Workshop on Social Media for Publishers

Social Publishing

What? Why? How?

Defining Social Media
Social media is media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues ~ Wikipedia
Key terms : social interaction, web-based technologies, DIALOGUES
For the book trade - to further the promotion of books, feedback, two-way communication
For your Company – Devise your own unique strategy

A company that jumped on to the social media bandwagon just over a year ago saw that....
Blog views : 10,932 times since January 2011
1,866 fans on Facebook
875 people were interested in their tweets
Videos had been viewed 45,117 times
Still not sure if you want to embrace Social Media?

After 2 years, another publisher saw that...
Blog views : 51,864 visits, 1,16,659 pageviews since the month of January, 2011
2,388 fans on Facebook
3,884 people were interested in their tweets
Online books had been read 3,01,097 times
Photographs had been viewed 91,351 times
Videos had been viewed 3,554 times
It surely is the time to jump on the social media bandwagon!

Figuring Out Your Social Media Strategy

Blog
Easy to set up
Reflects the personality of your organization and your aims
More flexibility over other mediums
Pratham Books: community based, publishing news, literacy-related, regular updates, goes beyond their own titles .
Radio Mirchi alliance, community run book launch
Tara Books: Essays on topics relevant to publishing venture, less frequent updates, focus on topics broadly linked to Tara.
Tulika Books – talk about their books, authors reveal interesting facts about the books, blogathon

Facebook
Quite popular in India (around 23 million, Source: GreyReview)
Potential to reach a massive audience.
Easy to maintain
Tara Books - using it in a similar way to how Pratham Books use their blog
Penguin - far more regular, smaller posts. Use of facebook chat with authors.
Karadi Tales - use of Karadi Bear persona, sharing artwork from their books in a monthly 'calendar', etc.

Identify Us
We are an independent children's publishing house doing multilingual books in a variety of genres
Largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent
Member of Parliament (LokSabha),Thiruvananthapuram. Author of 12 books.Former Under-SecretaryGeneral,United Nations.Former Minister. RTs do not imply endorsement
An independent non-profit feminist publishing house.
News, views and reviews from India's fastest growing publisher

Reader, writer-at-large, libertarian, practicing hedonist
Wide range of self-publishing services including print-on-demand and book restoration and archival
Deliver *-* across India
Will eventually grow up and get a real job. Until then, will keep making things up and writing them down
Actor ... well at least some are STILL saying so!!
Writer (has 2 million followers)

Put Your Thinking Caps On... A good bio shares your experience, builds your credibility, makes a first impression and displays your personality. Having a great Twitter bio is important as it can make or break a person’s decision whether to follow you or not. (via gigaom.com) Example of @induviduality's Twitter bio: Children's writer & illustrator. Traveller. Elephant lover. Pomfret Fundamentalist. Trash collector. Fabric fiend. Retro Bollywood Junkie. Learning Urdu.

Twitter
Conversational
Takes time to build a community
Limited space for content but unlimited possibilities
Easier for your followers to recommend you to others
Pratham Books – Boi Gari, Skype storytelling sessions, Bike ride
Tulika Books – Kweezzz
Tara Books – Meeting people like @playbythebook
Blaft – distinct personality
#pubnext

Other Platforms
Don't jump on all the platforms that everyone is using.
Focus on best medium for effective use
Tara Books - Youtube and the journey of a book
Pratham Books – Flickr for illustrations, Scribd for content sharing and creation, Soundcloud for audio books
Tulika Books - Slideshare

Not Just Publishing
Sunil Patki – introduction
Ideas for using social media

But Are We Selling Books Too?
Builds trust
Create brand awareness
Assess customer needs
Customer support and complaints
Listen, observe and pick up on opportunities
Allows bookshops and customers to sample your books
Should not be the sole intention of your social media efforts
Dial-a-Book – use of Facebook and Twitter

Things to keep in mind • Deciding which platforms to use • Use of different clients – Tweetdeck, Hootsuite – time management • Rough ideas about who you want to approach (audience) • Individual vs company voice. Sales vs personal voice.
People's perception of your brand personality
Transparency and honesty, handling controversies immediately
Just one of the media channels. Need to use traditional media as well.

Problems and Pitfalls
Large investment of time
Slow growth in the beginning
Numbers of fans/followers aren't always accurate metrics
Getting your voice heard
Getting whole team on board
Relatively limited reach
Need to respond as soon as one can
Using correct forum for sensitive issues, clarity of message

Decide on a strategy & pick & use your platforms accordingly Each company has its own personality Social media is for everyone

Illustrations : Ruchi Shah

Workshop on Social Media for Publishers

by Pratham Books on Sep 19, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Workshop on Social Media for Publishers Presentation Transcript