Entries tagged with “social media” from Tools of Change for Publishing
New on O'Reilly Labs: Open Feedback Publishing System
Andrew Savikas
May 21, 2009
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O'Reilly engineer Keith Fahlgren has formally launched our new Open Feedback Publishing System over on O'Reilly Labs:
Over the last few years, traditional publishing has been moving closer to the web and learning a lot of lessons from blogs and wikis, in particular. Today we're happy to announce another small step in that direction: our first manuscript (Programming Scala) is now available for public reading and feedback as part of our Open Feedback Publishing System. The idea is simple: improve in-progress books by engaging the community in a collaborative dialog with the authors out in the open. To do this, we followed the model of the Django Book, Real World Haskell, and Mercurial: The Definitive Guide (among others) and built a system to regularly publish the whole manuscript online as HTML with a comment box under every paragraph, sidebar, figure, and table.
You can see the system in action at the site for our upcoming book Programming Scala.
Conversation is the New King
Mac Slocum
January 5, 2009
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Kate Eltham calls out publishers who blog through a PR lens and points the way to publisher blogs that fully embrace the medium:
It used to be common wisdom that content is king. But the popularity of social media has demonstrated that what internet users are really seeking is connection. A blog may be a cheap and easy way of publishing web content but its biggest strength is that it is a platform for conversation. [Emphasis included in original post.]
Webcast Video and Slides: Social Media for Publishers
Mac Slocum
December 18, 2008
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Below you'll find the full recording from the recent TOC Webcast, "Social Media for Publishers" with Chris Brogan.
Chris has also made his presentation slides available:
[TOC Webcast] Social Media for Publishers
Mac Slocum
December 12, 2008
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Tools of Change for Publishing will host "Social Media for Publishers," a free webcast with presenter Chris Brogan, on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. eastern (10 a.m. pacific).
Webcast Overview
So much of what we hear about blogging, podcasting, social networks, and the rest of the social media toolkit seems to be arbitrary, overly time-consuming, pie-in-the-sky. We might hear the occasional good strategy, but rarely do we understand how to put it into action. And how much will any of this cost you in resources and money? Meet with Chris Brogan for a not-too-techy and not-too-light dive into the world of social media from the mindset of a publisher.
Publishers Need to Get In on the Conversation
Peter Brantley
November 19, 2008
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Kassia Krozser has a Cluetrain-like manifesto for publishers. From Booksquare:
It's time to get your hands dirty, to dig into the real-world conversation. It's a weird thing, and sometimes awkward and uncomfortable, especially if you're accustomed to public relations-speak and the cheerleader behavior that accompanies marketing messages. When you talk directly to real people who read and buy books, they tune you out when you try to stay on message. If they wanted to rehash cover copy, they'd read the back of the book.
Why Blogging and Social Media Shouldn't be Ignored
Mac Slocum
November 19, 2008
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Consistent blogging and Web-based interaction often fall by the wayside when other projects demand attention, but venture capitalist Fred Wilson makes a compelling argument for keeping connectivity on the front burner. He charts the trajectory of a recent post focusing on Boxee, one of his investment companies: it went from a blog, to Techmeme, and then looped back into tangible interest for the company.
I know that one person out of the 100 I invited this morning will be incredibly impactful for boxee. It could be five people, it could be ten. Who knows?
But in the world of social media, word of mouth and word of link marketing, it is connectors and influencers like all of you that make the difference.
And that's one of the main reasons I keep writing, commenting, discussing, and participating in blogs, tumblr, twitter, disqus, and the social media world at large.
Web Publicity Grows Up, Learns the Value of Conversation
Mac Slocum
October 20, 2008
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Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, co-authors of the upcoming book Trust Agents, share a few ideas for drumming up pre-publication interest in a title. Some of their suggestions are straight from the Web publicity playbook (ebook previews, blogging during the writing process), but they're also exploring engagement through online events and workshops -- two things that usually happen after publication.
I hadn't considered this until reading Brogan's blog post, but many social media publicity techniques aren't particularly social. Podcasts, blog posts and Facebook groups are technologically progressive, but there's a significant difference between a publicity update and an open invitation.
Twitter serves as an example here: The best Twitter users engage their audience through curated links, retweets, commentary and discussion. This stands in contrast to the auto-generated Twitter blasts employed by many media organizations (they're easy to spot -- look for the abrupt truncations).
Brogan's post -- and efforts from people like Seth Godin -- show that Web-based publicity is following the same developmental trajectory as blogging (and Twitter, although it hasn't reached puberty just yet). The top-down messaging that marks the early days of a Web effort eventually matures into a two-way conversation -- and that's when things get interesting.
Twitter Tips for Publishers
Mac Slocum
September 4, 2008
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Mark Bertils makes the case for Twitter use and offers eight tips for tweeting publishers. From Index // mb:
For a minimal investment of time, you can ping a heap of people. Why wouldn't a book publisher want to do that? Truth is, most already do. Email newsletters blast-out to book readers from all over. Publishers' feeds and podcasts do the same. Twitter is yet another great way to keep people engaged.
A Look at Book Publishing's Opportunities in Digital Marketing
Peter Brantley
May 9, 2008
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Richard Bawden and Mark Harding from KPMG discuss future scenarios for book marketing and product enhancement:
With virtual worlds like Second Life and social networking destined to splinter into hubs focused on shared interests, publishers and retailers are in a strong position to leverage people's love of books ... Publishers must also consider how books on screen can enhance the reading experience, with sound and vision adding extra dimensions. Think of the crunch that the snow could make as Lucy walks through the wardrobe and enters Narnia for the first time, offering extra sensory pleasure to younger readers.
Experiences like these will trigger behavioural shifts from generation to generation and will bring on the slow decline of traditional business models. If publishers choose to embrace innovation and lateral thinking, such experiences can prompt new revenue streams which will sustain their businesses. If, on the other hand, they choose to deny the digital future or fail to prepare adequately, they will hinder growth.
Early Look at HarperCollins' Social Network for Writers
Peter Brantley
May 8, 2008
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HarperCollins' social network for burgeoning authors, Authonomy, is now in private beta. Booktwo.org provides an analysis:
The real challenge, of course, is to persuade wannabe writers to post their work at all -- in my own personal experience, unpublished writers are terrified of their work being 'stolen', enough to be suspicious of publishers themselves, let alone your average web surfer ... Authonomy’s FAQs wisely address many of these concerns ... As they put it, "if someone really wants to pass off your efforts as their own they'll probably find a way" ... Their real attitude to the problem is more sensible: "here at Authonomy, we believe that your talent is better displayed than kept hidden -- and that the chances of good things happening are more likely the more hands your manuscript passes through, and the more people you enlist in your support."
Opportunities in Book Publishing and Web Communities
Mac Slocum
April 1, 2008
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A recent piece in the The New Yorker bangs the familiar death knell for newspapers, but amidst the gloom lies a potential roadmap for community-savvy publishers:
"... the owners of the Huffington Post had discovered a formula that capitalized on the problems confronting newspapers in the Internet era, and they are convinced that they are ready to reinvent the American newspaper. “Early on, we saw that the key to this enterprise was not aping Drudge,” [Kenneth] Lerer [Huffington co-creator] recalls. “It was taking advantage of our community. And the key was to think of what we were doing through the community’s eyes.” (Emphasis added.)
The concept of community doesn't come easily to traditional publishers (including book publishers) because top-down content has been the heart of virtually all pre-Web publishing. But once you get past the paradigm shift -- and the fear -- of community-centric efforts, the opportunities reveal themselves. For example, sites like Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari are using the love people have for books to develop community-driven businesses.
But there's more to community than book recommendations, social networking and the latest Web 2.0 tools. Communities often need advocates who start and continue conversations, and who better to advocate for content than the publishers of that content?
To illustrate: imagine you've got an upcoming business title that's in the vein of The Tipping Point or The Long Tail (you're lucky). You've seen that these types of topics get people thinking and arguing, and you also know that you -- as the publisher -- should facilitate these conversations. So what do you do?
You think "through the community's eyes."
You can connect readers to authors and editors through a blog; develop forums around the book's themes and topics; create an information exchange for related ideas and projects; incorporate the opinions of bloggers, experts and pundits into an overall "conversation hub"; organize blog tours; provide a platform for real-world and digital meetups, etc.
And if you want to push the envelope, foster community before books are even published.
What community ideas do you have? What topics lend themselves to community efforts? Please share your thoughts and comments.
The (Online) World of the Economist
Peter Brantley
February 12, 2008
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In New York for the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference, I had the opportunity to speak with Wendy Elman, the VP of Marketing at The Economist’s economist.com. Ms. Elman’s background is in book publishing, and she joined The Economist in July 2007.
Ms. Elman commented that the driving goals of The Economist are to earnestly seek change, while carefully maintaining a highly-regarded and identifiable brand. It believes that seeking and embracing innovation is the surest way of ensuring its relevance as a destination and a source of thought-provoking dialogue.
The Economist’s web site has been relatively innovative for a publisher many might suppose would be rather conservative; e.g., it offers not only traditional RSS feeds but podcasts; and it is beginning to develop and provide access to video content. They are also cognizant that the world — particularly outside the U.S. — is mobile, and they are enhancing their delivery options to a diverse range of handheld devices.
Interestingly, The Economist recently supported online, moderated debates on the future of education, one of which specifically caught my eye, on the impact of social media on education.
The online debates deepened the magazine’s interest and engagement with its reading community; they were a purposeful entry into online, interactive dialogue. They produced a tremendously enthusiastic response, with well thought out posts from a variety of contributors, with no or very little spam. The engagement was so vigorous that requests for additional functionality were rapidly put forward. Readers, for example, have petitioned for the persistance and continuance of the debates in an economist.com venue, something under consideration.
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