I know you think you understand what I said but what you dont understand is that what I said is not what I meant
I know well the desire to have approval, the boost we get from a genuine compliment.
I also know that asking others for feedback when what we really want is a pat on the head is fraught with peril, asking for trouble, bending over and begging to be kicked.
Some general thoughts and specific comments on feedback:
Continue reading “Feedback Fraught with Fear, False Findings, Fruitlessness”
Do you have all the following in place so your fans are connected with you and sharing your posts with their friends?
Let your fans know that supportive things like reviews at Amazon, comments at the blog, enthusiastic shares on social media and even personal emails help make you enthusiastic about continuing to write.
Author Bio:
Sue L Canfield has been working with social media since 2005. She blogs regularly about how to use social media and consults on best social media practices at Chief Virtual Officer. She specializes in helping authors create and maintain their online presence. She currently manages a team of four social media account managers and over a dozen social media clients.
Ignore them.
When they leave a comment on the blog, read it, maybe, but don’t respond.
If they ask a question on social media or by email, ignore it.
Don’t offer new information, say, by posting to your blog or updating your website.
Instead, disappear for weeks at a time.
If you want to compete in the business of being an author in 2016 you had better be approachable and responsive.
Or someone who is will take your readers.
And their money.
I am not using “machine” in the cool and/or hip sense, as in, your website will magically cause magic to magically happen.
I am using it the sense of a mechanism which does a thing. Because your website is probably an online brochure, limiting, perhaps even repelling, connection. Do these things well, and your site will have the mechanics to allow, even foster, connection. (These are mechanical steps, not social engineering, which is a subject for a different marketing-based post.)
Quick and dirty, not necessarily in order of importance unless otherwise stated.
Continue reading “Turning Your Website Into a Connection Machine”
There’s an old story about a chap who goes on vacation and leaves his dull-witted brother to care for the household.
After a week, he calls home and asks how his cat is faring.
“Cat’s dead,” his brother blurts.
“What? It’s what? That’s no way to tell someone their beloved pet died! Ya gotta work up to it.”
His brother, eager to learn, asks how one might do that.
Continue reading “When is it Appropriate to Offer Unsolicited Criticism of Someone’s Art?”