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28
Steve Weber
Two book recommendation networks. The left shows how recommendations for
a study guide were ineffective and ignored by consumers. On the right,
recommendations for a graphic novel were effective, resulting in frequent purchases.
The book on the left is the study guide First Aid for the USMLE Step 1. The book
on the right is Oh My Goddess!: Mara Strikes Back. Recommendations for this
graphic novel prompted bursts of connected sales represented visually by the linked
patterns. The opportunities for networking are vast: Japanese comics have a wide
following in the United States, are popular with children and adults, and are
vigorously supported by online communities. By contrast, suggestions for study
guides usually originate outside online communities, from an instructor or employer.
Choice is restricted, online connections are sparse, and no word of mouth occurs.
For a variety of reasons, readers are rarely passionate about textbooks.
Generally, though, fiction recommendations are least effective of any book
category, resulting in purchases only 2 percent of the time, while recommendations
for expensive medical books are most effective.
Illustration from The Dynamics of Viral Marketing
by Leskovec, Adamic, Huberman.
Recommendations from family members or personal friends were
much more effective for fiction and religious books than online
recommendations, the researchers concluded.
Some book categories, such as gardening, have different
recommendation effectiveness depending on how specialized the text
and how widely the topic is supported by online communities. For
example, books on vegetable or tomato growing had only average
recommendation effectiveness compared with other nonfiction.
However, recommendations of books on orchid cultivation, which tend
to be more specialized, had double the recommendation acceptance.
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