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Here are 5 easy items you won’t want to overlook. In fact, you can implement all of them this week (though I recommend you refill your coffee mug first).

1. Sign up for Amazon Author Central. In the last week, Amazon announced that it’s granting registered authors access to Nielsen Bookscan geographical data. Finally, you can see where in the world your customers are located, and when they’ve been buying. This is invaluable data for anyone running special promotions, appearing on regional TV or radio, or doing book signings or meetups. All you have to do to access this data is sign up for a free Author Central account. Click here for the FAQ.
2. Add your blog to your Facebook Page. Do you have a Facebook Page for Business? Log into your account, then go to Networked Blogs. Add Networked Blogs to your profile, then set the app to broadcast your blog’s RSS feed. Your Fans will be updated automatically whenever you publish a new post. You can also add a tab to your Page that will display your recent posts. Your Fans won’t have to leave Facebook to vote up your blog content or share it with their friends.
3. Participate in #FridayReads on Twitter. You’ll need a Twitter account for this one. #FridayReads is one of the hottest memes of 2010, probably because it’s so simple. Every Friday, Twitter users from around the world tweet what they’re reading, and tag their tweets with the hash tag #fridayreads. Participating in #FridayReads is an easy way to get your name in front of new people, show your Followers that you’re a real human (You read as well as write!), and support literacy and the book industry.
4. Set up a Goodreads Author Profile. Goodreads is one of the most popular book-related social networks on the internet. Sign up for its Author Program and you’ll have the opportunity to participate in official Book Giveaways, site-supported Q&As with readers, and possibly even the weekly newsletter. I recently ran a Book Giveaway on the site for an author client—and received 663 entries in 4 weeks. Hands down, this is the most efficient and cost-effective way I’ve found to get the word out about a book.
5. Schedule a day to stockpile your content. This is a challenge I’m issuing to myself, too. As critical as blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting and updating your LinkedIn accounts can be, when you’re under deadlines, self-promotional and marketing activities can fall to the bottom of the list. I recommend setting aside a single day to brainstorm a few months worth of content. “Impossible!,” you say. Not so. Go to a quiet place, away from distractions, and draft 30 titles for future blog posts. If you’re stuck for ideas, write in the form of Top 10 lists related to your area of expertise (e.g., Top 10 Exercise Trends for the New Year). Next, write down 30 one-line pieces of advice you’d love to pass along to others in your industry. Finally, reflect on 30 insights or accomplishments from 2010. When you’re done with this exercise, you’ll have 90 pieces of content. Some are already complete, and can be used as Tweets and Status Updates. Others are starting points for future blog posts. Get up, stretch, yawn, then write down 10 more thoughts for a nice, round 100. Congratulations! You have a Content Strategy for 2011. But don’t forget the first step: putting this mini writing retreat on your calendar.

These are my Top 5 suggestions for 2011. If you’ve found them helpful, please Like this post using the buttons below. Thanks, and Happy Holidays!

One of the more recent additions to this line of thought is Seth Godin’s book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.

Tribes is a slim book you can read in a day, and it’s short on details. Don’t read it thinking it will teach you how to launch a company, use Twitter, win over a community of bloggers or create a street team to spread the word about your product or book. But do read it if you’re confused about social networking and why you should get involved with it.

There are ideas in here that may change the way you think about the internet and what it means to lead within it. Sometimes, changing how we think is more important (and more difficult to master) than making a to-do list. Here are a few nuggets I mined from Tribes that I plan to share with my clients:

• 1,000 true fans are enough to make an impact.
• Recognize people who are doing things right or making contributions; then amplify their efforts. (In other words: identify your biggest supporters and pay attention to them.)
• Exciting ideas spread, but they won’t spread if you don’t sound–or feel–excited about them.
• Don’t focus on making your tribe bigger; make it tighter. Give your fans ways to communicate with one another.
• Assemble a tribe and lead them to where they’re already going. (There’s no need to re-invent the wheel. People already want your idea, book or product. Find them.)

How do you do this?

1. Type the @ sign in front of the person’s name. (e.g., @kristenhavens, as you would on Twitter)Update, 2012: You no longer need to type the @ sign. Simply start typing the person’s name.
2. Be patient. Wait a moment until Facebook’s Smart Type function shows you a pull-down list of options.
3. Select from this list the person you mean to “tag,” then complete writing your Status Update.

Voila! Your Status Update will have a live link in it, to the person you tagged. Your tagged update will also show up on that person’s Wall (how exactly this looks may vary, depending on your Friend’s privacy settings.)

The same tagging principle holds true for many Business Pages on Facebook. Some even appear to aggregate (collect) any Facebook Updates that mention them by name. You may not necessarily need to tag a business in order to appear on its Page, in front of its Fans.

How does this relate to your publicity and networking activities?

Think about magazines that cover your product or niche. See if they have a Facebook Page. If they do, try mentioning them in one of your Updates. Then go check their Wall. Chances are you may show up somewhere—which puts a link to your Page in front of their audience.

Psychology Today appears to be one such Page. If you are, let’s say, the author of a personal development book—why not look at their recent blog posts and link to one, sharing it with your audience?

Mind you, this isn’t an excuse to go out of your way to name-drop major news media every day; if you’re constantly quoting magazines and newspapers, it will be transparent and will annoy your Fans, who are following you because they want to hear your message, not somebody else’s.

But think about how you can strategically share the occasional link, video, or excerpt from a mainstream outlet with your Fans. Once every 7-10 days is a good goal. Don’t give Fans irrelevant info; make sure whatever you’re sharing is relevant to their interests and to your business goals.

That being said… wouldn’t it be nice if someone at Psychology Today saw your Status Update and asked to review your book or interview you in an article?

Need more info on how to get started on Facebook? Check out this Facebook Resource Page.

This week, I’m sharing a third and final tip based on my personal experiences as a blogger: be at home when the major media calls. (A.k.a., “Be ready for success.”)

Several years ago, I wrote a very short post on my blog, called “The Perils of Working from Home.” A few weeks later, a reporter from the Associated Press found my post, emailed me, and asked if I could be interviewed and photographed for a piece he was writing about telecommuting. I said yes. (Here’s the article, with a photo of me, three apartments ago.)

A few days after the article hit the news wires, a national A.M. radio program producer contacted me via email, asking to talk to me about the same topic for his morning radio show.

I didn’t act immediately; I can’t remember why (maybe I was asleep). By the time I called the producer back, he said “Sorry, we found somebody else.”

If I’d been faster to respond, maybe I would have become a media go-to source for quotes about working from home. It’s not my specialty and I’m not a productivity guru, but who am I to turn down free press?

Do this: Take the opportunities when they come to you, whatever form they take. Think of a way to spin them later. Media moves quickly, and it snowballs. If someone wants to interview you based on the content they’ve found on your blog, do what you can to make that interview happen—right away. News media can and will find other sources if you don’t respond immediately. Once you get mentioned by one major media outlet, be prepared for others to contact you. Have your materials and expertise ready.

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This post concludes my web series on preparing for, and taking advantage of, your 15 minutes of blogging (or Twittering!) fame. Do you have any questions? I welcome them in the comments.

Tip #2: Get Yourself a Gimmick (aka, Write a Good Bio)

This may be the single most important piece of advice I could impart to you: if you’re creating online content to promote something—or to promote yourself—you need an angle.

For example, if you’re a pediatrician who’s written a book about getting infants to sleep through the night—every aspect of your blog and site, from the visuals through to the website copy, should express this one blurbable fact: “I am a pediatrician and an expert on infants and sleep.”

Your angle should be visible everywhere, but is best described in a brief bio on the landing page where your content lives. For bloggers, this is usually the header or the sidebar of their blog.

This way, when people click through to your site from another source (be it a blog, a Wall Street Journal article, or somebody’s Tweet), they’ll know immediately who you are, what you’re about, and what you’re promoting.

Over the years and because of my prior blog, I’ve been phone interviewed by the Associated Press and MSNBC.com and excerpted by Slate. The topics were totally unconnected: working from home, higher education, and whether it’s unhealthy for women to vent their problems to their friends.

Why were the queries so random? Because my blog was a “personal blog”—a public work space for practicing my writing. I wasn’t selling anything and I wasn’t creating content for any specific reason, except that I loved to write. I wrote well enough to get media attention, but I didn’t have an easy-to-describe persona behind my content, so the leads never went anywhere.

Do This: Develop a short bio of yourself, no longer than 10 words. Practice reciting this bio aloud until it sounds right—polished, concise, authoritative. Then put it on your blog.

Content is a disposable item. Your over-arching voice and expertise is your real product. Don’t blog without purpose. Use your bio as your Mission Statement, and you’ll quickly find yourself creating a valuable information product that builds your brand and makes you a go-to source for mainstream media—and for your customers.

Next week… get ready for your close-up!

In the search for internet success, the same question always pops up, though it takes different forms: “How do you become famous on the internet?” (Also: “How do you drive traffic to your site?,” or “How do you make something go viral?”)

Unlike many other professional arenas, where you have to pay your dues, the internet moves fast. You could set up a blog in January, chat a few people up, publish a few interesting things, and be featured in major newspapers and radio outlets by March. Mainstream media continues to quote and link to bloggers and Twitter users on a daily basis in news stories on TV, radio, and in major papers.

So how can you get some of this coverage and run with it, becoming an internet sensation?

There’s no sure path or guarantee, but based on my personal experience as a blogger, I’m sharing 3 tips on how to maximize your chances at gaining—and running with—internet momentum. Look for Tip #2 next Friday.

Tip #1: Locate some influencers. Follow them on Twitter. Do what they do (and fast).

A couple of weeks ago, an influential personal blogger I follow on Twitter mentioned an essay series in which she’d participated. The blogger that created and hosted the series was not well known (yet). She was asking for additional essays. I liked the concept, so I wrote something in about 10 minutes. I left my last name off of it and asked the blogger not to link to me, because the topic was personal and I didn’t want it tied to me forever in the public sphere (but I did want to write something and contribute to the conversation).

Two weeks later, this blogger and her series was mentioned in The New York Times. Several of my co-contributors with blogs (there were about 8 of us total at the time) were excerpted and linked to by the paper. A few days after that, the series was covered by NPR. Additional bloggers and their blogs were named on the air and later on the website.

Imagine if I’d wanted my name and URL on my essay? That’s a possible free shout-out in two national outlets. And because I acted fast and was one of the few contributors on the list at the time, my chances of being mentioned were pretty good.

Do This: Find people whose endorsements make things take off. Follow those people on Twitter, Facebook, and/or the RSS to their blogs, and act quickly if they name opportunities that suit you. If you need or want PR, use your full name and always provide a link to your site.

Next week… Get Yourself a Gimmick.