The world of social media presents great new opportunities for book publishers. Participating in the discussions raging on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and across the blogosphere will introduce a publisher's books and authors to new audiences, new opportunities for market research, new authors, and new communities of loyal readers with powerful word-of-mouth clout.
Heather Fletcher, from Book Business magazine, was nice enough to call me up and ask me my thoughts on the best ways that book publishers could use social media platforms to sell books.
Here is an excerpt. And if you enjoy the interview below, be sure to watch my presentation at Book Business magazine's on-demand webinar, "Social Media Strategies That Sell Books," part of the Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo: Digital Content Day @ Your Desk on October 29th. Thanks!
Book Business Extra: Many marketers criticize social media as not having proven, measurable sales results. How can publishers track whether their social media efforts are working?
Jesse S. McDougall: ... When I was with Chelsea Green, what we kept an eye on was the Amazon sales rank for the day. So if we had a promotional effort for one of our books on, let's say, Facebook and Twitter, we would make a note of the sales rank in the morning and then the sales rank after [the] promotion. Obviously, that's not a perfect indicator, because ... people buy books from a wider range of [retailers].
... We also watched our own Web site's traffic. ... If it was a direct link from Facebook or Twitter or YouTube right back to us, and they purchased the book, we could track that. ... When we would send a link out in any of these promotions, ... the strategy that we had was [that] all this content we promote has a link back to a specific page on our site. And so as this content traveled out through these social media networks, we could track that link and where people were finding it.
Here's a link to the complete interview.
I'd also add that Chartbeat was great for gauging the success of Twitter promotions, like weekly book giveaways.
