BOWIE, a new biography by noted author and rock 'n' roll journalist Marc Spitz was released on October 27th, 2009 by Crown/Random House. Connor Raus, the marketer behind the book's online success has just released a case study which details the digital marketing strategy.
When author Marc Spitz needed to draw attention to his new book =E2=80=9CBOWIE: A Biography,=E2=80=9D he knew what his publisher could and = couldn=E2=80=99t do. That=E2=80=99s why Spitz turned to new media expert Connor Raus.
=E2=80=9CPublishers specialize in drawing broad attention through tradition= al media,=E2=80=9D explains Raus. =E2=80=9CBut Marc Spitz needed to target fan= s of David Bowie specifically. You can=E2=80=99t do that in magazines, radio or television.=E2=80=9D
Through web analytics, Raus realized that a Bowie book was in big demand=E2=80=94there were over 20k searches a month for the term. On behalf of =E2=80=A8the author, Raus acquired a domain, DavidBowieBook.com, designe= d an =E2=80=A8intuitive website and began optimizing the site for search engines. =E2=80=A8Then he took it a step further by marrying the website to social =E2=80=A8networks like Facebook and Twitter.
=E2=80=9CTraffic exploded on the site almost instantly,=E2=80=9D says Raus,= =E2=80=9CBut I was =E2=80=A8shocked to see what an enormous impact we were able to make wi= th social media.=E2=80=9D
Before the book was even released, the author had over 1,700 interested fans on his newly-created email list, and over 500 pre- orders for the book. In just two months, Raus corralled over 3,000 fans to Spitz=E2=80=99s fan page on Facebook. Within a matter of weeks, Spi= tz had readers all over the world clamoring for his book=E2=80=94and he was ab= le to sustain their interest even after the books release.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CH= as anyone started reading the book yet?=E2=80=9D the author asks on his BOWIE: A Biography Facebook Fan Page. Seventeen people immediately chime in with praise.
Following the wild success of Spitz=E2=80=99s digital strategy, major publishers and literary agents have sought out Raus=E2=80=99s expertise and have signed on in hopes of tapping into his social networking prowess. =E2=80=A8Although Raus is able to tap into readers, he still maintains that a =E2=80=A8book has to have the right kind of draw in order = to work as a social =E2=80=A8networking phenomenon.
=E2=80=9CBooks that deal with a specific topic that we can find a large viable =E2=80=A8audience to connect with will initially fair much better th= an general =E2=80=A8interest books,=E2=80=9D says Raus. =E2=80=9CBut every aut= hor needs to have a web and =E2=80=A8social presence regardless.=E2=80=9D
Connor Raus is a Creative Technologist with CRKWD, a Digital Agency. To learn more, check out the just released BOWIE Case Study