you’ve taken the time to write engaging blog post titles – something I personally am working on improving, and am already seeing results.

So, there’s Triberr in brief. If I end up with lots more questions and feedback on this post, then I may well write another article in a couple of weeks about the more nitty-gritty side of things. Alternatively, you could just pay me to get you set up on Triberr then sit back and reap the rewards 😉

P.S. If you’re an erotica or erotic romance author and want to get started – come check out my tribe.

Another Satisfied Customer

Posted on December 11, 2013 by

Jane Jackson contacted me to help her out with getting her books onto relevant Goodreads lists in order to increase her exposure on the popular book networking site. Having finished the project (for now), Jane kindly sent me a testimonial to put on the site. Here it is:

It was through posts between two authors on a writer’s loop that I learned of Lucy Felthouse’s Writer Marketing Services. Having little technical know-how I was in desperate need of help to get my list of published books onto Goodreads lists. I emailed Lucy and told her what I needed. She said ‘fine’, we agreed a fee, she requested cover images which I sent, then I left her to work her magic. She completed a demanding job in a remarkably short time, and did it brilliantly. With four more titles due out between January and May 2014 I will be calling on Lucy’s expert skills again. If you need help to market your book/s, she’s your woman. I’m delighted to recommend her.

Increasing Reach on your Facebook Page

Posted on August 30, 2013 by

Here’s a handy tip for increasing reach on your Facebook page. “Reach” is Facebook’s word for how many people have seen your posts in their timelines. And I’m talking “fan” pages here, not profiles.

Normally, if you’re promoting book buy links, blog posts, etc, you’d type your message and the link into the box, then hit “post.” It’ll then go out and a percentage of the people that like your page will see it. To increase that number, give this a try:

Instead of posting the link in the same box as your text, try writing your text, then saying you’ll include the link in the comments. Post it, then post your link as a comment on that particular post. See screengrab:

Click to enlarge

I’ve tried this myself, and in the statistics of my page, it’s roughly tripling the number of people that see my posts. So it may take a few seconds more, but it’s worth it for that many more users to see what you’re posting.

I’m not 100% sure why Facebook do this, but I suspect it’s a) because they don’t want people linking out of Facebook, taking traffic away and b) because they want you to pay to use that “boost post” button. Can’t blame them for wanting to make sure cash out of page users, I suppose, but it’s pretty annoying as that’s the only way users are supposed to promote things, as opposed to on their personal profiles.

Give it a try. I hope it helps!

Testimonial from Liia Ann White

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Lucy Felthouse

I just received this fab testimonial from Liia Ann White – who booked a blog tour for her latest release through WMS.

I used Lucy’s Writer Marketing Services for a blog tour and was instantly left wondering why I hadn’t used her earlier. I’ve used other promotional companies to organise blog tours and appearances, but none of them compare to Lucy. Within hours of emailing her regarding the tour, she responded – not an easy feat with the time difference between the two of us – and she had great spots booked up within days. The entire process ran smoothly and I couldn’t have been happier.

The tour was a great success and Lucy promoted my guest spots on both her personal Twitter and Erotica For All accounts.

I plan on using Writer Marketing Services again and again and again.

K D Grace Case Study

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

It the one year anniversary of Writer Marketing Services – yay! As part of the celebration, I’ve written up a case study of one of my clients who’s been with me from the start. I give you… the super K D Grace.

I have been working as K D Grace’s publicist for a year now, and am pleased to say that we still have a good thing going! I work for K D on an ongoing basis – that is, I do what needs to be done at any given time. That means that round the times when K D has a new release, I’m very busy sending her books out for review, securing interviews, guest blog spots, updating her website and social networks and much more. In between those times, though, we still work together on various projects, including K D’s newsletter, publicising reviews she’s received, co-ordinating advertising and keeping K D and her books in the public eye.

Here are a few of the things that I’ve worked on for K D in the past year:

Her website: http://kdgrace.co.uk (which I continue to maintain and update)
Her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KDGraceAuthor (including tutorials and updates)
Her Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/kd_grace (including tutorials, background customisation and updates)
The creation of, and updates on, her Amazon Author Central accounts in the UK (http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-D.-Grace/e/B004M3DMB0/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1327949559) and US (http://www.amazon.com/K.-D.-Grace/e/B004M3DMB0/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1327949579).
The creation of, and updates on, her GoodReads account (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2791969.K_D_Grace).
Three books to date (with more coming – she keeps me busy!): The Initiation of Ms Holly, The Pet Shop and Lakeland Heatwave Book 1: Body Temperature and Rising. This includes sending the titles out for review, organising advertising, getting K D blog posts and interviews at relevant sites, posting review quotes on her website and much more.
Getting K D and her work involved in special online events to help promote her and her books.
The launch of her newsletter (http://eepurl.com/hrXKI).

K D Grace says: Lucy Felthouse is one of the best things that has happened to my writing career. With her on board, I know the marketing and PR for my novels and my brand are in good hands. For me, that means a lot less stress and a lot more success. And best of all, it means I get to concentrate on the part I love best, writing the story.

Lakeland Heatwave Book 1: Body Temperature and Rising

Lakeland Heatwave Book 2: Riding the Ether

What You Need To Know About Blog Tours

Posted on January 4, 2012 by

What is a blog tour?

A blog tour is a way to publicise you and your book. You write guest blog posts or answer interviews which are then posted on carefully chosen host blogs on a set date.

What are the advantages?

It’s great publicity which boosts sales! As you’ll be appearing on a different blog each day you have the chance to gain yourself new readers, let existing readers know about your new releases and get your work added to those all important to be read lists! You are given the opportunity to speak to readers and engage with them, increasing your chances of them checking out your books.

What is a guest blog post?

A guest blog post is where you write something that will be of interest to readers, whether it’s about your writing process, your characters, your inspiration, etc. These are then posted on a host blog along with your book cover and buy links to make readers aware of you and your work.

What should I write about?

See How To Write Guest Blog Posts for more information on this.

Should I write something new for each stop on the tour?

You don’t have to, though it’s highly recommended. Some tour hosts will insist that your content is unique as sending the same thing out to more than one blog has several drawbacks: the search engines penalise for duplicate content, meaning your post is less likely to be ranked highly; it looks like you can’t be bothered to write new content; there may be people following you on each stop of your tour and they won’t be happy to see the same posts appearing and with each new discussion you have more chance of drawing in different readers as you’re giving them a new ‘hook’ and making them interested in you and your work.

What happens after the post is made live?

The post will be publicised on social networks as outlined in the Blog Tour Packages information, but you will also need to publicise this yourself. Send emails to your friends, post something on your own blog and send out links via your own social networks. The more visitors you have, the better. Also, you must check back periodically to see if there have been any comments on your piece and answer them and any questions where applicable.

How long does a blog tour last?

That’s up to you. Packages range from one week to four. For more information, visit the Blog Tour Packages page.

What do I need to supply for a blog tour?

See Blog Tour Requirements for a list.

Your prices are all in GBP – does that mean you only work for UK authors?

No, though I’m in the UK so you’ll need to pay me in GBP. Use a free currency converter to find out the rough cost in your currency. Then you can use PayPal to send funds to me in GBP.

I want in. How do I go about booking a blog tour?

Visit the Blog Tour Calendar & Sign Up Page to find out what dates are available and send me your information.