THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

In a story this week, Ragan’s PR Daily Quotes the Ogilvy PR agency as saying word of mouth beats social media for motivating social causes

“There’s no question that people's social media circles affect their actions. Still, marketers and PR pros shouldn’t ignore some of the tried-and-true methods.

“The main source for information about causes and social issues for Americans ages 18 to 29 is word of mouth from friends and family and TV programs, according to Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Ogilvy and Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication studied cause involvement.

“The resulting Dynamics of Cause Engagement study shows that younger people are more likely to get their information about social causes from social media sites, but family (48 percent), friends (46 percent), and television (45 percent) combined outweigh sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“Perhaps most telling in the study: ‘Nearly two-thirds of Americans (62 percent) report that being told in person is the way they are typically informed of causes and social issues in which others want them to be involved.’”
People love to talk about the importance of social media, but this study points out that social media fails to reach some audiences. It also demonstrates that book publicity still needs to target specific audiences with informational rifle shots rather than scattered shotgun blasts. It also emphasizes the need to know the age range of potential book readers. For instance, it would be a waste of effort to blast social media about a book that is designed to be read by senior citizens. Conversely, concentrating on social media might be right on target in a books is for young adults or those in their 20s. It’s an old PR principle I learned decades ago, but apparently bears repeating. Hope it helps.

Thanks, Larry. I come from a marketing background. The most common miss-perception I had to overcome was, "We need social media. It's powerful." Well, that is wrong: as you say,first you need a target audience, then you need awareness then, importantly, credibility. Face-to-face interaction creates credibility. Social media may and may not. But it is generally quite weak compared to old word-of-mouth.
Worth mentioning,of course, TV, word-of-mouth, newspapers, "social" sites work together in an additive way.
Thanks again for the excellent post.
Sean

Hallelujah Sean. Sometimes I feel like the last sane person in a world where the national cry is: The sky is falling, social networking will save us! ROTFLMAO!
Then I ask the same experts for statistics to back up their claims. Guess what? NO HAS ANY. :-))
The result, on the blurb for my book on Amazon Kindle I state: While social media is considered hot for book promotion, It's less about what's "hot" than what works and that will vary depending on location, genre, marketing budget and amount of time capable of being devoted to brand and product promotion.a "Self-Promotion for Authors" tells the stories of a dozen authors and how they've succeeded.

Have a great day.

Larry wrote: "Hallelujah Sean. Sometimes I feel like the last sane person in a world where the national cry is: The sky is falling, social networking will save us! ROTFLMAO!
Then I ask the same experts for ..."

Terrific, Larry. You do have an up-hill battle, due to general ignorance and a kind of craze mentality in which belief is strong, but incorrect.