Have you started Facebooking yet? If not, now might be a good time to start. This week Facebook announced the launch of a groundbreaking new social advertising system.
A key feature of the system is that it allows Facebook users to notify their network of friends whenever they make purchases and recommendations on other participating websites. According to Advertising Age, users will be able to let their network know when they post an item on eBay, rent a movie on Blockbuster.com, or, most importantly, rate a book on Amazon.com.
Another new feature lets businesses and artists build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences. As I’ve mentioned before, social networks are great for spreading word of mouth and creating online buzz for your book. Go here to set up a book or author page and start networking with fans and friends. Then you can encourage your network to post an Amazon review of your book and broadcast it to their own Facebook friends with the Amazon Book Reviews application.
With this revolutionary social advertising system and its existing partnership with Shelfari (the largest social media site for book lovers), Facebook may soon become the social network of choice for authors.
Tags: amazon book reviews, Amazon.com, Facebook, facebook pages, network, Shelfari, social advertising
What I still have not found is concrete evidence that these social networking sites actually lead to more book sales. Word of mouth and buzz are both good, but if they don’t increase sales, I say, “So what?”
I have monitored them for some time now and read all the claims and what little hard data has been published and still feel that, for the most part, the audience for these sites is not the audience most likely to buy books. Except, perhaps, in a couple of genres (e.g., sci-fi and romance).
I’d like to be convinced but, to date, still can see little income benefits of investing time and energy into them.
And they are high-maintenance venues, if you expect to get any results.
Walt Shiel
http://PubDesk.blogspot.com