Comments on: More on Joining the Conversation

By: Finance Geek » Twitter makes customer service more effective

Finance Geek » Twitter makes customer service more effective — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:54:33 +0000

[...] More on Joining the Conversation (booksquare.com) [...]

By: Melissa B

Melissa B — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:45:17 +0000

Hi Kassia,
When it came to twitter, at first I was a strong disbeliever. But I got curious and decided to give it a try for work. I’m in the magazine world – I work on a series of B2B magazines geared toward the pet industry. And what I quickly found was that the people on Twitter were mostly newer stores, and stores that were doing really well, despite the economy. The more I “waded in” the more impressed I became.

I’ve been following a recommendation I hear everywhere for when you first start using twitter (or any social networking site) – to mostly listen for the first few months before really working to get engaged. I’ve been taking small steps. It’s been a great tool for our magazine (in terms of getting reader feedback) and I’ve been absolutely amazed at some of the ideas I’ve seen.

One bunch does a twitter ‘party’ (they call it #barkhunt I believe) and they give away free products to anyone who answers a question correctly. It requires sending consumers to different sites, and therefore exposing them to information you want them to know – quizzing them on it essentially. What better way to ensure you create an impression? They do it the same time every week … and have a steady following that play along… and a good number of manufacturers donate products (heck, I even got our magazine to donate some products).

Now THAT is getting consumers involved.

Stores and publishers need to think outside the box and really work to put these things to the test. Push them for all they’re worth. Otherwise, someone else will.

By: Debbie Stier

Debbie Stier — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:52:44 +0000

Just so you all know…..there are some people in some pockets of major publishers who are listening…..and hear you…..and agree with you…..and are trying to act accordingly HarperStudio’s Who is Mark Twain? and Burn Here ebooks (our first two books) were $9.99 (discounted 20% on our site — or free if hardcover was purchased) — and were DRM free. I’m a consumer too Looking for new ways to construct the business so we can continue to publish good books. Would love to hear ideas if anyone has any (I have a few of my own that I’m working on).

By: Perry Brass

Perry Brass — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:19:07 +0000

You can twitter all you want; it doesn’t change the fact that direct selling to readers is pretty doomed, unless something changes very directly about it. One thing is book fairs. I am co-director of the Rainbow Book Fair, which will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center in NY on Sat. March 27, 20010. It is the country’s largest LGBT book fair; other book fairs are coming in, now that indie book stores are barely making it. What these stories about fabulous buys from forms like Twitter tell us is that there is a market out there for Twitterable material, but that does not necessarily help people whose work is a little less digestible in 40 bite bits.

Perry Brass, author of Carnal Sacraments, A Historical Novel of the Future, A ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Finalist

By: Anysia (Booklorn on Twitter)

Anysia (Booklorn on Twitter) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:06:49 +0000

Sorry, didn’t realize I went on quite that much until I hit ’submit’.

By: Anysia (Booklorn on Twitter)

Anysia (Booklorn on Twitter) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:06:07 +0000

Unfortunately, S&S is a dinosaur when it comes to the Internet and they’ve been that way since they went online (that must be a corporate culture thing). Their website is practically unusable for the consumer (and has been, in every iteration, since they went online in the 90s–heaven forbid you tell the consumer what the book is about before you have them hit ‘buy’).

They are on Twitter, but clearly are not monitoring the Twitter stream (if they are they aren’t responding in any manner whatsoever). If you look at their corporate accounts, only the UK account actually follows people back. The US corporate accounts show a distinct disconnect between followers and following.

Compare S&S’s approach to any of Hachette’s corporate Twitter accounts or even their website and you can tell immediately which company is focusing on engaging the consumer as part of their corporate culture.

S&S lost me as a consumer a long time ago (around the time they withdrew ebooks in the format I was buying them is around the time I stopped being their customer). Every time I even contemplate buying something from them they give me a new reason not to (for instance charging $20 for a paperback novelization of a movie *cough*).

They can’t even give away a free ebook without making it impossible to actually find on their site (yet they issue a press release to promote it).

Nothing S&S does really surprises me anymore, least of all discharging a loaded gun into its corporate foot, yet again, on the ebook front. Now if they did something consumer-friendly that would shock me. I think I’m safe for the next few decades.

By: Butch Drury

Butch Drury — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:15:20 +0000

I recently attended IBPA’s Publishing U in New York City, where there was a lot of discussion about Social Media. At one of the last classes I attended, the speaker talked about some of his experiences using twitter. Mind you, he just started using twitter about 2 months ago, when he noticed someone was following him. He tweeted that person, who ordered several copies of his recently published book. Shortly thereafter, she tweeted him again, telling him that he needed to drop everything and come up to this symposium she was attending. So he did. To make a long story short, she bought 5000 copies of his book, on the spot. That definitely tweeked, or is it tweeted, my interest in twitter.

By: Richard Hargis

Richard Hargis — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:29:43 +0000

Palace of paraphrase; rumer of winds: I feel strongly about it both ways.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:19:29 +0000

Biblibio — There are some really smart booksellers out there who get the future and see a clear place for themselves in it. The conversation I referenced is proof of that. Person A would not likely shop in Person B bookstore’s if they lived in the same area because the bookstore wouldn’t have what Person A is seeking. And while Person B knew this, it seemed like there was a bit of revelation as well. She’s trying to change how she views her customer base, and I think that’s so positive.

As for the Twitter conversation, you may just have to trust me on this. It’s happening, it’s goofy, it’s serious, it’s productive. The final aspect, to me, is really important. I love that I can toss out ideas and have them debated by some very smart people. I love even more that those smart people come from different perspectives and backgrounds. It helps cement thoughts and approaches.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:14:35 +0000

Kat — Interesting comment. The publishers who are already engaging are reaping benefits, but it’s hard (boy, is it hard!) to change corporate culture. Yet this kind of dramatic change is exactly what needs to happen.