Social Media and Spontaneity: Stimulating Sales on the Fly

One may contend that Amazon.com, arguably the largest online retailer of books and videos, weathered a good amount of abuse in 2009 due to gaffes involving the de-listing of gay and lesbian literature and other titles from their internal search (these were quickly corrected). The Twitter hashtag #amazonfail became well known and oft-used to chastise the mega-eCommerce site for their actions, yet these days it doesn't seem that term will retire soon.

Last week, in a dispute over eBook pricing, Amazon.com decided to pull all eBook titles by publisher MacMillan, thus removing thousands of titles for sale and angering MacMillan's authors, of whom many took their aggravations to the "streets" - namely their social accounts. Though Amazon's original intent was to convince the publisher to lower its eBook pricing from $14.99 to the retail site's standard of $9.99 or less, critics saw the move as detrimental to the retailer and also logged onto Twitter and other social outlets to protest. Amazon.com has since recanted the action.

Nonetheless, the weekend offered plenty of time for competitors to take advantage of #amazonfail, and thanks to the viral speed of Twitter in particular, word spread quickly. All Romance eBooks, a large online retailer of romance fiction, along with its general eBook vendor site OmniLit.com, staged a spontaneous weekend sale in conjunction with popular book industry blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Using a specific coupon code, readers could purchase any title from ARe or OmniLit for 50% off the cover price, while publishers and authors with titles listed on-site received their full commissions. ARe and OmniLit.com are able to accommodate owners of the Kindle and other eBook reading devices.

This marketing campaign, tagged on Twitter and Facebook with the term #AReSale, kept author and publisher accounts active all weekend, and even inspired some publishers to offer select titles as free downloads during the promotion.

"Riding that social media wave can be tricky, but when you get it right it's an incredible ride. The #AReSale blitz is a good example," said Lori James, co-owner of OmniLit/ARe. " A convergence of circumstance, timing, and a carefully cultivated supportive community. We're still reeling from the response."

Indeed, the viral effect of this one action in the eBook community continues to resonate. Google Blog Search results for OmniLit.com display an impressive number of blogs that reported the half-off sale, and Facebook status updates repeated the time-urgent news with efficiency.

The immediacy of a news item, couple with the ability to spread information via social media, created a spontaneous PR campaign that proved beneficial for one independent company. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook provide the opportunity for free advertising via word of mouth, and in turn allow others to receive residual benefits.