I’m sorry I’ve been so delinquent in posting, but I’ve been absolutely swamped the last few weeks getting ready for my book launch in February for The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex. It’s coming out with Zondervan, and for the last week I’ve been doing the most awkward thing I have ever done in my speaking and writing life: I had to sit in a recording studio and read the whole book out loud. Complete with an explanation of male and female anatomy, and how things work, while a male tech guy (whom I know socially) listened to every word and stopped me if I got two quiet or flubbed up in some way. That was seriously weird.

Anyway, the book will be out in about five weeks, and I am very excited. But it’s meant that a lot of other things got put on the back burner, including this blog.

The good news is that I’m home now until mid-March, and even though I’ll be doing promotion for the book, I will be around. I’ll be able to do mundane things like actually cook for my family. I’ll be able to do my radio shows on Tuesdays about different speaking topics. And I’ll be here to help you!

What I’ve found with speaking is that my life tends to get very busy in spurts: I’ll have crazy months when I’m speaking almost every weekend, and then I’ll be off for a few weeks to rejuvenate. Typically, here in Canada where I live, I take off January and February, because no one plans events for the winter, anyway. Then March and April get crazy.

I find that a little difficult, because it’s hard to keep up with normal life, like grocery shopping, and cooking, and laundry, when some weeks you’re home, and some weeks you’re not. So I’m looking forward to being home a lot in the next little while, even if I am blogging like crazy.

This year coming up I’ve decided that I don’t like being gone every weekend in the spring, so I’m changing things up. I’m going to do four speaking tours a year–two in the spring and two in the fall–and I’m going to be home other than that. So I’ll likely be on the road about 50 days a year, but then the other days I’m completely here for my family. I’ve hired a booking agent to help me in this endeavor, but I think it’s going to work.

It’s not something I’d recommend until your schedule is so busy you can’t handle it anymore. But that’s where I was, and I knew something had to change.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I promise to post more frequently, but for now, if you want some extra reading, here are some posts you may like:

How to Book a Speaking Tour (to go along with what I’ve been saying)

A Speaking Plan for the New Year (I wrote this last January, but it’s still relevant)

The Only Social Media Strategy that Works (if you’re taking the winter months to rev up your online presence, be sure to read this!)

Now it’s your turn: tell me how you handle being on the road. And let me know what you’re up to!

You can get my 3-module e-course, How to Launch Your Speaking Ministry, for 50% off. Today only, it’s just $25!

Here’s what it teaches you:

Module 1: Preparing the Foundation

• Develop Your Signature Talk
• Identify Your Niche
• Write a Tagline
• Get Everything in Place to Generate Word of Mouth: know how you’ll follow up; have beginning promotional materials; make yourself easy to find
• Learn How to Record Yourself
• Learn the 25 Easiest Groups to Speak to–and how to find them!
• Get Your Friends Working on Your Behalf!

And you’ll learn the big mistake beginning speakers often make that jeopardizes word of mouth and their ability to get larger engagements later!

Module 2: Capturing their Attention, and Keeping It!

• Learn How to Collect Email Addresses, and what to do with them!
• Find the 3 Best Methods to Make Your Talk Effective: The more effective, the more they’ll recommend you!
• Discover the Keys to Making Organizers Happy, so they’ll recommend you!
• Cure Your Speaking Foibles–and banish your “ummmms, you knows”
• Generate Testimonials
• Record yourself, both in audio and video, to use later!

Module 3: Creating Professional Materials

• Edit and Create Demo CDs, which you can also sell at engagements
• Create video clips on YouTube
• Create a testimonial video
• Print up one-sheets
• Develop a Fee Schedule that Works for Everyone!

You’ll learn the secrets to setting your fees, helping people find you, and giving off a professional, competent appearance.

Find out more here, today only!

Every Tuesday at noon EST when I’m not speaking, I host a BlogTalkRadio show dedicated specifically to speaking! This week we went off the reservation a bit to talk not just about speaking, but also about how to market your book.

Normally I just do a condensed version of the show on the blog, so that people can catch what they missed listening to, and I’ll try to do that here, too. But I’ve got to tell you, this show was packed with really useful ideas, and so you really need to listen!

Here, though, is the nutshell version:

The key to marketing is not to create an audience for your book. It’s not even to bring the audience to you. The key to marketing is to figure out where your audience already is, and then go and stand in front of them!

You basically have two main circles of influence to do that in. You have those people that you know in person and will meet in person, and you have the online world. You can’t ignore either sphere. The people that you know personally you have a deeper relationship with, and you’re more likely to be able to sell to them. But they’re such a small proportion of the population. You also need to reach out to the masses. So you need a wide reach on one hand, and a deep reach on the other. Let’s look at how to handle both these groups:

A. Marketing to Your Personal Spheres of Influence

1. Ask your friends for help

Send out an email to your friends announcing your new book. But don’t JUST announce your new book. Figure out who the main reader of the book will be, and what their main problem is. Is it young Christian moms? Is it recovering alcoholics? Is it men who have just been through a divorce?

In your email, say this clearly, like this:

“I know single, Christian women will really appreciate this book. Can you do me a favour and forward this email to FIVE single, Christian women that you know? Thanks so much!”

Ironically, naming a number, like five, makes it far more likely that the email will be forwarded. If you just say, “forward this email to single, Christian women” people won’t do it, because they don’t have an easy way to measure how big a task that is. Specify a number, and they’ll do it!

2. Figure out Where People Meet

What is the main problem your book is addressing? Or if it isn’t addressing a problem (let’s say it’s a women’s devotional), then think about the key people in your niche, and ask what problems they have.

Here’s why: people are more likely to meet to solve a problem then just to be together. So you have support groups for everything under the sun. Figure that out, and then contact those groups.

B. The Online World

The online world works on RELATIONSHIPS, not on marketing. If you start a blog, or start a Facebook page or a Twitter account where your main goal is to sell your book, and you make this obvious, you won’t be successful.

For your presence to be felt online, you have to participate in conversations that are already occurring. So start a blog where you talk about the problems your niche group faces (again, people are more likely to go online looking for answers to problems).

Then find people on Twitter who talk about those problems. Identify two or three good influences, and look at who they follow. Chances are they will follow people similar to your niche. Follow them, too.

Then just start participating in conversations. Share great YouTube videos. Retweet people. Put up interesting content.

Yes, you can share your book, but it is actually better to develop a relationship first, so that you stand out in the crowd and you build goodwill.

For instance, I once saw a tweet from a woman who was looking for a specific knitting pattern. I knew where to find it, and I tweeted her the link. It took me about 45 seconds. Now I love to knit, but my books have nothing to do with knitting. But that woman was so grateful, and she remembered me, that now she retweets almost everything I post about marriage. I made a connection by doing something helpful.

That sounds like a lot of work, you say. Yep. It does. But that’s what online marketing is. Try to schedule a little bit of time everyday to read through people’s tweets and respond, and to post interesting stuff on Facebook. If people think of you as someone who collects information in your niche, they’re more likely to listen to you when you talk about your book!

That’s the quick synopsis of the show, but there is so much more there. So listen in to this 30 minute recording, and take notes!

And if you want to know more about how to build an online community, my download, Build Your Online Community, is invaluable!

So you’ve been working hard and you’ve landed your first speaking engagement! You’re so excited, but you’re scared at the same time. Will you make a fool out of yourself? Will people like you?

If you want to grow your speaking ministry, then you’ll also want to make the most out of this speaking engagement, so that it will spread word of mouth about you, and help you to garner even more engagements. You don’t want to speak once and then be back where you started: with no prospects in sight.

So here are steps to take to make sure you grow buzz about your speaking ministry:

1. Give a GREAT Talk

That’s the hard part, I know, but you’ve been building towards this for a while. You deserve to give it your absolute best shot.

And don’t be too nervous about it. Remember that chances are most of the audience won’t know it’s your first engagement. Don’t volunteer that bit of information, either, or else they’ll start getting nervous for you. Just walk up there, with confidence, knowing that God has put you here.

And how do you give a great talk? You don’t want to preach at your audience; you want to take them on a journey so they’re ready to hear your central message, and they’re ready to listen to God. Telling them a bunch of facts won’t work; connecting on both an intellectual and emotional level will. If you’re unsure of how to do this, I have an audio download, with a great handout, that will take you step by step in how to prepare a talk. It’s almost a fill-in-the-blanks thing, and will help you identify your central, unique message. Find out more with this audio download, Craft Your Signature Talk.

2. Record Yourself

In the future, you’re going to get speaking engagements through word of mouth, and that’s going to work best when women’s ministry leaders who may hire you can actually “hear” you. So record yourself. Later, you can use that recording to make a 2-3 minute video and audio clip to put on your website.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do that. Don’t even worry if you don’t have a website yet. Just record yourself, and then when you are ready, you’ll have something to work with. But if you don’t record yourself now, you can’t get that opportunity back.

Here’s a great recorder that works for me. You’ll need an external microphone, too, to pick up your voice the best.

3. Collect Email Addresses

Hold a draw for a prize, or something, and ask people to fill out a ballot with their name on it. Provide a box they can check if they want your newsletter about (whatever your main message is). Don’t just offer your newsletter; few will take it. But if you present it like this:

• Monthly Newsletter with Devotional
• Monthly Ezine on Christian friendship
• Monthly Ezine with Mom Tips
• Monthly Ezine with God’s Encouragement

Or whatever may be relevant in your case, more people will check the box. With this method, you’ll likely get about 30% of people signing up for your newsletter, which isn’t bad. You don’t want people to HAVE to enter their email address to win, though, because it’s more likely they’ll treat your emails as spam.

4. Take Pictures

Hand your camera to someone who looks like they know how to use it, and ask them to take as many pictures as they can while you’re up there. Take pictures around the table, too. Just take as many as you can, because you can use these later on Facebook, on a blog, on your website, or even on promotional materials.

5. Get testimonials

If anyone tells you that they really enjoyed you, ask if they’d mind emailing that to you. Or ask for their email address, and then email them afterwards and ask if you can quote them on that.

Send an email to the person who organized the event, and ask her for her feedback. The more testimonials you have, the better it will be for your website!

Even if you don’t have all the pieces in place yet to promote yourself, if you follow these steps, then when you do have a website running, and a newsletter running, and a Facebook presence, you’ll have content. So don’t ignore these beginning engagements. Use them for all you can get out of them! And remember: God is opening doors. Step through them!

Right now I’m in the Toronto airport, heading for Chicago, where my agent is having a marketing seminar all day tomorrow. We’ll be talking about building your platform, using social media well, creating your brand, and more!

I want to let you know some of this great information, so I’ll be live blogging and Tweeting and updating my Facebook page throughout the day. So please, drop in, listen, and ask questions. Maybe I can pass them along to the speakers!

I received a wall post on our Facebook group a while back from a speaker who said:

Last year I had many speaking engagements, but this year I only have one. And I have no more down the pipeline. What should I do?

Excellent question, and today on Use Your Words, my BlogTalkRadio show, I addressed just that. You can listen in here, but here are the highlights:

1. Make Sure Word of Mouth is in Place

Speakers tend to get hired because of word of mouth. Someone hears you speak, and then they recommend you. That’s why you MUST collect email addresses everytime you speak. Give away a door prize that they can win if they sign up for your newsletter. Then send that newsletter out about every 4-6 weeks so you stay in people’s minds.

Set up a Facebook Page (or let people subscribe to your Facebook account) so that they keep you in mind and can find you if they need to.

Make it easy for people to recommend you. If you haven’t been saving email addresses, likely you still have some. Go back and get the addresses from those you spoke to last year, and send them a newsletter, mentioning what you’re doing, and ask them to pass it on to other women’s ministry leaders.

2. Let Your Friends Know

Friends can be the best at generating word of mouth, but often they forget because they don’t think of you as a speaker. Send an email blast to all your friends asking them to recommend you as a speaker to anyone they know in women’s ministry. Every few days, post on Facebook what you’re doing with speaking–writing a new talk, preparing a new retreat, going over pictures from a previous speaking engagement. Remind them you’re a speaker. And then every week or so, post an actual request for engagements. “Anyone know of a church looking for a women’s speaker for a spring outreach? I’m booking up now for the spring! Contact me (or pass my name on)”

3. Ask Friends About Who They Know

Take a few minutes and brainstorm every person you know who attends a different church than you. Then start contacting them and asking the name of the women’s ministry coordinator. Now you’re ready with an introduction to that church. Following the steps on how to Cold Call to get speaking engagements, email and mention your friend’s name.

4. Jazz Up your Website

If you’re going through a downtime, take some time to jazz up your online presence. Make sure your website is top notch. Hire a designer if you need to. Prepare a short video with clips of you speaking. Post your testimonials. And prepare your Facebook page.

5. Research Workshop Opportunities

Workshops can be a wonderful way to generate word of mouth, because most take place at conferences with women from different churches attending. See which conferences are coming your way this spring or next fall, and then contact the organizer to do a workshop. Speaking to a group of 50, with 30 churches represented, is more beneficial marketing-wise than speaking to a group of 200 all from one church.

6. Get Listed in Your Denomination

Finally, make sure your denomination knows about you. While it’s fine to speak from any denomination, often the only one who will explicitly advertise you is your own. So find out if your denomination has a state or national women’s ministry coordinator, and a website. If they do, send in a DVD or a CD of your talk, and ask to be listed as a potential speaker.

Sometimes we all go through downtimes, and it’s easy to get depressed. But it’s pretty normal in the speaking world. So take these downtimes as an opportunity to make sure all your marketing and word of mouth generating tools are in place, and then start reaching out. You just may find your schedule books up quickly!

You can listen to the whole Use Your Words show here.

If you want more information on how to generate more bookings, my practical audio download, “How to Get Better Bookings”, is an invaluable aid. Find out more here.

But today’s show was inspired by an email I received from Lisa, who said,

“how do you find the time for everything? How do you balance your work and your family? How do you figure out how to find time to market? I just feel like I never get anything done.”

I so feel your pain, Lisa. And so you can listen to the show right here. But here’s a synopsis for the rest of you:

1. Stop Apologizing for Your Ministry

When I started speaking and writing, I felt like it was something I was doing for me–stoking my own ego, so to speak. Therefore, I couldn’t take any time away from my daughters, or my home, or my marriage, or I was somehow cheating. I was being selfish. So the ministry came last. I had to make sure I was SuperMommy before I could go on the computer.

Stop it. If God is calling you to ministry, He wants you to take some time. You don’t have to apologize. You don’t have to compensate. You don’t have to work four times as hard in every other area of your life to get “permission” to do ministry. Ask for help, explain to your mate what you feel is your calling, talk to your friends about it, and stop feeling guilty.

2. Stop Apologizing to Yourself

But if we’re not feeling guilty for letting everyone else down, we often feel guilty for letting ourselves down. I should be accomplishing so much more, we think. I should be trying harder. I should be further ahead.

No. You do what you can, when you can. When my kids were young, I only had time to work while they napped. My ministry grew slowly. When they were older, I did what I could. I didn’t begin blogging or using social media until 2008, when they were able to do most of their homeschooling independently (they were 11 and 13 at the time). God may be calling you to something, but it may be something that grows slowly, in different stages of your life. That’s okay. Even in the beginning years, when you are busy with little ones, or in years when you’re busy taking care of older relatives, He’s still grooming you. He’s giving you great stories to tell one day! He’s giving you life experience. You can still read and learn and pray, even if you don’t do as much speaking now. That’s all right.

3. Stop Feeling Guilty About Not Keeping a Schedule

I used to feel guilty about not getting up at 6:30 to start my day off right. I have finally come to peace with the fact that I’m not a morning person. I often don’t go to sleep until 11:30 or midnight, so I”ll spend some “time” with my husband early in the evening, say from 10-11, and then he’ll go to sleep while I’m on my iPad until midnight, lying in bed beside him. That’s okay. I’m getting work done at night.

I also used to feel guilty because I read all these productivity magazine articles that said that I was supposed to have “work hours”. I tried that. It never worked. And I felt horrible about it. I tried working from 10-12, thinking that then I would get stuff done. But then we’d have doctor’s appointments, or Katie would need help with math, and I’d end up resenting he for it.

You need to do what works for you. I start a timer at the beginning of the day, and try to work for 2 1/2 hours on my big projects. I hit start, and get to work. When an interruption comes, I hit stop. And then when I sit back down, I hit start again. So over the day I’m trying to get to 2 1/2 hours. When I do get there, I stop. I go make dinner, or I relax, or I do something else.

I find working for 2 1/2 hours less stressful than saying, “I need to get this done today”, because then if you don’t get it doen you feel guilty. Instead, I do what I can in the hours that I have decided are reasonable.

One caveat: this doesn’t work well when you have small children. If you’re constantly trying to “snatch” time when there are preschoolers underfoot, you’ll end up resenting them because they’re always interrupting you. It’s better in that case to have time at night, when your husband has them, or to trade baby-sitting time with friends, or to work when they nap or when they watch a video (we used to save movies for when Mommy needed to work).

4. Figure out your main goal for the month

We all have endless to do lists on what we need to do to get our speaking ministry going. I need a better website. I need a Facebook page. I need to write my talk for the retreat. I need to send out my newsletter. I need to do this. Stop it. Just stop it. If you think in terms of your to-do list, you’ll never feel to done. You’ll always feel like you haven’t accomplished anything because there is always more to do.

Instead, think in terms of one or two big projects you want to work on this month. Maybe it’s getting an ebook together, or cold calling churches to book a speaking tour. Figure out your main goals (and if you have trouble focusing, my webinar, Treating Speaking Like a Business, gives you an amazing tool to figure out what is most useful for you to concentrate on, and what will most help your ministry). Then you’re focused, and the other stuff can get done later. You’ve taken care of the importan tthings.

Do these four things, and you’ll stop feeling so guilty! So listen in if you missed the show. And be sure to check out my webinar, Treating Speaking Like a Business!

You can try to find a church to book it yourself, but it’s unlikely one church will have enough people that would be interested to make it worthwhile. Or you could try to book it in a hotel and invite a ton of churches out.

All of that sounds like a lot of work to me.

Or perhaps you want to put together a workshop on how to choose a spouse, and speak to university students. Again, you can try to contact a church, or a campus group, but that’s hard.

In both cases, there’s a better way.

Find a ministry that is already targeting your group/area of concern, and ask if you can partner with them.

This isn’t as scary as it seems. Let’s take the workshop on anorexia, for instance. What if you could find a ministry that already dealt with teenage girls? Or with women in general? Or with eating disorders? Or when it comes to the premarital stuff, you could find a marriage ministry that didn’t really deal with engaged couples yet. Or a big campus ministry group.

Many groups are already doing ministry, but everyone is cash strapped. They’re often eager to expand what they offer, but they don’t have the money to do so. If you can come alongside and say,

I see you have a hole in your ministry–an area that isn’t currently being filled. I would love to fill that for you.

They may just say yes! Especially if you don’t ask for money.

“What’s that?” you say. Don’t ask for money?

That’s right. Don’t ask for money. Because few ministries have extra money lying around today anyway. But if they can expand their ministry, and reach new people, they may be eager to do it.

If you don’t ask for money, what’s the purpose of a partnership? Well, they can provide you with other things.

They might be able to:

• Provide posters/graphic design for you
• Give you access to their email database to send out invitations to your events
• Lend you their name so you have credibility
• Call churches for you to arrange an introduction
• Allow you to incorporate some of the materials they already have
• Sell your materials on their website and at their conferences

I know some people right now who are trying to start a new ministry for people in job transition. It’s a great idea, but it’s a hard one to do on their own, and they’re sending out tons of emails and aren’t necessarily getting a big response. I know people want to maintain ownership of their ministries, but I think you can still do that by being under the auspices of something bigger. For instance, if you wanted to do something in job transition, I’d contact some of the Christian financial planning agencies or financial services companies and see if they’d be interested in your workshops. Again, you don’t have to charge, but having their name behind you gives you tons of credibility. And then they may even book you to do other things!

These partnerships aren’t necessarily easy to find, but I do think they’re worth investigating if  you want to veer off the traditional Christian women’s ministry speaking gigs (speaking at churches to general audiences) to speak in a niche market. When you’re in a niche market, you need something bigger behind you in order to get enough people at your events. It’s very hard to do on your own.

So brainstorm about who is trying to reach the same people you are, or who might see what you offer as an interesting expansion on what they already do. And then start sending out feelers. Don’t just sell yourself, but send out an email introducing yourself and asking if you can talk with them on the phone or in person about their vision and see if you could establish a mutually beneficial relationship. Make sure that you have something to offer–like showing a promotional video of theirs to your audience, or giving your audience out information from that organization, or anything. But if it’s a win-win, many organizations will be willing to do it.

You’ll need some testimonials that say how good you are, and likely a DVD or a recording of what you do, along with your own promotional materials. But don’t overlook the benefits of combining ministries. Sure, you may give up a bit of control. Yes, you may give up the potential of huge name recognition. But few of us are going to create huge ministries on our own, anyway. I think partnerships offer you the opportunity to get off the ground quicker, and are far more strategic for advancing the kingdom, anyway.

I’ve had partnerships with FamilyLife Canada and World Vision Canada, and they’ve gone so well. Anyone else had experiences like this? Let me know!

Today I want to talk about how specifically to use Facebook to do that.

Facebook has three main ways that you can connect with people: you can set up your own personal profile, you can start a page, or you can start a group.

If you’re thinking of starting a group, stop right now. They’re annoying. So many people have added me to groups and I hate it. The notifications drive me insane, and you have to specifically turn them off. So don’t do a group.

The question most people have is between a Fan Page and a personal profile. What do you do if you have a mixture of people in your personal profile, some of whom are your neighbours and your cousins and your dog walker and your pastor’s wife, and others who just know you from speaking? Or do you even need a Page? And what about the new Facebook changes? Let’s try to take these things one at a time.

1. A Page is more Targeted

On a Facebook Fan Page  you can specifically target those who are interested in hearing about your ministry–and not turn off your dogwalker or your cousin who isn’t a Christian yet. It’s easy to set up, and it looks like a personal profile. The difference is that you can have unlimited fans (a personal profile can only have 5,000), and you can have multiple people administering it, if you want.

I have both a Page and a Personal Profile, and whenever anyone sends me a friend request, I usually accept it but then also send them a message pointing to my page. I don’t tend to post as much on my personal profile about “work” type things as I do on my Page, and I don’t want them to miss it.

Try to only update your Page 2 times a day maximum. People don’t want to get overwhelmed with stuff from your Page. If you are going to do it more often, spread it out throughout the day. But it is a good idea to update every one or two days.

2. Divide Friends into Lists

Then, on your personal profile, make sure that you add EVERYONE to a list. If you have to go back and do this with friends you already have, go do it now. Go. Now. Don’t wait.

Why? Because then you can make sure that you don’t overwhelm your ministry acquaintances with personal stuff, or your personal acquaintances with business stuff.

For instance, let’s say that you wanted to write this as a status: “I’m on a cruise and loving it!” You may want your sister to know, and your cousin, but likely not everyone in the world. That’s like saying, “My house is empty! Come rob me!”

So what you can do is post that status, but then clarify who can see it. That’s where lists come in.

Usually Facebook shows a status update to “everyone”, but you can choose to make it visible to only a subset of your friends. Just click on “Everyone”, and then choose custom.

Now you can either choose to show it ONLY to certain lists, or Exclude certain lists. Just type the name of your list, and you’re set! So if I want to show something only to close friends and family, I’ll choose those lists. Or if I want to exclude something from family, because I don’t want to inundate them with ministry stuff, I’ll exclude them.

Note: for this to work, make sure that your personal profile’s privacy settings are such that your wall is not visible to anyone who is not your friend. If your wall is visible to everybody, then even if you choose to exclude certain people, strangers can still see it.

Now you can treat your personal profile like a Page, putting ministry up there, but not inundating your church family or your distant cousins with all of it.

So everytime you add someone on Facebook, put them in a list (or multiple lists). Then, when you make a status update, decide how many people you actually want to see this, and mark them accordingly.

3. Don’t Rely on Networked Blogs

A lot of us post to our personal profile and our Pages using NetworkedBlogs, a Facebook app that lets you add your blog, and then the blog post shows up without you having to specifically do anything.

If you’re not already using NetworkedBlogs, you can disregard this point, because I’m going to tell you why Facebook’s recent changes make NetworkedBlogs useless.

First, new blog posts used to show up in people’s news feeds. Now, if someone is subscribed to a bunch of blogs, they simply get a notification that there are 32 new blog posts, and most don’t click on it. So while my average post on my Facebook Page has about 1000 impressions, anything posted by Networked Blogs has only about 40, because they’re not in news feeds anymore.

So I’ve gone back to manually posting my blog posts, and bingo, they’re back at 900 impressions again.

All of Facebook has gone wonky with the new changes, because you can’t count on being in news feeds anymore with the way we used to do it. You have to manually enter stuff. It’s harder, but it’s the only way for people to see it.

4. Remember that Engagement is the Key

If you want to keep people seeing your stuff, then they have to interact with you. They have to click a like button, or leave a comment, or follow a link that you posted. When they do this, Facebook counts them as being interested in you, and you’re more likely to be a “top story” in their news feed.

Thus, the key to people seeing your stuff on Facebook is to post stuff that people are more likely to hit the “like” button about, or leave a comment. So ask a question every now and then. Post a pithy saying. Post a funny video or a funny status update, just so they will hit “like”.

When they hit “like”, that will then show up in all their friends’ ticker tape feed, the part that is now on the right hand side of the Facebook interface. And that may get you more traffic!

In sum, you should have a Facebook Page, but don’t ignore your personal profile, either. Lots of your friends won’t be fans of your page, so you should post in both. Just use lists to manage who sees what in your personal profile, and you won’t inundate people with too much information that isn’t helpful.

The most important part of keeping people interested in you, though, is the old truth that we can’t escape: post stuff that people actually find interesting and helpful. Do this, and people will interact with you, which will increase your visibility. Post only about yourself, and people will tune out.

I hope that helps! Tell me of your experiences with the new Facebook, and with Pages, and let’s see if we can help each other!

I follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and occasionally look at her blog. And this professional woman, who is listed as “in a relationship” on Facebook, with no other information, spends 60% of her tweets replying to another male professional in the town where she lives. I have no idea what their relationship is, but I don’t think he’s the one she’s “in a relationship” with.

I don’t think there’s anything bad going on. It’s just odd.

And if I were a women’s ministry leader, and I were investigating her for a possible speaking engagement, and I took a look at her Twitter feed, I would have no idea that this was a woman who wanted to teach other women. And, by the way, I’d be very leery about this guy that she keeps talking to (even though it probably is innocent).

I know she is trying to build a speaking business, and a ministry, but she isn’t going to do it with that social media strategy.

We seem to think that the correct social media strategy is: If you build it, they will come.

In other words, if you’re tweeting, if you’re on Facebook, if you’re constantly updating your blog, you’re doing all the right things.

Nope. That’s not how it works.

If you want to become known in a certain sphere, and if you want people to take you seriously in your area of expertise, then you must actually tweet and update about that area of expertise. And pretty much ONLY that area of expertise.

That may not sound radical, but it is amazing how few people actually follow this advice. If you want to be known as someone who can minister to people recovering from cancer, for instance, then make sure most of your tweets have to do with inspirational quotes, cancer studies, links to inspirational stories or videos, posts on your own journey with cancer, and things like that. Do not talk about what you had for breakfast. Don’t throw in too many tweets about your kids’ soccer games (though the occasional one is okay). Don’t confuse people.

There is so much noise in the social media world that if people don’t know who you are, and can’t figure out what your brand is, they will tune you out. But if you can consistently talk on one main topic, you’ll get “listed” on Twitter (people can organize the people they follow into lists, so that they can keep better track of the people they find interesting. I’ve been listed almost 300 times now, because I tweet primarily about marriage). People will pay more attention to you. They’ll make sure not to miss your updates. They’ll interact with you on Facebook, and thus keep your Facebook updates in higher profile on their Facebook feeds.

I’m going to write a follow-up post on how to use Facebook appropriately so you don’t annoy your personal friends by posting too much about your business, but you also don’t annoy your “internet” friends by posting too much about your kids. So look for it!

But right now, do this experiment: take a look at the last fifteen updates on your Twitter feed (for those of you on Twitter) or your LinkedIn feed, or your Facebook feed, and ask yourself, “If I didn’t know who this person was, and just came across them, could I tell, based on only these updates, what their brand is? What their primary focus is?”

If you can’t answer yes to that, then you have a social media problem.

Social media can go far to define you as an expert in a field, but only if you consistently post about that field. So instead of thinking of “updates” as “updating people on what I am doing”, start thinking of updates as “updating people on something they would find interesting that has to do with my niche.” Don’t think about you would find interesting. Don’t start typing about what’s predominantly on your mind, or what you’re thinking about. Make the starting point what your target audience would find interesting, and then update them on that. They are the starting point, not you.

Refocus your strategy that way, and you’ll find a lot more people listening to what you say, because they know what it will be about and they’re interested in it. Keep updating people about your grocery purchases, or about your aunt who is sick, and you’ll lose them.

Coming soon: how to handle Facebook to find that balance between personal friends and fans!

If you want to learn more about managing an online community, my webinar and my e-course are tremendously helpful! They’ll direct you on how to focus your energies and be more strategic in what you do. Check them out!