Borders claims bigger book sales from social networking

Borders Group says it's seeing increased sales of books that are discussed on Gather.com.

Borders formed a partnership with Gather six months ago. Recently when Borders e-mailed customers to ask who was the biggest Harry Potter fan, about 1,000 commented on Gather, according to this article in Internet Retailer magazine.

Titles talked up on Gather produce sharp increases in sales of those titles on Borders.com as chat room participants link back to the bookseller's site, Borders CMO Michael Tam says.

"Titles that we feature on Gather.com immediately climb in sales," Tam says.

Every week, Borders e-mails a list of suggested books to 15 million registered members of its Borders Rewards loyalty program, asking recipients to click through to a related chat site on Gather. Some of the participants link back to BordersStores.com for more information on featured titles.

However, Borders is still figuring out what to do about e-commerce. Borders.com is still basically a front end for Amazon. Meanwhile, the BordersStores.com site refers visitors to the nearest brick-and-mortar Borders store. Last November, Borders said it planned to drop its longstanding partnership with Amazon and build its own online store.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors