Presented by Goodreads community manager Patrick Brown at Book Expo America 2012. This presentation includes case studies of successful marketing campaigns, as well as examples of online community building.

1. For Publishers, Booksellers & Librarians
Tuesday, June 5, 12

2. Patrick Brown
Community Manager &
Author Program Manager
Tuesday, June 5, 12

3. What is Goodreads?
Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book
recommendations in the world.
9 million readers
Recommendations
Reviews
Shelves
Book Clubs
Social Networking Around a Love of Books
Tuesday, June 5, 12

4. A US Top 140 site & a Top 10 social network
21 million monthly unique visitors
140 million monthly pageviews
Tuesday, June 5, 12

5. Deep Reading Data
200 million
315 million books shelved,
growing at 17 million a month
150 million
110 million
100 million
64 million
50 million
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 12

6. Goodreads’ mission is
Discovery
Help people find books they love
and share them with friends.
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7. photo by ShutterRunner
5,750,000
books marked as to-read each month
books in the Chicago Public Library’s collection
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8. photo by o5com
Every second...
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9. photo by o5com
Every second... 2 books are discovered
on Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

10. photo by o5com
Every second... 2 books are discovered
on Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

11. photo by o5com
Every second... 2 books are discovered
on Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

12. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
Tuesday, June 5, 12

13. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
Tuesday, June 5, 12

14. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
Tuesday, June 5, 12

15. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
Tuesday, June 5, 12

16. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

17. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

18. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

19. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

20. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

21. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

22. Your goal should be to get reviews, especially early in the
life of your book.
1. Help new readers discover your book
2. Help readers decide
3. Spread beyond Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

23. drive awareness of new titles with
advertising, promotions, and
author engagement
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24. Tuesday, June 5, 12

25. Mobile & Interactive Ads
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26. Before I Go to Sleep
Advertising Campaign Results
Goodreads, People.com, EntertainmentWeekly.com,
NewYorkTimes.com, Facebook
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27. Erica Barmash
Senior Marketing Manager
Harper Perennial &
Harper Paperbacks
Tuesday, June 5, 12

28. case study
300 x 250 banner ads on the Targeted by genre &
homepage and run of site comparable authors
Tuesday, June 5, 12

29. Total impressions: 4.79 million
Total # of clicks:10,315 case study
Goodreads
Impressions 12% Clicks
12% 17%
24%
EW.com EW.com
NYTimes.com NYTimes.com
17%
29% People.com People.com
7%
Goodreads Goodreads
Facebook 43% Facebook
29% 11%
Goodreads: 29% of impressions and 43% of clicks.
People: 29% of impressions, but just 11% of clicks.
Tuesday, June 5, 12

30. Average cost per click for campaign: $3.93 case study
Average cost per click on Goodreads: $1.12
12
10
8
6
4
2
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EW
e.
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● Total spend was highest on EW, NYTimes, and People, but cost per click was
lowest on Goodreads and Facebook.
● Both CPCs were well below the average for the campaign, but the Goodreads
click-through rate was more than 4x higher than the Facebook CTR.
● The average CTR for the NYTimes was higher, but so was the cost per click.
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31. Conclusions
case study
Goodreads: not the single highest click-through
rate or the lowest cost-per-click.
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32. Conclusions
case study
BUT: When considering both CTR and CPC
equally, Goodreads is the winner.
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33. Conclusions
case study
Goodreads gives additional stats on how many
people added the book and marked it to-read.
added rated
reviewed to-read
600
450
300
150
0
7,292 books added 3,217 to-read
Tuesday, June 5, 12

34. Video Chat adds a boost
case study
242 viewers
Viewed more than
800 times
221 books added on
day of the chat alone
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35. Goodreads Author Program
A free tool designed to help authors reach
their target audience–passionate readers.
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36. 42,000 Goodreads Authors
Bestsellers James Patterson, John Grisham, Nicholas
Sparks, Margaret Atwood, and John Irving
Meg Cabot Jim Butcher Michael Connelly Lisa See
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37. The Benefits of Being a Goodreads Author
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38. The Benefits of Being a Goodreads Author
1. Build your community with your author profile
Tuesday, June 5, 12

39. The Benefits of Being a Goodreads Author
1. Build your community with your author profile
2. Find new readers with giveaways and text ads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

40. The Benefits of Being a Goodreads Author
1. Build your community with your author profile
2. Find new readers with giveaways and text ads
3.Connect with your fans through author
chats and book clubs
Tuesday, June 5, 12

41. Advance giveaways generate pre-release buzz
35,000 people enter
giveaways each day
Goodreads has helped
authors & publishers give away
more than 200,000 books
The average giveaway gets 850 entries
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42. 30
24
Books Added Stats for
Books Added
18 Beautiful Ruins
12
6
0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May
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43. Anatomy of a Bestseller
May 21:
Berkley buys Bared, touting
“2,500 reviews” on Goodreads
as a major reason, hits NY
Times Bestseller list
Apr 23:
Became top related book for
Fifty Shades of Grey
100
People who added book to their shelves
80
Mar 12:
Giveaway Began
60
40
to-read
20
reviews
0 Feb Mar Apr May
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44. Use text ads to drive
readers to a giveaway
Giveaways with text ads attract 40%
more entries than those without
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45. The Power of Groups
20,000+ book clubs on Goodreads
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46. New group design features masthead and prominent videos
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47. A panel discussion allows new readers to meet you.
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48. Housing Works
Add your events
and invite friends
Bookcourt
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49. Leverage your relationships with authors
Host an author chat in advance of your event
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50. Be a tastemaker
Book Soup
Vroman’s
RiverRun
Put your staff picks to
good use!
Spirit of 76 Booksore Staff Picks Shelf
Tuesday, June 5, 12

51. Salt Lake City Public Library
Group Case Study
Creating an online space using reading challenges,
book clubs, author chats, and more
Tuesday, June 5, 12

52. At Salt Lake County Library Services, we use Goodreads as
another way to connect to our patrons to discuss books, reading,
and more. We've had lots of fun with book clubs, reading
challenges, and discussions with authors, as well as just chatting
about the Hunger Games movie or Downton Abbey read-alikes.
It's a great way to publicize events and new materials, as well as
to provide online reader's advisory, and it's free and easy to use.
What more could you ask for?
Jennifer Fay
Library Manager
Salt Lake County Library System
Tuesday, June 5, 12

53. Track your book
club books
Moderators control the content of the group
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54. Reading Challenges
& Polls make for
easy participation
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55. The New Influencers of Fantasy & Sci-Fi
200
May 28: Vaginal Fantasy
150 Hangout (3500+ members)
Books Added
begins reading Kushiel’s Dart
100
50
0 Mar 1 Mar 15 Apr 1 Apr 15 May 1 May 15
200
150
Books Added
May 25: Sword & Laser (9300+
100 members) announces they’ll
read Tigana next
50
0 Mar 1 Mar 15 Apr 1 Apr 15 May 1 May 15
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56. Tips for a successful group
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57. Tips for a successful group
Book clubs around a single title can be stifling
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58. Tips for a successful group
Book clubs around a single title can be stifling
Reading challenges let people choose
Tuesday, June 5, 12

59. Tips for a successful group
Book clubs around a single title can be stifling
Reading challenges let people choose
Don’t ignore the “long tail” reader
Tuesday, June 5, 12

60. Tips for a successful group
Book clubs around a single title can be stifling
Reading challenges let people choose
Don’t ignore the “long tail” reader
Anticipate conflict & plan ahead
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61. Librarians must be willing to encourage
participation from all users—new, existing,
inactive and unfamiliar—in order to provide a wide
variety of social reading groups for readers to join.
photo by ThisParticularGreg on Flickr
Allison Mennella
Naperville Public Library
Source: http://tametheweb.com
Tuesday, June 5, 12

62. Patrick Brown
Community Manager &
Author Program Manager
pbrown@goodreads.com
@Goodreads
Tuesday, June 5, 12

63. For Publishers, Booksellers & Librarians
Tuesday, June 5, 12