Why the goal isn’t just “sell more books”…
As I was writing yesterday’s post about determining what it is that you want to achieve, I kept hearing a little voice in my head.
“Ann,” it said, “the goal is just to sell more books. ”
I’d ignore the voice, and start typing another line. “Increase attendance at author events.”
“No,” the voice said, “Sell more books!”
And this is the challenge of social media. The end goal (sell more books) happens as a result of your marketing goal (increase attendance at author events).
Social media is about making connections with your customers, and helping them to make connections with each other. It’s about communication: you communicate your ideas, what your store represents, what books you love, what is happening in your community. It’s a new form of marketing, yes, but it’s communication-based.
The traditional way of marketing, often called “interruption marketing’ is taking the potential customer out of what they were doing and subjecting them to your message. It’s the newspaper ad in the middle of the page you are reading, the television commercial breaking up your show into little chunks, or the billboard trying to take your attention off the road. With social media, you supply the customer with the information that they want to have, when they want to have it and where they want to have it.
But really, Mack Collier has explained it far better than I can in his article, “Social Media excels at making things happen indirectly“. Please take a few moments to read it, and don’t miss the comments on the post — there is also some very good stuff there.
What do you think?
Mack Collier says:
January 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Thanks for the link, and I agree, the comments to my post are amazing! I think when setting a social media strategy, you need to make ‘sell more stuff’ the INdirect goal. The DIRECT goal has to be about creating value for the reader/viewer/customer, and as a RESULT of providing that value, you’ll see that you ‘sell more stuff’.
But if selling more stuff is your DIRECT goal, it never really works out as well, if you are using social media.
Steven Devijver says:
January 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I’ve followed Seth Godin on his blog for years before I bought one of his books for the first time (Tribes). If he would have done an author event in Europe I would have shown up.
Paul Auster did a few events in 08 in Belgium, one of which I attended. But I only get my Paul Auster books from the library.
It’s indeed not about selling books, but about offering ideas, inspiration, insight, joy to the people that want to hear from you. The fact that you happen to be an author and that you happen to write books is of no consequence. People will consume what you do on their own terms.
Great post, thanks.
Steven
Roger Paul Mosconi says:
January 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I tripped into this site by word-of-mouth and am about to join. Thank you.
Ann Kingman says:
January 9th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
@Mack, as always, you find a way to put my ideas into words far better than I can express. Thanks, and thanks for the great posts at The Viral Garden.
@Steven, Seth Godin has some very interesting ideas, and I’ve been following him for a long time. I liked Tribes a lot, and I think that it is a great book for authors to read and digest. For booksellers, I think I’d first recommend MEATBALL SUNDAE or PURPLE COW first, and then TRIBES.
@Roger — Welcome! Glad you found us.