A new start!

A lot has happened since I last made an entry. Mainly, I'm now jobless again and so I'm taking the time while I'm job searching to get into the groove of writing seriously again. It's hard to get in that habit even more the more time you have. Life's kind of funny this way. But I've got a lot of ideas and I'm currently in the process of starting a novella with my roommate, Sammy. I'm also pulling out some of my old short stories to edit and finish and then use as free fiction here.

I talked about before how my first novel was going to be a WWII setting but the story is proving much more heavy and difficult to write. It is coming slowly and well... I think I just need to let it come naturally as it does. If I force it I don't think it's going to turn out the way I want and it's too important of a story to me to do half-way!

That's kind of where things are now. I just wanted to note turning over the new leaf and hopefully I'll be making blog entries at least once a week if not more! Once I get my short stories in line I'll start having Short Story Saturday. That'll be my little corner where I can share some free fiction with y'all!

I'm also opening to doing reviews of any sort! So please if you want a short story, novel or anything else reviewed please let me know. I do have limited funds so I cant purchase too many books to do this but I'm willing to purchase as many as I can. I do know sometimes authors will gift a book in return for reviews. I've done this in the past and I've found some great books this way and I know it helps my fellow authors. I'm also looking for blogs to follow and read as well as more friends on twitter (@jongupped) or goodreads!

That being said. I'm going to get my writing on for the night and possibly get some more reading done on The Hobbit which I've been making my way through again!

Social Media and You

With the rise of social media, especially the use of sites like facebook, twitter and even hulu are making traditional marketing obsolete and even a waste of money for many companies, especially entrepreneurs. Affective advertising now is more dependent than it has ever been before upon making a personal connection with your intended audience and/or customers.

How do you make this connection? It's a lot easier than it might seem at first glance. The simplest and best place to begin is creating a business page on facebook. From there make a twitter and get on every single platform you can because there is somewhere you can reach everywhere; not too mention, they're all free, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying!

Now, if you're anything like me, you're probably asking something like, what do you do with all these social media outlets?

There are so many possibilities on what you can do to be successful in using your social media. The most important thing for you to do is to control your image. You want to make sure that you project a feeling that represents your company and your product in an appropriate and positive way that will draw in your audience, bring you respect, support and loyalty, which are all vital to success. Be careful with not only what you say but how you say it. In correlation to this, no matter how many platforms you are on, make sure the message that you are sending is consistent across the board.

A third thing that is vital to keep in mind is how the generation now perceives companies (or writers, singers, bloggers, etc.) today. In the advertising world in present day it's important to make sure you make it clear to the customer that they have a voice and that you are listening and that you do care about their issues and opinions. Don't be afraid to contact your audience personally or to apologize if you make a mistake. This will change the perception of your brand and will gain customer loyalty.

In this vein, also, the generation now has become less shallow. They love to spend money on companies and products that give back to charities, causes and the community. This is definitely something to keep in mind because it makes your brand more appealing. Pick a charity, cause or community project to support and make a clear statement on how you are going to give back. Generalized statements are simply not good enough anymore.

I suppose that's all on social media for now! Any questions?