Leaderboard

“I never said the bolded so who are you talking to?” You! You posted the statements and I was commenting about them….. “Why do you write foolish things that have NOTHING to do with what I wrote?” Not foolish my dear. I was simply giving undeniable facts about your statements… “I made a statement - 92% of biracial children are illegitimate - in response to your saying: Every child born as the result of a Baby Daddy/Baby Mama hook up is just cannon fodder for future inner city violence." No. I never made that statement. Go back and check. Although the statement rings of truth…. “As for the rest, sorry, but I can only deal with so much black self-hate in one sitting.” Self hate??? Really? Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s funny. Why would I “hate myself” because of the self destructive and bad behavior of Negroes I don’t even know. That makes absolutely no sense…. “ Plenty of folk on this forum that wallow in it as gleefully as yourself.” Well, to be honest my friend, I can’t speak to that because I don’t know anything about “the plenty of folk on this forum that wallow in it.” I have no idea what that means or what they have said. Perhaps you can provide details. I can only tell you everything I said was true. Now, if the truth offends you…well…I don’t know what to tell you! Would lies and fabrications make you feel better about yourself?

Thank you for sharing this ... Social Media Campaign is a misnomer. Especially, since Social Media 'marketing' is only one tactic in an overall communication plan. And make no mistake social media is in the communication section of a marketing plan Sadly, many new creative producers (musicians, authors, writers, etc) don't know how to market their product and that makes /her/him an easy mark. Marketing is not PR and PR is not Social Media... and none are SALES! As for authors not selling their books on social media - that's correct. Social media is a communication channel where the author "sells" her expertise. She doesn't say "buy my book." any more than United tweets "buy my tickets" or Chase tweets "deposit your money" or Beyonce post on instagram anything but lifestyle and fashion. Remember her infamous "the link is in the bio" on Instagram? The "BeyHive" is real. But I digress. Social media is for building relationships. Using Social media, an authors illustrates how her book can solve a problem, take a reader on an adventure, teach a lesson, etc. Social media is for helping those in your market achieve their goal. One can do this with any book...fiction or nonfiction - every book has something to teach. My first novel "Sleeping with a D-Man", illustrates how a young woman can survive the ensuing apocalypse after conjuring up hell on earth just by dating a wanted man. The whole time I was on Xanga, Myspace and a little on Facebook all I talked about were "relationships". I even co-hosted a popular blogtalk radio show "relationship playbook" and grew our page to more than 100,000 followers. I wasn't really a relationship expert - I helped people to see the unseen in their relationships and that's how I ended up soft-selling my novel. A good PR consultant would have advised this author of that one key tactic to reach her market and gain followers...help someone realize their dream and they will sell your product by their word of mouth. That is what Social Media is Word of Mouth Marketing and it is taboo to talk about yourself - you let others do it for you. If a PR person is advising her client to "sell" anything on social media then her client isn't going to experience much success.

"And what I said about the black self-hate and negativity swimming through your post stands." Stop it! You're killing me! Ha! Ha! Ha! It amazes me when intransigent race pride Negroes (like you) are butt hurt because someone eviscerates their arguments. Instead of addressing the issues of disagreement, they resort to personal attacks and their the number one adolescent accusation -You hate yourself!!! WTF??!! Seriously, where does that come from? In all fairness -is that the best you can do??? It makes no sense! If I said, "Ya know, the Raiders suck! They have not had a winning season in over ten years!" The response: "What? Well...sounds like self-hate to me!" Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Hi, my book is Ethereal Voices and is available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethereal-Voices-Shona-Jabang/dp/1326520814 Sorry if there was any confusion - I have a story featured in The Caribbean Writer which is not connected with my collection of short stories. I am here to promote my book as well as my featured story. Shona Jabang

"I decided since I celebrate Black History every day that I'd ditch the 29 days of Black history month, and just do what I do can call it 366 days of celebrating Black history (or literature in this case). Today I'm celebrate...." Brilliant idea! I agree 100%. Now, if we could only get the rest of the American Negroes to do the same. I do not relegate our history to one month a year although I understand and appreciate the spirit of the original idea (the concept started with Mr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926). As you stated -it should be an everyday thing. Celebrating the sacrifices, achievements, struggles and the individual and collective tenacity of generations of black Americans who made our lives better than theirs, should be a daily observance (IMO).

Hummm. I have a problem with this promo - naturally. For one thing the kid looks too young to have voted, and the fact that a black man was elected president twice kinda takes the impact out of the question posed which is actually a non sequitur. Also, the line "Pre-sales in Amazon marketplace is CRUCIAL" is another red-flag. That sentence is grammatically incorrect. It should be are CRUCIAL, not Is CRUCIAL. Sorry, but I am a purist when it comes to language which is why I have such a hard time with the "black lives matter" slogan. If it is a true statement then why is there a need to mount a movement. If it is a reprimand then the movement should be equally concerned with black-on-black crime.

The mission statement of AAFCA does a very good job of expressing the goals of this organization altho it could've been summed up in 4 words: "Fuck The Academy Awards". The young African actor who played in "Beasts of No Nation" was given a standing ovation at the NAACP Image awards televised last week but lost. (He was also nominated for best supporting actor by SAG and lost out to another actor.) An NAACP Image award for best movie was awarded to "Straight Outta Compton", the art-imitating-life film that glorified misogyny and violence, - one more reason why the name of this award needs to be changed to something with more credibility. Too often what it rewards does not exemplify positive images, but simply boosts ratings for the televised ceremony. And the inclusion of "Carol" and The Danish Girl" in AAFCA's nominations once again demonstrates how the LGBT community rides the coattails of Blacks when, actually, these 2 minorities aren't that comparable.. IMO.

Your musings are dope! You should definitely update when the time comes and get rid of that free weebly site and get your a real hosting service. Your blogging would get pretty good attention. I really like the Summertime post and of course the food post. A lot of your posts are just really good. I know that being an educator you don't have a lot of time, but your blogging should create more interests in your books. You should definitely have a yourname.com though. I shared the post above and I hope it helps.

@CDBurns I included my website: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/chasitiesgoodman I think that Barnes and Noble will let you read a sample. Some of my past writings are not for children and thus are not included in any real website. However, you can check out a blog of mine: http://themusingsofchasitiesgoodman.weebly.com/ and some of my past radio shows: to give you more background: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/chasitie-s-goodman In my opinion, any addition to the children's book pool that include diversity and children of color is at least worth a look, especially in the African American Literature Book Club. I am just humbled to have one selection available amongst so many greats! I thank you for your feedback.

Followed you on both Twitter accounts and subscribed on YouTube. I'm getting better at Twitter, but I definitely need a tag or something to actually check it. I am doing the YouTube Bootcamp right now, but I will check out the videos as well. This is all really good networking.

LOL... You guys are so right and on point. I typically always have something to add, but not this time. Troy knows how I feel about it all and I think Mel gets it. The only solution is to continue doing what we are doing. When I see Mel's work come across my Twitter feed (What's your Twitter handle?) I will retweet it and if we are linked on Facebook i will reshare it. As long as the content goes back to a place where you benefit I will retweet and reshare it. That's the best we can do. This is how we use social and not be used. For example, Troy posted a great video on Youtube yesterday. I liked it (which automatically tweeted it, which shared it to my Facebook) and then because it fit my online course I'm doing I created a post for it and then tweeted from my site. Now it may only get an additional 5 views from that, but it is now indexed by Google on YT and through my site and through social. That's how we build community.

Social media doesn't build brands and never has! An effective communication program builds a brand. A good communication plan includes using many channels to send a message not just one to achieve the goal. Further, social media websites are part of what communication practitioners, such as me, call New Media. New Media is one channel you use to communicate to and with your audience. There are as many websites in this media channel as there are people. Therefore, to use one website in the channel to reach your market gives you the same odds as playing and winning the powerball jackpot. Dude on the panel that shut you down @Troy was either on payroll or he's incompetent. Even if a billion people visit one website, such as Facebook; the first rule of Marketing 101 indicates everyone in that billion is NOT in your market. Save for impulse buying of teeshirts on facebook through page set up like storefronts (See: Threadless Tees) most people come to facebook to be seen. [Update: I just went to Threadless Tees facebook page and the store is gone!] McDonald serves a billion customers - and they use every channel available to reach them including premium promotional imprint channel. HEADS UP for our resident children book authors/illustrators Sellers are always looking for short cuts and there's always a shill willing to sell it to them. While It is true people buy from people they know; producers have to remember SOCIAL media is for developing and maintaining relationships. In fact, @CDBurns said as much in another thread. He offered access to him here on AALBC. Social = relationships! bots not included. As for marketing and sales, a competent marketing strategist knows it's better to first determine who is in the market for her product. She then determines how best to reach them (communication) and then she employs her media strategy (communication plan) to take her sales message to them. Note: While a producer may have a brand in mind for his/her product, it is the CONSUMERS , in the market, who define the brand for that product. For example, United executives want to brand themselves "flyer friendly" but until recently the market said the airline was anything but friendly. ~ Signed a longtime Marketing/Communication strategist who began her career marketing books for BIg 8 publishing houses (now Big 5)who was fortunate enough to work in Broadcast news both in front of the television camera and behind the mic in Radio.

I'm finding a lot of events are not what they could be. I also find that most of these things are great money makers for those involved and nothing more. They don't have any real numbers or research to verify the success or failure of a campaign. It simply is regurgitation of the same info. It's like I used to tout Gary Vaynerchuk as a social media guru... Then I realized he was a millionaire before he began and that the majority of the social media "success" stories all tend to come from the well of more established media people, if you catch my drift. Do you need social media, yes. Does it help build a brand? Yes but certain forms are not very good or as advertised. If you know this you start to win a little bit.

I was a subscriber to BE. One of my virtual mentors, Paul C Brunson just earned the host spot on the Our World syndicated show for BE. With that said, I stopped subscribing to BE because the magazine didn't really speak to me. The various "stories" or examples used to discuss debt or entrepreneurship always seemed to feature people/couple who made six figures and were facing debt around 20-30K at the worst. I kept a lot of those magazines and I still look in there to make a point. There was hardly ever any information for first generation college grads who had done everything right, but through no fault of their own ended up in serious debt from college and from actually attempting to eke out a living. My wife and I eventually got fed up with the lack of advice for starting a business with nothing, which is what I eventually did with my sneaker company and online shop. It doesn't surprise me in the least that they are taking the corporate position. As far as I'm concerned that's what they've always done. They are just staying the course. It's unfortunate that you didn't have a voice, but that pretty much sums up why I no longer subscribe. How is that you end up at the conference and not on the panel? It always seems to me that the people who really need to be heard, aren't given the platform. They have to take the platform or build their own to reach the masses.