Are You a Twit If You Don’t Tweet?

How four digital divas leverage online social communities

The Young to Publishing Group hosted “Are You a Twit If You Don’t Tweet?,” a  lively panel discussion about how publishers can make the most of online social communities. The panel included Sonia Nash, Online Marketing Manager for Random House; Ami Greko, Digital Marketing Manager for Random House; Denise Oswald, Editorial Director of Soft Skull Press; and Ann Kingman, District Sales Manager in New England for Random House.

Sonia Nash began the discussion on September 21, 2009 by giving a tour of KnopfDoubleday.com, where she serves as Editor-in-Chief. She then discussed the extensive social media marketing campaign that she spearheaded for The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. She stressed that the most successful book websites are content sharers, not just content providers. Nash contends that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are not always enough to engage readers—sometimes the publisher should create a social networking website dedicated solely to the book. She said that publishers and marketers should “get people information the way that [consumers] want it.”

“Twitter is like a really great cocktail party…Go find someone you really admire, and follow all of the people they follow.” – Denise Oswald

Ami Greko followed Nash and discussed the importance of being cognizant of the needs, expertise, and interests of authors when launching a social media campaign. Noting that social media is not for everyone, she suggested that publishers keep an open mind about which social media outlets, if any, should be used for their authors. “Talk to people. See what their strengths are and find out what works best for them,” Greko said.

Denise Oswald approached her talk on social networking from an editorial perspective. As the resident Twitter expert on the panel, she encouraged people who work in editorial to get a good understanding of digital media and online marketing for themselves and to take advantage of the popularity of respective social networks while they’re hot. Illustrating, Oswald said that “Twitter is like a really great cocktail party…Go find someone you really admire, and follow all of the people they follow.”

She noted that people have an interest in what book editors have to say, and so instead of just being a PR machine for their authors, editors should show personality and appeal to people’s emotions and intellects through online social networks. “The reality is that the most successful thing you can do online is to be a person,” Oswald said.

Ann Kingman echoed Oswald’s sentiments and praised the “egalitarian” nature of social networks like Twitter, noting that it gives anyone an opportunity to affect the marketing and publicity campaigns for a project. Kingman was also the source of one of the most talked about quotes of the panel when she said, “Publishing is a glamorous industry, if you’re not in it.”

When asked by an audience member about imprint Twitter accounts versus individual Twitter accounts, the panel agreed that imprint Twitter accounts can work, but their tweets should be interesting and should go beyond the normal “read our books” publicity message. They also noted that, for the most part, tweets should be spontaneous and authentic instead of pre-planned and contrived, and that you should always reply to people when they tweet you directly.

Ami Greko is a Digital Marketing Manager for Macmillan and the publicist for Tor.com. She can be found on Twitter: @ami_with_an_I and at the FSG poetry blog (active only in April): fsgpoetry.com

Denise Oswald is Editorial Director of Soft Skull Press. Intermittent grumblings can be found at www.softskull.com/news, while (Twitter) stream of consciousness resides here: @DeniseOswald.

Ann Kingman is District Sales Manager in New England for Random House, Inc. Ann can be found on Twitter @annkingman and at  http://www.booksonthenightstand.com, as well as just about everywhere else on the web.

Sonia Nash is an Online Marketing Manager for Random House. She can be found on Twitter @Snash12