Using MySpace to drive your book sales

Booksellers are always looking for that extra edge to compete. Detailed descriptions. Spotless feedback. Listing inventory on eight Web sites. Repricing. Checking your e-mail every 45 seconds.

On and on.

Well here’s an idea that might be new for you: MySpace.

MySpace? You might be thinking, “Isn’t that for high-school kids?”

Sure, that’s the stereotype. MySpace is popular with kids. But with nearly 100 million members and the No. 1 traffic rank on the entire Internet — clearly there’s more to it than loitering schoolkids.

MySpace is one of a growing number of “social networking” sites. They work by linking up people with the same types of interests. Each member has their own small circle of like-minded “friends.” After you become someone’s MySpace friend, you have access to their friends. And each of your new friends has more friends.

What does all this have to do with bookselling? Well, as you probably know, most of us online sellers develop a specialty. After some experience, we settle into a niche of whatever works for us — science fiction, antique cookbooks, textbooks, modern first editions. It’s usually something we have some interest in, and we just get the knack for recognizing valuable books from across the room.

Well, MySpace is the kind of place where you can hook up with people who are interested in that same exact thing — whether they’re book buyers or booksellers. You can probably meet more people on MySpace that share the same quirky interests in 20 minutes as you could from a lifetime of going to book sales, parties, conferences, or classes.

After hearing so much about MySpace, I created my own profile here a few months ago, but have never gotten around to using it. (If you’re on MySpace, please add me as a “friend.” I only have three so far, and it’s kind of embarrassing.)

Anyway, I nearly fell out of my chair this week when I got an e-mail from my friend Jane, who’s a full-time eBay bookseller. She’s been active recently on MySpace and it’s resulted in a big increase in traffic and sales at her eBay Store.

Jane generally prefers auctioning books on eBay, but also sells certain books on Amazon at fixed prices. She can’t give any definite numbers on how many of her sales are coming from MySpace — who has time to ask each customer how they found you? All she knows is, she’s been networking like crazy recently, and she’s gotten a ton of “hits” and “views” on MySpace, and at the same time, sales at her Store are up.

Here’s the three main ways people find Jane on MySpace:

1. They go to a page where she appears as someone’s friend, and click on her name.

2. They do a keyword search (like “books,” “booksellers,” or “eBay.”)

3. Jane gives out her eBay Store name *and* her MySpace link whenever she e-mails customers on eBay or Amazon.

Jane also has links to her MySpace profile on her blog, “The Passionate Booker.” She’s also got a MySpace blog. This way, her customers really get to “know” her as a seller, and sometimes they’ll also join MySpace, add her as a friend, and the networking continues.

Whether her buyers choose to participate in all these “extras” or not, Jane believes (and I agree) it leaves a positive impression. Anytime you can make a personal connection with a customer — instead of being some faceless counterpart in cyberspace — it’s a good thing.

Since Jane knew I was writing this, she was generous enough to send along these tips for working MySpace. They’re really good:

1. I try to keep my MySpace fairly streamlined and clutter-free , making SURE that if anyone does see it, they can EASILY get to my store. I put links to my store everywhere I can. I use attention grabbers (no, not pictures of nude men and women, but things like the moving, scrolling book list (which reminds me, that needs to be updated).

2. I join Groups which have interests that pertain to the books I generally sell and, even better if they allow bulletins or ads about book listings at other sites (some do, some don’t, so it is important to KNOW the group terms). Related groups I’ve joined include : Bibliophiles, cooking groups (I sell specialty cookbooks from time to time, Writers’ groups (because writers also READ books), childrens books, homeschooling, Ebayers etc.

3. I make a point of keeping my name updated out there on MySpace by getting something on my MySpace blog and then sending a bulletin of the blog entry to all my Friends. I am working on more interesting blog entries but at least it is a start. I thought “What fell out of that book?” was decent but I guess it appealed mostly to other booksellers.

4. I touch base with my Friends at MySpace at least once a week if I can, even if it is only to say “Have a great day, hope you have wonderful sales this week!”

5. The population at MySpace tends to be trendy, hip, etc., and they come there for MANY reasons, so you need to try and eliminate the ones who are trying to sell you something or want to “hook up” for a quick date (unless those are also your wants; they aren’t my focus for being on MySpace).

Many people are just trolling for dates, etc..but you can tailor your profile to meet your needs and even specify age groups and income. If you just want to “Network” and not date, you can specify that limitation (which I’ve done, I think). That way, you eliminate some of the Spam invitations from potential “Friends”. But you’ll still get some Spam.

6. Don’t feel obligated to accept every Friend who asks to be a friend, however flattering it may seem. And DO make sure your TOP 6 Friends, reflect your interests and business and are likely to make the right impression on visitors to your page. I’ve got Stephen King there just because a lot of people probably look at that page on MySpace. Id love to be in the top 6 Friends on THAT page!

My opinion is, if MySpace is going to be a professional asset, it should look professional. Consider the fact that people WILL check out your friends and MySpace’s usefulness can be watered down by having too many friends who don’t relate to your interests, aren’t readers or writers or booksellers, turn your customers off, etc. I KNOW I bend this rule a bit because I have a wide diversity of friends but I try to keep my top 6 (the ones that show on my home page) related to books and bookselling.

7. Use all the various parts of MySpace to their MAX- the blog, the groups, the home page. You can even get a counter to keep track of how many people are visiting your page

8. You do have to work MySpace to keep the hits coming. Putting up a page and never visiting it or tweaking it does little good. But, considering the cost (free), it is a resource I feel compelled to use.

One more thing. Those of you who are active on Amazon might be interested to know that Jane is one of the Amazon “Top Reviewers.” She’s currently ranked 114 out of some 2 million. You can see her recent reviews her
e on her Amazon Profile. Reviewers are ranked on how many reviews they write and how many “helpful” votes they receive from other Amazon users. As you can see, she’s very prolific, with 738 reviews already in the can. I don’t know how in the world Jane finds time to be a full-time bookseller, MySpace power user, Amazon Top Reviewer, write two blogs, and have a family too.

MySpace has gotten a lot of bad publicity lately, with reports in the news about people peddling pornography on there, and predators trying to contact the children who use it. And I think this is a danger, we don’t want our businesses somehow getting painted with the same brush. I hope MySpace will be able to police the site better. But at the same time, I think its problems have been blown out of proportion. Anytime you have 100 million people congregating, there’s going to be a certain number of them up to no good. I hope we can all keep it in perspective.

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