While listening to presentations at Digital Book World's Book Marketing Summit in January about the role of social media venues in book marketing, I got to thinking about how very different Twitter and Facebook are.
One slide I saw showed Twitter a distant third behind Facebook and StumbleUpon as sources of social media traffic to specific websites, but the two I find myself on most as a reader (and author) are Facebook and Twitter. I randomly mused in Notepad about how the two I use most are so different from one another, and how I am learning the language of each – and that despite both being social networks, they function quite differently.
The use of Twitter and Facebook specifically showed up yet again at Tools of Change in the presentation from Goodreads talking about how readers discover books:
As Goodreads put it, “Good for engaging with authors, not great for finding new books.”
Then, yesterday, the Romance Writers Report arrived with an article titled “Nine Things You Don't Know About Romance Readers.” I think there's more than nine things that I don't know, so I was very curious.
The facts were culled from the 2011 Romance Book Consumer survey, “a web-based survey of romance book buyers conducted August through September 2011.” They plan another round in spring 2012. (Members of RWA can download the complete report as a PDF from the members-only MyRWA/files section of the website.)
One piece of the article that jumped out at me:
41% of romance buyers report having visited an author website. A proportional 83% do not, and will not, follow an author on Twitter, while 70% say the same for Facebook. (Emphasis mine.)
Interesting!
As I said, that's not true for me. Looking back over the reviews I've written in the past few months, I discovered Truths and Roses from a Facebook ad, Lord and Lady Spy because of a sale alert on Twitter (I buy a lot of $.99-$2.00 books based on sale alerts), and I bought a lot of Marion Lennox's backlist because of people saying how much they liked her entire Banksia Bay series when I said I'd purchased one of them. And I remember buying and reading Wild and Steamy because of Twitter and Facebook conversation about the price of the anthology and how much of a steal it was given the quality of the stories inside.
In addition, Ruthie Knox, Julie Anne Long, Dev Bentham are all authors I discovered via Twitter conversations. I often ask on Facebook about what people are reading or listening to, and invariably I end up adding another handful of books to my reading list. So I am guessing that while there aren't many of us on Twitter and Facebook talking about book recommendations, there are some, because I'm definitely in that group. (My own discovery of books on Twitter and Facebook also clearly indicates to me that I spend a lot of time online – but I knew that). What surprised me about the data presented was how much more I rely on social media than on the sources that were more common among other readers.
That said, my process of discovery of books is probably different because I review books. Thus I receive pitches from authors and publishers prior to release dates, and I get a good amount of LOOK AT THIS BOOK CONFETTI AND HOORAY! email from publicists (not that I mind – who doesn't want confetti and hooray about a book?). I am alerted to books before they are released. So my perspective is already a poor sampling of anecdata (™ Brett Sandusky) because of those influences. That said, I know there are others who use social media as a major source of book recommendation, and I'm curious how those numbers might change in future years.
I also think it's important to examine how different Facebook and Twitter are from one another – let alone other networks like StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. To me, Facebook and Twitter are very different, like adjacent neighborhoods in the same town that are very distinct. Different restaurants, stores, styles, and residents – not better or worse, just different. These two communities are distinct from one another in very specific ways, with a little bit of overlap – and that overlap does influence my discovery of books.
One difference I've noticed is in time lag. If I log into Twitter, I'll scroll back about an hour or so, then stop. Beyond an hour, the news is old, unless something is happening that continues to evolve and change, like a conference or the fall of a government in the Middle East.
But on Facebook, I scroll back in my timeline for a day or more. The interactions on Facebook last longer. So if someone is talking about a book they've enjoyed reading on Facebook, and they mentioned it yesterday, I'm more likely to see it than if they mentioned it yesterday on Twitter and I wasn't logged in to see it right then.
I'm not going to argue with data from three sources just because it doesn't fit my own patterns of discovery exactly, but it makes me curious whether there are more of us exchanging book recommendations through social media than are reported in these surveys, and whether that's one more form of discovery that will continue to evolve quickly year to year.
What do you think? Do you use social media to find books? What books have you discovered via social media – or do you prefer other methods of discovery (aside from review blogs, obviously)?
Poll! Do you use social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Goodreads) to find books to read?
As a reader, I have found maybe one or two new authors on social media. Mostly, I find new authors on blogs/website (like this one :)). I also hear a lot of word of mouth and I do tend to browse the endcaps at bookstores and look at the top 100 on kindle. I have bought new authors based on the ebooks going on sale because shelling out .99-2.99 for a new-to-me doesn’t feel too overboard.
As a writer of category books, I don’t think FB or Twitter does that much for me, except provide entertainment (for myself). I’ve stopped trying to find a way to mention my books and I’ve stopped feeling pressured by this “have-to” mentality in regards to social media as a promo tool. Feel like the best way I will become established as a new author is to keep my books on the shelf which means writing good books as steadily as I can. The more people see my name on the shelf in my line, the more established I become in their minds. Or at least that’s what I hope.
Very interesting results in this. Thanks for this post 🙂
I don’t use Twitter, and I only follow two authors on Facebook (In both cases, it’s because the authors haven’t published anything in a while and I’m desperately hoping for news of their next work in progress). Most of my book info comes from Goodreads. I also follow AAR, Dear Author, and of course, this site. I also get a lot of recommendations from other women in my local romance book club.
I’d love to say that I find all kinds of new books from Facebook and Twitter, but I really don’t when I think about it. I do follow authors, but it does just solidify my relationship with the author more than anything else – I see them post something and go “Oh yeah. Victoria Dahl *is* pretty awesome. I wonder when her next book is coming out!” Great for the authors and publishers, but less helpful to me as a reader to find new books.
I should look into some of the other networks like Goodreads.
Pinterest is growing like crazy I’ve heard. I use it and get huge instant response to my pins but will have to look it over to see its use as a book marketing tool. Many retail outlets are using it on their sites. “Pin this” with a link embedded.
The one time I followed an author on FB (I don’t use Twitter at all and I tried, but disliked Goodreads), I made a very painful mistake and had to break up with that author. It was close to Christmas too. I don’t know if the author knew what and/or how her moderator wrote on the posting that led to the breakup, but I don’t stay in abusive relationships even if I had read almost every book by this author. I learned my lesson the hard way and choose to keep FB for my family and friends only. If I am searching for new books to read, I go to the library on base or SBTB/DA. I stay away from the Amazon Discussion boards due to the excessive amount of book pimping by authors and total disregard for TOS.
While I dont find new books on twitter or facebook, I do follow several book review blogs and I LOVE RT magazine. Its my book bible.
I get book suggestions via Goodreads and Amazon.com (which I then check the reviews for on Goodreads.) That’s about it. I have only followed one author’s blog via my Google Reader feed and I’m thinking about discontinuing that out of sheer boredom. If I get suggestions from Facebook, it’s because a friend has asked for a recommendation on a book and I’m trolling the comments looking for anything that might be of interest. I rarely use Twitter. Frankly, it’s all just too much to keep up with sometimes.
My book discovery methods are changing. My favorite way is to just browse the bookstore and pick up whatever covers intrigued me. However, as bookstores become extinct and since I’ve moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere with the nearest BN 90 miles away, I’ve had to rely on the internet and social media more. I’d like to use Goodreads more, and it’s really just laziness on my part that I’m not.
I do not use either Twitter or Facebook (and won’t with the latter until I’m forced to by law). Use GoodReads all the time, and have found many a good book there (and passed on my own recommendations to others).
Also use LiveJournal, but not much for book-finding purposes.
Assuming social media means FB and Twitter, rather than other social web2.0 media like the comments on blogs. I definitely see Smart Bitches as one of my social networks. A group of like minded people: smart, articulate, passionate about books, and honest about romance. And SO much of my reading is now driven by this site.
I forgot to put in my response (no) that I love FB and I gorge on Twitter, and I also ‘do’ social media for work. But I don’t use either for book recommendations—I use sites like SBTB or the comments on Amazon, or the review pages of newspapers I read online.
So I’d be interested to know if I’m a minority as a book-loving, social media whore, who voted no, or not.
Can we do basic math on the question and suggest: 30% of readers would. 10% of readers who use computers won’t, and 60% of readers aren’t online and so wouldn’t, obviously. (?? I’m sure proper statisticians will tell me why this won’t work, and I’d love to know!)
I said “Sometimes, Maybe?” because I don’t go LOOKING for new books to read on social media but I have bought some books from reading tweets about them. I just received a book for my birthday (from my wishlist) that someone originally recommended on Twitter.
I really think there should be a distinction between types of social media.
I chose ‘sometimes-maybe’ because I belong to GoodReads and I stalk this site (obviously) but I don’t use twitter at all and facebook is only for people I actually know. I may ask people if they’ve read anything good, but because they’re my friends, I already know that most of them don’t read the same type of books I do, or in the same sheer volume that I do. I get enough reality in real life (I work in law enforcement) so I tend to only read fantasy or HEAs.
My primary method of choosing books used to be wandering the romance aisle at the store for hours, reading back blurbs and collecting a stack of books along the way. Then, I received my first e-reader at Christmas, and that changed my purchasing methods (I haven’t been to a store since). I’ve tried scrolling through the multitudes of books on the Kobo and Amazon websites, but it was daunting.
That said, in the last two months, I’ve purchased books from a variety of new-to-me authors: 4 of whom I follow on Twitter, 2 who were recommended by Goodreads, 2 who were recommended on Twitter (probably Friday Reads), 2 who announced their book was on sale via Twitter, 1 who participated in an online interview, and 1 who was recommended by a friend. (My reading tastes don’t always match those of my friends / family).
I’ve only purchased 1 book based on Facebook (I follow Carina Press), but I’m just starting to expand from a friends and family focus on FB, so things might change.
I like discovering authors on social media; it is quick and interactive. So, I guess my purchasing practices don’t match with the trend.