Tag: contest

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Author Insights

Author Insights 10: There have been some changes.

authorinsight

I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but I’ve been changing things here and there on this blog. I feel as if this will always be a work in progress, but I hope to reach a settling point at some time. So, here’s what’s been going on.

The merging of my Eternal Curse Series blog with this one is still going on, so I keep having to update little things here and there. I’m slowly rolling out my new interview format, but this will take some time.

I’ve added and made changes to some of My Topics. I’ve added IWSG and Adventures in blogging. While I continue my weekly recaps on Saturday, I’ve started a weekly preview each Friday, entitled “Friday Forecast”, but both of these are logged under Uncategorized. My About Me topic has been changed to Listography-Top5-MyLife to more clearly define the articles lumped under that topic. My Memes topic has been changed to WWWWednesday-Blogdom for the same reason.

My side panel has been packed with alternating buttons for different events I’ve participated in (and will continue to do so), but I’ve added one button I plan to keep around for quite a while as an FYI. I think the ALLi button and article shared there are worth visiting by anyone who will look at it.

Then there’s my tabs; so much is going on up top. My Youtube tab replaced my Listography tab. My Spotlight tab continues to update as well as others. I’ve added Pinterest Board links to many pages. My Features tab finally has content in it. And, I’ve added three new tabs, either replacing others or using empty Coming Soon tabs. I’ve added tabs for Pre-orders, Associations, and Appearances.

Lastly, my picture under the Toi Thomas tab has been enhance with a link to a touching essay I wrote to help qualify me for The AuthorShow.com contest, “50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading”.

All in all, I’ve done my best to make these changes seamless and hope I’ve kept this blog reading experience enjoyable. I’m not one to make idle changes, but if you have questions, suggestions, or comments for this blog, I’d love to hear them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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AdventuresNBlogging

Adventures In Blogging: Social Media Marketing- Rafflecopter part 2

adventure

I’ll be writing about my adventures, from my point of view, while offering my opinion on whatever the current matter happens to be. I hope you will enjoy it, if for no other reason, because you’ll get to see just how crazy my mind and reactions can be sometimes.
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Social Media Marketing- Rafflecopter part 2

Thank you all for stopping by to see what craziness I have to share today. This is part two of my Rafflecopter discussion, but unlike my last post which was nice and sweet, this one is stern. I’m going to rant a little.

Before I begin my rant, know this now, I use Rafflecopter and appreciate its great value and am glad that I don’t have to blog in a world without it.

So, here I go.

I can’t stand trying to participate in Rafflecopters that have so many entry options that I loose count after 20. I totally understand why these exist, but I still don’t like them. Collaborative efforts are what keep much of the blog world spinning and when awarding prizes, bloggers should have an opportunity to build their social reach in order to do so, but why does it have to be so extensive?

A blog hop featuring 20 bloggers offering a prize bundle made of donations of all those participating never seems to have less than 50 entries, and averages around 80 or more.  With 80 entries, each participant gets to include a link for their blog, twitter, facebook, and one other social media outlet. Again, I agree with the reasoning and understand the why, but it just feels like too much.

I have participated in these kinds of rafflecopters and probably will again, but I will give it a second and maybe even a third thought before agreeing to it. For non-regular blog readers, I feel that a Rafflecopter like that is a deterrent. This is one of those times when knowing your audience really helps. Sometimes it works out great to send someone to a contest or event like this and sometime is backfires.

Whenever I create my own Rafflecopters, I do make an effort to not have the entry process seem overwhelming…Then again, sometimes I think I’m over thinking things. We live in a competitive world. People love voting, and entering to win, and trying to beat out the next person. Maybe the average person doesn’t mind these long contests and it’s just me…

In any case, I’ll still make an effort to keep things as simple as possible; it’s just who I am.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
AdventuresNBlogging

Adventures In Blogging: Social Media Marketing- Rafflecopter part 1

adventure

I’ll be writing about my adventures, from my point of view, while offering my opinion on whatever the current matter happens to be. I hope you will enjoy it, if for no other reason, because you’ll get to see just how crazy my mind and reactions can be sometimes.
—————————————————————————————————————————–

Social Media Marketing- Rafflecopter part 1

Social Media Marketing….AAHHH! 😮

I don’t hate social media marketing, but sometimes it really does suck the fun out of social media.

There may be more, but here’s what I think are some of the main social media marketing outlets and topics to consider.

Facebook |Twitter |Google+ |Youtube |Email |Blogs | Interviews | Reviews |Contests and Giveaways | Rafflecopter |Video and audio | Other: Pinterest, LinkedIn, GoodReads, etc…

Today I’d like to talk about the tool Rafflecopter. Many of us are familiar with this tool and some aren’t, but I’ve come to realize one thing about it…non-blog users are afraid of it!

Since most of the people who visit our sites and blogs daily are regular blog readers and users, this isn’t a big deal, but sometimes we have to consider those less net savvy than ourselves.

–Sometimes we need those people who don’t actually understand that a blog posts new material on a regular basis and just because they visited it a year ago doesn’t mean there isn’t something special for them to see now.

–Sometimes we need those people who only get online to watch Youtube videos and update their Facebook status.

– Sometimes we need those people who only visit sites ending in .com because they are leery of everything else.

People who don’t use social media every day, sometimes just don’t get it, but they are still part of our potential audience. When someone like this stumbles upon a great article offering a cool prize and a contest entry with this, Rafflecopter, thing that has 20+, 30+ and sometime 50+ options to choose from, they become discouraged and terrified.

Don’t jump to conclusions; I’m not downing that type of Rafflecopter usage. I’ll talk about that next week, but for now I’ll mention three alternative ways I’ve started to use and will try to use Rafflecopter to cut down on the intimidation factor.

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Rafflecopter is simply great for data collection and verification. Why try to run a contest or promotion and try to keep up with the entries yourself and then figure out a way to randomize your winner selection when Rafflecopter will do it for you.

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1-I’m currently running a promotion that was set up to inform people of my free downloads that will be available on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but I’m also offering a gift card giveaway. I am using my Rafflecopter (with only 5 simple criteria to choose) to simply track my data. While Rafflecopter is great for building up followers, that’s not my current objective, so I’ve left out a lot of possible entry criteria to make the process and use, easy and fun for possible participants.

2-Rafflecopter can be used to collect data in the use of a scavenger hunt. Again, I’d try to keep the choices to a minimum. A scavenger hunt with 10 to 20 options wouldn’t be too much and would give participants plenty to do.

3-Rafflecopter can also be used to collect data in the form of a questionnaire. Polls are great, but sometimes you’re looking for more information and aren’t sure how to go about asking for it, tracking it, and verifying who’s posting it…Well, that’s where Rafflecopter could come in.

I like to try to think outside the box whenever I can; sometimes I do a great job with it and sometimes I don’t. I think these alternative ways to use Rafflecopter are pretty good.

I’m no expert and am just here sharing my opinions; I ‘d love to know what you think.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords