Guest Post: A Bookseller’s Take on “What Would Google Do?”
Drew Goodman
The following is a guest post by Drew Goodman. I read Drew’s blog post about the book What Would Google Do?, and I was interested in his bookseller’s perspective. Drew graciously agreed to expand on his post for us here. Drew Goodman manages the General Books Department for the University Campus Store at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He has worked in bookstores for the past 15 years and is a published author. Drew maintains two blogs: Bookmark at the U. (bookstore blog) and a personal writing blog.
A Bookseller’s Take on What Would Google Do?
The other day, as I was watching Twitter.com, I noticed an interesting tweet (a posting on the Twitter site) from Powells, an independent bookstore in Oregon. It was directed at a Twitter user and simply said, “Yikes! We’re so sorry. Please give us a call at 800.878.7323, option 3 and we’ll figure out what happened.” I followed their response back to the original tweet, which said, “So I just got my Powell’s order and got 2 of the same books.” This complaint wasn’t directed AT Powell’s, it was sent out to the Twitter community at large. What was amazing is that Powell’s responded to this tweet in less than an hour in order to solve the customers problem, without the customer directly contacting them.
This is the kind of dramatic shift that is taking place in the business world according to Jeff Jarvis, in his forthcoming book, “What Would Google Do?” In his book, Jarvis studies Google and how their business model has made them so dominant, and then applies that model to other businesses. Welcome to the “Google Era” where “nothing is faster than now.”
For example, 25 years ago, we got our news in a daily paper or on the six o’clock TV news broadcast. If it was really important, we might get a “breaking news story” in the middle of our favorite program. Then along came CNN. News 24 hours a day. But, news organizations have to gather the news, and that takes time to get cameras and reporters in place. The Internet was incorporated into the transmission of the news, with constant updates to stories, but again, gathering, writing and editing those stories takes time. Today, news is coming from those with a cell phone in their pocket. When the Mumbai terrorist attacks happened, I first heard about it on the radio, but received up to the second information via Twitter, from people who were there. When the Continental flight slid off the runway and caught fire in Denver, it hadn’t made the news when I received a tweet from someone who was on the plane- “Holy f*****g s**t I was just in a plane crash!”
Why is this important? An old study found that if a customer had a good experience in your store, they might tell 2 or 3 people, but if they had a bad experience, they would tell 8 to 10 people. Today, that is no longer relevant. If someone has a bad experience in your store, they can share that via a blog, or Facebook, or MySpace, or Twitter, just to name a few. That 8 to 10 people who hear negatives about your business has now become hundreds, thousands or more. And it has become nearly instantaneous. Where the Powell’s customer had a bad experience and tweeted about it, Powell’s reacted to solve the problem. They didn’t wait for the customer to come to them, they found the customer by monitoring Twitter.
Reacting to problems isn’t the only thing that this “post-link” society must deal with. How do we find customers? How can we engage our customers? How are we retaining customers? How do we stay ahead of the curve? While Jarvis speaks to these kinds of issues in a very wide range of industries, including computers and technology, utilities, retail, restaurants, etc., the most intriguing chapter for me was the one that dealt with books; writing, publishing and selling them.
I work in a bookstore. I write books. As an author, you write and hope people like your words enough to pay for them. As a bookseller, you help people find authors that appeal to them, hoping they will buy books from your bookstore. What if my livelihood were suddenly changed by an influx of free books on the Internet, or a large offering of ebooks at great prices. Is this such a bad thing, Jarvis asks. I began the chapter by screaming “Yes.” I finished the chapter by realizing that the Internet may actually help my business, both in writing and selling books. Collaborate with your community of book lovers, wherever they may be. True, they may get a book for free on the Internet, but as Paulo Coelho found out, pirated copies of his books on the Internet only increased the sales of books in the traditional format, thereby, generating more sales. So, he linked his website to pirated copies of his books out on the web so people could read his books for free, and again, traditional book sales went up.
Jarvis points out, and the book business is no different, that the world is no longer a place of “mass markets,” it’s a world of “markets of mass niches.” Simply having a website isn’t enough anymore. Embrace what makes you different, unique, and special. Take that to your community, search for feedback, and improve. Find communities that already exist and offer something that is indispensable to that community. Interact and communicate. You have to “be social” in social networking.
After reading “What Would Google Do?” it got me thinking, How do I improve my bookstore in the post-link world? How can I engage my customers? How will I react to problems? How do I stay ahead of the curve? In short, What would Google do?
“What Would Google Do?” will be available in January 2009. But, don’t just sit around and wait for the book, let’s get a conversation going about how Web 2.0, social networking, can be beneficial for bookstores and booksellers.
LitPark says:
December 31st, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Fascinating discussion. Thanks for bringing it here, Drew.
I’m also a writer and wondering what all of this means for my career. But I’m a buyer, as well. And the availability of books and music on the internet has changed my habits drastically, but all in favor of MORE. I read a blog and I get HUNGRY for a book, and, zing, I’ve bought it. I hear a clip of music on a website and seconds later, I’ve bought a copy and downloaded it onto my iTunes. If I wrote the name of either the book or the music on a piece of paper with the idea of going to a store for it, I’d likely grow cold and change my mind before I purchased them.
I’m buying virtually no CD’s now, but I’m buying way more music. I’m buying more books, but I’m also downloading audiobooks. The booksellers and agents and publishers who are playing online are the ones who have my ear. Don’t know how habits will change or how publishers and sellers will adapt, but I think the opportunity to reach more people and feed the hungry is huge.
The Daily Square - New Year’s Day Edition | Booksquare says:
January 1st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
[...] A Bookseller?s Take on ?What Would Google Do??As we roll into 2009, people are thinking about how new media can build business instead of tear it down. [...]
The King's English Bookshop says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
This is a fantastic post — lots of food for thought. As well as actions to take! For example, I never thought to monitor Twitter for comments on our store; I was mostly focused on getting out word about our events and keeping tabs on people in the business/friends of the store. Reading about Powell’s smart use, I thought, “How would they have found that tweet, if it wasn’t someone they follow?” Which took me over to search.twitter.com, from which I now have a feed for every instance of “king’s english.” Oh interweb, how you amaze me…
Dan Cullen says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Hi, It’s great to read your expanded post. It was interesting to read about the cascading nature of online buzz (good and bad) since I’m in the middle of SATISFIED CUSTOMERS TELL THREE FRIENDS, ANGRY CUSTOMERS TELL 3,000 (by Pete Blackshaw). There’s a lot in it focused on corporations, etc., but the discussion about the power of credibility is very interesting re. indie booksellers.
Drew Goodman says:
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:18 am
LitPark, King’s and Dan- thank you all for your comments. Booksquare- thanks for the link.
I would highly suggest all indie booksellers take a look at this book, if not the whole book, at least the chapter on “GoogleCollins.” Having said that, I’ve pulled ideas from the entire book and am working on some of my strategies now.
Indie booksellers have had a hard time competing with all chains (Wal-Mart, Costco, grocery stores, not just the chain booksellers). They’ve had a hard time competing on the Internet (chain websites and Amazon). But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Do we, as booksellers, have a plan of attack for social media? Do we need one? Yes. Is it exactly the same for every store? No.
Who are our customers? Is it the person down the street who physically comes into our store? Or is it the person across the country who virtually visits our store? Why do either of them patronize our store? These are the kinds of questions we MUST ask ourselves and address, not only in the store but online as well. Do we engage them with one type of social media? Five types? Ten types? Which of these are most effective?
I don’t mean to preach here, but, Ok I guess I do mean to preach. I am going to bang on this drum repeatedly and share it with every indie bookseller I can. Our “voice” in social media, our interaction with people, our personalities online are what will help save us. Will it solve everything? No. But, if we are not engaging our customers, who will? We are being given the perfect platform, a level playing field to do it on- Web 2.0, the social internet. Let’s be at the forefront of this movement. Let’s get ahead of the curve. Let’s be the trendsetters. Attack this new form of media. Look for new ways to use it. Share it. Link it. It will make us a more integral part of our customers decision making process.
OK, stepping off the soapbox for now, but keep listening for the drum.
Launa McNeilly says:
November 11th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’m not a bookseller but I am a new author and a book buyer. I grew up having only the local bookstore for the place to find a book to read. The experience of browsing the bookshelves with the reward of holding an interesting book, buying it, and then able to read it immediately still has the edge as far as I am concerned as a buyer. Don’t get me wrong, online booksellers get my business too. As a new author, the only bookstore to take a chance on my book was Barnes and Noble in one of their stores. New authors are having to go the POD route because big publishers only want big name authors. Some of these new authors are excellent writers but because they are POD (myself included) small bookstores won’t stock them. It seems to me that if there is an author living, or writing about, where your store is, then ordering in a few copies and displaying them prominently would draw interest for the store. I understand that the wholesale price for them are usually higher than what others are, but isn’t getting people interested in coming into the store worth it? The advantage to the author is immense. To have their book on the shelf at their local bookshop, where they buy their own books, is where they are going to tell everyone to go to get it. That to me is a win win situation for both seller and author. Just a thought by someone who has been thrust into book marketing because they wrote a book, titled, Lies, in a Season of Tribulation. Sorry, I had to do that. Best Regards, Launa McNeilly