Can Digital Communities Help You Sell More Stuff?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York, this is NPR’s On the Media. I’m Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I’m Bob Garfield. The new media are thriving. The old media are dying. That seems to be the theme of our program from week to week to week. But, of course, it’s much more complicated than that because increasingly the old and new are merging into one another.

This week, we’re devoting the program to the oldest of old media - books. Chances are you’ll be buying one or two this holiday season, but where and how you’ll buy them and in what form are open questions.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Nowadays, some 60 percent of all books are not bought in brick-and-mortar bookstores; they’re purchased at airports or checkout counters, Wal-Mart or Costco, Toys R’ Us or Williams-Sonoma, or online.

In case you were wondering, 11 percent are purchased from Amazon.com. The rest are bought at bookstores, but mostly the big chains. The membership of the American Booksellers Association, which serves independent bookstores, has dropped from more than 5,000 to roughly 1,700 in the last decade. Should we decry the state of publishing today?

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Goodreads is a community just like every other online social network.

What differentiates Goodreads is their focus on books. Even though MySpace and Facebook both have a few different widgets you can add to your account which enable you to display and review books in much the same way, Goodreads can also be added to your […]

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It was bound to happen.
I was screwing around with Wordpress plugins last night when one thing led to another and before I knew what happened, I’d inadvertently committed blogicide.
And it was so young…
My apologies to all my treasured guests, thoughtful commenters and registered users. Please know I didn’t whack you, I just whacked off.
I’ll do […]

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I love Monday morning. A fresh start to a new week of possibilities.
Coffee is ready and it’ll be a least a couple of hours before the phone starts to ring so it’s time to catch up and prioritize.
I rip through email first, categorizing, prioritizing and making immediate schedule adjustments as necessary.
Then, a high speed pass […]

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Now that you’ve got your Twitter account up and Twittering it’s time to build your network.
Back when you were setting your strategy I suggested you answer two questions: What do I want to get out of my social network and why should others care about my involvement?
The answers to those questions are made up of […]

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“First I hadda get a MySpace, then Facebook was the place to be. Now you’re telling me I need to do what? Twitter? What the hell is Twitter?”
Exasperated and shaking his head, author and lecturer Jonathan Maberry clapped one of his massive paws to his forehead.
“And why? Why should I be Twittering?”
Here’s why.
Imagine could design […]

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