Can booksellers and publishers use Twitter to drive business?
It seems that you just can’t get away from Twitter these days. It’s referenced in CNN news reports, the New York Times writes Sunday Magazine pieces and feature articles about it, and it has started to permeate the minds of booksellers as well.
Stephanie Anderson (@Bookavore) wrote an excellent introduction to twitter for Shelf-Awareness in her new Namastechnology column.
Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer for the Boulder Bookstore, expresses his appreciation for twitter and its usefulness in a unique blog post at Kash’s Book Corner.
There is no arguing the value of networking and sharing information on twitter. It’s the single most valuable resource I have for learning about what is happening in publishing and bookselling, and has allowed me to meet and talk with people that I would never have known.
But because much of those articles focused on the value of learning about the industry and talking with people from various parts of publishing and bookselling, it raises a question:
Can you use twitter to sell books? How should twitter be used with customers?
Since we are all wondering, I recently posted this question on twitter, with a link to a page where people could leave comments longer than 140 characters if they wished:
How could bookstores best serve you?What do you want from publishers on twitter, and/or bookstores on twitter?
If you are a reader, book buyer, book blogger, or other bookish type:How should publishers and bookstores use twitter?
How could publishers help you?
The responses, as expected were widely varied. I’ve edited a few of the comments for brevity.
I want information from my local bookstore. I want to be able to @ my bookseller and get in stock information before I drive across town, and I love it when I get updated blog information. And recommendations. … I love the immediate, personal that comes from knowing a real person is on the other side of the communication. Like when Little, Brown was doing book recommendations during the holidays. Like when you were doing the same thing.
As a book blogger, I am looking for news and a sense that the person passing on that news is going to be part of the conversation, not just an RSS feed pass-through. Those, by the way, are the ones I hate the most…endless stream of RSS snippets without a sense of time or space . – Kassia Krozser
I’d like book reviews. What should I be reading, what’s hot that I should avoid. How about some giveaways on upcoming releases? – @michaelsantoro
I like when booksellers and publishers tweet about upcoming author appearances and forthcoming books. – @CarolyBurnsBass
I’d love twitter reminders of book store events, I get a weekly email on Monday but that doesn’t always stick. – @BostonBookGirl
Tell us about new releases! I’m a sucker for a good title. Tweeting a pic might help, too! – @theamillerryan
They could offer free books/ARCs put links in tweets that lead to discounted books talk about upcoming books talk about author appearances get authors to tweet HarperCollins offers a limited number of ARCs to tweet followers BooksAMillion tells you about the daily special - The Brain Lair
I have to second the request for staff recommendations–that’s always the first place I check in a bookstore, and I’d love to be able to keep up with staff selections at the stores I can’t always visit. – Ami
publishers:
links to online catalogs that are user-friendly and easily searchable; news about new books, recs of books that aren’t necessarily published by them, but they enjoyed; online excerpts;
author interviews on their sites (NOT video or podcasts); linked from twitterBookstores:
recommendations–remember that Seinfeld episode where Elaine fell in love with that video store guy based on his shelf of recommendations? If customers knew what employees liked, they could go to those employees for recs. — Dorothy Parka
From Roger C. Parker:
A “Twit Tip-of-the-Day” available for readers who want a serendipitous recommended book in their favorite category, i.e., business books, mystery, psychology, etc. By organizing Tweets by category, customers can self-select what types of books they’re interested in. At end of week, have a “Best of Twit Tweet” blog post with longer comments about books selected during the week, opportunity for readers to select most popular, etc. At end of month, have a “Best of At end of month, send out a newsletter compilation of weekly blog posts, plus comments received, etc. Perhaps a 48-hour discount on some of the titles, etc.
I follow @ChelseaGreen (which published one of my books) and am impressed by how they constantly link to good, useful content–much, but not all, from their authors, and most of it highly relevant to their niches (environmental awareness and progressive politics). – Shel Horowitz, author, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers
Bookseller success stories:
I then asked the twittering booksellers if they had received direct business through twitter.
Twitter led to a few sales directly and contacts via email/phone. And there was a customer I recognized by her twit profile. – Common Good Books, St. Paul, MN
I’ve suggested books and people have asked me to hold them / come in and purchased on my recommendation. – Josh Christie, Sherman’s, Freeport, ME
I discovered @mysterybooks via Twitter and have made several purchases, with plans for many more. – from reader @BookishRuth about The Mystery Bookstore, Los Angeles
We now have people ordering from us through Twitter, and I’ve had people show up to events b/c of Twitter – River Run Books, Portsmouth, NH
We have had people come to events due 2 tweets, reserved a copy of book via twitter – Aarons Books, Lititz, PA
And don’t miss these other links of interest:
Twitter in Plain English. Still not sure you “get” what Twitter is? It’s difficult to grasp the value until you’ve used it for a few weeks, but the folks at Common Craft have put together a great 2-minute video explaining how it all works.
Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting has an ongoing compilation of articles about using Twitter for business, and is offering a free webinar on Using Twitter For Business on Wed. Feb. 25th. (A webinar is like a seminar, but you view it through your computer, sometimes dialing in by phone to hear the audio. It sounds complicated, but you don’t need a special computer setup and the instructions provided are usually very clear-cut).
Heidi Miller has a short and pointed podcast about Best Practices for Twitter.
Rich Rennicks says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:39 am
I look at Twitter as just one more part of the great conversation with our customers. I don’t stop being a bookseller when I see a customer at the grocery store & they ask “what’s new.” Does that lead to sales? Of course it does. Maybe not every time, every conversation, but over the course of time a relationship is built & sales are made. Twitter extends the supermarket checkout line into cyberspace.
Rob says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
I am sure that there will be an occasional sale as a result of Twitter; however, I’m not too sure that given the time investment, that there are not more efficient ways of accomplishing this goal. For instance, we have seen an 8-10% increase of event attendance as a result of our Facebook presence. With facebook we can target our market, gather regional friends and send out blasts. This has proven to be very valuable. While I enjoy Twitter, I’m not going to put allot of stock into it for generating sales. Twitter does allow me to stay connected to fellow bookies and that I really value.
Adrian T Dayton @adriandayton says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Twitter so far seems to me like a great way to learn from other authors and publishers, but not necessarily a great way to drive individual sales. Maybe for people with 10,000 or more followers it drives sales, but even then- how many of those 10,000 are looking to buy a book?
Heidi Miller says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Thanks for the link love! And to comment to Rob, I think that the Twitter/Facebook combo is pretty powerful. I use TwitterFeed to automatically post my Tweets as Facebook status updates, so both accounts appear very active without having to log in constantly. Twittering a link to a Facebook event has proven very successful for me and for my clients–and then, of course Twittering after that the photos and videos are posted to the Facebook page.
And to respond to Adrian, remember that you’re not looking for direct sales from followers. The real value is in word of mouth marketing. Sure, maybe only 2% of my 1,700 follower would buy my book (if I had one), but if those 2% then reTweeted my book-signing events to THEIR 1,500 followers each, you can see how the word could easily reach tens of thousands of interested parties quickly. Make sense?
Drew Goodman says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I will agree with Rich and disagree with Rob and Adrian. Twitter is a part of a conversation- stress the word “part.” Twitter isn’t the end all and be all. It isn’t there to replace face to face conversations in the bookstore or sales on your website. It is a great way to engage others about books- whether that is authors, publishers, reps, other booksellers, or customers. Do those “tweets” turn into sales? Not directly, no. But, are you incorporating Twitter into your strategy of the greater social media? Do you use your “tweets” to point at your YouTube videos, your Facebook page, your blog, your sign up page for your email newsletter? When you mention a great book that you just read, do leave a link to your review or to your website? Do your blog readers know that you are on Twitter; do you have a Twitter app on your blog? Are you mentioning you are on Twitter in your newsletter, your YouTube videos, your Facebook account? Twitter alone will not increase sales. Incorporated with other forms of social media, even without 10,000 followers, Twitter can be effective at getting others to see what books you are talking about and bring them to one of your other sites, or store, for more information, and maybe an actual purchase. Twitter is a part of the conversation, but an important part.
Adrian T Dayton @adriandayton says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
This is all good stuff to hear. I am still learning about twitter, and I think the bottom line is that QUALITY creates buzz. If you write a great book, and it is high quality, twitter can help facilitate the conversation. Look at Slumdog millionaire, even before the Oscars it was by far the most talked about movie on twitter. It wasn’t because Danny Boyle was a genius of SEO, but becuase he created a great product.
The Daily Square - The Phantoms of Ephemera Edition | Booksquare says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 pm
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Holly Powell says:
February 24th, 2009 at 4:30 am
This is a a great post.. An insightful one and a good topic to talk about. In my own opinion, I can say that booksellers and publishers can use twitter to drive their business.. By having a twitter account, twittering everyday or regularly, most likely, the followers can know about your business and if they are interested in your product, then I would say that through the use of twitter booksellers and publishers can drive business.
Ann Kingman says:
February 25th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Thanks to everyone for your very thoughtful comments. I wish I could respond to each of you individually, but I’m on the road this week, talking to bookstores about books and, yes, twitter.
While I don’t think every bookseller needs to be on twitter, I do think that it can drive people to your events, which often leads to sales. Chances are that you currently have few customers on twitter now, but more and more people are joining every day. Add to that the number of people near to your store that are not current customers — it’s just possible that they will hear of a great event through twitter and decide to check out your store.
And of course, the most valuable part of twitter is the networking and interaction with other booksellers, publishers, authors, media folks. I’ve probably learned more from my time on twitter than from any other channel. While this doesn’t directly drive sales, it is an important part of bookseller education and keeping up with what your customers are hearing, reading, and talking about.
Thanks, all!
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