How do we build an audience without coming across as a stalker crossbred with an MLM rep? This is no easy task, especially since most creative professionals don’t exactly shine in this area. Face it. If we’d been good at high pressure sales, we’d be languishing on our yacht along with other people who excel at high pressure sales (or in federal prison *shrugs*).

Suffice to say that it is really tough to shift gears from being artist to trying to build a following large enough to impact sales.

But does it need to be as hard as we can make it?

The answer is always “NO.” We writers are notorious for overcomplicating everything. So no. It does not need to be as hard as we make it.

If you read my last post on branding How to Create YOUR Audience: Identify, Connect, Convert, I talked about low-consideration purchases and high consideration purchases. Why is that important? Because we know that, when it comes to selling books, competing on price or give-aways is automatically a bad plan for 98% of authors. If your name rhymes with Stephen King? Be my guest. For the rest of us mere mortals….

Sometimes knowing what NOT to do is the best way to plan what one SHOULD DO.

If books (entertainment in general) is a high-consideration purchase, then we know we are going to have to curate our brand and build an audience. How do we do that with no books or only a book or a couple books?

We don’t build an audience as much as we build a TRIBE.

1,000 True Fans

In my book, Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World (ebook now on sale for .99), I talked about Keven Kelly’s post about 1,000 True Fans from 2008. I wrote Rise of the Machines to be evergreen. The point of the book is to teach you how humans think and why they like what they like.

Why did I write it?

Because I knew social media was going to be one more thing we authors needed to do if we wanted to be successful. If we had to build an audience, then I wanted y’all to know how to build and what to focus on.

Hint: NOT BIG NUMBERS.

Back then, the Big Six was still around and their marketing people were giving terrible advice.

Publishers and agents became fixated on vanity numbers. I worked with a lot of mega-authors who were household names. They were apoplectic and panicking because Such -and-Such had 100K followers and they didn’t.

It is really hard for most people to grasp that big numbers aren’t the be all and end all. What matters is how much the people who DO follow you CARE. What good does a million followers do me if none of them ever engage in what I post?

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly said this sixteen years ago and it is still true today. In 2019, influencer Arianna Renee had an Instagram following of 2.3 million followers and she still couldn’t sell 36 t-shirts to launch her clothing line. She only needed to mobilize 0.000013% of her following and couldn’t do it.

This isn’t to depress you (I hope) as much as it is to encourage you. It is far better (and easier) to dig deep than spread wide.

Using Word Clouds to Build

If you haven’t read the last branding post, I strongly recommend you do because—as promised—today is more of a workshop.

I first want to point out that everyone has different skills, budgets, lives and likes. The whole reason I took a detour from writing to even teach branding is I wanted authors to have time left to do the things they loved to do most…to create. That said, our job isn’t all writing. We have editing, revisions, taxes, research, and did I mention taxes?

Suffice to say I would LOVE to have a formula where everyone only did things they wanted to do. I am good, but not that good. Secondly, if we think we are going to open a bunch of social media accounts and just automate and expect fans to materialize? That isn’t going to happen. It might feel like we have a brand and a platform, but there isn’t any engagement so there will be little loyalty.

Most likely we will get relegated as white noise. But, for those of y’all who have followed me any length of time, y’all know how I feel about automation. I don’t like eating spam, so I don’t serve it.

Why I came up with the word cloud is it gives you a better idea of WHAT and HOW to build and WHERE. Play to your strengths. The best social media platform to build is the one you will USE.

That said, too many writers hop on social media and our brains vapor lock.

I am a writer…so…I’ll talk about….writing.

Y’all ever had a relative, acquaintance or colleague who only ever talked about one thing ever? I had an uncle who only ever talked about sports. Despite him knowing I could not care less if baseball fell off the planet, it was all he talked about.

How many of y’all here enjoy hanging out with those people?

Brands are EMOTION

Whenever you do any kind of branding, the key is figuring out the overall emotion that you want to underpin everything. Advertisers have been doing this for over a century.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

What’s riding on your tires?

A diamond lasts forever.

Just Do It

In just a sentence, these brands convey the major emotional through-line that hooks people first. Obviously there is a lot more to these brands than just the one line, but who cares? If Nike sells tennis skirts or wristbands it is all powered by the call to get off our a$$es and do it!

Whether we like it or not, people will feel the same about us and our writing. The key emotion I wanted everyone to feel with me and my work is “safe.” It is why I named my first book We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. I could have named my book Marketing for Writers but I would have rather thrown myself in traffic. WHY? Because most of us would rather throw ourselves in traffic than do this marketing stuff.

But since I knew we HAD to do it, at least we didn’t have to go it alone. It’s why I work to use so much humor and make fun of myself. There is no boneheaded idea you have I probably didn’t have first…but of course I believed it was GENIUS—until it blew up in my face like a “present” from ACME.

We (You) Are Not Alone

Yet, whether I am talking about fiction, branding, life in general, the core emotion is “this” is a safe place to be a hot mess. And that actually does bleed over into my fiction.

In The Devil’s Dance (ebook also now on sale for .99), Romi Lachlann did everything right and it still fell apart.

Romi grew up white trash in a tiny town on the road to nowhere. She “escapes” and gets her education and a premium job in tech sales…only to be left holding the metaphorical bag when her rich fiancé pulls an Enron-like scandal, disappears, and leaves her as the FBI’s prime suspect.

Broke, blackballed and out of options, she has no choice but to slink home, defeated and humiliated, to her Jerry-Springer-crazy-as-a-bag-of-frogs family…and then she and family run afoul of a cartel.

Whether y’all read my goofy blogs here or my fiction, it is pretty clear I am remaining true to my brand.

So that is what I would like to posit to all of you reading. What do you want other to FEEL when they see your name, read your posts, your blogs your books, etc? Because while we might post on all kinds of topics, depending on what kind of social media platform we choose to use, there will still be a certain flavor to what we post.

Kind of like our friends. We have the funny friend, the serious friend, the super mom, the sport friend, whatever…but that doesn’t mean that is ALL of who they are. When we have friends, ideally we talk about a lot of other things and experience the entire spectrum of emotion. If not? That is a pretty shallow friendship.

Our goal is to replicate that “emotional experience” on line, because whether I like it or not? Most of the people we know, like and bond with are going to be online.

Build the Foundation

The word cloud gives you not only a place to start the conversation, but the longer and more robust the cloud, the more accurate a profile you will have of your potential fan (the person most likely to gravitate to you and thus your books).

I asked y’all to submit word clouds to use as examples. I will do my best, but I will reiterate that the LONGER and more detailed the cloud, the better the results. But, I get it. It was a big ask and I am super happy a couple people were willing to be vulnerable.

What I like to do with the word cloud is to come up with that I call a branding log-line. It serves as a theme for the feeling you want to give your audience. Sort of like your own Diamonds are forever. I might not have We are not alone plastered everywhere, but if you look at the lion’s share of my content, the fingerprints are there in the way I build.

If you want to post your log-line as part of your website or blog? Go for it. Visitors will know what to expect.

Example #1 Deborah Ademola:

Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Barbara (Faroese tragic romance), Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Titanic (1997 movie), Barbara (1997 Danish movie adaptation), The Fellowship of the Ring, autumn, winter, blue, pink, purple, black, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Office (USA), Canaletto paintings, Monet, Renoir, watercolour landscapes, Sherlock Holmes, bread-making, soap, luxury hand wash, hollyhock, verdana, roses, hoards kalanchoe plants, crocuses, snowdrops, Soap & Glory lotion and hand cream, Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, too much music to count, lives on Spotify and YouTube, Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, spagetti and tomato sauce, A Christmas Carol, Columbo, Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson), Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix), relearning Chinese, Qin Empire Alliance series, obsessed with etymology, loves writing by hand, obsessed with medieval European calligraphy, also Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, qigong, obsessed with German rom-com Isi und Ossi, lifelong aficionado of Baroque music, Bach is the best!, always reading about five or six books at a time, walks almost everywhere, Resolve (Foo Fighters) almost brings me to tears, obsessed with Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras

Looking at this cloud, I could pull out…

Debroah Ademola: To Thine Own Self Be True

Deborah Ademola: But Here We Are

Deborah Ademola: Concrete & Gold

Deborah Ademola: All Roads Lead Home

Deborah Ademola: Nothing Left to Lose

Deborah Ademola: No Roses without Thorns

Deborah Ademola: Tiptoeing Through Time

Deborah Ademola: The World as a Canvas

Deborah Ademola: Garden in My Soul

Deborah Ademola: Pride & Prejudice in the Paleozoic

Deborah Ademola: One Rainy Wish

Once I have a log-line to work with, see how the content almost creates itself? All of these can be as broad or narrow as Deborah wants them to be. When we have just a tiny bit of a border to build in, that is when creativity kicks in.

She can look to her cloud and just be…herself. When on-line, if she simply talks and posts about the things she enjoys, other people who connect to those things will find her. Since people generally buy from who they know and like this is a good way to filter through the gazillions of people and find her people.

Example #2 Cherlyn Gatto:

Classics like Oliver Twist, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and The Lord of the Rings, Movies like The Bear, Gilmore Girls, This is Us, The Firm, Edison bulbs, kayaking, biking, all things melancholy, edgy, and redemptive, baking bread, farm life, sunsets, night skies, bonfires, warm blankets, cozy socks, Instagram reels of babies and puppies and surprise bears and crazy falls, The Monkees and 60s classic rock and Christian worship bands, dark chocolate, Starbucks Chestnut Praline Lattes at Christmas time, football games, rustic country anything, horseback riding, long car rides and road trips to anywhere, decorating Christmas cookies, thundershowers, sunflowers and meadows, definitely Apple over android and Starbucks over D&D, editing versus the blank page, fiction more than reality, days that open without commitments, approval from others, scheduling and organizing but not following through, wet earth in springtime, gravely voices, when my son sings in his band, ice water with lots of lemon, pine candles, fires in the hearth, corn hole and badminton and any game I can win.

Cherlyn Gatto: God Only Knows

Cherlyn Gatto: Murder, Mayhem and Cozy Socks

Cherlyn Gatto: For What It’s Worth

Cherlyn Gatto: Bad Moons and Bonfires

Cherlyn Gatto: Starry Nights and the Sudden Drop

Cherlyn Gatto: The Game of LIFE

Example #3 Barbara Meyers:

Family. Books. Reading. Fiction, Thrillers, suspense, mystery, sometimes “big” romance or “women’s” fiction. Bible, spirituality, prayer, observant, exercise, blue, salty snack foods. Raspberries, yogurt (vanilla), granola; dogs, walking, home improvement shows, cooking shows; Bourne movies, grandchildren, tee shirts, shorts, writing fiction; TikTok, psychology, human nature, personal growth, listening, cards (greeting and playing); kindness, friends, pens, journals, ideas, games, bubble baths, healthy, aesthetics, flipflops; Holidate, CJ Box, Nick Petrie, Robert Crais, Sandra Brown, Jane Casey, Claire McGowan, winter (in Florida, especially); ADD, weak follow through, Suduko, distracted, disorganized, poor career and business management ability; resists learning new things. Don’t bore me with details or directions. Quotes. Stand-up comedians, humor, laughter, smiles, adventures.

Barbara Meyers: The Rest is Just Details

Barbara Meyers: Leap of Faith

Barbara Meyers: Leap of Fai–NOPE!

Barbara Meyers: Spies, Lies & Flip Flops

Barbara Meyers: Precious Things

Barbara Meyers: Cloud on My Lips

Barbara Meyers: Got Sand in My Sanity

Example #4 Kathleen Saunders

I love reading, writing, my family and pets, all animals (the reason I’m vegetarian), the outdoors, our cottage at the lake, watching wildlife, walking, gardening, swimming, riding, teaching, continuing to learn daily, improving my French, travelling (especially Europe), The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, How to Stop Time, The Midnight Library, anything by Kate Atkinson, Ann Cleeves books, The Children of Men and anything by P.D James and Ruth Rendell, music (everything from Joe Cocker and Roy Orbison to Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars), Lost, Survivor, American Idol, and old movies, landscape paintings, and anything with an interesting use of colour especially with subjects from nature.

***Kathleen I am guessing at your last name so correct me if I am wrong.

Kathleen Saunders: When the Night Comes

Kathleen Saunders: Face in a Cloud

Kathleen Saunders: Sunshine on My Shoulders

Kathleen Saunders: Time in a Bottle

Kathleen Saunders: At the Stroke of Midnight

Kathleen Saunders: A Place in This World

Kathleen Saunders: Life on a String

Kathleen Saunders: Hands in the Dirt, Eyes on the Skies

Build With Attitude

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who was brave enough to put up a sample cloud. Usually when I do this one on one, I will send back for a longer cloud or some more specificity in the words. These were a bit on the short side for my preference, but I am still in awe of your courage.

If I nailed it, great! If not, then y’all at least see what I am doing here.

Song, book and movie titles are great fodder for the imagination and you can’t copyright a title. If you have a song that you believe is your theme song? See if you can work with it. Just avoid the lyrics because musicians—rightfully—are very territorial.

The cool thing about this log-line is you can change it out. It is supposed to be a guideline, not a noose. Like an outfit, it impacts how you might present yourself. Sundress/suit versus a military uniform.

Again, to build a brand, just talk about the things you are passionate about. If you love kittens? Great! Animal videos? Sure! That is fantastic content people love to interact with and share. Same with funny memes. Or nostalgic posts. There are certain kinds of content that by its nature, have better “legs” and are better material to build with.

We can dive deeper into how this all works on line later. If you really want this expounded, pick up a copy of Rise of the Machines because I have a whole section on this and the book is .99.

But, I hope you can see that, with a word cloud and a log-line, you can take an honest inventory of what kind of social media is a good fit. What social platform is the best for building an audience? The one you ENJOY.

The entire point of this is learning ways to begin the conversation in an authentic way. Then, you’ll become the author people happen to know and like (and they trust your content). You have your people and, unlike buying email lists or spamming people, they’ll want to be there.

What Are Your Thoughts on the Build?

Even if you don’t use the word cloud to create a log-line, do you see how it is a really useful tool for not only starting the conversations, but to keep them going? While genre might impact the log-line, it doesn’t have to. Our log-line really is more reflective of our voice.

I can think of fantasy that is super serious The Lord of the Rings versus super silly/campy Army of Darkness. Both stories play out in a medieval setting but aren’t remotely like each other.

Whether we write romance, horror, thrillers, mystery, that is more of a side point. Readers will gravitate to our unique lens that we bring to the creative table. That’s why I don’t like us fixating too hard on the books themselves. Your fellow humans can surprise you.

They might HATE romance, but they love your romance novels. I have had people who never read thrillers or horror, but they gave the genre a chance because I wrote it. And they’ve told me they’ll likely never read another in that genre, but they loved mine. Sometimes, they didn’t even read them because, while they don’t like that genre, they have friends or family who DO…and they give my books as gifts.

Trust me, there is almost no greater compliment.

Ultimately, we don’t have to sell to everyone. Who cares if a person buys only one book, so long as it is YOUR BOOK? And if that person likes you and your books, that is a great step toward that super fan who’s positively EVANGELICAL about everything you produce. It is easier to build with friends.

The SUPER FANS are who you want to invest your heart in because they give theirs freely in return.

The post How to Build an Audience, No Duct Tape Required appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Audience. How can we connect to an audience (readers) who will love our stories enough to buy, support and spread the word? This is the ever-present challenge on every author’s mind.

If it isn’t, then it should be.

The post before last, we had a big group hug and sang a little digital kumbayah in my post Help! I’m Having a Mid-Write Crisis! We need a pep talk/reality check every now and then to keep going because we are creative professionals. Many of us didn’t choose this life, it chose us. We aren’t going to be happy unless we are creating because it is part of who we are.

That said, if we are here for the long-haul, it is critical we identify, then connect with and curate our audience. You are not alone. Neither am I. Guess what?

We are also NOT special.

Whether is it art, music, theater, articles, fashion, jewelry, Netflix series, or novels, the hunt for the elusive audience has been a universal endeavor. No one has cracked the secret code for finding a guaranteed audience.

Okay no one except the people who write books called, “The Secret Code for Finding a Guaranteed Audience.”

Locating Our Audience

While locating our audience might seem rather daunting (it is), take comfort that it is also nothing NEW. Great news is what has been done before can be done…again.

Today, I am going to share a tactic I invented years ago and highlighted in my book Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World. We are going to learn to do a Word Cloud.

Yes, I know this is a branding book that is eleven years old. I wrote the content to be what is called evergreen, meaning the principals I teach in it work no matter the age, time, or technology. Branding has never changed because humans don’t change.

Don’t believe me? Look at a pyramid then check out Instagram, Facebook, TikTok….

Lotsa CATS.

This is why RoM was all about understanding people. How to identify what they like, hate, love, loathe, are likely to share? It is NOT “The Secret Code for Finding a Guaranteed Audience” but it is possibly the “I Did All the Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To.”

While I can never guarantee anything, I can remarkably improve your odds.

Today, I am not going to talk about our product (the books). What I want to do is, hopefully, help y’all think about branding, platform and audience in a fresh way. This means we are ONLY going to do the initial step. If we want to locate our audience, seems only logical we figure out a way to recognize our people when we see them and vice versa.

Identifying Our Audience

This might be a silly example, but before I married and became a mom, I was the auntie to a bunch of nephews, godchildren and all their friends. Though I loathe crowds with the power of a thousand suns, I loved being “Cool Auntie” even more. So, quite often, I’d take a whole gaggle of little kids to theme parks like Six Flags, Disney, the Fort Worth Zoo, whatever.

To keep me sane, we would all dress in some super bright identical color so that I could easily find them, and they could easily find me.

Believe it or not, this is similar to how all humans bond (all animals, actually). We like to find our people. Someone posts a funny meme, or wears an obscure band tee, or quotes some cult classic movie and, Did we just become best friends?

When it comes to marketing for books, you cannot approach it like you are selling toilet paper. Why? Who is NOT using toilet paper? All the ads, coupons and sales are meant to appeal to a vast group of people who’d already planned on buying toilet paper. Books, weirdly enough, are a totally different beast that demand a unique approach.

For brevity’s sake, I explain this more in:

Branding & Attention: Busy Brains in a Busy World

Before we expand on this, I just need to lay a leeetle more groundwork. I promise. It’s critical.

Getting Tribal

Remember the time that all those people who brushed their teeth with Crest mocked the Colgate users on Facebook? Or the folks who preferred Bounty paper towels memed the HELL out of those who bought off-brand on X? What about that time the YouTube video about Listerine users went viral?

Listed among the things that never happened and never will.

WHY?

In sales there are 2 kinds of purchases, low consideration and high-consideration. Low-consideration is like TP, paper towels, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. Those marketing these products aren’t fundamentally trying to ingrain a new behavior in their customers. This is why price points, marketing and coupons work for low-consideration products.

High-consideration are a totally different beast. When it comes to a high-consideration purchase, we humans get positively TRIBAL.

Mac users versus Microsoft? Mustang versus Corvette? Louis Vuitton versus Chanel? Android versus iPhone?

Notice the Differences?

First of all, these products usually are VERY expensive. A cheap Walmart purse will carry my crap just as well as a Louis Vuitton. Notice, though that LV never holds a BOGO sale? Tiffany’s never has a guy dressed as a gorilla twirling a sign to get people in the store.

Why?

They don’t need to.

Want to start a fight? Tell an Android user your iPhone is so much better (or vice versa). Challenge your souped up Honda against a Mustang. Get a diehard Nike junkie to wear Adidas drip. Tell Dallas Cowboys fans they aren’t going to the Super Bo…never mind.

That’s just being mean.

***But Dallas Cowboys fans will wear the jerseys anyway, right?

Y’all get the gist.

How do books fit into this?

Sadly, roughly 93% of the literate population, if asked to rank “things they’d love to do in their spare time,” would rank reading a book down below doing their taxes and getting their teeth cleaned…at the same time.

As writers, we have to acknowledge that while our book might be cheaper than a tube of toothpaste, it costs what people have less and less of.

TIME.

We are asking people to part with money they don’t have to do an activity they believe they will hate for an average of 12-15 hours they don’t have…and pay money to do this AND tell others how awesome it is.

Easy peasy, right?

Yes, and no. If we are aware that traditional marketing never has and never will sell books, then we don’t wast precious time and money. When it comes to books, we have to tap into the power of the TRIBE.

Show me a runaway success series (in print, on screen or both) and I will show you a rabid tribe ready to devour all things related: Harry Potter, Twilight, 50 Shades, Squid Games. Game of Thrones, The Last Airbender, Hunger Games, etc.

Audience: Who Are We Writing FOR?

Now that I set all this up, hopefully this exercise will make more sense to you. Because I am pretty sure you’d love your future audience to argue over who’s your best character, maybe dress like them, buy merch, argue over who should have ended up a couple, etc. Right? Which people DO.

Hang around Dr. Who fans for 30…okay 15 seconds.

Now that you know what a tribe is and why you need one, how do you locate them? This is the technique I mentioned that is in my book.

I have never before blogged on this.

Get out a piece of paper and hand write this exercise. I want to think about yourself. Pretend you are a jar of pasta sauce and we are listing the ingredients that make you, YOU. Add in favorite books, movies, seasons, colors, hobbies, songs, sensory phrases. Just word barf onto the page (not in neat columns).

The more words the better.

I am limiting here because I just need to do enough to make my point. Also, once you “finish” the cloud, keep adding to it. Heck, have friends and family help out, since they see aspects of you that you might not.

I am going to do three different examples to show you my point.

Author A

Science-fiction junkie, twisted sense of humor, Dune, Anime, Manga, graphic art, first-person shooter games, XBox, zombies, cheesy horror flicks, Army of Darkness, Fight Club, all things Mel Brooks, British comedy, Monty Python, Balls of Fury, Dodgeball, martial arts, Kung Fu movies, favorite holiday is Halloween, haunted houses, live in smartass t-shirts, Sabaton, heavy metal, high fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, paintball with my friends, live music, off roading, microbreweries, building models, Ancient Aliens, no such thing as bad pizza, cat person, take in too many strays, Dr. Who, hate sports unless it’s jousting, Renaissance Festivals, ComiCon, DC, Marvel, Suicide Squad, HALO, Borderlands, live on energy drinks, all-night gaming, Squid Games, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Shogun, Jurassic Park, creating badass costumes, serial killer podcasts, love the smell of autumn bonfires, way too many hobbies, never organized, adulting sucks, only cookbook I use is my Beetlejuice Cookbook

Author B

Believe in love at first sight, Hallmark channel, bubble baths, wine-tasting, retail therapy, gluten free, chocolate everything, baking, Instagram, TikTok, live in the gym, all things fitness, shoes and more shoes, makeovers, Christmas, decorating for the holidays, cooking big fancy meals for my family, crochet, knitting, adult coloring books to de-stress, hosting parties so can dress up, jazz, Michael Buble, Christmas carols, singing in the shower, smell of fresh flowers, taste of hot chocolate chip cookies, gardening, planting flowers in spring, watching the Westminster dog show, Pomeranians, practicing French because no sexier language, new body lotion, expensive perfumes, essential oils, love stories, movies that make me cry, Joy Luck Club movie and book, hate horror or anything gross, love a happy ending, wrapping Christmas packages, Bridget Jones Diary movie and book, Liane Moriarty, home improvement shows, Lifestyle podcasts, organizing junkie, color-code everything, hate a mess but kids so it is a happy mess

Author C

Voracious reader, love history, prefer in depth memoirs, British History, History of the Roman Empire, read all the Greek philosophers, Epictitus, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, speak several languages, taught myself Mandarin for fun, member of the Japanese Club in my city, volunteer as a docent at the art museum, recently took up sculpting, love making pottery, watercolor, Japanese Gardens, Japanese Festival in the Spring, Shakespeare in the Park, hot yoga, making my own sushi, vegan, love the big city, museums, subways, Central Park in Fall, Tai Chi, prefer classical music, NPR, history podcasts, cycling, don’t own a car, built a totally green house out of all reused materials, minimalist, love Swedish furniture, run marathons, read the NYT, collect all the Pulitzer winning novels, foreign films, hate profanity, love etymology, not a fan of holidays but enjoy food festivals, watch shows about exotic cooking, inhale history documentaries when I watch television but usually I don’t, smell of pavement in summer after a rain

Profiling the Audience

Okay so I just gave you profiles for three very different “authors.” What else did I give you? The most accurate picture of their audience humanly possible. Look at that cloud and you will see their potential audience (readers) in sharp relief.

Using a little bit of logic, I am pretty sure that Author A isn’t trying to win a Pulitzer with his literary novel featuring rogue samurai. Author C probably isn’t writing science fiction with loads of chainsaws and smart ass kitschy lines. Author B isn’t going to have profanity or violence.

Not to mention that—with Author B—everyone is going to get a happily ever after, whereas I don’t trust Author A not to turn everyone into zombies or Author C not to end the book with a tragic, but noble suicide/sacrifice for the greater good.

Notice that while they all share certain things in common (all writers, all love to read, all enjoy food, all listen to podcasts, all have creative hobbies, all enjoy animals) these authors are NOT IN COMPETITION…at all.

Even if there is some crossover, books are not so cost-prohibitive people cannot buy more than one (unlike a sports car). For the record, many of the items from all three clouds are ME.

Yes, I know. My humor get any darker and NASA gonna be studying it. But I also love cooking, crocheting, and primarily watch documentaries (and horror).

But I am not for everyone.

It is okay to be an oddball. A pattern will still emerge. That pattern is your people.

Trust me.

That is for another post, though.

Find Your Tribe So You Can Connect to YOUR Audience

It is really easy to get overwhelmed in the digital age of publishing. Part of WHY we get overwhelmed is because are trying to reach everyone. We don’t want to reach everyone because we cannot possibly please everyone. Everyone is not our audience.

Not everyone loves my blog, or my writing style or my tacky memes or even me. *clutches pearls* I KNOW! CRAZY TALK! #Philistines

In all seriousness, I “get” that I am in-your-face-salty and my blogs are LONG. Why? Because I am in-your-face-salty and suck at being brief in life and on the page.

Duh.

Thing is, though, people who like my blogs (audience) also generally like my fiction, even if the genre isn’t their usual forte. If you read The Devil’s Dance, it is no shock I wrote it. Pick up a copy of WTH Did I Just Read? 13 short stories of the Hitchcock-ian variety, and I bet you can pick out which stories I wrote.

Why? Because I cannot create anything without leaving my unique fingerprints on my work. Neither can you.

Writers write from who we are (or even who we long to be). It is why we kinda freak the Normies out.

Tribes Make Markets Manageable

Today, we aren’t going to go into any deeper detail because today is all about figuring out who exactly you are writing FOR. Even if you are writing non-fiction self-help books, I hope you can see how each of these profiles offer a sense of style, tone and voice.

The Navy S.E.A.L self improvement book “Extreme Ownership” has a vastly different tone than Rachel Hollis’s “Girl Wash Your Face” and THANK GOD because a world where Jocko Willink is talking like Rachel Hollis is a parallel dimension that should not exist outside of a Rom-Com.

Jocko Willink isn’t getting up at 0330, checking in on X, and then crushing the weights with super sets with overwhelmed moms trying to fit back into pre-baby clothing. He also isn’t giving his audience tips on how to make the perfect holiday basalmic vinegar or get rust stains out of baby clothes.

Though I seriously just cracked myself up.

Jocko, please don’t kill me.

Jocko Willink and Rachel Hollis, while both self-improvement experts, are not even in the same galaxy when it comes to finding their respective audience. If they aren’t competing for the same audience, why would we?

They appreciate the type of person most likely to benefit from/enjoy their content and then the post and socialize accordingly.

Word Cloud and Audience

Once you have your word cloud, you’ll have a far better idea which social media platforms might be a better fit, what kind of content to post, and ways to connect with people who share those connection points in your cloud.

This will make social media a lot more fun for all involved. Each of my imaginary authors can post about the things they love and enjoy and that will attract others who love and enjoy similar things.

Additionally, the content in that cloud has a MUCH higher chance of being shared. The more people share our content, the more algorithms give us favor, meaning our posts will show up in more feeds (and they don’t even have to be directly following us).

I can post an ad about my book being on sale and maybe a couple people (out of pity or fondness) will share. But the nature of the content is that it dies on the vine.

Memes? Funny videos? Inspirational videos? Open-ended discussions where people can have fun and engage? People loooove sharing that stuff and that helps you grow your platform logarithmically instead of linearly.

Eventually you bond, you talk, you klatsche and create your tribe.

What Are Your Thoughts?

For anyone who cannot wait to know what you’ll DO with your word cloud, feel free to pick up a copy of Rise of the Machines. The book goes into a lot of the neuroscience behind WHY people like a brand or don’t. What is going on in the synapses that either makes a love connection or fizzles?

Technology changes, humans don’t.

If you DO write a word cloud, again, strive to make it as long as possible. Feel free to add to it. It should be a living document.

Y’all have any questions about the CLOUD? Anything I can clarify with a post?

I think the word cloud is a really fun exercise and ONLY FOR THE BOLD AND BRAVE, feel free to post your cloud in the comments and what genre(s) you write if you’d like to volunteer for medical experimentation to be an example of what we’ll be DOING with those clouds.

My other personalities only cooperate so far.

Think of it as a cool way for me to get attention comments and you guys to score some free consulting! Win-Win!

***Remember NOT a column. Do like my examples if you want to volunteer *smooch*

Oh, and iPhone is way better. Only serial killers prefer Android *runs away giggling*

The post How to Create YOUR Audience: Identify, Connect, Convert appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

SEO, for those who might not know, stands for Search Engine Optimization. And right now, many of you might be like, “Well, great. THAT makes it clear as mud.” Today, we’re going to talk a little about search engines, how they work, and ways search engine optimization can make our content work harder so we don’t have to.

For the record, one of the reasons I don’t blog a lot on SEO practices is they change…a lot.

Though, I’ll add a correction.

The core concepts of WHY we’re doing what we are doing do NOT change. That’s more what we’ll talk about in this post. When we know WHY we are doing X, Y, or Z, then that makes it far simpler to keep up with shifts in how SEO hands out favor.

I will also talk to the NOVELISTS out there. Yes, SEO can be a game-changer for you guys as well. It’s okay. Breathe in a bag if you need to. I’ll make this super easy.

First, why do SEO tactics change?

Before we get to the BIG PICTURE stuff, understand search engines have three core imperatives. The first is to deliver results quickly, and the second is to deliver the most accurate and useful results that also account for intent. Search engines are also vested in keeping those searching safe. They do this by running interference between us and malicious actors.

So, one reason we need to keep on top of SEO changes is because those who design algorithms are constantly seeking to improve search results. We definitely want to make use of any advantage we can get.

There are also people who try and game the system and garner unjust advantage. SEO modifications help neutralize any cheating.

My advice has never changed. If it seems like a shortcut? Just leave it alone. For instance, a few years ago, I adamantly warned people against buying external links (pingbacks)—pages outside linking back to a website to buff up SEO. I posited that eventually the algorithms would improve and spot the cheat and those who engaged in this practice would deeply regret it.

Quite a few folks didn’t heed my advice and major search engines responded by essentially penalizing their sites or even ghosting their sites completely.

Okay, so WHAT IS this GOOGLE Voodoo?

As I just explained, search engines exist to help us sort the vast realms of the Internet for what we want/need in a fraction of a second. HOW do they do what they do?

No, not magic but close.

And, for the record, this is a 50,000 foot view. There are tons of experts who go into far greater detail in books, blogs and videos. That’s beyond the scope of my blogs, since I mainly focus on writing and bigger picture branding and social media.

Hopefully, after this post, though, you’ll make better use of SEO tips and tricks out there.

To garner search engine favor, we go back to the WHY. If we want search engines to connect those searching with OUR CONTENT, then it helps if we leave a clear and well-maintained trail for the search engines (and their webcrawlers) to follow.

Google isn’t very different from us.

If we were walking through the wilderness, which would we choose to do? Forge our own path, machete in hand, no compass or map, praying we didn’t slide off a cliff and into a roaring river? OR, would we take the wide path. Maybe the one with a smooth layer of stone, a clear border, signage and solar LED lighting?

Would we want the road that is simple to follow? Or would we trek off down the road that branches off in weird directions, circles back on itself, and has a lot of dead ends?

If our site—on the backend—looks like this (below), a webcrawler is likely to be as confused as any poor soul driving on this street.

If this kind of ‘signage’ is frustrating to you, then it’s also frustrating for Google.

This is, essentially, the heart of SEO.

With SEO, Content is KING

Most of my consulting over the years has, obviously, been with writers. I do, however, consult with companies and larger brands wanting to improve their digital branding footprint.

Believe it or not, we writers have the advantage because writers….WRITE.

Think of content like your building blocks for your road that directs searchers to what you have to offer. Roman roads anyone? They built those suckers to last!

We want to create content, but not all content is best for our goals. I still believe blogs are some of the most enduring building blocks.

Don’t shout me down yet.

A tweet is good for about a day. Facebook? Maybe a couple days. Instagram? Very good, but remember it’s primarily a visual medium. Can that work when it comes to selling books? Sure. But that’s for another day and another post.

While social media platforms are FABULOUS as a supplement, they don’t work as well for the main course. Some key things to understand about a blog is that blogs, done properly, are evergreen. Blogs can be an author’s BEST FRIEND.

We can tailor them to be attractive to our ideal audience and then use the blog to cultivate a passionate fan base. If people trust us to entertain them on a blog, they’re much more likely to trust us with a full BOOK.

Blogs are the gift that keeps on giving. I have over 2000 of those gifts out there still working for me. Can’t say that about my FB posts.

I still have people tweet out posts that are so old I’ve forgotten I even wrote them. YEARS later, those posts are still helping my SEO even though SEO rules have changed.

Taking on the Blogging Bullies—Ageism, Fear & Misbehaving “Old” Women. *sighs* That one was fun…#FeistyKristen

Blogging Power

Blogs are fabulous for writers because we are WORD PEOPLE. They’re also wonderful for SEO in large part because there are so many SEO goodies we can pack all in one place. Google likes to see a number of crucial elements:

• Posts that are rich in relevant keywords
• Images that are optimized
• Optimized video
• Audio you’ve optimized
• Internal links (links to other salient places on your site)
• Quality external links (links to outside pages with authority)
• Pingbacks (quality sites linking BACK to OUR page)

All these factors (and more) entice search engines to list your content above the competition. Obviously, we’re unlikely to use/have ALL of these in one post, but we can use quite a few.

That and I can pretty much promise y’all that no one is ever going to do a random Google search and find our witty tweet, our clever Facebook post, or our shiny Instagram. They WILL, however, find our blogs.

People LIKE to share great blogs. This is true for writers and even businesses. Blogs can inspire, entertain, inform, or, like this blog…teach. My blogs might be long for a blog, but—trust me—they are REALLY short for the BOOKS one would have to read to learn all this stuff.

Great posts help us on social media. Though we won’t earn any SEO for someone tweeting our post, these endorsements act as signage directing strangers to our content. Then, once they’re on our site, we have our chance to win them over and make a fan.

I write FICTION. Why do I care about SEO or a BLOG?

First of all, if you choose to blog, I STRONGLY recommend blogging off your own site so you get all the SEO credit. That and guess where you can SELL YOUR BOOKS? Um, your website. So YES, blogging is fabulous for novelists as well as NF (non-fiction) authors.

If I write mysteries, then what do you think my potential fans are interested in? True crime, forensics, famous unsolved cases, movies or series in that genre.

Or say I write science fiction. Again, what do people who LOVE science fiction also enjoy? We like to argue over Star Wars, who was the best captain in Star Trek. We enjoy stuff on science, futurism, androids, etc.

Profile your ideal audience for topics, then slap some SEO mojo on there. Trust me, after a day looking at spreadsheets, we are thrilled to argue about What Went Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels.

Sure beats book spam.

For more on specifically HOW to craft a fiction brand, I recommend my evergreen branding book, Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World. There is a detailed step-by-step that will save YEARS of trial-and error.

Now that I’ve established blogs are a great idea for juicing up your SEO and your brand, how does it all…um, work?

Keywords, webcrawlers and SEO

Keywords give search engines guidance as to what any piece of content is ABOUT. In my early days of blogging, I could use clever titles that hooked people to click and didn’t actually give away the topic. I still “can” but it’s better to cut to the chase and say IN THE TITLE what my post will address.

Years Ago: One Secret Ingredient to Work Smarter NOT Harder

Today: SEO—The Key to Working Smarter Not Harder

After search engines spot my keyword in the title, they then use webcrawlers to comb the page and sniff out certain cues this is a good path. If you notice, my first sentence uses the keyword I chose (SEO). Then, in the body of my first paragraphs, there are quite a few words that Google would associate with a post discussing search engine optimization.

The webcrawlers are in search of common synonyms or words one would expect like Google, Safari, Firefox, keywords, webcrawlers, etc.

They’re going to look at my H1, H2, and H3 level headers (think of an outline) to see if those headers also reference what I’m allegedly writing about.

While this might seem silly, think back to the early days of the Internet. I once looked up ‘Cuban Cuisine’ only to click and realize—to my horror—it was a p0rn site. There was A LOT of bait-and-switch before algorithms became ‘smart’ enough to sniff out the scam and refuse to list crap like that in a legit search.

What does it mean to ‘optimize’?

Optimization, to put as simply for the time we have, are all the bricks and breadcrumbs we leave connecting our content so search engines want to recommend us. We’ve left a really clear pathway, a better pathway than those with similar content.

I can put video or pictures on a post or a website, and it’s a great idea. The problem is that webcrawlers don’t ‘see’ the way humans see, so we need to help them out. One way is to add in ALT TEXT.

Most of us use the Visual Editor when working on a site like WordPress. But, if one looks to the Code Editor, you can see the ‘guts’ of the content (what search engines can read).

Here’s a screenshot of my dashboard and this is in the upper right-hand corner. At the bottom, notice I can select to see the actual CODE.

Notice how this block of code is bracketed with <!– wp:image at the front end and closes with <!– /wp:image –>

THIS is what tells a webcrawler this is an IMAGE. It’s also beyond what most of us regular bloggers will mess with.

A professional could go change the actual code, but that is a bit much for today. Suffice to say, if I have an image with a woman using a computer, I need to either describe that in the ALT Text (woman on computer) or go in and modify the code. I can also add a title (Woman on Computer) to help the webcrawlers out.

***Note: An image of a woman on a computer is in line with images that make sense for a post about SEO.

This works for video and audio as well. A search engine cannot SEE, so when we ‘optimize’ we are literally writing out WHAT that image or video IS and why it’s relevant to our topic.

IDEALLY…

In a perfect world, we’d use all our own images, video, etc. Granted, this isn’t the most expedient. Just know that if your images are uniquely yours (as in off your smart phone), you get more credit than an image from, say, a FREE use site like Pexels.

But, as I like to say, “Perfect is the enemy of the finished.” I’d rather y’all have ‘lesser images’ that help out your FANTASTIC blog post than a post with no images at all.

Keep in mind that many people are reading articles on phones. TINY font. That or they’ve been at a computer all day long. Their eyes are tired. Huge chunks of text are the equivalent of tossing their corneas into a digital iron maiden.

Adding in images can not only add a little SEO boost, but they can make posts more enjoyable and improve overall readability.

The Trick to Links

Links are wonderful for SEO. Visitors can easily spot the link. These are the clickable words in blue. These blue words are also known as anchor text. To make the best use of anchor text, make sure the words in blue clearly indicate where the link will take any visitor.

Example: This post gives us 10 Ways to Protect Your Personal Information.

Notice I wrote out the title of the post and it is SUPER CLEAR what anyone clicking will be reading about. No need to be clever, just be clear.

A few more key things to remember.

Whenever you add in a link (anchor text), make sure to choose the option for the linked content to open in a NEW page. The goal is to offer additional insight without directing visitors off of our website.

Visitors might back up and try to relocate our site, but do we really want to risk it? That and search engines can ding us for that.

Also, it might be worth your time to go through your site and blogs and get rid of any dead links (links that no longer lead anywhere). A lot of this I need to do, but what’s the old saying? A cobbler’s wife never has new shoes.

I’ll get to it…one day.

Then, we also want to offer internal links that expound on our topic but that don’t use the same keyword. For instance, earlier in this article, I linked to a previous post I wrote about blogs. Blogs are are part of SEO, but the post was not about SEO.

For my external link, I directed y’all to Pexels, which is one of my favorite sites for free images. Again, images are great for SEO, but the site is not about SEO.

This way my keyword is not directly competing with internal or external links that have the SAME keyword. Rather, they have related keywords.

As for pingbacks connecting back to ME? I have to earn those. If we post regular, high-quality content, odds are people will eventually link back to us. Remember, linking to quality outside sites helps their SEO, too.

Also, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

I know many of y’all blog and I give double points in my editing contest at the end for those of you who link to me in your posts. Not only does it help your SEO because my site is popular and trusted, but I’m offering an additional incentive in the form of a fun contest.

SEO is a LONG GAME

Keep in mind that search engine optimization really IS a long game. It will take time, trial and error to see results. Even after that? You’ll need to regularly tweak.

Of course there are all kinds of extra tools we can use to find the best keywords (Moz Keyword Explorer) and all sorts of high-end analytic tools to see how our site is performing.

I recommend adding the YOAST plug-in to help out. There’s a free version as well as a paid upgrade. This plug-in literally spells out all the stuff your post still needs. Headers funky? Yoast will nail you. Not enough external links? Again, Yoast will tell you. So if you’re a n00b at SEO, it’s a fab place to start.

Yoast also offers a ton of tutorials on YouTube from super-n00b to pro.

Just remember that small actions, over time, add up. It’s why we check in at certain key points over time. This will let us know if what we’re doing is working or if we need to adjust our approach.

Obviously there is a LOT more to this SEO thing, but knowing the basics goes a long way. This will help make sure that you can reap rewards from the hard work you put into your content.

We could have the spiffiest website or blog out there, but if we fail to create clear, well-lit paths to our content, then no one will know about it.

Thoughts? I LOVE hearing from you!

I ‘get’ this is a super-newbie post and there are way more gizmos out there. Did this help those of you out there who maybe heard about SEO or search engine optimization but maybe you were intimidated?

I really hope this broad perspective helps with the fear factor and if y’all want me to go into greater depth on anything, let me know! Any questions? Comments? Funny limericks?

I love hearing from you!

What do you WIN? For the month of MARCH, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice.

What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

***February’s winner is Barbara (a.k.a. bhussy)! Please send your pages double-spaced, Times New Roman, one-inch margins to kristen at wana intl dot com. Put CONTEST WINNER in the header so I SEE it, since I get a zillion emails. A page is 250 words. Feel free to go over a little if you need to finish a sentence or paragraph.

The post SEO: The Key to Working Smarter not Harder appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Branding, at least for authors, is a relatively new concept. Selling books was SO much ‘easier’ before the digital age, when life ran at a comparable snail-hooked-on-Valium pace. Or it at least seems that way.

If you need to remove those rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, I do recommend reading my post The Ugly Truth of Publishing & How BEST to Support Writers.

Back to reality.

Now, in 2021, when people are busier and more distracted than ever before in history, branding is harder than ever before. The competition is staggering. Additionally, we have about a nanosecond to capture attention then not much longer than that to keep it.

Turning an impression into a sale? Then into a loyal fan? Even taller order. What color would you like that unicorn?

I know it feels that way, but I am here to make it simple and DOABLE.

Today, the words ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ seem to be tossed around daily. Everyone and everything is or has or needs a brand. What’s funny is that branding might seem relatively new, yet has been around since…people.

Granted how important a brand is, the need for one as an author, etc. is a fairly recent development as I mentioned a moment ago. Yes, we need to craft excellent books (product) but we also must begin building our author brand EARLY.

***As in the first day we believe we might one day want to sell a book.

Ah, but calm down. There’s a lot of confusion regarding what a brand actually is. Many assume ads, marketing, and promotional campaigns are ‘branding.’

Yeah…no.

We can build a brand, but alas we cannot buy one. There are no shortcuts. Ads, promotion, marketing can help expand an existing brand, but cannot be substituted for one.

This approach is akin to believing a Japanese robot-wife is the same as a real human wife. In some areas of life, shortcuts end up a) a waste of time b) a bigger waste of money c) a remake of Blade Runner.

Branding Basics

As I mentioned in my last post, The Psychology of Selling, I wrote my book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World to be evergreen information. In my POV, social media changes daily, but humans never change.

Just read Shakespeare or look at your ex’s Instagram *rolls eyes*.

That’s why my social media/branding guide focuses a lot more on the science behind what creates what we recognize as a brand. 

More specifically, what captures our attention? What turns us off? What renders a brand invisible (thus a non-brand)? Which habits/behaviors can ruin a powerhouse brand that once seemed bulletproof?

How can one brand launch into the stratosphere with little to no budget when another fails miserably no matter how many millions of dollars are poured into ad campaigns and celebrity endorsements?

Obviously, my book delves into far more detail about the science behind branding. But a little common sense goes a long way, and helps us work smarter not harder.

Thus, today we’ll simply touch on why our everyday on-line behaviors collect into a larger pool we call ‘author brand.’

First…

Branding is NOT New

The thing is, humans have always had a ‘personal brand.’ Branding, in its simplest form, is what descriptors we attach to another person. Simply put, it is that person’s (that product’s or that company’s) story.

Think differently.

Just do it.

You’re in good hands.

‘Branding’ an innate habit we use to organize and transition the fuzzy and inchoate into the dramatic, emotional, and memorable.

Branding is simply an extension of story.

That guy/that gal is too amorphous for us to remember. It also doesn’t provide enough detail for us to know how we should respond.

But, ‘That guy who’s been married four times, loves hunting, and collects sports cars’ provides a narrative (a story) that will either resonate or repel depending on the audience.

Humans dig labels, now more than ever before. It’s how we make our increasingly larger world somewhat manageable.

Thus, people we ‘know’ are frequently tethered to a variety of descriptors—vegan, sports enthusiast, triathlete, cat lady, Cowboys fan, craftsy person, the comedian, etc.

There’s the perfect, put-together Pinterest moms and then there’s me….

This, in a nutshell, is ‘branding.’ Humans have been doing this ‘branding’ thing since the dawn of time. The only difference in a ‘personal brand’ and an ‘author brand’ is that the ‘author brand’ should eventually drive book sales.

Also, branding is now more vital than ever before because of the sheer volume of information, people, choices, etc.

This is why author brands are essential, since a brand is basically a beacon drawing people (readers) to something they find familiar and that they already know they like.

Here is where science comes in handy.

The Neurological Shortcut

Our brains are remarkable organs that have the ability to adapt to our environment. Before the invention of the written word, our memory centers were far larger because we had to pass down information orally.

In fact, if you took an fMRI reading of a tribesman from some isolated Amazonian tribe, his brain would look and act very differently from yours or mine.

With the advent of the written word, our memory centers shrank but we gained even larger areas for abstract thinking. This was around the time we start seeing major explosions in science and engineering.

#PyramidsAndLotsOfCatPictures

Now we’re in the Digital Age, and we’re bombarded with stimuli. Internet, television, radio, smart phones, podcasts, pop-ups, etc. etc.

We’ve traded our stellar memory centers and our ability to focus for long periods of time for the unprecedented ability to sift through and ‘judge’ vast numbers of data points almost instantly.

Our brains must process, then sort, save and discard massive amounts of information faster than ever before.

Think about it. We see ads on Facebook all the time. Or do we? Our brains have literally learned to un-see. We cannot manage all the input.

So, if we (authors) are eventually going to advertise our books, how do we make our content visible? 

Branding with Intention

Since our brain is much like a computer processor, it must come up with ways to effectively manage all this input in order to maintain efficiency. To do this, it relies on what are called somatic markers.

Somatic markers are neurological shortcuts and are one of the most primitive functions of the brain because they are uniquely tied to survival and procreation. It’s the same shortcut that tells us the stove is hot.

We don’t need to sit and ponder the stove. We likely learned when we were very small not to touch.

To give you an idea of how somatic markers work, let’s do a little exercise. Is there a perfume or cologne you can smell and it instantly transports you back in time?

Maybe to that first love or even *cringes* that first heartbreak? A song that makes you cry?

Perhaps there is a food you once ate that made you sick and even though there is no logical reason you shouldn’t eat it now, the mere thought of eating it makes you queasy.

These are somatic markers. When it comes to branding, somatic markers are vital.

The Pepsi Challenge

If you are around my age or older you can remember The Pepsi Challenge. For years, Pepsi had been trying to gain an edge over Coca Cola, which had dominated the soft drink industry for generations.

Pepsi—figuring it had nothing to lose—came up with the idea of setting up a table in stores and shopping malls and encouraging people to take a blind taste test.

The results were astonishing…to Pepsi more than anyone.

In a blind taste test, people preferred the taste of Pepsi. Coca Cola was rattled by this news.

They performed the same test and it turned out, people preferred the taste of Pepsi…and this led to brilliant ideas like ‘New Coke’ which was one of the most epic brand failures in business history.

Why did New Coke fail?

Coca Cola reformulated to make the drink sweeter. In blind taste tests, New Coke was a clear winner. So then why did it tank so badly?

Somatic markers.

What Happened? New Coke, ‘Old’ Brains

Years later, neuroscientists decided to see if they could demystify what happened in The Pepsi Challenge. 

They conducted the exact same experiment, only this time they hooked participants up to an fMRI machine so they could witness what areas of the brain lit up.

They held the taste test the same way it was conducted in the 70s—a blind taste test. To their amazement, participants preferred the taste of Pepsi in almost the exact same numbers.

According to the fMRI, the ventral putamen, the area of the brain that tells us something tastes yummy, lit up like Vegas.

*Some have speculated that when it is only a sip, people will prefer the sweeter drink.*

The ‘Human Factor’ in the Brand Equation

The scientists then decided to try something a bit different. They did the test again, only this time they told the participants what they were drinking. This time, Coca Cola won BIG.

Ah, but something strange happened in the brain. 

Not only did the ventral putamen light up, but so did the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with emotion and memory.

See, when it was based on taste alone, Pepsi won. But, when the brands were compared, Coca Cola won. The human brain was in a wrestling match between two very different regions—taste and emotions.

Coca Cola had the advantage because of the vast reservoir of fond memories associated with the brand. In short, Coca Cola had a STORY for sale.

Norman Rockwell Americana, cute polar bears, I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke, every BBQ, summer vacation, rollerskating parties, Friday nights with pizza and on and on all were part of the Coca Cola arsenal.

The fond memories (positive somatic markers) associated with the brand very literally changed the taste and gave Coca Cola the winning edge.

Somatic Marker Meets Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Ever run into a term you KNOW you’ve never heard in your life, then hear it at least four more times in the next week? Or see something you know you’ve never seen before, then suddenly it’s everywhere? Reverse-harems? Punk-Rockabilly-Zydeco? Kombucha?

I’d never heard of Bikram Yoga until a friend told me about it and then…it was everywhere. Following me with sweaty mats…and Kombucha O_O .

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is also known as the frequency illusion or the recency illusion. 

At first glance, one might think this is why it’s a great idea to automate everywhere! Churn out lots of ads! Exposure! The more people see me, my name, my face, my book, the BETTER!

Follow them to the BATHROOM!

Not so quickly.

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon seems to kick in strongest when there’s some kind of an emotional response tethered to the ‘thing.’ 

Interestingly, the stronger the emotional response (positive or negative), the more likely we will see that car, food, book, name, that we suddenly believe is now everywhere, surrounding us.

Ah, but when it comes to OUR brand, what emotional response are we creating? Are people seeing our name because of some good encounter?

Or do they see it and silently rage because we keep crapping up their feeds with automation? Are we all take and no give?

Ads That Pop-Up vs. Ads That POP

We see ads all over. More than ever before in human history, which is why our brains are getting so clever with shortcuts. Most ads we literally do not see.

I could take any random person and have them click through twenty pages of BuzzFeed memes and they’ll remember the memes (emotional), but are unlikely to remember most of the ads plastered all along the sides.

Though most ads will be invisible, some are not. Some might even leap off the page. Why?

What makes us ‘see’ that advertisement?

When we have a highly positive or vastly negative experience, we’re far more likely to notice the ad.

If we see an ad for a book, we may or may not notice. But what about an ad for a book written by someone we know?

Someone perhaps we talked to and liked? The ad practically leaps from the page. We might even buy it because we SAW her ad and OMG! I know her!

Ads alone have very little power to compel a purchase. But, couple them with a brand (story/narrative/emotional experience), and the odds of a sale greatly improve.

This is why ads and promotion alone do very little to impact sales. Until there is a narrative (emotion) attached to the name?

It’s crazy expensive white noise.

Ah, but what’s worse than a non-brand? A poisoned brand. If our brand is the story connected to our names (and by association our books), there can be nothing worse than the toxic brand.

The Biggest Loser Brand Fail

The biggest brand fail I witness is how much authors underestimate the power of social media behavior and its consequential impact on their author brand.

Social media is a massive part of our everyday lives. Everywhere we go, we see people fixated on smart phones, posting pics, messaging friends. Humans are wired to be social, so if you want to know where all the readers are? They are on-line.

***Whether this is good or bad is for another post entirely.

This said, we must appreciate that this isn’t 2008, the age before smart phones, a time when only early adopters lurked on Twitter and MySpace.

Back before roughly 2015, the largest and strongest part of the author brand happened to be the books (because a book is roughly 15 hours of interaction with the author’s ‘voice’).

But now? When people are constantly checking in with their favorite social site(s)? How we ACT and treat other people is the biggest part of the brand. It doesn’t matter how well we write, how awesome our books are, or how cheap we make our product.

If we poison our brand with too many negative somatic markers, we can devastate our brand, regardless how well we write, and the reason is this:

The most powerful somatic marker of ALL is the negative one (namely because it’s intrinsically woven into our very survival).

This is why that tuna salad that gave you food poisoning fifteen years ago still makes your stomach heave just thinking about it. Your body is warning you that this food might kill you (even though logically, you know this tuna salad is fresh).

The primordial brain doesn’t care about logic. Lizard-brain is ALL emotions and experiences and these experiences have a MASSIVE impact on our brand.

There are authors I used to preorder their books. Now? I wouldn’t accept a book of theirs even if it were free.

Why? Because they forgot that people are watching, that flesh and blood humans are on the other side of that screen.

Their ranting, raving, complaining, spamming, name-calling, and trolling comments eventually added up so many negative experiences that there was pretty much no way to counter the effect.

Branding is no longer just about the books.

Books are vital, but what elements are we adding to our story (our brand) when we’re online? When people see our content do they smile, laugh, feel good, want to share the fun? Or do they feel bullied, depressed, overwhelmed, targeted, or defensive?

Colin Shaw’s blog ’15 Statistics that Should Change the Business World but Haven’t’ collected some interesting stats that I’d like to share:

It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. – ‘Understanding Customers’ by Ruby Newell-Legner.

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. – McKinsey.

When we’re on social media…

Everything Matters in Branding

Every post, comment, retweet adds to the story that is our author brand.

People might not remember exactly what we say, but they’ll always remember how we made them feel. In an age where audiences are flooded with too many choices, they’ll default to who they know, who they like, and who consistently makes them FEEL the best (loads of positive somatic markers).

Does this mean we can’t express opinions, that we need to be a cute kitten meme factory and Pod Person? Not at all. My advice is we’re wise to promote what we love instead of bashing what we hate.

For instance, if I’m a vegan and post ’12 Reasons Vegans are Sexier’ on Facebook, then fellow vegans will experience a positive somatic marker.

Those followers who aren’t vegans likely won’t react at all (a neutral somatic marker) because I’ve not placed them in the crosshairs of an attack. In fact, the non-vegan followers might even SHARE my post with vegan friends and family. And if not?

No big deal because we’re all still friends who can agree that we can be friends without being clones.

Oh, and we actually can disagree or inject a different opinion without being mean. Again, simply remember there are actual people on the other end.

Keeping the ‘Social’ in Social Media

Now that y’all have had a Neuroscience 101 crash course—and I guarantee you will see Baader-Meinhof OR Kombucha at least three times in the next week—let’s get down to what’s most essential.

Branding is all story.

It’s a collection of emotional experiences that tie our name to some set of descriptors (hopefully positive ones). This is why automation can’t substitute for hopping on-line and talking to people. It’s why the Golden Rule still rules and why YES, goofing off on Facebook and posting kitten videos counts as branding.

Eventually, with love, care and nurturing, followers can become friends and even FANS.

So have fun. Relax. Show up. Be present and engage authentically. Go write great books and enjoy the people you meet along the way.

I love hearing from you, and I am NOT above BRIBERY!

What are your thoughts on ‘branding’? Does it seem more doable now? The brands I teach y’all how to build are fun and simple and require minimal upkeep because you have brilliant books to write!

If you want a step-by-step on how to create a brand as unique as you that will specifically attract YOUR equally unique audience and then cultivate them into an amazing and supportive network of fans? Seriously, save time and money and just grab a copy of Rise of the Machines.

So again, any thoughts, questions, opinions? I do love hearing from you.

What do you WIN? For the month of JANUARY, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice.

What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

DECEMBER’S WINNER Rae Longest. Please email your 5,000 word Word doc, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 12 point font to kristen at wana intl dot com. Put CONTEST WINNER in all caps in heading so I see you and CONGRATULATIONS!

Classes

***Remember, ALL classes come with a FREE recording of class

Business Classes

All classes taught by USA Today Best-Selling Author/Top Podcaster Cait Reynolds

The POD PEOPLE Podcasting BUNDLE: 3 Classes 1 Low Price

$199 for ALL THREE CLASSES. Normal FULL PRICE for all three classes is $377 USD or $317 USD even with all the early registration discounts

If, however, you choose to buy individually…

Introduction to Podcasting

$99 USD

Writing for Podcasting

$129 USD

How to Make Money & The Business of Podcasting

$149 USD

Craft Classes

ON DEMAND The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller (Kristen Lamb)

$65 USD Use Thrill10 for $10 off

***More craft classes coming next post. Apologies, but have has a cold for several days so running behind.

The post Branding & Attention: Busy Brains in a Busy World appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Psychology factors into most of what we do in modern life. Companies use psychology everywhere from human resources to building design. Understanding the human mind is a powerful tool.

Though not always deployed ethically (for more on this, refer to the book I recently coauthored, The Trap: Sex, Social Media and Surveillance Capitalism), please appreciate that experts are constantly employing psychological levers to get what they want.

For those who don’t yet know me, I’ll never teach anything unethical. Why would I teach you how to sell a TON of books if you just feel icky at the end of day? And yes, trust me, I have seen more than my fair share of seriously unethical ways to sell everything.

Yes, even books.

Spoofing

One short-lived grift (THANK GOD) shot to popularity in around 2011-2013. Though I don’t believe anyone gave it a technical name, for me, it was the equivalent of spoofing.

In the cyber community, spoofing uses the psychology of trust. A fraudulent party poses as a site, company, brand that consumers trust (E.g. they create a bank site that looks almost the same as a legit site). In the cyber world, the goal is to gain access to personal data, infect machines or steal money.

An almost identical tactic worked eerily similar in the early world of on-line publishing.

Book Spoofing: Psychology of Brand Loyalty

See, in the early days of e-readers, many big name authors either weren’t yet available on ebooks or they were very new to the digital world.

NYC was far from tech savvy, so many of their authors were sitting ducks. Book spoofing (a.k.a. BS) became a popular way to make a quick buck. What was book spoofing?

Unknown, unvetted ‘writers’ just used another author’s hard-earned brand to sell their books.

Readers gravitated by the droves and bought up authors they trusted, not realizing they were actually buying the book equivalent of a Polex watch or Louie Vuiton bag.

Fans were used to seeing these BIG NAME authors turn out a gazillion books and were aware many had insane backlists, thus they had little reason to question the veracity of the titles…until they began reading and realized they’d bought a steaming pile of crap.

Yes, writers con-artists actually did this.

A ‘writer’ would choose a nom de plume that was almost identical to a famous author (E.g. Nora Robert instead of Nora Roberts), then write in the same genre and craft covers to be deceptively similar.

***For the record, I am using Nora Roberts as an example, but YES these writers were foolish enough to spoof brands just as big.)

It doesn’t take much imagination to see the inevitable lawsuits. Despite my quite vigorous protest, plenty of writers played this ‘bait-and-switch’ with readers. They took advantage of Amazon’s emergent SEO system that (at that point) couldn’t discern imposters. Sure, these writers made a TON of money.

Some even tried to lure me over to do the same, boasting of all their riches.

I told them to make sure to save that money for a good attorney and leave me be. I’d earn any best-selling titles myself.

Psychology of Purchases

Now that I’ve given an example of how psychology can be used unethically to guide consumer decisions, we’ll move on. Yes, I released my branding book Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World in late 2013.

I’ve not written any other branding books because Rise of the Machines is evergreen. Gizmos and platforms and social media sites change all the time. Heck, the entire internet is about to change.

Welcome Web 3.0. Yep, it’s coming.

But you know what never changes? People. Understand people and that is 90% of what you will ever need.

What makes people click, share, read, engage? Why do they buy what they buy? What converts a passive browser to a vested consumer, and a vested consumer into an evangelical super fan?

Search engine optimization, rules for meta data, etc. change constantly. It’s almost a full-time job keeping on top of that.

We can hire the best SEO team, have all the plug-ins and be on all the sites, but if we have the wrong core imperatives? We might as well pile cash on the ground and set it on fire.

Products are NOT One-Size-Fits-All.

Low-Consideration vs. High-Consideration

Almost all purchases can be divided neatly into two distinctive categories—low-consideration purchases and high-consideration purchases.

Low-consideration purchases usually aren’t terribly expensive, are common, have a lot of competition, and are something the consumer was going to buy ANYWAY. Haven’t you ever wondered why toilet paper companies spend tens of millions of dollars in marketing?

Who is NOT using toilet paper?

No one is hopping on internet forums to ask experts what is the best toilet paper to buy…and if you are? Um, that’s weird.

Toothpaste. It costs only a few bucks and, if I hate the taste? I toss it. Toothpaste, by and large, is not an emotionally driven experience.

The reason that ads, coupons and FREE work so well with low-consideration purchases is these typically are inexpensive products we probably were a) going to buy anyway or b) were so on the fence that a $2 off coupon or buy-one-get-one-FREE could tip the scales.

High-consideration purchases are the exact opposite.

This is when human psychology becomes a game-changer. High-consideration purchases usually cost more, are highly emotional, fueld by peer pressure, and are NOT typically something we’d normally buy.

One might need a car, but no one buys a Bugatti for practical purposes. A $600 generic laptop from Sam’s Wholesale probably works just as well for most users as a $3,800 MacBookPro. A purse from a thrift store can hold my crap just as well as a real Louis Vuitton (probably better since it wouldn’t be a theft magnet)…and yet?

Why are people willing to fork out absurd amounts of money when there are super cheap substitutes that might even work better? Heck just an OIL CHANGE for the Bugatti Veyron is $21,000.

Trust me, if someone is about to drop the equivalent of a year’s salary or more on a car, a boat, a motorcycle, they research. They are on message boards to make sure they’re getting the BEST of the BEST. When it comes to luxury cars, boats, watches and expensive clothing, computers, and accessories? It is largely about EMOTION and is peer pressure powered.

It’s all psychology.

Psychology of Book Sales

Some of you might be asking what the point of all this is? The point is too many authors fixate on the price of the book and forget the psychology driving the purchase.

At first glance, a book seems to be a low-consideration purchase. I mean, most books cost about the same as a tube of toothpaste. No more than a box of generic teeth-whitening strips. So authors run promotions (coupons) and giveaways and offer FREE books!

*crickets*

So why don’t the tactics that normally boost sales for toilet paper and toothpaste NOT work for books?

Because books, ironically, are a high-consideration purchase. Most people do not like to read *all authors collectively gasp in horror.*

It’s true. If you polled the majority of the population and asked for a list of the top ten things most people love doing in their free time? Reading probably not on the list. In fact, something like 94% of the literate population doesn’t like reading.

Herein lies the rub. We (authors) see the price of our book, but the consumer sees the COST of their TIME. Time is their most valuable resource and no one ever seems to have enough.

Thus, when we go to sell a book, essentially what we are asking is for people to PAY MONEY and give up 12-15 hours of precious and nonrenewable time…to engage in an activity they believe they dislike.

No pressure there, right?

Why Marketing DOES NOT SELL BOOKS

When I say marketing, I mean traditional marketing. As I just mentioned, if we simply look at the MSRP, books appear to be a low-consideration purchase when they are, in fact, a HIGH-CONSIDERATION purchase.

Book sales are driven by brand and buzz. Most of the big brands are there to stay. Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy are still hitting the NYTBS lists even though both authors passed away years ago. Ludlum passed in 2001 and Clancy in 2013.

Unknown but skilled authors, however, are still keeping these colossal brands alive and thriving. The fans remain happy because a) there is a degree of brand integrity they can trust and b) they still get to enjoy new books from their favorite brand.

Even people who typically do not read will happily shell out the full price of a Brad Thor, Stephen King, or Sandra Brown when trapped in an airport because they know and trust the names (code for ‘brand’).

FOMO & Psychology of Sales

When regular people (code for ‘readers’) ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I am an author? At least 80-90% of the time the first question they ask me is whether or not I’ve read 50 Shades of Grey.

And I’ve found at least 50 ways of politely saying, “No.”

No shade on E.L. James (and no pun intended) because she created a cultural phenomenon. Whether this book is my cup of tea or not doesn’t matter. Good for her for generating FOMO.

There is a psychological lever often referred to as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This is one of many reasons this book became SO BIG. It garnered SO MUCH BUZZ that those who’d not yet read the book felt a sense of peer pressure to see what all the hype was about.

The same can be said about Game of Thrones. Without the HBO series, how many regular people would have bothered with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books? How many people read The Hunger Games, Twilight, The Martian, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, etc. simply because they’d heard SO MUCH BUZZ they finally felt they were missing out?

I guarantee you there are people who own the entire Harry Potter series in hardback but who are unlikely to read anything else and would not consider themselves ‘readers.’

The Psychology of Expectation

Part of the reason the mega brands have so much power is consistency. People KNOW what to expect.

It’s why people (okay, Americans) vacation in exotic places and STILL go to Chili’s or On the Border for dinner. X, Y, Z brand may not be the BEST quality—McDonald’s—but consumers at least know what they are in for.

This is the same with all brands, even in storytelling. Why is Hallmark such a MASSIVE brand? We’ve seen the memes picking on Hallmark movies.

Guess what? Hasn’t stopped them from having their OWN CHANNEL. Hallmark is a force because they KNOW and UNDERSTAND their audience. They provide—in a movie—what most people never will experience in real life but long to. Hallmark doesn’t need to be super complex, thought-provoking, and deep because that is NOT its brand.

People who want to watch movies with 5 subplots and 15 characters are NOT their audience. Why would Hallmark try and meet expectations of those who are not their consumers?

Romance/Erotica accounts for almost $1.5 BILLION in book sales. JUST BOOKS. Why is romance such big business? Again, the psychology of expectations.

Obviously all genres adhere to some sort of a formula, but the strictest of all is romance.

Romantic Interest A meets Romantic Interest B. They initially clash/don’t like each other BUT over time come together as a couple/team to solve greater problem. In the end, there is a Happily-Ever-After or the more modern Happily-For-Now.

Obviously, romance is an incredibly sophisticated genre. The above formula can be executed in any number of ways with any degree of complexity. But, at the end of the story, if Romantic Interest A and Romantic Interest B are not in some way TOGETHER? NOT A ROMANCE.

Whether it is pasta or podcasts or boutiques or blogs, branding is essential. What is a brand?

When a NAME ALONE has the power to drive sales.

From Hallmark to Hello Kitty, Rolex to romance, consumers need to trust what they are buying/devoting their time to.

What is the Takeaway?

For the WHOLE enchilada about consumer psychology, branding and more, pick up a copy of Rise of the Machines. Since this is a long-ish blog post? We can only cover so much.

The key takeaway is we, as authors, must look beyond price and understand why people buy books. It doesn’t matter if we get great reviews in literary publications (sites) because the regular everyday person isn’t going there.

They’re checking out clothes on Instagram or laughing at TikTok videos. FREE books aren’t going to lure them away from their habits.

Sure, there is a time and place to use FREE, but it’s frequently overused/misused and devalues our product more often than not.

When we appreciate that our goal isn’t a race to the bottom of who can give away the most for free or almost free, that is liberating.

Once we know that we don’t need pay to constantly blitz out ads and marketing campaigns like other products, we can work smarter, not harder.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Now that you understand some of the psychology behind why people BUY, does it make sales seem a more manageable? Did you ever wonder WHY manufacturers advertise toilet paper? Does this take some of the pressure off knowing how much we really do control (quality, consistency, quantity, reliability)?

Any thoughts? Additional comments or questions?

Make sure you scroll down and sign up for one of the new classes. Only the BEST for you guys!

I love hearing from you, and I am NOT above BRIBERY!

What do you WIN? For the month of JANUARY, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice.

What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

DECEMBER’S WINNER Rae Longest. Please email your 5,000 word Word doc, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 12 point font to kristen at wana intl dot com. Put CONTEST WINNER in all caps in heading so I see you and CONGRATULATIONS!

Classes

***Remember, ALL classes come with a FREE recording of class

Business Classes

All classes taught by USA Today Best-Selling Author/Top Podcaster Cait Reynolds

The POD PEOPLE Podcasting BUNDLE: 3 Classes 1 Low Price

$199 for ALL THREE CLASSES. Normal FULL PRICE for all three classes is $377 USD or $317 USD even with all the early registration discounts

If, however, you choose to buy individually…

Introduction to Podcasting

$99 USD (Use Code New20 for $20 OFF if REGISTERED BY JANUARY 14th)

Writing for Podcasting

$129 USD (Use Code New20 for $20 OFF if REGISTERED BY JANUARY 14th)

How to Make Money & The Business of Podcasting

$149 USD Use Code New20 for $20 OFF if REGISTERED BY JANUARY 14th)

Craft Classes

ON DEMAND The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller (Kristen Lamb)

$65 USD Use Thrill10 for $10 off

***More craft classes coming next post

The post Psychology of Selling: Understanding the Consumer appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Podcasting obviously isn’t a good fit for everyone, but writing, branding, and life are not One-Size-Fits-All. I’ve made it my personal mission to not only help writers hone their craft (great books sell better than rambling crappy books), but also to demystify branding.

I GET that most writers are also working a full-time job and already struggling with the whole ‘adulting’ thing. It’s why I hope to give y’all ways to work smarter not harder.

I’ve fallen in love with blogging. It’s been an incredibly good investment of time. It’s taught me to write leaner, meaner, faster and cleaner, and it’s also a form of ‘social media’ that gives back a lot of love. Seriously, two weeks ago I got a 500-word comment off a post I published in 2011! A post with 306 comments and climbing.

If that isn’t bang for the buck (time)? I don’t know what is.

This said, nothing great happens in the comfort zone. There was a good reason ViacomCBS sold off the former publishing GIANT Simon & Schuster to invest in streaming content instead.

Follow the audience and you’ll find the money.

Nothing against writing books. Hey, I’m still writing. Books still sell. We, as authors, simply have to be creative when it comes to cultivating a fanbase willing to part with time and money for our books. To do this, we are wise adjust to audience preferences.

There is an old saying in sales, “Fish where the fish are.” And 21st century fish are schooling on Audible and podcasting apps.

So, as promised, today I present USA Today Best-Selling Author and podcaster extraordinaire, Cait Reynolds, who is here to talk y’all off the ledge demystify the podcast.

Take it away, Cait!

*eyes Kristen warily*

*tugs on handcuffs*

Meet podcasting. It’s kind of like a blog and a vlog had a one-night stand and actually fell in love. There’s a podcast for everything and for everybody—audiences and creators alike.

Sometimes it seems like everyone and their brother is starting one. But, seems like everyone and their brother is writing a novel and that hasn’t deterred us from being authors. Podcasting is no different. Those who take time to learn how to create riveting content, and who commit to excellence over the long-haul, eventually will break away from the pack of poorly-written and/or abandoned podcasts.

But we’ll get to that in a bit.

First, you might be wondering, “What’s the appeal?” Why should you at least consider podcasting over (or in addition to) blogging? How is podcasting a good fit for a novelist?

It all goes back to hooking the audience long enough to convert them into fans.

Podcasts are appealing namely because audiences can listen to a podcast while driving, cooking, chasing after three dogs—one of whom has my shoe in his mouth as I try writing this and…well, you get the picture.

Kristen mentioned podcasting as a new creative outlet for writers in her last post, “Brave New Writing.” I am here to tell you that, while not every writer is a podcaster, the best podcasters are very often writers.

Like blogs, podcasts are content-hungry creatures. Also, like blogs, podcasts require more time and effort than quick-hit social media like Twitter and Instagram posts. At the same time, they offer a powerful return on investment, unlike the ‘easier’ forms of social media.

Like blogs, podcasts have the potential to have a broader, deeper, and longer lasting impact on a writer’s brand. Unlike the familiar written-essay format of a blog, however, a podcast has technical and performative aspects that can seem intimidating at first. But don’t worry, that’s why I’m here.

*side eye at Kristen*

Podcasting

First of all, back away from the ledge. Podcasting is just a small furry relative of the blog. It can’t smell fear and won’t bite. And, as Kristen points out about blogs, podcasts are attention-whores. The more you love them, the more they will love you back.

Just like books and blogs, podcasts come in an endless variety of lengths and topics. There are five-minute podcasts that serve up daily horoscopes or fitness tips or financial advice…and there are three-hour podcasts that cover the history of the Roman empire. From parenting to politics, comedy to crime, there is a podcast for everyone.

Podcasts are free and easily accessible, ergo the appeal. Audiences can listen on their phones, laptops, or even refrigerators if said appliance has a smart panel with apps. All anyone needs to enjoy a podcast is an app like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Audible, etc.

People listen to podcasts while commuting, cleaning, and cooking. Personally, I rely on true crime podcasts to get me through home renovation projects. The Wine and Crime gals got me through packing up our condo and moving cross-country in 2019. During 2020, I binged Ash and Alaina from Morbid because, what is better than Boston gals who talk murder?

The answer is nothing is better.

When we got our puppies, Meadow and Bandit, the only way they would get back to sleep after their 5:00 a.m. potty break was with a podcast episode of “Dateline.”

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was really, really sleep-deprived, okay? Now, I’m pretty sure the pups are plotting how to kill me in a way that gets me my very own episode.

Why Podcasting?

One of the most fundamental of Lamb’s Laws for Branding is: OWN YOUR CONTENT.

That is the whole point of having a website and blog. It’s content that endures and keeps working long after that TwitFaceGram+ post has been buried in the Mariana Trench of bots and dance videos. While quick hit content like social media posts do serve an important purpose, the cumulative effect—over time—of content we own is far greater.

We might get a comment on a blog post that was written two years ago because Google popped it into someone’s search results. But when was the last time someone replied to a two-year-old tweet? When was the last time we could find a two-year-old tweet?

Blogging is a natural fit for writers since sitting at a keyboard staring in despair at a blank screen for hours at a time is what we do. However, creating content you own doesn’t mean it has to be a blog.

*ducks flying projectiles from Texas*

If It Goes, It Flows

Hear me out. Writers create CONTENT, but the medium for DELIVERING that content doesn’t specifically have to be a blog post.

Fun fact: one of the early ‘try-on’ terms for podcasting was AUDIOBLOGGING.

*cue Kristen over in a corner grinding teeth*

For example, I personally struggle with blogging. My anxiety shoots through the roof when I try to pick a topic, and my inner picky b*tch frets over the perfection of everything from phrasing to tags. As a result, I blog about as often as I go to the dentist (every six months).

However, after starting my podcast “Drunk Mythology Gals” back in mid-January, I find myself breezing through two thousand words per episode. I actually can’t keep up with all the ideas I have for topics. We just released episode 37 and have only missed one week since we started, but I was in the hospital that week, so we get a pass.

The point is that I found what clicked for me in terms of being able to leverage my skills as a writer to develop my brand and market my books. I can use each episode release to interact with fans and friends on social media, and our website is easy to update and maintain. And, all the episodes of our show are forever available until we decide otherwise.

While Kristen does flog the blog as the prime example of how writers can build their brand, her point is that creating content we are passionate about (yes, this includes interpretive dance) is the best way to connect with our audience and build a lasting brand.

But, but, but…

Ah, yes, like a chorus of anguished echos from the mountain’s misty side, I can hear the objections now:

• I don’t have time!
• I don’t have money!
• Audio stuff = rocket science!
• I don’t know what to do a podcast about!

Time

Time is relative (thanks, Einstein). We have time for what we want to do, and never enough time for the things we struggle with.

So far, this blog post has taken me about four agonizing hours just to get to this point. I get better at writing blogs the more I do them, but I don’t seem to get any faster. However, I can whip up a script for an episode in an hour-and-a-half. It just comes more naturally for me. It flows. Recording, distribution set-up, and promotion take about two hours.

From draft to social media promo, a podcast episode takes me about four hours, start-to-finish (and I am only getting faster as my skills and the tech improves). Compare that to writing a blog post that will probably end up needing six hours of intense suffering?

It’s clear where my time is better spent, for me at least.

Money

It is absolutely possible to start podcasting without spending a single cent. Yes, really and truly FREE (I go into all that in my classes—LISTED BELOW).

This means that it’s okay to try podcasting. Give it a whirl. Give it seven whirls. Once things ‘click,’ then it’s time to look at investing in the doo-dahs that will take the show to the next level.

Furthermore, it is even slightly easier to make money from podcasting than from publishing. Unlike the giant ball of wibbly wobbly that is the Amazon KDP global fund payout rate, podcasting is similar to radio advertising in terms of how ad rates are calculated.

Today, according to Intelligence Insider, almost 118 million people listen to podcasts monthly. That number is projected to grow to 144 million listeners by 2025.

Podcast advertising spending almost DOUBLED from $701 million in 2019 to $1.33 BILLION in 2021. Money follows the audience, and audiences are multi-tasking to unheard-of levels these days. What is perfect for keeping company during multi-tasking? Audio content in all its forms.

I’m not even including merchandise, subscription memberships, live tours, online shows, Patreon, and all the other ways podcasts make money these days.

This doesn’t mean every podcaster is going to be a millionaire. I said it’s slightly easier to be successful, and just like publishing, quality and persistence are key to success.

Audio stuff = rocket science

Yes…and no.

When I started looking into how to start a podcast back in 2017, I knew less than nothing about audio stuff. Yes, I will always refer to it as audio ‘stuff’ because audio engineering is a whole big thing…and life is short. All the YouTube videos, blog posts, and even podcasts about starting podcasts were way too technical for me.

True story: I mentioned podcasting to Kristen back then, and she threw holy water at me and ran screaming. Then two days later, she was back with three podcasts I JUST HAD to listen to, wanting to know when were we going to start ours?

Today, however, if you can talk on your smart phone, you can record a podcast.

With built-in post-production, drag and drop editing, and free sounds and music, ‘producing’ a podcast episode is honestly super simple. Setting up distribution for an episode is way easier and far less nerve-wracking than setting up a book for publication.

Worse comes to worst, there are freelancers that will tweak your audio for as little as $5.

Honestly, quality content is THE most important aspect of a podcast. I go back to the first episodes of my favorite podcasts, and woof! The sound was really bad. REALLY BAD. But the content was so riveting or hilarious that I had to keep listening and I didn’t care.

Content is king…and queen…and pretty much the whole royal family.

Even with “Drunk Mythology Gals,” our first eleven episodes were an exercise in how long listeners could handle hearing chalkboard nails while underwater. Once Gen and I decided we were going to stick with it, we paid a freelance audio guy $20 to sit online with us for an hour and walk us through some basics of how to improve our audio.

Now, we have Kim who handles all our production (and uses sound effects to troll us because she can). Also, like a lot of other podcasts, we are re-recording the early episodes one by one to bring the sound up to speed (and so our other co-host Jenn can put in her two cents).

I mean, who doesn’t love an industry that is like, “Yeah, mulligans are totally cool.”

I don’t know what to podcast about!

The most important thing about picking a podcast topic is that we have to love it. Really, really, truly love it. That is the secret to choosing a podcasting subject.

Do you write historical fiction? Science fiction? Police/detective stories? Is there a topic you find yourself consistently researching across stories (e.g. forensic psychology, cooking or forensic cooking)? If you can answer a resounding YES to any of these questions, then you have something to podcast about.

I am an absolute history nerd, especially ancient history. Over the course of writing Downcast, I amassed a ton of research in addition to my already pretty-extensive non-fiction library. With all of this material in my brain and at my fingertips, I have enough topics for YEARS of podcast episodes.

Is mythology the most popular genre in podcasting? Obviously not. But are there enough people who enjoy mythology to make up a decent sized audience? Sure. Are there enough who might then also be interested in my book? Absolutely!

A podcast doesn’t necessarily have to draw a direct line to our writing. Remember, Kristen doesn’t say every writer has to blog about writing. She says blog about what you love…and she is passionate about writing, so this is what she LOVES to talk about.

Another way to figure out a podcast topic is to remember that time we were at a party, talking to some people we had just met…and then they mentioned X, and we were like, “OMG, I know all about that! Let me tell you and did you know and this little known fact and hey where are you going it’s-only-duct-tape-and-handcuffs?”

What doesn’t work for kidnapping…er…small talk at a party will probably make for a good podcast that people will listen to…as they chew through the ropes.

Pod People

I’m baaaack! Thank you Cait for being here! *tosses her key to handcuffs*

For the record, I never ask anyone try or do anything I’ve not tested myself. When Cait first mentioned podcasting, I very literally had a fit. Not my most shining moment. In my defense, this happened during that period of time I really was willing to die on ‘The Hill of Fighting Against Writers Paid in EXPOSURE DOLLARS.’

Once I calmed down, mopped up the holy water and swept away the salt circle, I was at least willing to entertain Cait’s suggestion….and have been down the rabbit hole since. For the record, I was the one who introduced Cait to Wine and Crime and Morbid, as well as the fabulous True Crime Obsessed.

TCO’s Patrick Hinds and Gililan Pensavalle helped me endure TWO ROUNDS of six straight hours of dental work (12 HOURS)….without having a nervous breakdown. I could listen to them and block out the dentist replacing half my teeth (yes, I am a grinder who cannot keep up with a mouth guard so stop judging me).

Like all content I love, I am positively evangelical, and have converted family and friends to TCO fans and Patreon supporters.

Cait and I have even recorded two seasons of our own comedy podcast BFFs: Bad Friends Forever, which we’ll be releasing once I’m comfortable we have a solid base number of episodes. So there’s that ‘won’t make y’all try anything I haven’t’ thing.

It is part of the reason I asked Cait to come teach podcasting. If she can convert someone like me who didn’t need ONE MORE FRIGGIN’ THING TO DO and who isn’t tech savvy enough to organize e-maii?

Trust me, she’s got you.

Thank You For Being HERE!

I know I promised last time to work on posting shorter blogs. But I DID add the caveat, “when I can.” I hope y’all enjoyed this article. Cait put a ton of work into condensing a monster amount of information into a singular post… that’s also fun to read.

What are your thoughts? Questions? Comments? Do you listen to podcasts? Which ones are your favorites and why? Have we helped those who are terrified at least consider that podcasting might not melt the flesh off your bones?

If you scroll down, Cait is offering three classes on podcasting. There are discounts for early registration as well as a podcasting bundle that will save you WAY more than all the discounts combined.

I LOVE hearing from you!

Comments for guests get EXTRA CREDIT. To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

AND REMEMBER to treat yourself to a class! I don’t reveal all my best intel on my blogs.

Classes!

Introduction to Podcasting 10/15/21

Register HERE and use New20 for $20 off before October 5th

Writing for Podcasting 10/22/21

Register HERE and use New20 for $20 off before October 15th

How to Make MONEY & The Business of Podcasting 10/26/12

Register HERE and use New20 for $20 off before October 15th

The Pod People Podcasting Bundle: ALL THREE Classes ONE Low Price

Register HERE to get all three classes and save BIG!

Practice Your Pitch: Master the Log-Line 10/14/21

Register HERE and use Pitch10 for $10 off if register by 10/1/21

The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller 10/21/21

Register HERE and use Thrill10 for $10 off if you register by 10/14/21

The post Is Podcasting the New Blog? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Seems writers are always looking for some new way to advertise their books, which is fine…but some folks have gone more than a little bit cray-cray. I finally fled Twitter, by and large, because it’s next to impossible to locate real hoo-mans among all the automation. My email has pretty much gone feral as well, but meh.

Today, let’s have some fun at the bots’ expense, shall we?

Okay, any of you who regularly follow my blog know that I am totally out of my mind a bit eccentric. I’m reposting this blog because a) I’ve been flattened with bronchial pneumonia b) I have to travel and c) this post never stops being funny…especially if you’re like me and have the same sense of humor as a fourteen-year-old boy.

This post was inspired when I was speaking in Idaho. I’d excused myself to the ladies’ room and, as I closed the door to the stall, I noticed all the advertising on the back of the bathroom door. This cluttered wall of ads made me think about all the authors spamming non-stop about their books on social media and via email.

Writers were becoming worse than an MLM rep crossed with a Jehovah’s Witness. Could the author book promotion get any more invasive?

Wait…

Maybe it could.

I’ve blogged so many times about the dangers of automation and how spamming people is counterproductive. I’ve talked until I am blue about how the non-stop blitz of advertising our books has a terrible ROI (return on investment) and how most people don’t pay attention to it.

Ah, but then it hit me.

The main reason advertising doesn’t work is because people ignore it and no longer see it, but what would they see?

Go big or go home, people.

Panty Prose—Not Advertising, Padvertising (TM)

We all know that roughly 85% of readers are women, and what do women need? Panty liners. YES, but what do they need more than springtime fresh girl parts? More FREE! books. Indie authors shouldn’t spam about their latest book release or be advertising their free title on KDP select.

Why?

Because when we advertise at the expense of authenticity it’s a dirtbag move? No! Because it’s self-serving and obnoxious? Not quite. Because it smacks of desperation? Not at all. The reason authors shouldn’t spam about their books is because spam is for amateurs.

The business savvy author of the digital age doesn’t settle on blasting out non-stop self-promotional tweets to advertise. That is SO 2014. The REAL writer of the digital age realizes a captive audience is a a buying audience.

This is 2020 people.

Catch readers with their pants down with Panty Prose.

Panty Prose is perfect for the indie author. Most readers are female and even females need something to read in the bathroom. We at Panty Prose (a new imaginary division of W.A.N.A. International) have teamed up with Always against their will to offer your readers the best deals right in their pants.

Seriously…

Advertise smarter.

Panty Prose not only offers you PADvertising to a guaranteed clientele, but we have all kinds of layouts to suit your PADvertising needs. Technology is your friend with Panty Prose. Want to advertise?

Put your book where it counts…

At Panty Prose, we even make it affordable for you to place your face in your reader’s pants…

As you can see, Panty Prose is inserting your ads into a virgin market begging to be tapped.

*blank stare*

Why are all the romance authors giggling? You’re being very distracting.

Anyway, while others might see a protective strip that gets tossed in the bin, we see an unused space to advertise—no to PADvertise—your latest novel AND save trees! Instead of throwing away that paper strip, we can print off lines from your book so fans can collect them ALL…

Panty Prose is dedicated to keeping women fresh while selling your books. Attending a writing conference? Well, there is a bathroom and everyone knows that even agents can’t hold it forever.

Why not help them out? Keep them springtime fresh and give them your query. Elevator pitches are for losers, when you can use the Panty Pitch. The Panty Pitch comes in three fragrances, Sonnet’s Eve, New Office Supplies, and Cinnabon.

Advertise with the Panty Pitch:

Panty Prose for the Published Professional is a smart, savvy way to advertise and stand out from all the competition that’s still relying on scheduled tweets and blasting out spammy emails. Make an impression that will last for Always.

Much like this post. I’d blame the meds but this is a reblog from years ago.

Advertising, Absurdism & Sometimes You Gotta Just LAUGH

In all fairness, I spent an entire day ‘Photoshopping’ my face onto panty liner strips to make a point—other than all my primary school teachers were correct when they checked, ‘Does Not Use Time Wisely’ on every report card EVER.

We’ve probably all done the dumb stuff because some ‘expert’ said it was a bright idea. I have. I almost named my first social media book, ‘I Did All the Dumb Crap So You Don’t Have To.’ But it was a bit long to try to fit on a cover.

The best way to sell books is to hunker down, and embrace the hurt locker that is our profession and write incredible stories readers will discover then fall in love with. Learning our craft is tough. It’s a long process, but once you start gaining skill and mastery, it’s worth it.

Sure, we can advertise, but that’s really not going to drive sales the way good old fashioned word of mouth will.

Go to this post, On Writing: Why Mastery Should Matter to the Serious Author. I have a LONG list of resources, colleagues I respect, mentors who helped grow me from a primordial ooze of purple prose into the comedic GENIUS unafraid to be on a panty liner to make a point .

#1 at HUMBLE!

I’m also extending the New Year’s sale on the classes through January because I cannot get rid of this freaking cough. So seems like we might as well have the On Demand specials going until I am back fit for active duty.

Pneumonia is a beast. But I hope you will treat yourself to these classes before they’re deleted to make room for new classes.

I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!

What are your thoughts? Other than I have lost my mind. Are you weary of the non-stop spamming? The barrage of tweets crapping up all the interesting hashtags on Twitter? Tired of being force-added to mailing lists of authors you’ve never heard of all trying to give you a FREE book?

In the meantime, it all goes back to what I have preached since the get-go. Learn how to write AMAZING stories and cultivate an audience. I teach all how to do that and those classes are all on sale right now.

Training

If you really want to deep-dive how to write these incredible genres that are HOT, HOT, HOT, please check out the ON DEMAND CLASSES by #1 best-selling author Maria Grace that you can enjoy from the comfort of HOME.

More Than Crop Circles: Intro to Science (and Speculative) Fiction $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Speculative Fiction World-Building $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Populating Planet X: Character-Building for Science (and Speculative) Fiction $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Or Get them ALL for ONE LOW PRICE

Twilight Zone Special: All THREE Classes $99 (that’s over TEN hours of training). Makes it $33 a class for those who can’t math .

I’ve also extended the holiday sales on all classes listed below to January 31st. Get them before they’re deleted.

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of JANUARY, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages (5K words) of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or fewer). 

***I will announce December’s winner once I feel better. I’m recovering from bronchial pneumonia.

In the meantime, PLEASE treat yourself to a class! We have a TON of classes that we will be deleting or putting into cold storage come end of January (I’m extending the sales to January 31st since I’ve been too sick to teach new classes).

These will no longer be available after January 31st, so STOCK UP while you can.

NEW Year, New YOU! ROAR into the TWENTIES!

ON DEMAND Sales!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND–> On Demand: How to Write Deep POV

By #1 Best Selling Author Maria Grace! Normally $55 now $30

ON DEMAND Dark Arts: New Year’s SPECIAL Building Your Villain

Usually $55 and until January 31st is only $30.

Three hours of psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, pathology and how that applies to writing.

It is like the Behavioral Analysis Unit for Authors. Tres FUN! Villains are some of the most enduring characters in literature. Why not add your own legends to the list?

I’m also offering:

The Art of Character NEW YEAR’S SPECIAL: Writing Characters for a SERIES ON DEMAND

Normally $65 and NOW only $40.

FOUR hours of training on characters on how to develop characters that that can go the distance.

Bring on the Binge: How to Plot and Write a Series (ON DEMAND). 

Normally $65 and NOW only $40. Pairs PERFECTLY with The Art of Character for Series.

ON DEMAND! New Year’s Sale! Story Master: From Dream to DONE

Usually $55, now ONLY $30.

This class is to train you how to plot whether you’re a plotter, a pantser or a mix of both. It’s also a crash course in creating dimensional characters.

On Demand: Beyond Bulletproof Barbie

Usually $55 and now only $25.

This is a THREE-HOUR class on guns, knives, weapons, fighting, law enforcement (from local cops to international espionage) and more. Everything you need to build a bad@$$—male OR female—and get the details CORRECT.

Spilling the New Year’s Tea: On Demand Blogging for Authors

Usually $75 and now only $40.

Get prepped and ready for the new year, new you, new blog.

Bite-Sized Fiction: How to Plot the Novella

Use New20 for $20 off

Popular On Demand Classes

Need some help with platform and branding?

Branding: WHEN YOUR NAME ALONE Can Sell (ON DEMAND)

Use brand10 for $10 off.

For the complete list, go to the OnDemand Section.

The post Don’t Advertise, PADvertise: Catch Readers With Their Pants Down appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Branding is a word that seems to have one day—POOF—appeared out of the ether. In fact, when I began blogging in 2006 almost no one in publishing used the term. The rare few who did were hard-pressed to properly/clearly define what a ‘brand’ was.

In fact, many authorities believed authors didn’t need to be bothered with silly passing fads like ‘the Internet’ and ‘social media’ until about 2013. Why would authors need to build a brand?

All a writer needed was a good book. Facebook will last a year at best.

Yep.

Today, in 2019, the words ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ seem to be tossed around daily. Everyone and everything is or has or needs a brand. What’s funny is that branding might seem completely new, yet has been around since…people.

Granted how important a brand is, the need for one as an author, etc. is a fairly recent development. Yes, we need to craft excellent books (product) but we also must begin building our author brand EARLY.

***As in the first day we believe we might one day want to sell a book.

Ah, but calm down. There’s a lot of confusion regarding what a brand actually is. Many assume ads, marketing, and promotional campaigns are ‘branding.’

Yeah…no.

We can build a brand, but alas we cannot buy one. There are no shortcuts. Ads, promotion, marketing can help expand an existing brand, but cannot be substituted for one.

This approach is akin to believing a Japanese robot-wife is the same as a real human wife. In some areas of life, shortcuts end up a) a waste of time b) a bigger waste of money c) a remake of Blade Runner.

Branding Basics

I wrote my book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World to be evergreen information. In my POV, social media changes daily, but humans never change.

Just read Shakespeare or look at your ex’s Facebook page *rolls eyes*.

That’s why my social media/branding guide focuses a lot more on the science behind what creates what we recognize as a brand. 

What captures our attention? What turns us off? What renders a brand invisible (thus a non-brand)? What habits/behaviors can ruin a powerhouse brand that once seemed bulletproof?

How can one brand launch into the stratosphere with little to no budget when another fails miserably no matter how many millions of dollars are poured into ad campaigns and celebrity endorsements?

Obviously, my book delves into far more detail about the science behind branding. But a little common sense goes a long way. 

Thus, today we’ll simply touch on why our everyday on-line behaviors collect into a larger pool we call ‘author brand.’

First…

Branding is NOT New

The thing is, humans have always had a ‘personal brand.’ Branding, in its simplest form, is what descriptors we attach to another person. It’s that person’s story.

It’s an innate habit we use to organize and transition the fuzzy and inchoate into the dramatic and memorable.

Branding is simply an extension of story.

That guy/that gal is too amorphous for us to remember. It also doesn’t provide enough detail for us to know how we should respond.

But, ‘That guy who’s been married four times, loves hunting, and collects sports cars’ provides a narrative (a story) that will either resonate or repel depending on the audience.

Humans dig labels, now more than ever before. It’s how we make our increasingly larger world somewhat manageable.

Thus, people we ‘know’ are frequently tethered to a variety of descriptors—vegan, sports enthusiast, triathlete, cat lady, Cowboys fan, craftsy person, the comedian, etc.

There’s the perfect, put-together Pinterest moms and then there’s me….

This, in a nutshell, is ‘branding.’ Humans have been doing this ‘branding’ thing since the dawn of time. The only difference in a ‘personal brand’ and an ‘author brand’ is that the ‘author brand’ should eventually drive book sales.

Also, branding is now more vital than ever before because of the sheer volume of information, people, choices, etc.

This is why author brands are essential, since a brand is basically a beacon drawing people (readers) to something they find familiar and that they already know they like.

Here is where science comes in handy.

The Neurological Shortcut

Our brains are remarkable organs that have the ability to adapt to our environment. Before the invention of the written word, our memory centers were far larger because we had to pass down information orally.

In fact, if you took an fMRI reading of a tribesman from some isolated Amazonian tribe, his brain would look and act very differently from yours or mine.

With the advent of the written word, our memory centers shrank but we gained even larger areas for abstract thinking. This was around the time we start seeing major explosions in science and engineering.

#Pyramids

Now we’re in the Digital Age, and we’re bombarded with stimuli. Internet, television, radio, smart phones, pop-ups, etc. etc. We’ve lost our stellar memory centers and our ability to focus for long periods of time and have gained an unprecedented ability to multitask.

Our brains must process massive amounts of information faster than ever before.

Think about it. We see ads on Facebook all the time. Or do we? Our brains have literally learned to un-see. We cannot manage all the input.

So, if we (authors) are eventually going to advertise our books, how do we make our content visible? 

Branding with Intention

Since our brain is much like a computer processor, it must come up with ways to effectively manage all this input in order to maintain efficiency. To do this, it relies on what are called somatic markers.

Somatic markers are neurological shortcuts and are one of the most primitive functions of the brain because they are uniquely tied to survival and procreation. It’s the same shortcut that tells us the stove is hot.

We don’t need to sit and ponder the stove. We likely learned when we were very small not to touch.

To give you an idea of how somatic markers work, let’s do a little exercise. Is there a perfume or cologne you can smell and it instantly transports you back in time?

Maybe to that first love or even *cringes* that first heartbreak? A song that makes you cry?

Perhaps there is a food you once ate that made you sick and even though there is no logical reason you shouldn’t eat it now, the mere thought of eating it makes you queasy.

These are somatic markers. When it comes to branding, somatic markers are vital.

The Pepsi Challenge

If you are around my age or older you can remember The Pepsi Challenge. For years, Pepsi had been trying to gain an edge over Coca Cola, which had dominated the soft drink industry for generations.

Pepsi—figuring it had nothing to lose—came up with the idea of setting up a table in stores and shopping malls and encouraging people to take a blind taste test.

The results were astonishing…to Pepsi more than anyone.

In a blind taste test, people preferred the taste of Pepsi. Coca Cola was rattled by this news.

They performed the same test and it turned out, people preferred the taste of Pepsi…and this led to brilliant ideas like ‘New Coke’ which was one of the most epic brand failures in business history.

Why did New Coke fail?

Coca Cola reformulated to make the drink sweeter. In blind taste tests, New Coke was a clear winner. So then why did it tank so badly?

Somatic markers.

What Happened? New Coke, ‘Old’ Brains

Years later, neuroscientists decided to see if they could demystify what happened in The Pepsi Challenge. 

They conducted the exact same experiment, only this time they hooked participants up to an fMRI machine so they could witness what areas of the brain lit up.

They held the taste test the same way it was conducted in the 70s—a blind taste test. To their amazement, participants preferred the taste of Pepsi in almost the exact same numbers.

According to the fMRI, the ventral putamen, the area of the brain that tells us something tastes yummy, lit up like Vegas.

*Some have speculated that when it is only a sip, people will prefer the sweeter drink.*

The ‘Human Factor’ in the Brand Equation

The scientists then decided to try something a bit different. They did the test again, only this time they told the participants what they were drinking. This time, Coca Cola won BIG.

Ah, but something strange happened in the brain. 

Not only did the ventral putamen light up, but so did the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with emotion and memory.

See, when it was based on taste alone, Pepsi won. But, when the brands were compared, Coca Cola won. The human brain was in a wrestling match between two very different regions—taste and emotions.

Coca Cola had the advantage because of the vast reservoir of fond memories associated with the brand. In short, Coca Cola had a STORY for sale.

Norman Rockwell Americana, cute polar bears, I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke, every BBQ, summer vacation, rollerskating parties, Friday nights with pizza and on and on all were part of the Coca Cola arsenal.

The fond memories (positive somatic markers) associated with the brand literally changed the taste and gave Coca Cola the winning edge.

Somatic Marker Meets Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Ever run into a term you KNOW you’ve never heard in your life, then hear it at least four more times in the next week? Or see something you know you’ve never seen before, then suddenly it’s everywhere? Reverse-harems? Punk-Rockabilly-Zydeco? Kombucha?

I’d never heard of Bikram Yoga until a friend told me about it and then…it was everywhere. Following me with sweaty mats…and Kombucha O_O .

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is also known as the frequency illusion or the recency illusion. 

At first glance, one might think this is why it’s a great idea to automate everywhere! Churn out lots of ads! Exposure! The more people see me, my name, my face, my book, the BETTER!

Follow them to the BATHROOM!

Not so quickly.

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon seems to kick in strongest when there’s some kind of an emotional response tethered to the ‘thing.’ 

Interestingly, the stronger the emotional response (positive or negative), the more likely we will see that car, food, book, name, that we suddenly believe is now everywhere, surrounding us.

Ah, but when it comes to OUR brand, what emotional response are we creating? Are people seeing our name because of some good encounter?

Or do they see it and silently rage because we keep crapping up their feeds with automation? Are we all take and no give?

Ads That Pop-Up vs. Ads That POP

We see ads all over. More than ever before in human history, which is why our brains are getting so clever with shortcuts. Most ads we literally do not see.

I could take any random person and have them click through twenty pages of BuzzFeed memes and they’ll remember the memes (emotional), but are unlikely to remember most of the ads plastered all along the sides.

Though most ads will be invisible, some are not. Some might even leap off the page. Why?

What makes us ‘see’ that advertisement?

When we have a highly positive or vastly negative experience, we’re far more likely to notice the ad.

If we see an ad for a book, we may or may not notice. But what about an ad for a book written by someone we know?

Someone perhaps we talked to and liked? The ad practically leaps from the page. We might even buy it because we SAW her ad and OMG! I know her!

Ads alone have very little power to compel a purchase. But, couple them with a brand (story/narrative/emotional experience), and the odds of a sale greatly improve.

This is why ads and promotion alone do very little to impact sales. Until there is a narrative (emotion) attached to the name?

It’s expensive white noise.

Ah, but what’s worse than a non-brand? A poisoned brand. If our brand is the story connected to our names (and by association our books), there can be nothing worse than the toxic brand.

The Biggest Loser Brand Fail

The biggest brand fail I witness is how much authors underestimate the power of social media behavior and its consequential impact on their author brand.

Social media is a massive part of our everyday lives. Everywhere we go, we see people fixated on smart phones, posting pics, messaging friends. Humans are wired to be social, so if you want to know where all the readers are? They are on-line.

***Whether this is good or bad is for another post entirely.

This said, we must appreciate that this isn’t 2008, the age before smart phones, a time when only early adopters lurked on Twitter and MySpace.

Back before roughly 2015, the largest and strongest part of the author brand happened to be the books (because a book is roughly 15 hours of interaction with the author’s ‘voice’).

But now? When people are constantly checking in with their favorite social site(s)? How we ACT and treat other people is the biggest part of the brand. It doesn’t matter how well we write, how awesome our books are, or how cheap we make our product.

If we poison our brand with too many negative somatic markers, we can devastate our brand, regardless how well we write, and the reason is this:

The most powerful somatic marker of ALL is the negative one (namely because it’s intrinsically woven into our very survival).

This is why that tuna salad that gave you food poisoning fifteen years ago still makes your stomach heave just thinking about it. Your body is warning you that this food might kill you (even though logically, you know this tuna salad is fresh).

The primordial brain doesn’t care about logic. Lizard-brain is ALL emotions and experiences and these experiences have a MASSIVE impact on our brand.

There are authors I used to preorder their books. Now? I wouldn’t accept a book of theirs even if it were free.

Why? Because they forgot that people are watching, that flesh and blood humans are on the other side of that screen.

Their ranting, raving, complaining, spamming, name-calling, and trolling comments eventually added up so many negative experiences that there was pretty much no way to counter the effect.

Brands are no longer just about the books.

Books are vital, but what elements are we adding to our story (our brand) when we’re online? When people see our content do they smile, laugh, feel good, want to share the fun? Or do they feel bullied, depressed, overwhelmed, targeted, or defensive?

Colin Shaw’s blog ’15 Statistics that Should Change the Business World but Haven’t’ collected some interesting stats that I’d like to share:

It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. – ‘Understanding Customers’ by Ruby Newell-Legner.

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. – McKinsey.

When we’re on social media…

Everything Matters

Every post, comment, retweet adds to the story that is our author brand.

People might not remember exactly what we say, but they’ll always remember how we made them feel. In an age where audiences are flooded with too many choices, they’ll default to who they know, who they like, and who consistently makes them FEEL the best (loads of positive somatic markers).

Does this mean we can’t express opinions, that we need to be a cute kitten meme factory and Pod Person? Not at all. My advice is we’re wise to promote what we love instead of bashing what we hate.

For instance, if I’m a vegan and post ’12 Reasons Vegans are Sexier’ on Facebook, then fellow vegans will experience a positive somatic marker.

Those followers who aren’t vegans likely won’t react at all (a neutral somatic marker) because I’ve not placed them in the crosshairs of an attack. In fact, the non-vegan followers might even SHARE my post with vegan friends and family. And if not?

No big deal because we’re all still friends who can agree that we can be friends without being clones.

Keeping the ‘Social’ in Social Media

Now that y’all have had a Neuroscience 101 crash course—and I guarantee you will see Baader-Meinhof OR Kombucha at least three times in the next week—let’s get down to what’s most essential.

Branding is all story.

It’s a collection of emotional experiences that tie our name to some set of descriptors (hopefully positive ones). This is why automation can’t substitute for hopping on-line and talking to people. It’s why the Golden Rule still rules and why YES, goofing off on Facebook and posting kitten videos counts as branding.

Eventually, with love, care and nurturing, followers can become friends and even FANS.

So have fun. Relax. Show up. Be present and engage authentically. Go write great books and enjoy the people you meet along the way.

Coming UP!

If you want to know more about author branding and how to cultivate your own unique story that will attract your unique audience, I’m teaching some killer classes (and remember ALL our classes come with a FREE recording with purchase):

Branding: When Your Name Alone Can Sell

This THURSDAY. Use Brand10 for $10 off. My goal is to teach you how to build a brand so powerful your NAME sells books so you don’t have to. More writing and less *gags* marketing.

Spilling the TEA: Blogging for Authors

Blogging is a powerful way to build an author brand and also make a great income doing what we love…writing. Use Tea10 for $10 off.

As for craft I have a COMPLETELY NEW CLASS!

The Art of Character: Writing Characters for a SERIES

Next Tuesday!

How do we create characters that readers will fall in love with, characters strong enough to go the distance? Find out in this THREE-HOUR class that also comes with detailed notes and a character-building template. Use Binge10 for $10 off.

This class dovetails with my previous class, Bring on the Binge: How to Plot and Write a Series (NowON DEMAND). Use Binge10 for $10 off.

Also, one of my partners in crime, Maria Grace has a totally new craft class THIS FRIDAY!

Populating Planet X: Character Building for Science Fiction

How do we craft human stories when our characters might not be human? Science fiction relies on technology and world-building, but ultimately all great stories are people stories. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off.

This class relates directly to More than Crop Circles: Intro to Science Fiction On Demand. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off. It also ties directly to Not in Kansas Anymore: Science Fiction World0Building On Demand. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off.

Come join all the nerdy fun! See y’all in class!

The post Branding & The Brain: How Social Media Changes but People Never Will appeared first on Kristen Lamb.