Social Sheila Video: HootSuite for absolute beginners

HootSuite is a social media management platform that can save you huge amounts of time in monitoring and interacting with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more. In this post, Sheila Averbuch shows you how to set up and use this application effectively.




The secret of Hootsuite's success is that it allows you to manage multiple accounts from one master dashboard. If you're a complete HootSuite beginner, this video will walk you through how to set up a free account, import and start using a handful of your social media identities.

I particularly appreciate the way HootSuite makes it easier for me to see my re-tweets, which can often be missed when I'm using the normal Twitter application. But the best value of all comes from eliminating the need to log into and interact with more than one application on my phone or desktop computer for these social networks.

The secret of Hootsuite's success is that it allows you to manage multiple accounts from one master dashboard.

There are a couple drawbacks to HootSuite you should be aware of: the app version for mobile phones can act a little oddly at times (giving me information I don't want, such as repeating old notifications about who has followed me). Additionally, "mentions" (where you'd like to tag someone in your post so they receive an alert that you're talking about them) are a bit more manual in HootSuite than they are in the native applications for Facebook and Twitter.

But these are minor issues – all in all, HootSuite is a tremendous timesaver for me. Social networking can be a time sink and HootSuite is a good way to help me get in, interact with the content and people I need to, and get out again, so I can go back to working on my writing.

Are there other social media how-to videos you'd like to see? Please leave a comment below. You can also view a full list of Social Sheila videos here.




Don't forget to click the "bull's-eye" icon below if you'd like to view this video in full resolution.

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Sheila writes middle-grade science-fiction and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Alongside Louise Kelly, Sheila also co-ordinates the SCBWI network for Southeast Scotland – contact southeastscotland@britishscbwi.org for details on member meetups

Social Sheila Video: how to claim Google Authorship as a writer

Have you heard about Google Authorship? It's part of Google Plus, and it's something you need to know about if you are a children's book writer or illustrator.






You might already be a Google Plus user, although truthfully it hasn't taken off as quickly as Twitter or Facebook. One of the functions of Google Plus is to act as a social network, allowing people to share content among themselves, but it's much more than just a social platform – Google sees it as the "interconnecting fabric" among all the services it offers, from search through to e-mail, and it is increasingly becoming one of the ways Google uses to organise all of the world's information and deliver pertinent, accurate results when people search.

One way to help Google deliver accurate results is for it to determine who is an authority on certain subjects. Forbes magazine has done an excellent job of discussing the role of Google plus and Authorship in helping Google determine authority; I won't repeat their points, but you can read that article here. In short, Google Authorship allows you to tell Google you are the creator of content that should have your name on it, specifically blogs.

Google Authorship allows you to tell Google you are the creator of content that should have your name on it, specifically blogs.

If you own your own blog or are a regular contributor on someone else's blog, it's important that you claim Google Authorship via Google Plus - this will entail setting up a free Google plus ID, if you don't have one yet.

In this video I will show you how to set up Authorship, but a key step of the process is putting a Google "author" link on the blogs where you contribute. I'll show you how to put the author link on a WordPress blog, but if you are not running your own blog and instead are contributing to another blog, you'll need their cooperation to get the author link set up. You can read more about that in the Forbes article above. For those of you using Blogger, Google's own blogging platform, my research indicates that it's a one-click process to claim Google Authorship: I haven't tried this myself, but you can follow the instructions here:


Have you set up Google Authorship? Let me know your comments below.

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@spacekidsbooks

Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com

Social Sheila Video: watch those Twitter mentions

By Sheila Averbuch

In my latest installment of how-to videos for writers new to Twitter, I'm looking at "mentions."

A mention is any tweet that includes another person's Twitter identity, and is a good way for you to start building relationships on this social media platform.

A few things to remember about mentions:

• Twitter will not automatically e-mail you whenever you are mentioned
• There is a dedicated part of the Twitter website that lets you keep an eye on mentions
• Mentions may even help bring you to the attention of influencers (writers, publishers, agents), but don't overdo it 

Mentions may even help bring you to the attention of influencers (writers, publishers, agents), but don't overdo it 

Click the bull's-eye icon below to view this video in full size. Thanks to Celia Rees for being an unwitting guinea pig in my video today!


Do you have a suggestion for another social media how-to video you'd like to see? Just email me at sheila@spacekidsbooks.com

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@spacekidsbooks

Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com

Social Sheila Video: get your head around hashtags

By Sheila Averbuch 

If you're new to Twitter, hashtags (the # symbols) can be one of the most off-putting idiosyncracies. But once you understand that the symbols merely flag up an important concept in the tweet, you'll realise how helpful they can be in building your network and deepening your understanding of the industry.



Twitter, of course, only gives you a brief sentence or two to express yourself. Hashtags mark a certain word in your sentence as the key topic, to make it easier for other Twitter users to find and read tweets on a common subject. It's interesting to note that it was the people using Twitter, not the company itself, who first started to use the # symbol.

"Hashtags mark a certain word in your sentence as the key topic"

These days, you'll see hashtags appearing everywhere from the opening credits of television shows to websites promoting conferences. In this how-to video (click the bullseye icon in the video frame to watch it full-screen), I'll show you how to search Twitter for relevant hashtags, and how to go a step further and track down the most influential Twitter users chatting on hot topics, using Hootsuite.

"I recommend you limit yourself to a single hashtag per tweet"

If you want to start using relevant hashtags such as #kidlit, I recommend you limit yourself to a single hashtag per tweet; otherwise your tweets may drift into the realm of illegibility. For those of you who already use hashtags regularly, we love it if you could share useful search terms in the comments section below.



If you would like to see other how-to videos, email me at sheila@spacekidsbooks.com

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@spacekidsbooks

Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com


 

Social Sheila Video: how to let people follow you on Facebook without becoming friends

Curious about the new "following" function on Facebook? This new and handy feature means you can let people listen to your public status updates on Facebook, even if they're not friends with you.




I like the idea of "following", because it allows authors to enhance their social media platform, and hopefully their overall public profile.

Writers like Candy Gourlay and Jane Friedman have implemented the function: go check out them out and click "follow" to see how they use this feature. If you're already convinced, jump down to the Facebook Following how-to video below, where I'll show you how to get started.

"I like the idea of "following", because it allows authors to enhance their social media platform," 

Why not just set up a Facebook Page instead?

Good question! By "Page," I mean a Facebook brand presence, sometimes known as a "Fan" Page. Facebook explains the difference between a Facebook "Page" and Facebook "following" better than I can: (https://www.facebook.com/about/follow). Pages have value, and your agent/publisher will probably insist you have one (and, helpfully, publishers can manage the Page alongside you or on your behalf). But in my experience, here are the three areas where Facebook Pages fall down:

1. A Facebook "Page" is not a proper, personal Facebook identity with all the rights and privileges thereof 
That means, although you can click around Facebook "acting as Page", it's actually difficult to properly interact with, comment on, or tag people in your posts. And if you are trying to use the Facebook mobile app, forget it – it's almost impossible to interact properly with fans of your Page through the app. Professionally speaking, you are on Facebook to draw attention to your children's books, but it's difficult to do that acting purely as a Page.

2. Status updates you post as a Page may be hidden from your fans
To keep its users from being overwhelmed with irrelevant posts, Facebook filters out the majority of a Page's status updates from the news feed of your Page's fans. You heard that right: people who "like' your author Page may not see status updates from your Page in their newsfeed, unless Facebook's algorithm calculates that your Page updates are very interesting, relevant and popular. This is the Facebook Edgerank algorithm, and it's the bane of your existence if you've already spent time building up a Facebook Page.

3. It's all too easy to neglect a Facebook Page
You may not feel a visceral, personal connection to your Facebook Page, so you may forget to update it for a while. This neglect will get you on the wrong side of Edgerank, making it decreasingly likely that fans of your Page will see any of your status updates.

Are there any downsides to 'Following'?

Yes: "follow" connects you with people who aren't really your friends. That means you've got to go and hide anything you've already posted that you don't wish to share publicly on Facebook, and the video below shows you how to do that. Going forward, you'll also need to start clicking the globe icon every time you post a Facebook status update, to control whether that update gets seen by the public, or just by friends and family.

Mail me if you have ideas for a video you'd like to see here: sheila@spacekidsbooks.com

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Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com

 

Sheila's Videos - How to Find People to Follow on Twitter

This first post in our series of social media how-to videos, brought to you by Sheila Averbuch, focuses on how to find the right people to follow on Twitter

Twitter is free to join, and allows you to listen to the tweets of any other member -- unlike Facebook, you don't have to be "friends" with somebody to hear what they're saying. That gives you a great opportunity to eavesdrop on what agents, publishers, literary magazines, and fellow writers and illustrators are tweeting about, from interesting upcoming events and competitions to promising new talent.

Even if you're an old hand at Twitter, I hope you'll find something of use in this video, which is aimed at helping you make better use of your limited time and ensure that this social network doesn't become a time sink.

If you have suggestions for more social media videos, leave a comment here, or visit spacekidsbooks.com, where I'll post other social media videos on a monthly basis.



Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com. Picture: Smashing Magazine