Transcript The Tools Are Everywhere: Social Networking Isn’t Just

The Tools Are Everywhere:
Social Networking Isn’t Just
Facebook and Twitter
Mike Shatzkin
Supply Chain Seminar
13 October 2009
“Word of mouth” goes digital
• Publishers require that authors have
“platform”, which means online presence
• “Social networks” are often still seen (by
too many) as particular web places
• Every author is told to develop a Facebook
and Twitter presence
• But that’s “horizontal”; is it the right way?
Lots of sites enable marketers to
find readers
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Shelfari
Revish.com
Goodreads.com
Librarything.com
Filedby.com
Scribd.com
Some publishers are building
their own social networks
• Tor.com
• F+W Media: various enthusiast
communities
• Harlequin’s community.eharlequin.com
• Chelsea Green: Authors blog, but little
interaction
A place to find networks
of the interested: Ning
• Can create instant “community” sites
• 638 sites for Breaking Dawn; 188,000
members of Twilight Saga network
• 10,411 “Book Clubs” (many niched)
• 13,747 “Reading Group”
• 634 “Romance Novel”
• Communities under any subject of interest
Case study: Idea Logical
promotes fotoLibra
• Started out with 150 photographic web
sites
• Target audience: photogs who want to sell
rights, willing to invest time and $s to do it
• Found 14 regular posting opportunities
• Drove regular conversations and dozens
of signups
• Investment in knowledge; payoff is in
reuse
A jump start from Verso Media?
• Verso creates “channels”: groups of web
sites by verticals
• Verso uses them to place ads intelligently
• Exploring collaboration with a major social
networking site
• Our idea: publishers could use them as
starter databases for social networking
Takeaways for publishers
• Work the book networks book by book
• Mine the Ning communities; set up your
own if it can be reused
• Create databases of sites for verticals and
then tag subsets for more specific
interests
• Use Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to
more robust offerings
• Drive traffic to your Ning site from other
posting opportunities.