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Guest post by Jo Parfitt

This is the official launch week of my book, Sunshine Soup. It is my first novel. It is also my 28th book in almost as many years. Much has changed since my first book, a cookbook, was published by Octopus in 1985. Back then, the publisher did all the work and all the promotion and I just let them get on with it while they sold my books to bookshops all over the world. They wrote and mailed their press releases. I did nothing. Not a jot. French Tarts is no longer on sale. But you can buy second hand copies on Amazon for £1. So I do.

Today things are different. Sunshine Soup is available online from bookstores such as Amazon. It is published print on demand and will be available in print and Kindle formats. I am responsible for 100% of the promotion. I wrote my own press release and my global book tour is taking place online. This is all thanks to social media and the power of blogging. Before my book was officially launched I could sit back and watch the sales rank of my book climb on Amazon as people-who-know-about-me buy it.

Here’s how:

1. I have a blog under my own name, joparfitt.com and a Facebook page for my publishing company facebook.com/summertimepublishing. Each has over 100 followers. My blog gets over 3000 hits a month.
2. I have a Twitter account under my own name @joparfitt, and around 1000 followers. I tweet every blog post I make and those tweets go to Facebook and LinkedIn.
3. I send out a monthly newsletter to another 1000 people, which caters to those folk who prefer to hear from me once a month rather than several times a day.
4. I have asked all those followers to mention Sunshine Soup during my launch period (end October) and about ONE percent of my followers have agreed. I think that is pretty good.

The only reason that I am in the lucky position of being able to sell books in advance of my launch date is because of the hard work I have put into my social media efforts. I am pleased with my one per cent take up rate, because I know that the usual take up rate for any mailing is usually half a per cent. Without the several thousand people out there who already know-about-me I would not stand a chance.

Blogging is key to this success, but before you go out there and blog and tweet about any old thing several times a week and think that will do its magic, let me tell you a few other reasons why I have reached the heady heights of a one per cent take up rate:

1. I have been sending my newsletter for nine years.
2. I have been blogging three for three years and blogging three times a week for 18 months.
3. I only blog on one subject – writing. I stay focused. I stay within my brand and I never write about any old thing.
4. I have been raising awareness about Sunshine Soup for over a year. You cannot wait until your book is out to start your campaign. A year in advance of publication should be your minimum.

My goal always was and always will be to let people know about me. Social media has changed my life and it can change yours too.


Jo Parfitt – author of Sunshine Soup, nourishing the global soul. Out now. Price £8.47 and available on Amazon. Find out more at joparfitt.com, summertimepublishing.com and expatbookshop.com

I appreciate the ‘thank you tweets’, I realy do, but sometimes it’s just annoying. The worst are the DM’s saying thank you, as if it has to be a secret.

Yes I spent time and made a conscious descion to retweet your post, link or photo but why not return the favour?

People notice when you RT their content. They are also more likely to retweet your content. It’s a compliment, people like compliments, you are giving them something back.

Think about it next time you are about to send another ‘thank you tweet’!

I love visuals, interactive visuals are even better! LinkedIn’s new InMaps are interesting to view your network. You can hover over a contact and immediately you can see who is else in your network is connected to this person.

Check my dynamic InMap, do you want to connect on LinkedIn, send me an invite.

Via: Online Schools

Are you Facebook addicted? Maybe not but there are a lot of people that are checking their friends and contacts 24 hours a day! One of the reasons to start using Facebook as a business owner is that you need to go where the people are, and they are on Facebook.

Interestingly it seems that “57% of people talk to people more online”. Translate this to your small business and this means that potential customers are more likely to reach out to you then offline. They can communicate with you in their own time, not just when they see you in person.

Have you not yet taken the plunge to join Facebook? What are you worries? Leave a comment.