Create Headlines That Make People Click!

Create Headlines that make people want to click your links!

New World Creative Union is all about sharing. We share each other’s work as well as our own. So how do we make sure people take notice and actually want to click the links we share? It’s all in the headlines.

Here are six points to help you create enticing headlines:

1. What is the person who clicks the link going to get out of it? How is your poem or creative work going add to their day?

2. Be descriptive. Help people to feel and visualize your work as much as possible in a short headline.

3. Make it personal. Talk to your potential reader. If your poem is about a time of grief lead them in by talking about loss in general. Find a way to connect.

4. Find a way to tie your work in to what’s happening in the world right now. For example, since fall is near you can share fall photos. Or you can link your poem about grief to fall, the season of letting go.

5. Use active not passive voice. For example, “Scary Halloween Poem” is passive and “The Ghoul Changed My Life” is active.

6. Details, details, details. Don’t forget to add the artist’s name or Twitter handle, title of the work, etc.

Joanne Elliott and Social Sprite Media Services brings this column to NWCU every week. If you're a creative seeking advice on spreading the good news about your work, we're here to help!

@SocialSprite talks Pinning with @NWCreativeUnion: Part II

Getting Started with Pinterest

Pinterest is now open to all. You no longer need an invite and you can sign up via Facebook, Twitter or simply by email. So sign up and put this fun and fruitful social pin board platform to work for you.

Last week's article introduced you to this platform. This week I’ll touch on a couple of tips relevant to all. Next week the focus will be on authors and the week after on artists.

Have a strategy. First and foremost I always recommend you create a strategy before getting started with a new social media platform. If you plan on using Pinterest to share your art or books and to connect with fans and potential customers this is especially important. Ask yourself what you’d like to achieve on Pinterest: Awareness of your work, connecting with other creatives, customers or both? Answers to such questions will make it easier to know what kinds of boards to create and who to connect with.

Complete your bio. As with every social media profile you have be sure to fill out the bio section and put in your picture. These things are especially important if you are using them professionally.

Pin it button! To get started you’ll need a Pin It button on your browser’s bookmark bar to make pinning easier. You can get one on the Pinterest Goodies page as well as other buttons for your website.

What are boards? Boards are where you’ll pin your photos or the photos you like. If you’re an artist you can pin photos of your artwork from your website. If you have different genres of work make a separate board for each genre or for each type of content. For example create a board for your landscapes and another for portraits. Authors share your books on one board or create a board for each book. You can also create a board for each of your other interests.

Connect and interact. Like any social media site the more people you’re connected to the more exposure you’ll get. Interaction also helps you gain more exposure. Not only do you want to pin great photos and interesting topics you’ll want to Like, comment on and Re-pin other people’s pins.

Be sure to join me next week when I’ll have a few tips for authors specifically.

For more information on what I do, please check out my New World Creative Union profile.

@SocialSprite talks #Pinning @NWCreativeUnion

Pinning for Creatives

Pinterest is still all the rage in the social media world. It has 20 million registered users, is the 3rd most popular social network in the U.S. in terms of traffic and generates 27% more revenue per click than Facebook.

Have you tried Pinterest? It’s mesmerizing, all those beautiful pictures. They should have named it Delicious…guess someone took that name first. This mainly visual social network is a great place for authors and even better place for artists. It’s all about the image. Let me repeat: It’s all about the image.

The most important thing to remember when using Pinterest is to post amazing images and leave out the pictures of yourself. For example, no pictures of you at your last show just pictures of your work from your last show. The only picture of you should be in your profile bio. Unless you are famous people aren’t likely to share/repin a picture of you, but they will share a picture of your beautiful art or a book they love. People will get to know who you are through what you create and what you like.

Think of Pinterst as an art gallery not a photo album. It’s a place to collect the things you love and if you want others to enjoy them too make sure they are beautiful and meaningful. Once you get that you’ll stand out.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some ideas about how to best use Pinterest. I’ll cover topics of interest to both authors and artists.

If you have any questions please leave them here and I will address them in the next post.

One more thing, here is a link to Pinterest’s Pin Etiquette.

Happy Pinning…as they say.

Please check out my New World profile to learn more about what I do and can do for you.  

Networking with @SocialSprite & @NWCreativeUnion

Choose who you are before they do – Lessons from a modern day Sherlock Holmes

There are few television shows that have turned me into an avid fan, but a friend recently introduced me to the PBS Masterpiece Mystery show “Sherlock” and now I’m hooked.

One episode has this modern day Sherlock grab a hat on his way out of a theatre in order to hide from the press. The hat harkens to the original Sherlock Holmes. It’s a deerstalker. Well the press gets a shot of Sherlock in it and now everyone wants to see him in the “hat.” He hates it, but now it has become a part of his brand.

So be careful what you choose to wear, say, do online because people will grasp onto things you didn’t mean to do, say or wear. In other words know who you are and then show that to the world. I’m not saying be rigid or put yourself into a box, but know who you are so that when out there you convey that and not multiple, haphazard images.

Once your audience thinks they know who you are it’s very hard to change their minds. This is both good and bad.

The last episode of PBS’s Sherlock played with this idea. Once people started to believe a lie told about Sherlock there was no going back and his reputation was ruined. Mind you he didn’t help himself by being arrogant. People are fickle, but if you are your authentic self and personable I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

So ask yourself, “Who am I and what do I stand for? What’s my passion and what is my mission?” Do this because the world needs your voice, your vision.

Check out my New World Creative Union profile to connect and learn more about what I do.

@SocialSprites Social Media Tip of the Week ~11.06.12

LinkedIn is an important social network. It’s a place to know and be known by others in your particular field. People think of it as a place for business professionals, but it’s for any professional, poets, writers, artists.

A great way to network on LinkedIn is via Groups. If you don’t find a group whose focus jibes with yours, create your own.

A few things to remember when joining a LinkedIn group:

1. Complete your profile. This is your calling card. It is how others will get to know you. If you don’t have much on it or you don’t have a picture it will be hard for others to take you seriously.

2. Read and follow the group’s rules. To the right near the top you’ll see a link to the group’s rules. Be sure to read them.

3. Promoting your work. Take note that there is a Promotions tab on groups. This takes you to where you can promote your work. Most groups don’t like promotions added to the discussion board.

4. Get involved. In order to get something out of a group you need to put in the time, you need to contribute.

Here are some LinkedIn groups for artists:

Artist/Photography Buyers/Collectors/Curators

True Artist: living the art

Artist Marketing Resources

Here are some LinkedIn groups for writers and authors:

Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, & Writing Professionals...

Published Authors Network

Booksconnect - Authors, Agents, Rights and Publishing...

Poets

All of these social networks can be whatever you want them to be. Imagine then create it!

Visit Joanne's NWCU Profile to connect!

@SocialSprites Tips of the Week ~ 21.05.12

Social Sprite’s Tip of the Week

This week I want to focus on Facebook Interests Lists. This is a great tool for pulling together people’s profiles and pages that you like and/or find helpful. The great thing about Interests Lists is that others can subscribe to them. This means you can provide a resource for others in your field.

To create an Interests List visit the left hand column of your Home Page on Facebook. You’ll see Favorites, Groups, Friends. If you don’t see Interests listed just click on “More.”

Under Interests you’ll see “Add Interests.” Click on that and you’ll see a list of Interests Lists you can subscribe to. You’ll also see a button that says “Create List.” Click on that and you’ll see all your friends and the pages you’re subscribed to. Decide what kind of list you want to create and start adding friends and pages that belong under that topic.

Here’s a link to a list I created called Poets & All Things Poetical. If this is a topic of interest to you please subscribe. I hope all you poets and lovers of poetry will find this helpful and fun. Please let me know if a favorite poet’s profile (including your own) or poetry page is not on it and I will be sure to include it.

Have fun creating your own Interests Lists!

Visit Joanne's profile to learn more about her and Social Sprite Media Services and how she can help you take your networking to the next level!

@SocialSprite's Tip of the Week ~14.05.12

Social Sprite’s Tip of the Week

As I discussed two weeks ago 30-40% of your total content is original and 60-70% of it will come from third party sources. What kind of content should you share?

What you share depends on your audience. I can’t stress enough how important it is to know your audience. Once you know who you are targeting you can generate some ideas on what to share. Here’s a list to get you thinking:

Tips

Trivia

Pictures

Music

Inspirational stories or quotes

Some of your favorite things

Timely stats relevant to audience

Take polls/surveys/ask questions

·         Use the Questions application on Facebook sparingly.

Invite guest authors on your blog

Interviews/Profiles on your blog

Create guides and other things to help educate your audience

Events

Direct visitors to articles on your website

Reward your fans

·         Recognize and interact with those who make an effort.

·         Give discounts, gifts, etc.

News

·         Share news about your organization or news about your industry. Don’t just post a link to a news article, read it and ask a question of your fans about their opinion and or offer your own insights.

·         Set up Google Alerts to help you find news stories about your industry or other topics of interest to your audience.

Join groups and forums to find out the latest in your industry

Read your RSS feed daily for ideas

Take cues from what you’re reading or watching at the moment

You can also optimize this content to be more easily found in searches:

·         To do this use keywords on your status posts and link shares.

·         Use Google’s Keyword Tool to help you find the best keywords.

Visit Joanne's profile to learn more about her and Social Sprite Media Services and how she can help you take your networking to the next level!