social networking and online community-building
DESCRIPTION
Facebook, Twitter, Ning. Online social networks are seeing huge growth and smart book marketers are joining their readers online and building communities. Random House Canada's Heather Sanderson is a hands-on practitioner with plenty of experience of what works and what's hype. In this session, Heather explains how these social media work in book marketing, gives do's and don'ts for their successful use, and lifts the hood on some real-life case studies. Heather Sanderson, Manager, Digital Sales and Business Development, Random House of CanadaTRANSCRIPT
facebook, twitter and ning, oh my
Internet Marketing of Books and Ebooks December 2, 2009
Social Marketing
A brief historyQuick tips to promote your company,
authors, and books via Facebook & TwitterBuild your own social network in NingAuthorsKeys to success
History
Social networking sites (including blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.) now account for 10% of all Internet traffic
Facebook Overview
Why Facebook?The basicsWhat should I promote? (and how)Social ads
Why Facebook?
13.8 million Canadians on Facebook(population is 33 million)
578,000 Canadians on Facebook indicate that they like reading, books, and writing
Why Facebook (NZ)?
1.2 million New Zealanders on Facebook(population is 4.3 million)
39,000 New Zealanders on Facebook indicate that they like reading, books, and writing
Facebook: The Basics
Closed network, you have to sign up Important Terms:
Profile Page “Friends” News Feed/Live Feed Groups Pages Events Applications
Facebook: The basics
Why are friends so important anyway? The power of the news feed/live feed
Facebook is…
A large community to build word of mouth Sharing Authority/Trust
A way to promote our events and books in a very targeted and trackable way
What works best?
Set up a fan page for your company Update status frequently (but don’t be annoying) Feeds out to all of your fans in their live feed or news
feed
What works best?
Events Book signings, readings etc. Make sure to set events up attached to your page RSVP attending go on profile pages and in news feed
Tips: Always use the book cover as the image Search to make sure no one else has already set up the
same event Invite, but don’t exploit friends
What works best?
Empower your authors to set up an account and Fan pages for individual books Update status to include updates about the
progress of the book/promote its on-sale date Post links to their website and to your book
page(s) Post links to reviews Import their blog into the Notes section
Facebook for Authors
Post & tag photos of themselves at events/writing their book etc.
Post the book coverPost & tag videos of author interviews etc.
(if available)
Facebook for Authors
Groups and Pages Join your corporate page
Create discussions there
Other Applications
DevelopersQuizzes Reading applications
WeRead Visual Bookshelf GoodReads
Social Ads: How they Work
Allow you to target Facebook users based on: Location (great for promoting events!) Gender Age Educational Status/School Workplace Political View Relationship Status Interests
Social Ads: Useful For…
Events
Contests
D2C Offer Groups/PagesContent Offer
Announcements
Social Ads: Keys to Success
Successful marketing Think like a user
What would you want to see/not want to see? What would you click on?
Selective and Targeted Don’t want to dilute the message
Integrated with our online effortsDrives traffic to specific promotion
Constantly Changing
Have to always been in there all the time, using it on a daily basis
Useful tools: Sign up for Facebook Fan Pages
Social Ads Developers Fan Pages
What is Twitter?Why should I care?How it works:
What the heck is a tweet? RT? #? @?
I don’t know what to say…
Word of Mouth on steroids Open network, you don’t have to sign up to read Updated & Feeds out Instantly Short consumable bits of information Relevant
18 million Twitter users - fastest growing social networking site
Median age of a user is 31 Just 11 percent of Twitter's users are aged 12 to
17
Twitter = Word of Mouth
What’s driving this phenomenal growth? “Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care
about instantly, as it happens” “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and
more efficient.” On a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for strongly disagree and 5 and for
strongly agree), the phrase “I find it exciting to learn new things from people” averaged a score of 4.65 and “I value getting information in a timely manner” averaged 4.58.
Twitter is a way to converse with people, and broadcasting is secondary.
-eMarketer/Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter
Just heard Mitchell on CBC-Radio - definitely going to buy her book SEA SICK - http://tinyurl.com/bk492k10:49 AM Mar 4th
Why Tweet?
Twitter is a quick and easy way to build loyalty with existing fans, and gain new ones.
You can provide frequent updates to your followers about new books, upcoming events, reviews, awards etc.
Include anything relevant that you also find interesting
The Lingo
Tweet = 140 character message posted Follower = “friends” or people who get to see
your tweets @ = reply to another user DM = direct message to another user RT = retweet # = hashtag Channel Tiny URL
Home
Profile
@ replies
Lists
Lists
Hashtag/Trending Topics
How much?
Tweet at least a few times a day, or even once per day.
Twitter - External Apps
TweetDeckTwitPicHootsuiteOwly, Bitly, TinyURLUberTwitter or Twitterberry (blackberry)Twhirl
Best Practices
Do: Listen as well as update, and reply to others. Tweet regularly. Provide value - for example, exclusive info or
news, contests, fun things around the office.Don’t:
Link exclusively to your own website or blog posts.
Follow too many people. Tweet too much or too little.
Twitter - Notes
A people-based environment, not business based
Keeps a history of what you’ve doneIndexes on Google well
Ning
Ning
Tips: Play around with the template You can pay to buy the ad space so that the ning
network ads don’t appear Need to have a reason to set the network up/ways to
promote it and have people sign up Need to entice conversation
Having the authors participate Contests
Have to maintain it. Can’t just build it and leave it there.
Key to Success
If you build it, will they come? Think critically about your audience
Be realistic about time and resourcesYou need to keep up-to-date How will you know if they came?
Measure success Web analytics
Measuring Success
Unique visitors & D2C Sales Engagement
Number of Fans Followers Subscribers Posts Ratings Videos viewed Comments Retweets
Social Marketing is about:
Conversation Creating Product Information/Content Delivery to Target Audience
Pushing content out Pulling audience in
Results? Book sales Relationship with audience Measurement
The big why?
People expect you to be there As important as having a website
Overall tips
You don’t use a social network, you become a part of it
Social media is a conversationSocial media is an ecosystem
Teach your authors the basics and interact with them across platforms
Questions?@hsanderson