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4 | Twitter As a Marketing Tool for Publishers: Opportunities and Challenges 4 | Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Publishers: Opportunities and Challenges Xiaohan Li, Department of Communication This chapter explores how social media platforms provide marketing opportunities in the Internet era for traditional publishers. By adapting to the current trend and becoming an active player on social media platforms like Twitter, publishers can enhance their marketing and publicity through better engagement with readers, more effective management of reputation and crisis, as well as achieving growth with their authors. The chapter also discusses challenges and concerns over social media marketing such as the devotion of time and staff, and the effectiveness of the attempts. It concludes that social media can be a powerful marketing tool that will benefit publishers in increasing their business. Keywords: Twitter, social media, publisher, marketing Introduction The burgeoning of digital media has been projected as a challenge for traditional publishers. Addressing the innovation brought on by digital technologies to the book publishing industry, Lichtenberg (2011) refers to it as a “phase shift (like water to ice) from print to a complex new world of digital” (p. 103) and forecasted the weather of the publishing industry to be “a mix of ice, snow, high winds, and freezing rain” (p. 104). However, the picture is not all grey and gloomy. The digital technologies that bring challenges to the publishing industry also bring new opportunities. Among them are the online platforms of social media which are being harnessed by publishers for marketing and publicizing purposes. Book publishing is a business that carries strong cultural connotations. For book publishers, this means their position in society is one at the intersection between culture and commerce, as they are responsible for cultural production and commercial marketing of these Copyright © 2018 Li. Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Publishers 32 products (Rønning & Slaatta, 2011). Prior to the Internet era, books were usually promoted through a series of publicity campaigns initiated by the publishing houses. According to Morrell (2005), a former publicist for Random House, these marketing campaigns included interviews with print media, radio and television, book reviews, author tours, launch parties where influential figures and media were invited, etc. However, the exposure of a new book was only limited to the lifespan of the media coverage, and extending the exposure meant more financial input on the part of publishers (Morrell, 2005). With the Internet and the emergence of various social networking sites, book marketing can be implemented in more innovative ways and at lower costs. In an article comparing the effects of word-of mouth (WOM) on the Internet versus traditional marketing strategies, Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels (2009) state, “The Internet provides numerous venues for consumers to share their views, preferences, or experiences with others, as well as opportunities for firms to take advantage of WOM marketing” (p. 90). In the case of book selling, for instance, it is not uncommon for potential readers to refer to the online book reviews from other buyers before making a decision to purchase a book. There are also instances of buying a book after reading a friend’s post on social media recommending a book that they enjoy reading themselves. Evidently, publishers are sensitive to the new trend of social media marketing and are making efforts to take advantage of it. According to a survey conducted by the Book Business magazine in the U.S., 68% of the respondent publishers regard social media as the biggest opportunity in future book marketing practices (Harvey, 2015). Therefore, this chapter aims to investigate how social media can benefit the marketing efforts of publishers by discussing three aspects: reader engagement, reputation and crisis management, and author-reader interaction. Meanwhile, current challenges and concerns over social media marketing will also be addressed. Twitter as a Marketing Tool At the end of 2017, the total number of monthly active users of Twitter reached 330 million (Statista, 2018). This provides a valuable resource for publishers as the largest number of audiences in history are aggregated and can be easily reached through these online networking Moving through the Grey: Publishing in Action The Publishing Business: Transformations and Opportunities (ISI6314 – Winter 2018) Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Publishers 33 platforms (Laudon & Traver, 2010). Social media platforms like Twitter have the potential to bridge the gap between readers and writers or publishers, which will benefit the publishing business in various ways. Reader Engagement Marketing on social media platforms like Twitter offers two-way communication in which organizations pitch marketing messages to the public, with individuals playing an increasingly active role through social media engagement who become part of the greater marketing strategy (Weinberg, 2009). For readers, this means a stronger presence to voice their opinions and exert influence; for publishers, this means more opportunities to connect with existing and potential readers and to build a sense of community around their products and services (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Increasing traffic is one of the primary goals of social media marketing (Weinberg 2009). In an article discussing the benefits of using Twitter for book promotion, Abbott (2009) cites the example of Chelsea Green, an American publishing company that successfully used Twitter to gain more publicity. In one of such attempts, they posted on Twitter asking people to visit the Chelsea Green website and choose a book they wanted to read, and the 10th person participating in this contest would get a free book. When readers were asked to participate in the contest, they were not only directed to the publisher’s website, but were also motivated to be highly engaged with the website, as they would need to skim through the book catalogue of the publisher, gaining knowledge about the books available, with the possibility of discovering interested books. At the cost of giving away one free book to the lucky 10th reader, Chelsea Green managed to attract potential readers to their website and inform them about the titles available. For those participants who fail to get the free book, possibility is high that they might buy one copy on their own. This proved to be an smart way of driving traffic to the publisher’s website, thus getting more exposure to its existing and potential readers. However, in their efforts to use social media for traffic driving, it is imperative that publishers post information on social media that is relevant to the mission of the website; as Moving through the Grey: Publishing in Action The Publishing Business: Transformations and Opportunities (ISI6314 – Winter 2018) Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Publishers 34 Weinberg (2009) states, irrelevant content would fail to maintain the visitors and lead to high bounce rate, meaning visitors would leave the website soon after they enter. Twitter can also help publishers improve their products and services through direct engagement with readers. For established companies, a Twitter search can produce a good deal of results, which provides immediate access to the feedback from customers (Weinberg, 2009). Paying attention to the comments and needs of readers, publishers can “streamline their publications to keep pace with current trends and cater to readers’ expectations, which in turn will help them avoid disappointing sales and losses” (Exeter Premedia, 2014). Reputation and Crisis Management Social media like Twitter can also be used for reputation and crisis management, which is particularly important in the Internet era. First, regular engagement on social media platforms contributes to building a positive image of the organisation. According to Zahoor and Qureshi (2017), consumers consider social media to be more trustworthy as a source of information than traditional marketing tools. This means publishers can be proactive in their communications and interactions with readers (Boon- Long & Wongsurawat, 2015) and leverage social media to build a positive image of their brand. Social media marketing activities are also found to have positive effects on brand awareness and brand image, which will further influence online word-of-mouth and consumer commitment (Seo & Park, 2018). Second, social media plays an important role in addressing reputation crisis when it arises. In the age of the Internet, the reputation of an organisation can easily be tarnished, as Weinberg (2009) notes: You may have spent decades building the empire that now houses your brands and hundreds of thousands of employees. But reputations are precarious; within a matter of moments, your hard work can come tumbling down when a customer (or even a competitor) uses the Internet to tarnish the good name that you have been trying so hard to maintain. Given the proliferation of content on the Internet, one bad story can easily Moving through the Grey: Publishing in Action The Publishing Business: Transformations and Opportunities (ISI6314 – Winter 2018) Twitter as a Marketing Tool for Publishers 35 spread like wildfire. Companies that do not react to the firestorm can suffer considerable loss of trust and may even lose brand share (p. 75). In cases of reputation crisis, organisations can use social media to provide prompt response and control the potential consequence of the crisis. One
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