The Great Marketing Shift

Social media is here to stay. It is changing the landscape for marketing. As with any new technology, we must embrace it to succeed or go the way of the dinosaurs.

Some social media statistics boggle my mind.  Here are a few:

• 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users use online social networks.
• If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.
• 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube by users every single minute.
• More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day.
• Users who access Facebook through a mobile device, such as an iPhone or Blackberry, are almost 50 percent more active than those who don’t.

The popularity of social media is changing the way businesses market effectively. There is a transition taking place from shouting to conversation. People are shifting from using traditional media to social media such as blogs and status updating sites such as Twitter to keep abreast of news.

To succeed in marketing with social media, authors and publishers need a strategy. It is not enough to have a blog and a Facebook and Twitter account. A strategy that capitalizes on these tools is required.

Not sure how to develop this type of strategy? Help is available.

Digital Book World, is hosting a free webinar on “Marketing in the Digital Age: Batteries Not Included” on Wednesday, November 11 at 1pm Eastern Time. This webinar will feature panelists talking about new media influencers, and integrating social media into overall marketing strategies. You can sign up to participate in this free webinar here.

Like it or not, to succeed in marketing in today’s digital era, a social media strategy is required.

Another Interesting Book Publicity Stunt

In my last post, I discussed several interesting tactics authors and publishers are using to promote their books. In an ever crowded book-selling environment, authors and publishers are resorting to new and creative tactics to hook readers.

One Christian book publisher is now looking to hook readers long before a book is published. This publisher is using an interesting strategy to find new readers and hook these readers into being invested in the next book he publishes.

Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press, a publisher of Christian speculative fiction, is asking the masses (a.k.a. interested readers) to help him pick which book should be the next title Marcher Lord Press publishes.

To do this, Gerke is asking readers to vote in a serious of rounds on which book they would like to see published. The first round will feature a book’s title, genre, length, a 20-word premise, and a 100-word back cover teaser blurb. Each additional round will feature increasingly more information, but no more than the first 60 pages of the book. The book the readers choose will be published in the Spring of 2010.

Gerke is smart. He is requiring all voters to register prior to voting. This way he is creating an email list of readers who are interested in Christian speculative fiction that he can continue to market Marcher Lord Press’ books to. The voting starts this month on The Anomaly forums and runs through January or February of 2010.

I don’t think this publicity stunt will be as effective in engaging readers as the ones listed in my last post. This activity gives the participants little reward for their efforts. The best publicity stunts have the potential of a “big” win (a free manuscript, money, and your design on a best-selling author’s book cover) for participants. The larger the potential win, the stronger the hook resulting in more people participating; consider State lotteries with their promises of millions of dollars.

I do give Jeff Gerke credit for his creativity. I think this idea is unique and I wish them the best with their promotional gimmick.

Smart Book Publicity Stunts

Authors and publishers vying for attention in an ever more crowded book-selling environment are resorting to some interesting tactics to promote their books.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California and author of The Purpose Driven Life has penned a new book, The Hope You Need. This book is scheduled to be released November 17, 2009 by Zondervan. To gain pre-release attention for his new book,  Pastor Warren announced via Twitter to his 43,342 followers that they could design the cover for his new book.

The open design contest for the book cover was hosted on 99designs.com. Zondervan offered a prize of $5,000 for the winning book design. Over 3,500 book cover designs were submitted. That’s a lot of publicity for and acquired vested interest in a new book.  The winning design chosen for the book cover is clean, simple, and straightforward.

Thomas Horn, author of Apollyon Rising 2012: The Lost Symbol Found and the Final Mystery of the Great Seal Revealed, recently announced a contest with a $10,000 prize and a mysterious artifact. Horn’s book will be released by Anomalos Publishing later this year. Horn partnered with SurvivorMall.com to raise his contest prize money.

Horn claims that Dan Brown did not reveal the true “Lost Symbol” with his new book. He will reveal the true “Lost Symbol” with the contest for his book. Contestants will have to solve a series of eleven clues over eleven weeks beginning on November 9, 2009 to find the “Lost Symbol.” The rules for the contest are listed at www.grandnationalchallenge.com.

Running a large-prize contest for eleven weeks prior to the release of his book is sure to hook many readers into purchasing Horn’s book. Each contestant will be intrigued and want to learn more about the “Lost Symbol” at the end of the contest; ensuring readers for the book.

Recently, Don Miller, a best-selling Thomas Nelson author hid manuscripts of his soon-to-be released book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, in tour stops and other cities across the country. Each day, Thomas Nelson sent out messages via Twitter and Facebook with information on the location of 2 of the 60 “bootleg” copies of the book. Each person who found a copy of the manuscript was given Don Miller’s cell phone number to call and talk with him.

Did you notice the common link in each of these publicity stunts? The author and publishers focused on using social media and the Internet to spread the word and hook readers into participating in their contest.

Consider a publicity stunt for the release of your next book. You will attract readers even before your book hits the streets.