Marketing in the Digital Age: Slides and Recap

by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Director of Audience Development, Digital Book World

Judging from the activity on Twitter and the feedback I’ve gotten via email, yesterday’s webinar, Marketing in the Digital Age: Batteries Not Included, was a success!

Our panelists — Dan Blank, Director of Content Strategy & Development, Reed Business Information; Patrick Boegel, Director, Media Integration, Media Logic; Jane Friedman, Publisher & Editorial Director, Writer’s Digest Community; and Diana Vilibert, Web Editor, Marie Claire — were a diverse group, making my job moderatoring easy as each one of them brought a different perspective and some great insights to the discussion of how publishers can successfully engage with readers using social media tools.

The slides from the presentation have been made available via Slideshare, but they only give a hint of the great conversation that took place. DBW members can view the entire archived presentation, with audio, here.

Some personal highlights, filtered via our attendees tweets, included:

DaintyNinja: #dbw panelists don’t follow publishers on twitter – only authors, genres, and online community leaders

suzmccormick: Panelists say they follow those who are both entertaining and provide useful info on #Twitter #dbw

MaggieHilliard: Panelists playing “guess the publishers ” with popular books. No one knows or cares about editors/publishers–they should–lead tribes. #dbw

mikecane: RT: @NetGalley: wow – none of panelists know the publisher of Dan Brown! #dbw <– Wasn’t that MacRandomillanday?

MaggieHilliard: @DanBlank Less about broadcasting/interrupting, more about giving pple the option to listen to you. Social media is key to perm. mkting #dbw

MaggieHilliard: How can booksellers engage audience online? @DanBlank Don’t look for $ signs right way; build a channel/platform/community. #dbw

robertleebrewer: RT @thewritermama A blog is a destination, a book is a beautiful product. #DBW (Books are excellent gifts. URLs? Not so much.)

MaggieHilliard: How does that engagement strategy fit into “traditional” marketing/PR strategy? #dbw @DanBlank Listening is key

thewritermama: Authenticity=believe in your product, as first step. Build personal brand wisely. Focus on your niche (in my words). Fr @dianavilibert #DBW

vrleavitt: #dbw Where does blogging fit in to a writer’s carrer? @DianaVilibert – “A blog is another place where your potential readers are.”

thewritermama: Track results. Use analytics. Pay attention what happens after you start to engage. @patrickboegel #DBW

charabbott: “We see very clear correlation between tweeting and linking to info and sales of our products.” — @janefriedman #DBW

BethBookCoach: If you look for the $ sign right away, you’re missing the point. The bk is the marketing channel, the driver of credibility @danblank #dbw

ChristinaCastro: Listening/watching #dbw & discovered Suheir Hammad’s newest collection BREAKING POEMS http://bit.ly/191wlk (expand) I must get my hands on it! #books

austen_addict: Fave takeaway from Marketing in the Digital World webinar: be entertaining or point to useful info. Believe that was @janefriedman. Thx #dbw

ConsortiumBooks: Still chewing on the idea that publishers don’t “own” their customer relationships, intermediaries like Apple do @glecharles #dbw

lisamhawkins: #dbw Just took a Digital Book World webinar – valuable & useful info. Wish I could attend Jan NY conference.

Two of the more entertaining tangents that took off on Twitter were reactions to our panelists not knowing the publishers of all eight of the books I showed them, and that none of them owned a dedicated ereader, despite the fact that all owned at least one smartphone, and Jane noted she had the Kindle App on her iPhone. Tunnel-vision much?

To the first point, though, my goal with the selection of books I chose was to show that, for most readers, even those who work in publishing, the publisher is relatively unknown and not a major factor when choosing a book to read. Notable exceptions include Marvel and DC, whose banners are nearly as strong as their best-known characters, and some genre publishers, like Harlequin, TOR, Hay House, Chelsea Green, etc.

The common denominator: niche.

Try the quiz yourself. Go to Slide #18 and see how many publishers you can identify based on the books shown with Googling them. (Or Binging them. Equal time!) Bonus points if you’ve actually heard of all eight books, and a TRIPLE GOLD STAR if you can name half of the editors involved with them!