FreshNetworks Blog

I own quite a few books. They’re on bookcases as you walk into my flat, on a table in the corner of the living room, and some are still in boxes waiting to be unpacked. Today I got a new book and this one was free.

A few weeks ago, I accepted an invite on Facebook for I wouldn’t say no to a free book from Faber. The premise is that each month they will give away a few copies of a book (or books) to the first people to email them after they put up the details on Facebook. One evening I was working late, saw a Facebook update and emailed them. I wasn’t expecting anything until I was told today that I was getting a copy of Churchill’s Wizards sent to me this week. Great stuff.

Of course what Faber are doing here is using Facebook to spread word of mouth for their new releases, and using free product to seed discussions. I’m contributing to it here and in fact doing exactly what they want me to do by writing about it. I may even write about the book itself when it arrives and I read it – not sure it’s exactly my thing but I tend to read anything I have so looking forward to finding out something new and, with luck, being impressed.

A look at the product page shows them seeding conversations about other products – telling us about the new Paul Auster novel and giving us an extract. The page is succeeding in building a group of fans, possibly drawn by the free book offers, and then seeding them with content and ideas to take elsewhere.

A nice tactic in Facebook and a good way of starting and seeding product-based word of mouth. Of course Faber can still only use this as a medium through which to push their messging and alert people to new content and new product. It’s difficult to really engage people in Facebook, they rely on people like me to get the book and then, hopefully blog about it or spread the word through our other online and offline networks. They don’t know anything about me nor are they able to gather profiling data to market to me. They don’t provide means for me to talk with the other people who got the book and share ideas – possibly in an online reading group.

This is because, great as Facebook is, it really isn’t designed for this kind of engagement and interaction. For that you really need to build an online community or add community elements into your site, rather than capitalising upon the reach of social networks. You need to provide a space for these kind of conversations, amplifying the word of mouth and building ongoing advocacy, rather than achieving the valuable but potentially limited word of mouth buzz that you can achieve in a social network.

Of course, I’m chuffed that I’m getting a free book, so no complaints from me!

Some more reading

• Communities = more than the sum of their social media parts
• Review: Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
• Guidelines For Brands Using Twitter
• Eight Considerations to Help Branded Communities Succeed