Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Book History
TODAY'S FEATURE: I just read our subscription copy to the "All About ROI" Magazine, the March 2010 issue... The acronym 'ROI' in this case stands for "Retail Online Integration'. The Editor's Note on page 7 of this issue grabbed my attention right away, as both Tina and I use Facebook for Networking and we have a Fan Page, a branded (Facebook Comic Con) Group Page, a brand new invitation only Facebook Group Page, and a Facebook Blogging App (Networked Blogs) on our social networking. I'm going to post the Editor's Note that Editor-In-Chief Melissa Campanelli wrote, and then take those to show how You as an independent comics creator / publisher can utilize this info to your benefit. First, here's the excerpts, (and the text hi-lited in RED is my doing so for emphasis): Editor's Note : Is Facebook a Friend to Retailers? Yes, at least according to a report that arrived in my email inbox last month. The report, ForeSee Results 2010 Social Media Report, found that retailers that focus their energies and resources on Facebook — as opposed to the myriad of other social media sites — are making the best choice. Why is Facebook the best place to focus your social media initiatives? It's where shoppers are when they're online, and where shoppers want to hear from you. In fact, more than half of everyone who shops online uses Facebook, according to the report. What's more, of those online shoppers who engage in social media, more than 80 percent use Facebook. (YouTube comes in second at 31 percent, followed by MySpace with 22 percent, Twitter with 16 percent and LinkedIn at 12 percent.) An unofficial look at the Facebook pages of the Top 100 online retailers, however, shows a different side of the story. Only one quarter of these leading brands actually have Facebook pages, according to the report. And another 25 percent have fewer than 10,000 fans. "Facebook and other social media [sites] are still unknown territories for a lot of retailers," says Kevin Ertell , vice president of retail strategy for ForeSee Results and author of the report. "Retailers are often given conflicting advice about what to do with it, and [therefore tend to] wait until they're exactly sure what their goals are before taking the plunge." One piece of conflicting advice retailers hear, Ertell says, is that Facebook pages and other social media campaigns shouldn't be used for promotional purposes. But, according to this report, that's exactly want consumers want: 49 percent of people who follow companies through social media do so to learn about deals and promotions, and 45 percent want to view products. A mere 5 percent use social media primarily for customer service. Retailers also have to start treating their best "fans" as they would treat their best customers, Ertell advises. "People who become fans of retailers are usually their best and most engaged customers," he says. "Retailers should think about segmenting those customers and treating them as they would their traditional best customers." Now that's a lot of info to digest! I am highly suggesting those comic book creators / independent publishers to look very closely at the above Editor's Note and look to where they should be centering their marketing efforts! Ewwww... "marketing efforts"? Yes, I know, you want to just either write / illustrate / publish your comic book or graphic novel. But folks... it's the marketing where I see so many indy publishers fall down at. I can name on my one hand indie publishers that I personally have met who have the social media marketing markets, (Facebook / MySpace / Twitter / YouTube) down to a science AND appear to be successfully inter-mingling them for a really good marketing effort. Yes, it does take time, but aren't You setting up yourself as a publisher as well as a creator? Then it's about time you used the non-distributor channels to market your product. And I don't mean following the 'herd mentality'. I get dozens of 'invites' each week to to be a 'Fan' of this or that Facebook Fan Page. Quite a few of those invites lead to half started, incomplete and possibly just a 'vanity' page for the creator to say they have a 'Facebook Fan Page' and / or get their friends off their back by saying they "have" a Facebook Fan Page. Please re-read the above Editor's Note. There's Gold in them thar Facebook Fan Pages! You just gotta know how to pan for it. And talking about 'panning'... don't forget to tie Your Twitter account to Your Facebook Fan Page! (Unless you use your Twitter account to tweet a lot of personal stuff!) This is another of my blogs that really isn't strictly comic book / graphic novel oriented, but with so many persons out there striking out on their own with mini-comics / comic books / graphic novels, etc., I felt that this Editor's Note was too important and meaningful to NOT blog about it here..... My thanks to Melissa Campanelli for writing such a great Editor's Note! You too can check out more of this great magazine online at: AND...My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now numbering almost 3,100 posts in total! ~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
http://www.comicbookscircus.com/
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