Three Reasons Authors and Book Publishers Need a Unique Approach to Facebook Marketing

Posted September 22, 2011 by Michael Taylor

Last week we talked about a shift in the book publishing industry toward reaching people directly through digital marketing.  Direct marketing to consumers isn’t entirely new in publishing: a handful of authors like Tom Clancy have marketing teams with the resources for big custom campaigns both online and offline.  What is new is the opportunity presented within Facebook for publishers and authors to connect with people directly on an unprecedented scale.  Not just for the top few books and authors, but for the whole list.  We built Odyl to extend what’s possible for publishers and authors, from a few custom campaigns, to tens of thousands of authors (and more) connecting with their readers within Facebook’s population of 800 million people.

When we see a good movie, listen to music, or read a great book, we naturally want to share these experiences with our friends.  Music, movies and books are all a perfect fit for what works so well on Facebook: people sharing the content and experiences they love with friends.  To share music on Facebook, it’s pretty clear that you want things like a player, videos, and tour dates.  Similarly, to share what’s unique to books and authors, you want a system built just for authors to connect with their readers – things like book excerpts, interviews, galley giveaways, reader polls, reviews – all creating excitement around direct connections that were never before possible.

Authors and publishers have unique requirements related both to the massive scale of publishing, as well the specific nature of books and readers.  The need for a unique approach to Facebook marketing for authors and publishers is directed by three things:

1) Lots of books.  For publishers who launch hundreds or even thousands of new books each year (combining traditional and e-books, about three million new books came out last year), there’s simply too many titles to spend time and money on designers and web developers to create marketing for each one.  Facebook marketing companies have primarily focused on big custom campaigns for consumer products goods companies (think Coke or Pizza Hut).  Systems are built to support creative and tech teams in developing these campaigns, and this is extremely time and resource-consuming.  It works when you have a few products to market each year; it doesn’t work in book publishing.

2) Authors are great at writing, not great at programming.  Brand marketing on Facebook is focused on big companies with a handful of products; supporting technologies are designed to work along with a team of graphic designers and web developers.  Most authors don’t have access to this kind of team.  They need readily usable tools to put their content in Facebook quickly and easily. They need to focus on shared conversations rather than technical hassles.

3) Volumes of sharable content, looking to get out.  Friends sharing content with friends is what Facebook is all about, and authors are especially great at giving people something sharable to talk about.  It’s important for an author’s page to extend beyond simple “brochure-ware” (some customized graphics) into shareable engagements – this is where readers connect with authors in a way that inspires them to share throughout their friend network.  With the right tools built just for authors and publishers, readers can feel like they’re connecting directly to authors in a way that’s exciting and makes them want to share that feeling with their friends.

Authors and books are a fountain of great content; they just need the right toolset for connecting with their readers on Facebook.  That’s why we created Odyl.  We’re easy to use (whether in the hands of authors or book marketers), scalable enough to launch thousands of books without a hassle, and we’re affordable for both authors and publishers.  Maybe most important, we work.  Our technology is proven effective with top authors like Jane Fonda, Katie Couric, and Sophie Kinsella, for creating exciting conversations between authors and their readers, spreading those conversations throughout Facebook, and selling books.

 

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Introducing Odyl

Posted September 13, 2011 by Michael Taylor

Today marks the formal debut of Odyl’s audience development platform for book publishers and authors on Facebook. The Odyl platform is the first social marketing tool designed specifically for publishers and authors, allowing them to connect and share with their readers.

While this is our first public showing, we’ve had early success working with some of the best in the industry. New York Times bestsellers including Katie Couric’s The Best Advice I Ever Got, Suze Orman’s The Money Class, and Janet Evanovich’s Smokin Seventeen; prestigious imprints such as Alfred Knopf, Atria and Little, Brown; and Big Six publishers including Random House, Penguin, and HarperCollins are all using the Odyl platform to market across fiction, non-fiction, and children’s categories alike. Our publishers and authors are using Odyl to manage millions of fans and reach well over 10 million people. For more details, you can read the press release that we issued this morning.

Suze Orman's The Money Class

Suze Orman's The Money Class

Why social media and publishing? Publishing is a changing and vibrantly successful market that is moving strongly into digital and social marketing. Odyl sits at the confluence of social media’s ability to amplify word-of-mouth, and the unique connection between authors and readers that is fueled by great content. We only have to look at the success of book clubs as a small example of this phenomenon. A recent McSweeneys article reported that book clubs “can singlehandedly catapult a book from obscurity to thousands of readers.” Social media provides the catalyst for massively magnifying this effect, and publishers understand this.

At the same time, building an audience for authors and books is no small task for publishers needing to market hundreds, if not thousands, of individual titles in a given year. That’s where Odyl comes in. We’ve been developing Facebook applications since the release of their API, and our team has developed scalable Software-as-a-Service platforms since our work together at HotJobs.com in the 1990s, where we rolled out our software platform to over 10,000 customers. Publishers need that kind of massive and proven scalability, rather than time-consuming and often ineffective custom work, for successful digital marketing.

Social media is a perfect fit for the content-rich world of book publishing, which is why publishers are shifting their digital strategy to invest heavily in social marketing. Odyl not only offers the requisite rapid scale, but also provides the unique features needed specifically for publishers, including pulling in reviews from sites like Goodreads, galley giveaways, and “Like-gating” of book excerpts. Furthermore, our platform collects rich audience data specific to titles and readers, providing an invaluable resource for understanding and growing a loyal following.

Penguin

Penguin

Odyl is dedicated to technology innovations that will deepen the value of social media for authors and publishers. Our current platform is just the first in a pipeline of forthcoming products, all carefully aligned with the particular needs and scale essential to the publishing industry for massively effective social marketing. Across the board, our technology will help to transform passionate followers into vocal evangelists.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be blogging here with our views, advice, data, and tips about publisher and author marketing. In the meantime, happy reading.

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