{I can always depend on Joe Flood for informative, succinct guest posts. In his most recent FlackRabbit submission, Joe shares some marketing tips for all you creative, self-promoters out there.}

Last year, I published a book. Murder in Ocean Hall is a mystery set in DC about the death of the world’s most famous oceanographer.

Since then, I’ve experimented with social media to get the word out about my first novel. It’s been an interesting experience, one that has taught me a lot about product marketing in this consumer-driven age. Doing it yourself, without a staff or budget, helps you learn marketing tools in a very hands-on fashion.

Here’s what has worked for me:

Facebook – The most important audience for a new book is the author’s friends and family. Facebook is the ideal tool for reaching them. I promoted the book when it came out and at other key points spurring sales. My FB marketing has been simple – I’ve used my status update to tell people about my book.

Kindle – One surprise is that I’ve sold as many Kindle copies as print ones. The Kindle copy of my book is $2.99 (versus $9.99 for print) and people can buy it instantly. Also, Kindle owners seem to read more books than most people. Read More…

{Today’s guest post by Pounding the Pavement’s Joy Paley ponders a blog’s role in corporate online reputation management. Give it a read and share your thoughts in the comments!}

If you’re reading Flack Rabbit, you’re probably a PR geek who is well aware that blogs can be an excellent tool for the corporate communications expert. But, let’s face it: although some corporations are beginning to get on board, many are dragging their feet. The fact that corporate blogs can allow a forum for (potentially negative) comments keeps many from implementing interactive media.

However, in a market where online presence is increasingly critical and sustainability issues are gaining traction with consumers and policy makers, corporations are increasingly expected to having an outlet to promote/defend/address their social responsibility to shareholders, customers, and the public at large. Furthermore, new research in the area is proving that, when managed appropriately, corporate blogs can help shape businesses’ images.

How to Harness the Power of a CSR Blog

The Journal of Business Ethics recently published a study, entitled “Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere” aimed at assessing how much a company could actually control their image of corporate social responsibility (CSR) though blogging. Read More…

Nothing brings out the worst in folks quite like anonymity. Under the misguided belief that the Internet was created to catalog negative comments and painfully poor grammar, Internet trolls rant and pillage the Web–and leave in their wake you, with a helpless, panicky feeling.

Every public relations person has a different theory on how to handle ridiculous, demeaning and downright false comments; here’s mine:

Don’t delete: folks have the right to disagree with you–even they are snarky and mean-spirited.  As long as the comment isn’t a threat, patently offensive, spam, bigoted, libelous or keeping you awake at night, leave it be. These are comments from trolls, not statements from the Pope.

Count to 4,567: as bad as the troll’s comment is and despite how angry/hurt/sad it makes you, it’s not the end of the world. Take a deep breath, step away from the computer and think before you respond.

Just the facts, ma’am: should you decide to respond to the the troll in a comment of your own, do so with a level head, refuting the troll point-by-point using factual statements with as little emotion as possible (Trolls hate that). Under no circumstances are you to fight with the troll or engage in it in sarcastic comm-versation.

Use your real name: transparency is key when responding to an Internet troll. When you respond, it should be under your real name. In my book, if your comment is anonymous it doesn’t count–and you’ve become a troll, too. Read More…

From the latest issue of the Levick Strategic Communications e-newsletter:

While social media sites are as diverse as the millions of people that use them, they are all, for the most part, interrelated. This is precisely what makes the digital space ‘viral.’ Today, a single reputation-damaging blog post, Facebook update, tweet, or YouTube video can reach around the world in a matter of minutes. If you’re not actively watching and listening for mentions of your company, its brands, and your own leadership, you lose critical intelligence that can be utilized to stem a crisis before it happens. Read More…

You know how it is. We get into our little social (media) circles and find ourselves in a familiar, like minded bubble. There’s nothing wrong with it mind you, it’s just that sometimes you need to read/listen to/talk about something different for a change. Or I do anyway!

Enter Brazen Careerist, the brain child of personal fav Penelope Trunk and co-founders Ryan Healy and Ryan Paugh. It’s supposed to be a career site for “Gen Y thought leaders, forward-thinking organizations and everyone else who realizes that the way we define ourselves in both work and in life needs to change.”

It’s not really a career site for me though. For me, Brazen Careerist is a well-written, intriguing, multi-topic blog syndication resource. Since I joined and subscribed to Brazen Careerist, I’m now feasting my eyes on something other than social media articles, public relations blogs, Google Alerts, news feeds, productivity advice and Twitter tips.

When I troll through the Brazen Careerist site, I read everything from techish Obama commentary to what we can all learn from gamers about failure and how to react when you’ve just witnessed two folks having an affair.

These are posts by folks who aren’t necessarily social media freaks or Twitter obsessed geeks (like me) – and that’s a good thing!

If you are GenY blogger, join Brazen Careerist. You’ll get a great bio page, you’ll read and comment on the thoughts of a lot of smart, passionate and multi-talented folks; you may even find your next gig there.

If your content is relevant, BC will syndicate your blog on their site. Google will love that, FYI!

If you are already Brazen Careerist member. I’d love to hear your take-away. What does BC do for you?

PRWeek is having a best PR blog contest. I only subscribe to about five of these but PR Squared gets my vote and also offers up a list of the competitors, which is cool since I haven’t heard of half of these and am looking forward to testing them out:

Pit bulls and Labradors
Digital Influence Mapping Project
Livingston Buzz
PR Squared
Neville Hobson
The Daily Lark
Communication Overtones
6 a.m.
Drew Kerr’s PR Rock and Roll
Micro Persuasion
What Do You Stand For?
A view on PR from Silicon Valley
Murphy’s LawIntakeA shel of my former self
Pop PR jots
Beyond the Hype
Influential Marketing Blog
The Flack
THINKing
Phil’s Blogservations
PR Measurement Blog
Measuring Up
Sage Circle
PR Blog News
Glass House
Bitemarks Down the Avenue
Voce Nation
Bad Pitch Blog
Your PR Guy