Book publishers have been on our minds since our post on 25 Lessons Publishers Can Teach Startups. In particular because Digital Book World took place, then O’Reilly Tools of Change, plus the National Book Count data was released and our client Canadian Bookshelf announced today that Amazon.ca will be its lead sponsor for 2012 and they are rebranding as The 49th Shelf. Here’s the big news in books.
Digital Book World Conference Digital Book World keeps a running commentary on their blog of insights into publishing in the 21st century. Following the conference, attendees posted a number of summaries of the sessions and keynotes on various sites. Here are the standout factoids and anecdotes in my mind.
Publisher optimism about the digital evolution has lessened over the past year. 72% of publishers feel they can be competitive in the new digital market (down 83% from last year).
Ebook sales increased 17% in 2011. For top publishers, 15% of their book sales were from digital in 2011. There is a lot of variation across publisher and dependent on the genre of books published.
Also of note, Sourcebooks announced their experimentation with an agile publishing model.
O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference
O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change conference returned to New York with a stellar line up of publishing innovators and technologists to talk about the present and future of publishing. This year’s TOC kicked off with keynote presenter LeVar Burton. Burton heads a startup multimedia children’s publishing venture called RRKidz that is based on his work hosting PBS’s Reading Rainbow program. Watch the keynote and other presentations from the conference.
The above was Mark Medley’s opening for his National Post article on the results of the National Reading Campaign’s National Book Count. Read the full article: “National Book Count suggests Canada Reads”
It’s true. The numbers are in. Canada Reads. And based on our experience with client Canadian Bookshelf, there’s a strong audience for Canadian-authored titles.
Canadian Bookshelf Announces Amazon.ca As Lead Sponsor for 2012 and Rebrands as The 49th Shelf
Announced today:
Canadian books are getting a well-deserved boost today. Canadian Bookshelf announced Amazon.ca as its lead sponsor for 2012, and that the book community website will now offer expanded features and book listings under the new name The 49th Shelf. http://49thShelf.com
You might remember this Monty Python sketch on “how NOT to be seen”. The players are working very hard to play the game but unknowingly make decisions that blow up in their face. Managing a Facebook Business Page is a bit like that, yes?
You may be investing a lot of marketing time and attention to managing your Facebook page and unknowingly making decisions that don’t get the results you intended. For example, I came across a forum question today from a fellow member who has 60 Facebook fans but, according to his Facebook Insights report, a recent post had a reach of only 29. His question was a common one, if I have 60 fans, why isn’t my reach at least 60? Answer: Facebook Edge Rank.
Facebook has “Edge Rank” which in a basic sense is like how Google decides if your webpage should appear in a list of results or not. On Facebook, Edge Rank is an algorithm that looks at a combination of factors including:
Time. How long ago did you post and how was it initially received.
Affinity. How interactive is a fan with your page, and
Weight. The type of post made, i.e., is there a photo, is there a video, is it a text-only update, is there an app like a poll.
Your Facebook Edge Rank decides if your update should appear in your fans’ feed. Just because a person likes your page, doesn’t mean that he or she will see your post. Visibility in your fans’ feeds is not a guarantee, it’s a rewarded based on the level of engagement you have with those fans.
Borrowing a page from Monty Python, here are some Edge Rank lessons on HOW TO BE SEEN on Facebook:
The Obvious.
Popularity here counts. Find ways to get more clicks, likes and comments. Ask questions like the Monty Python narrator, “Will you please stand up?” i.e., Ask for Likes. “Like this if you ...”
The Cunning.
Relevance matters. How interactive have your fans been with your past status updates? Like in the sketch, Facebook knows that past actions influence current actions. Use an editorial calendar to create a topic series that will get repeat attention.
The Informant.
Recency plays a role. New info is more valuable than old info. How recently did you post and how fast was reaction? Try talking about the news. Current events and slightly controversial topics get attention, just don’t be offensive.
Google Analytics provides a number of preset Advanced Segments that allow account owners to filter or compare traffic reports. Advanced Segments helps answer questions like how do mobile visitors perform on the site compared to desktop visitors. Additional custom segments can be added, which are handy for tracking marketing campaigns or understanding visitor behaviour. For example, what do Twitter referrals do vs. Facebook referrals. Or what actions do repeat visitors who have visited 10+ pages on the site do after signing up for the newsletter. The combinations of rules that can be defined for a segment help answer site performance questions related directly to business goals. Advanced Segments are handy. Get to know them.
Common uses of the default segments include:
Viewing a single segment, for example, only Mobile Traffic on the site. When this segment is checked, all reports are filtered to show only what visitors using mobile devices did on the website.
Comparing two or more segments, for example, Paid Search Traffic vs. Non-Paid Search Traffic. When two or more segments are selected, the reports display only traffic from those segments, making it easier to see how one performed in comparison to the other.
As mentioned additional custom segments can be added, which are handy for tracking marketing campaigns and other business goals.
Common custom segments include:
Site-specific traffic, such as, traffic only from Twitter. When running promotions in a specific social media channel, or on a particular referring site, a custom segment can be used to filter and track the performance of visitors coming from that site.
Location-specific traffic, such as, traffic only from a particular city, province/state, country, or even IP address.
Activity-specific traffic, such as, traffic that visits more than once or traffic that completes a specific goal like Buy or Subscribe.
Custom segments can also include any combinations of and/or statements. i.e., “Twitter and Facebook traffic who complete a petition” or “visitors who return to the site more than 3 times and visit more than 5 pages.”
Using Advanced Segments
In any Standard Reporting screen, just below the “Home” tab, there’s an Advanced Segments tab. Clicking the tab will reveal the Default and Custom Segments panel.
Google Analytics shows “All Visits” unless otherwise specified in Advanced Segments. To filter reports by segment, check the desired parameters.
Creating a Custom Segment
Clicking on “Create a new advanced segment” prompts you to define the rules to build a custom segment.
In the Name field, provide a descriptive label for this segment. i.e., Facebook Traffic.
To create the segment for Facebook traffic, choose “Include” traffic from any “Source” that “contains” “Facebook.com.”
You can repeat these steps to add additional filters to the segment. For example, using “AND” include traffic from any source that contains Twitter.com would create a Social Media segment that would show aggregated traffic for both sites.
Click Test Segment or Preview Segment to see if you’ve set this up correctly and then click Save Segment.
This will take you back to the report overview. To apply your custom segment to your report, click the Advanced Segments tab and check the parameters you wish to view or compare. Graphs and data in Google Analytics will then only display the parameters selected.
Have a super advanced segment you’d like to share or favourite report? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by Monique Sherrett | Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter here
Many of the lessons we learn in childhood stay with us into adulthood, enriching our lives and providing much needed guidance. Sometimes Oregon Trail was the game you played primarily to shoot rabbits instead of learning about America’s pioneers; but other times it instilled important reminders that still ring true today, especially in managing PPC campaigns.
1. You Can’t Always Caulk the Wagon and Float - PPC requires constant maintenance, and sometimes that means rolling up your sleeves, getting messy, and forging the river. Just floating along can result in a water-logged PPC campaign, in which you lose 2lbs of flour, two wagon axels, and Quality Score.
2. Know When to Pause and Rest for (3) Days - Sure, you want to get out of those Colorado hills before snowfall, but if a team member has a snakebite or moral is down, you should take a rest. Similarly, it’s important to recognize when to pause poorly performing keywords. Having the wrong keywords in your AdWords account wastes your money and might even cause your campaign to croak.
3. Don’t Hunt All the Buffalo - My 2nd grade class had a bad habit of hunting down as many buffalo as they could find in the first 5 minutes of the game, obliterating the herds and resulting in starvation later. Instead, you need to ration your hunting, just as you would ration funds in your AdWords account. If AdWords costs aren’t controlled, they can quickly eat up your funds, and then the game’s over. Using negative keywords and implementing long-tail keywords instead of broad phrases can help control costs, making sure you have enough sustenance to reach your destination.
4. Get Help - Every now and then in Oregon Trail, some Native Americans offer to tow you across the river for a price. You could brave the river on your own, but you might be better off with a guide. PPC can be just as a challenging as the rushing rapids of the Columbia River. Some marketers will be much better off with PPC software or services to aid them in their advertising adventure.
5. Don’t Die of Dysentery - Dying is the ultimate disaster of Oregon Trail, with dysentery being an especially cruel ending. The solution to avoiding sickly PPC campaigns? Regular check-ups of course! WordStream offers a free AdWords Performance Grader that serves as your own personal PPC audit, pointing out the parts of your campaign that could use some healing medicine.
6. Visit Trading Posts to Ask Locals for Advice - On your journey west, be sure to stop at trading posts and talk to the surly locals. There are numerous blogs across the web covering all sorts of PPC tips and learning resources. Experts are often more than happy to dispense advice for the eager learner, so take advantage of their knowledge and expertise.
7. The Path to Oregon is Long and Hard - PPC is not quick and easy, it requires real work and commitment. But if you put in the time and effort, you’ll make it to Oregon, the land of golden ROI. It should be noted that this post primarily refers to actions available in Oregon Trail II, my trail-blazing adventure game of choice. Hopefully this doesn’t offend any players dedicated to the original.
About the guest author: Megan Marrs is a blogger and copywriter at WordStream, a provider of PPC software and keyword software for discovering and organizing keywords for SEO and PPC. She is an avid videogame enthusiast, but has never actually been to Oregon.
Posted by Crissy Campbell | Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter here
Despite the persistent reports of book publishing as a failing (or flailing) industry, publishers’ best-kept secret is that there is no nail in the coffin.
I know you don’t believe me.
But maybe the people publishing those inspirational business books you like so much actually understand something about running a business.
I know they do because between the publishing clients and the tech clients, it’s not the publishers I’m worried about.
The lessons I see tech startups learning today are ones that the publishing industry imparted to me as early as 1997 when I had my first publishing job as the graphics editor for an online literary magazine called Treeline. (That was 1 year before Google launched.)
In 15 years of working in, or consulting for, the publishing industry, I have watched book publishers leverage technology to do what they have always done, which is to transform themselves and their products to meet consumer demand. Surely an industry designed to disseminate knowledge has wisdom to impart.
Here are 25 lessons I’ve learned—from publishers—about the continuity and survival of technology-enabled businesses:
Basing your business on government grants is not a revenue model.
Asking the marketing person/publicist to “see what you can do with this” after the product has been in the market and failed does not lead to success for anyone.
If you don’t have a core business, spending time on the “latest thing” is not going to improve the situation.
If you don’t pay your staff, they leave. (More important, money is not a motivating factor, rather reward and opportunity are the reasons behind why people choose to stay.)
It is smart and prudent to build supporters fast and early.
People connect to people, not to faceless corporate voices. Get your best personalities out in front of people.
Measure, learn, improve. Fast and frequently.
Belly-button gazing—or listening only to your peers who are in the same situation—does not lead to a plan of action. It feels good to bond, but you can do that in the employment line. Run with the winners. Look beyond your industry.
Being busy is ok. Being busy with the right things makes you money.
Get people to pay upfront. Use preorders to determine how much to produce and to experiment with what will stick.
Manage expectations—yours and the customers. The percentage difference between good and great sometimes only matters to you. Overachieve but don’t overextend.
Word of mouth & permission-based marketing. Sales are driven by other people talking about your stuff. Build your contacts. Reward those contacts. Make sure those contacts are the people who buy your stuff.
There’s no 4-hour work week. There is just hard work.
Needing better technology is never the root problem.
Stay hungry, but make sure you are feeding yourself.
If you don’t know who your audience is, they won’t find you.
SEO = discoverability. You need it.
If you don’t set specific, measurable goals, you won’t know if you’re winning or losing. Cost per acquisition and rate of sales growth are important metrics. Know what your growth curve looks like and how to influence it.
Know what you’re trying to achieve before picking the tools.
P&L. Break even point. Do the math. Always.
Understand the micro actions that influence the macro actions. Marketing indirectly affects sales. Know the common multi-funnel channels that lead to conversions.
If people won’t pay for your product, produce complimentary things you can sell and give the product away for free, or close to free.
Price wars are a race to the bottom. Have a plan for selective discounting that rewards your most valuable customers.
The long tail—it’s not so great if all your products are in the tail.
There are people willing to do stuff for free, you just need to tap into their motivations for doing so.
Facebook is hoping to raise $5 billion by selling shares this spring (some reports are saying $10 billion—not sure who’s right but $5 billion is cited more often). This is larger than Google’s 2004 IPO that raised $1.9 billion at a valuation of $23 billion. Speculation is that Facebook’s valuation could be as high as $75-100 billion.
Buyers got a look at the financials yesterday, which showed the company made $1 billion in profit last year. 85% of its $3.71 billion in revenue is from advertising.
Other big stats:
845 million members, and more than half (483 million) return to the site daily
Collectively, we have produced an average of 2.7 billion “Likes” and comments a day in the last 3 months of 2011 (Oct, Nov, Dec)
I suspect your company is not getting this much attention today so here’s a 1 Minute Marketing tip on increasing the visibility of your Facebook Page by linking it to your profile.
As a note, my wolf in sheep’s clothing metaphor is more to do with mistakenly trusting that your Facebook content is private, not in regards to the IPO or Facebook’s valuation.
Posted by Monique Sherrett | Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter here
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