Borders Group boosts book sales through social networking
When Borders e-mailed its customers to ask “Who’s the biggest Harry Potter fan?” about 1,000 accepted its invitation to comment in a chat room at social networking site Gather.com. 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.
Borders e-mails a “short list” of suggested book, movie and music titles every week to registered members of its Borders Rewards loyalty program, using questions like the one on Harry Potter to incite recipients to click to a related chat room on Gather.com.
Many chat room participants link back to BordersStores.com for more information on featured titles, Tam says. Although BordersStores.com is not an e-commerce site, it links to Borders.com, an e-commerce site currently operated for Borders by Amazon.com. BordersStores.com also directs visitors to their local Borders stores.
“Social networking and e-mail is helping to get people involved with their passions for reading and watching movies,” Tam says. “Our whole mission is to be the headquarters for knowledge, and by getting people engaged in books and movies they come back to Borders to find out more about them.”
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