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Public Service Announcements can be boring and people often ignore them. Yet, despite its 3-minute length, a video PSA (produced by McCann @McCann_Melb), reminding people to have common sense around the high-powered trains of the Melbourne Metro in Australia, has reached 31 million views since only Nov. 14. Why?

Titled “Dumb Ways to Die,” it’s a simple animated spot that’s heavy on the macabre  — but in a whimsical way  — with a song you’ll be humming all day. Adweek calls it an “adorably grim viral megahit.”

The many examples of dumb ways to die (eat medicine that’s out of date, use a clothes dryer as a hiding place, get your toast out with a fork) have nothing to do with train safety until the last 3, leaving the viewer to remember the focus of the spot even after it’s ended.

Simple video + catchy music + whimsy (even on a serious topic) = success.

See our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

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Somersault was given early review access to Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) and Shawn Welch’s (@shawnwelch) forthcoming 324-page book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book (Nononina Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9885231-1-1, Kindle edition).

In describing their work, Kawasaki and Welch have coined the term “artisanal publishing,” which they say consists of “writers who love their craft and who control every aspect of the process from beginning to end. In this new approach, writers are no longer at the mercy of large, traditional publishers, and readers will have more books to read.” Kawaski says,

In 2011 the publisher of one of my books, Enchantment, could not fill an order for 500 ebook copies of the book. Because of this experience, I self-published my next book, What the Plus!, and learned first-hand that self-publishing is a complex, confusing, and idiosyncratic process. As Steve Jobs said, “There must be a better way.”

With Shawn Welch, a tech wizard, I wrote APE to help people take control of their writing careers.

Among the chapter titles are:

·         Tools for Writers

·         How to Write Your Book

·         How to Finance Your Book

·         How to Avoid the Self-Published Look

·         Understanding Book Distribution

·         How to Convert Your File

·         How to Price Your Book

·         How to Guerrilla-Market Your Book

Kawasaki and Welch have done a huge service for hesitant or nervous authors who want to self-publish (they've also lobbed a huge salvo into the ramparts of traditional publishers already agitated over the revolutionary changes occurring in the industry). The book is packed with helpful, practical advice and direct links to important online sources (the only thing missing is a link to the wealth of publishing and marketing information at SomersaultNOW ☺). Also check out the Kindle/iBookstore/Nook/Google Play/Kobo Royalty Calculator on the book's website.

If you want to become an expert at self-publishing, buy APE.

If you want experts to help you publish and market your book, contact us (@smrsault). ☺

Also see our blogposts, "Self-Publishing a Book: 25 Things You Need to Know" and "Free iBook Targets New Writers, Missionaries, Christian Journalists," and others tagged "Self-Publishing."

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Consultant Steven Van Belleghem (@StevenVBe) draws 10 conclusions from the above study by InSites Consulting (@InSites) of the current state of social media around the world:

1. There are more than 1.5 billion social network users worldwide....

2. Fast adoption of smartphones boosts social media use....

3. Most internauts use no more than two social network sites....

4. Pinterest and Instagram are the rising stars....

5. Klout is a niche....

6. Half of consumers are connected to at least one brand....

7. 1 in 2 consumers occasionally post brand-related content....

8. Pinterest is probably more interesting for brands than Instagram....

9. People don’t really trust brand fans....

10. 80% of people are open to co-creation....

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you understand and maximize social media marketing.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

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

The above image is by Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday) using research by 33across.com’s (@33Across) tynt (@tynt). See the news release. Also see eMarketer's (@eMarketer) article, "Copy and Paste Drives Sharing."

Social sharing buttons may be sexier, but according to research...copy and paste is the sharing method of choice 82% of the time.

...For users, copying and pasting to share content holds obvious appeal: It's almost frictionless, and it allows the sharer to choose exactly what to pass on to a friend or social network.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you make your brand content strategically and easily share-able.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media Marketing tab.

The year 2012 would have been public television cooking instructor Julia Child’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, PBS Digital Studios (@PBSDS) commissioned John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep (@musicalscience), to produce the above video, auto-tuning Julia’s cuisine phrases through the years. The result is more than 1 million views. Do you have content you could repurpose to advance your brand?

Also see our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you produce a viral video.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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

Link building, also known as link baiting, is the viral marketing process of creating quality, interesting, and attention-getting content in a website with the intent of encouraging other websites to link to it, thereby contributing to a better search engine ranking for the original website.

In Search Engine Journal (@sejournal), Neil Patel (@neilpatel) co-founder of KISSmetrics.com (@KISSmetrics) offers “8 ways to create link bait content that will break through the clutter in today’s world and help you get the links you want”:

·         Infographics

·         Egobait

·         Interviews

·         Microsites

·         Drawings

·         Videos

·         Quizzes

·         Stories

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan and execute effective social media marketing.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media Marketing tab.

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.

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

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, especially the Branding tab.

In the above video, David Sheets, vice present of sales, explains Snowfall’s program.

Social media connection is rapidly becoming a necessary tool for authors. Authors have a chance to engage their fans like never before. The Snowfall Facebook bookstore application allows authors and publishers to open an e-commerce bookstore right on the Facebook fan-page. Authors can bypass the cost and hassles of other online commerce methods and connect directly with readers and fans. Not only will they be able to browse titles, but also add them to a shopping cart and check out through the PayPal network.

The biggest feature, however, is that authors and publishers won't have to ship them. Leave the printing and shipping to Snowfall Press. Order confirmations will automatically transmit to the Snowfall Press server, and print/ship order directly to the end reader/fan.

Read more information about this new service.

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

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab, which includes links to self-publishing publishers.

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.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

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