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According to Wikipedia, “Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They present complex information quickly and clearly.” They are an excellent tool to communicate a brand message. Neil Patel (@neilpatel) co-founder of KISSmetrics.com (@KISSmetrics), has written an article explaining 5 ways to help Infographics go viral:

Step #1: Submit an SEO optimized press release

Step #2: Create a social media release

Step #3: Create a social media sharing plan for your Infographic

Step #4: Submit your infographic to directories

Step #5: Start the manual outreach

Read this in full.

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Apple, Walmart, Google, Target, and Microsoft are the brands which US shoppers regard as being the most "inspiring."

The consultancy Performance Inspired (@P_inspired) asked 2,175 adults to name the companies they perceived as meeting this criteria.

"Apple is the most inspiring again this year because it has become a part of the consumer's personal identity," said Terry Barber, chief inspiration officer for Performance Inspired.

The main terms associated with Apple include "innovative," "fun," and the idea that it lets customers be more "creative.”

Walmart is praised for its low prices, diverse range of products, and friendly atmosphere. Google is seen as "informative," "good," and "nice."

Target is lauded for the contribution it makes to the local communities it serves. Microsoft is valued for its products at work.

Other brands in the top 25 are Amazon, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Macy’s, Costco, Nike, Disney, Kohl’s, Ford, The Home Depot, TOMS, jcpenney, Whole Foods Market, Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, Goodwill, Trader Joe’s, and Pepsi.

• 86% of consumers would recommend a company they find "inspiring" to friends and family
• 71% would be willing to pay a premium for goods offered by such firms
• 54% think about the brands they find "most inspiring" at least once a week and 38% talk about them with a similar level of frequency.

"Consumers are not only feeling inspired by certain businesses, but are acting inspired by spending more with these companies while evangelizing to others about their inspiring experience," says Barber.

Read this in full.

How inspiring to your consumers is your brand?

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you strategically communicate your brand message.

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Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Originally written solely for the news media (“the press”), press releases (aka news releases) today regularly appear on the Internet for anyone to read. As a result, the audience they’re written for include consumers online, search engines, bloggers, and retweeters, as well as traditional journalists. And they consist of not only text, but links, Infographics, charts, photos, audio, and video. At more than 100 years old, the press release continues to be a useful tool in marketing communications.

See our previous blogpost, “Social Media News Release Template Step-by-Step Guide.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you maximize the communication of your brand’s content through news releases and electronic press kits.

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Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Writing in The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic), Peter Osnos says, “For all the complexities that publishing faces, the notion that books are somehow less of a factor in the cultural or information ecosystem of our time doesn't hold up to the evidence.”

Whatever else may be happening in this tumultuous period of transition in how books are produced and distributed, the sheer range and quality of so many titles is indisputable proof that our marketplace has writers and readers in impressive numbers....

Instead of the competition among traditional booksellers for the attention of readers that was for so long the way books were sold, publishers now must confront the immense power and reach of tech giants and adapt to their influence. These companies are so much larger than even the biggest of publishers that accommodating their demands on price and promotion is a formidable task and is the reason why it looks (and often feels) that publishers are on the defensive.

We are in a whirlwind of change. A writer with the ambition to reach a maximum audience needs at least some understanding of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, blogs, Tumblr, LinkedIn, GoodReads, and Google+ (a hat tip to my colleagues at the Perseus Books Group who are making significant headway in providing guidance to our authors in all these marketing tools). But even in the midst of so much change, the main challenge of publishing remains the same: finding and supporting good books and then working closely with authors to identify and reach their readers through every way possible. With all the hubbub of today's technology and media landscape, that still is the best route to success.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you take advantage of today's technology to publish and market your content.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

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Image by Colin Craig, The Big Orange Slide

In Adweek (@Adweek), Tim Nudd (@nudd) reports on a panel of advertisers who said only 7 types of stories exist and the “challenge becomes finding which one best suits your brand, and then telling it skillfully, believably, and — if you're going to invite consumers to join in the story — extremely carefully.”

The discussion was based around author Christopher Booker's contention, in his book Seven Basic Plots, that 7 archetypal themes recur in every kind of storytelling

1. Overcoming the Monster. The classic underdog story.

2. Rebirth. A story of renewal.

3. Quest. A mission from point A to point B.

4. Journey and Return. About transformation through travel and homecoming.

5. Rags to Riches. From obscurity to prominence.

6. Tragedy. The barren human experience

7. Comedy. Emotionally elevating.

At the core of every brand, said one marketer, is a good story waiting to happen.

Read this in full.

Social media marketing speaker Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) encourages his followers to “Tell Big Stories.”

In a post on the HBR Blog Network (@HarvardBiz), Rosabeth Moss Kanter (@RosabethKanter) says people remember stories more easily than numbers, and if told in the right way and with the right message, they can motivate action. She says, if you want to transform your organization (brand), start by challenging the stories you tell about the company and how it operates.

Read this in full.

And MarketingProfs (@MarketingProfs) has a brief slideshow on “How to Tell Your Company’s Story:”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you tell your brand's story.

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Since we’re only human and we all make mistakes, it’s important to know when and how to effectively apologize. This practice is especially important for business leaders who seek to maintain positive public relations (reputation management) for their companies among their constituents.

Tom Peters (@tom_peters), author of In Search of Excellence, encourages business leaders to become students of apology. In this video he says, "Learning how to apologize effectively is the real essence of strategic strength."

In their Forbes (@Forbes) article Creative Leadership: Humility and Being Wrong, Doug Guthrie and Sudhir Venkatesh say:

We are frequently taught that leaders, especially aspiring leaders, should hide weaknesses and mistakes. This view is flawed. It is not only good to admit you are wrong when you are; but also it can also be a powerful tool for leaders—actually increasing legitimacy and, when practiced regularly, can help to build a culture that actually increases solidarity, innovation, openness to change and many other positive features of organizational life.

Read this in full.

In another Forbes article, Courageous Leaders Don't Make Excuses...They Apologize, Erika Andersen offers an “apology primer”:

·         I’m sorry: this is the core of a genuine apology. Communicate that you truly regret your behavior.

·         Stay in the first person: don’t say “I’m sorry...you didn’t understand me.” A true apology sounds like, “I’m sorry I....”

·         Don’t equivocate: don’t water it down with excuses.

·         Say how you’ll fix it: if you genuinely regret your words or actions, you’ll commit to changing.

·         Do it: when you don’t follow through, people question not only your courage, but also your trustworthiness.

Read this in full.

In her article for the Ivey Business Journal (@iveybusiness) titled: Should Business Leaders Apologize? Why, When, and How an Apology Matters, Linda Stamato writes:

Questions of timing are critical. The longer it takes a business leader or a section manager, for example, to acknowledge his or her mistake, the more likely the undecided folks will turn against him or her. Business leaders need to understand that if, in the end, it is going to be disclosed that they have erred, it's better to own up as quickly as possible in order to have a hand in making repairs.

To acknowledge a mistake is to assert secure leadership; to take responsibility and prescribe a corrective course of action is wise management. Taking responsibility for an error earns the privilege of being forgiven, and thus granted a second chance.

Read this in full.

And for CNN (@CNN), Marsha Sampson Johnson decries the slippery new term “double-down’ that politicians are using in place of “apologize.”

Read this in full.

On a related note, pastor and author Max Lucado (@MaxLucado) writes in the article Coming Clean for Leadership Journal (@Leadership_Jnl) (from personal experience of enjoying beer too much but not admitting it) on just how honest and open confession is the right thing to do.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you authentically and strategically manage your brand’s reputation.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Christian Retailing (@ChristianRetail) says, “Christian retailers are reporting good sales and positive feedback for CBA's 3rd annual Christian Store Week (@CSW_2012)” Sept. 28 – Oct. 8.

More than 400 Christian stores nationwide — including 134 independent retailers and the Family Christian Stores (@FCstores) chain — partnered with World Vision (@WorldVisionUSA) to raise awareness of the need for hunger relief among American children as part of CSW, an effort to spotlight Christian bookstores and drive traffic, CBA said.

Read this in full.

See our previous blogpost, “This is Christian Store Week.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach the Christian store market with your brand message.

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Reporter Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) writes on paidContent (@paidContent) about the new ebook selling and marketing Web service launched today, Ganxy (@Ganxy). She says, “In just a few minutes, anyone can create a “showcase” for a book that includes its cover, description, video and other marketing materials, and purchase options.”

Authors and publishers can sell books directly through the showcase or simply provide links to retailers. The entire showcase can then be tweeted, embedded in a blog, website, or Facebook page, or can just stand alone as a website....

It’s free to create a showcase, but Ganxy makes money in two ways. The company takes 10% of each sale when an ebook is sold through a showcase (authors and publishers can choose whether they want to sell ebooks directly). Ganxy also makes money through the affiliate links to retail sites that are embedded in the showcase. An author can also request to use his or her own affiliate links in the showcase; in that case, Ganxy displays its affiliate link 25% of the time and the author’s 75% of the time.

Ganxy also wants to appeal to readers. When someone buys an ebook directly through a Ganxy showcase, it’s added to his or her library and can be downloaded in any format (EPUB, iOS, Kindle and so on). All the ebooks Ganxy sells directly are DRM-free. (Publishers who don’t like that can just display retail links and not sell ebooks directly.)

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

And read our previous blogposts:

·         “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books”

·         “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery”

·         "Family Christian Stores Now Selling Its Own Tablet"

·         "Parable, Mardel Latest to Launch Ebook Sales; Ebooks Now at 500+ Christian Stores"

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Some book authors have a tendency to minimize the effectiveness of social media marketing. And, because of that perspective, they neglect to fully engage with it as a way to advance their personal brand among their readers and to introduce themselves to new readers. So let’s take a look at why Pres. Obama and Gov. Romney believe social media marketing is so important and how they approach it.

The New York Times Technology (@nytimestech) journalist Jenna Wortham (@jennydeluxe) reports that “both [parties] rely heavily on Facebook and Twitter to solicit donations, blast out reminders of events, and share articles and videos conveying their stances.”

If the presidential campaigns of 2008 were dipping a toe into social media like Facebook and Twitter, their 2012 versions are well into the deep end. They are taking to fields of online battle that might seem obscure to the non-Internet-obsessed — sharing song playlists on Spotify, adding frosted pumpkin bread recipes to Pinterest and posting the candidates’ moments at home with the children on Instagram.

At stake, the campaigns say they believe, are votes from citizens, particularly younger ones, who may not watch television or read the paper but spend plenty of time on the social Web. The campaigns want to inject themselves into the conversation on services like Tumblr, where political dialogue often takes the form of remixed photos and quirky videos.

Read this in full.

Replace “votes” with “book purchases” and you see that social media marketing should be taken seriously by authors.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan your social media marketing strategy. And to learn more about SomersaultSocial.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In his coverage of the recent Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) Discoverability and Marketing conference, Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) reports, “Reader behavior is in flux and the ways in which people engage with and discover new content has grown exponentially.”

–     In 2011, nearly half of consumers changed their book-buying behavior (chart below)

–     39% of books are sold online, 26% in stores, and the rest in nearly a dozen other ways (chart below)

–     People discover new books in up to 44 different ways

...Amid all the change in how readers read and discover books, one thing has remained constant: in-person, personal recommendations are the No. 1 way people discover books, no matter who they are or how they read.

Read this in full.

Also see "Discoverability & Marketing Conference: A Diversity of Challenges."

And read our previous blogposts “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books” and “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.