How to Create Feedback, Recognition, and Branding

Recognition. In this business, identification is everything. I cross paths with many authors and writers in the blogosphere. Maybe I haven't met them face to face, but I *know* them by their blogs, comments, and pictures.

Create a brand. Make it your own. For me, it is colors and my avatar. On my blog, Spirit Called, I use burnt orange. Not many blogs have this. 

My avatar or icon is unique. Created by my brother, it is a photoshopped picture of me as a one year old.

An author headshot is great. A must in this business. But create something out of the norm as well so folks know you instantly.

Feedback. Comments on my blogs are sent to my email inbox so I can respond to questions or posts. Do you want a personal response in answer to a question? A private critique? 

On your profile, enable your email so you can be contacted. 

I realize that privacy is king. But if you want to be an established author, you must have name recognition. To do this, people must be able to contact you. Get a Gmail account rather than a personal one if you want. 

But create a contact point. 

Remember, you want people to find you and your books. Make it easy for them to do so.

Guess the Brand #7

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link: Spirit Called

Guess the Brand #6

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link: Angie Schilaty

Guess the Brand #5

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link: From the Desk of Laura Stephenson

Guess the Brand #4

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link to the blog: Halfworld

Guess the Brand #3

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link to the blog: Eclectic

Guess the Brand #2

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from this blog.

And the link to the website: My Middle Years

Guess the Brand #1

This is a great first example! Thanks for sharing. I'm going to add what I learned in the comments instead of the post.

Here's how to play. Look at the screen shot and post in the comments what you learned about the author from the blog.

Here's the Link for the Blog Civil War Horror

The Guessing Game

We could spend some time talking about other online venues--twitter, facebook, writer's forums, etc, but I'd rather play a little game.

How about we check out a few of your blogs? Here's how it will work:

1. You post a link to your blog and nothing else. Not your name, nothing.
2. I'll visit your blog and post a "snapshot" of your blog tomorrow (we can post as many as want to play).
3. Everyone looks at the blog and comments on what they think your "brand" is just from looking at your blog.

Do you want to play?

The Profile/Author Picture

Today you're going to get a mini rant from me.

Sorry.

Especially since this particular pet peeve of mine is perpetuated by some of my dearest blogger friends.

Here it is.

For the love of Pete (whoever he may be) please use a picture of yourself as your profile picture. You may  not need a professional author photo yet, but if you want people to remember you attached to your name, please, please, please...post a current picture.

For example. Our fearless leader Carol, AKA Huntress remained 2 Separate People! in my mind for over a year! For some reason she has issues posting a picture of herself (I think she's beautiful by the way.). Hey, we all wish we were younger, thinner, had longer/shorter/straighter/curlier hair, etc.

Take a chance and trust people with a picture of you and your real name or the name you want to be known by. Do you really want to build a brand like this:

PookieBear22

Yeah, it's cute, but it makes it hard to connect your blog/twitter/facebook/stories to you. 

Pick a head shot or at least a picture from the waist up where its close enough that people will recognize you if they pass you in the grocery store. Smile or be mysterious. Just don't pick your nose. Not for the picture anyway. Then use the same picture EVERYWHERE. This is now part of your brand. 

Q4U: If you don't use a head shot, what are you afraid of? I really want to know. 

But how do I take a good picture? Here are some great links:

5 Tips for Taking a Good Author Photo by ebookpublishinghq. This post had me laughing out loud. My favorite is the reference to a romance writer's photo. Made me think about switching genres, but don't tell my hubby!
5 Tips for Taking a Great Author Photo by Voices from the Heart mentions some of the cliched photo poses.
9 Suggestions for Taking Better Head Shots by Michael Hyatt, author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Thomas Nelson). Enough said.
Look Great in Your Author Photo by The Review Review has a long list of things, including how to hide a double chin. What about that extra 30 lbs?

The Blogger Market

Okay, just remember, by not asking questions, this is what you signed up for.

:)

Blogging is a great way to market yourself, but are you doing it effectively? I think this boils down to what your goals are (doesn't everything?!) For the sake of simplicity, let's say your goal is to be searchable in search engines in relation to books, writing, and hopefully one day YOUR book.

You need to blog about the things you want to be associated with. Sounds simple enough, but it's not. For instance, when I started blogging I thought that meant I had to write about WRITING every time I blogged. While some of those posts were fairly informative and hopefully helpful to someone, I was new and there were lots of better writing blogs out there. I just rehashed what I was learning.

The bottom line--I was putting up mediocre posts that didn't feel like me. I was trying to sound all official and intelligent. (not that I'm stupid, but I'm a little more relaxed and conversational)

Your blog should really reflect YOU. Blogging will quickly drain you of all energy and desire to continue posting unless you make it about what's important to you. In my case that's more about building relationships and having conversations.

Here are some things I've found that keep me reading other blogs.

They share:

• personal stories about their writing
• story bits to entice me
• what they are learning about writing and publishing
• news about good things in other writer's lives (such as signing a contract)
• fun pictures (often with no relation to writing)
• Ask me questions that get me thinking

The point is they mix it up. Every day is a little different. 

Notice I didn't mention an amazing background and layout. These things are important, however a lot of people read in google reader and don't see those things anyway. My only suggestion for this area is pick something you like that's related to your theme. 

I write scifi and fantasy, so I picked a star background.

When I blog, I try and stay in my general area of interest. I review scifi and fantasy books. Yes, occasionally I wander off into other territories, and that's fine. However, I want the people who might eventually read my book to find my blog and invest themselves in my life. This makes it more likely they'll buy or at least read and review my book on Goodreads and Amazon. So I try to share science fiction related stuff. 

Such as these cool real science things. 

So, open your blog. Look at it and pretend you've never seen it before. 

Who does your blog say YOU are?

Jody Hedlund posted today about What fiction writers should blog about. Check it out!

What's Your Brand?

I think mine is Ghirardelli or Olive Garden.

Eh, yeah. Well, anyway.

When is the best time to start marketing yourself or creating your brand?

Now. Right now this very moment. You may not realize it, but you've actually been working on it for a while now. The real question is whether or not you are presenting yourself in the best way possible.

Have you Googled yourself?

Take a moment and try it. I'll wait.

What came up? Did YOU show up in that list? Was it the kind of stuff that made you look like a writer? Or at least a semi-intelligent human being? (And yes, I know that's hypocritical coming from the ninny who posted THIS.)

"We are all merchants." Sam Walton. 

As writers we are merchants. We sell ourselves as well as our novels. It takes time to make our presence known to the world. Every post, comment, social network account, etc. leaves one more mark on the web that says

I was here!

The best way to do it is by simply being you. This means you don't have to do it all. Unless you have a cloning  machine like the Ninja Captain.

This week I'd like to talk about things you can do now to build your personal brand. What do you want to talk about? Ask questions and let's start a dialogue. Otherwise you'll be subjected to my discombobulated ramblings. ;)