Booksellers Blog

image credit: Dan Taylor via Flickr

I’m often surprised when people ask “what should I blog about?” and yet really, it’s a smart question.

The answer would depend on what you want to accomplish.

Use your goals to determine the primary content of your blog, and try to write your posts keeping those goals in mind.

Blogging can make people feel more connected to your store, so be sure to incorporate whatever it is that makes your store special. Is it staff recommendations? Then play that up in your blog posts. Is it a strong author events schedule that sets you apart from other bookstores? There’s your primary focus.

If you have a particular area of expertise (or multiples), then definitely specialize

If your store is strong in the children’s area, perhaps start with a blog about family literature, or spin off a separate blog for kids, teachers and/or parents. Kepler’s has done this; they have a general blog, a teen blog, and a blog for their writer’s group.

If you have an incredible selection of fly-fishing books and knowledgeable staff, you can create a fly fishing blog — and not every post has to be book related. Make it about fishing in general, find your readership, and when you are established as experts who know what you are talking about, you will be “the” source for fishing books. Link it back to your store website to be sure, but it can live as its own separate entity.

Highlighting your store’s area of expertise is a fantastic way to set yourself apart from others and to be seen as a thought leader in a particular area. If you take this route and have an e-commerce site, I would also recommend setting up your website to reflect that area of expertise, and link back and forth often.

Or, be more general

Of course you don’t have to limit your blog to one topic. That might be difficult, especially if you have multiple staff members involved. Just as there are niche magazines and general interest magazines, blogs can work the same way. Your audience may not be as engaged as in a targeted blog, but the readership may be larger. Here are some other ideas

• Highlight staff picks. Kassia Krozer at Booksquare wants to see bookstore blogs as a way to extend handselling beyond store walls.
• What books are new this week?
• Tie your posts into what is happening in the community, in the news? For instance, your customers might appreciate a post about personal finance books right now, or spotlight on bargain books that are great values.
• Profile staff members, so that your customers know a bit about them. It’s amazing how blogging can build personal connections.
• Tell secrets. People often think bookselling is a dream lifestyle. Play this up. Your customers would love a peek “behind the curtain.” How do new books get on your shelves? What do you have to do to get those fabulous author events? It may seem mundane and uninteresting to you, but I bet your customers would find it fascinating.
• Solicit customer reviews, especially from kids.
• Highlight local businesses. You can make it book-related by asking business owners to recommend a favorite book.
• Feature upcoming author events. Go beyond what you’ve done in your email newsletter; link to reviews of the book, videos of the author speaking elsewhere (YouTube is great for this), audio clips … “sell” the event and make people realize that it’s an experience they can only get at your bookstore.

Those are just a few ideas. I’m sure you and your staff can come up with many more. Feel free to leave them in the comments.

Tomorrow: Blogging FAQ, Day 5:  How do I know who’s reading?

Previous posts in this series:

• Ten Days of Blogging FAQs
• Day 1: Who’s going to read our blog?
• Day 2: Where do I find the time to blog?
• Day 3: I already have a newsletter, do I really need a blog?