INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR PUBLISHERS

Duration: Half day course: 10am – 2pm, including lunch.
Our next event: tbc
Venue: Reed Media offices in London
Tutor: Jon Reed

Who is it for? This course has been designed specifically for publishers wanting to get to grips with social media for marketing and PR. It has an emphasis on book publishing, but will also be relevant to those in journal, magazine and newspaper publishing. It will be of most use to anyone who has responsibility for planning or executing marketing campaigns, including marketing managers, marketing executives, and publicity managers. Since social media crosses departmental boundaries and is about content creation as well as marketing, it may also be of interest to editorial staff, sales and web teams.

The session is geared towards anyone new to social media marketing wanting a broad overview of concepts, approaches, tools and techniques. Participants will come away equipped to start using social media strategically and effectively.

What previous delegates say:

A really useful and informative course – I came away with lots of new ideas.
Shereen Muhyeddeen, Marketing Executive, Palgrave Macmillan
Very relevant, lots of extremely useful information – the speaker was obviously very well informed on the topic.
Alex O’Loughlin, Wiley Publishing
The workshop was an excellent introduction into the burgeoning world of social media.
Debbie Vaughan, Marketing Manager, Royal Society Publishing

Your Learning Package includes:

• half-day workshop
• online access to resources, worksheets and slides
• follow-up support via an online discussion board
• “A-Z of Social Media” – a 7-page jargon-busting glossary of key terms, tools and approaches
• “Social Media Toolkit” – a 10-page compendium of key social media tools
• “Social Media Marketing Plan” – a template marketing plan to help you apply the principles right away
• “Social Media Forward Planner” – a more detailed planning approach to scheduling tasks and responsibilities for larger campaigns
• “References and Further Reading” – additional resources to follow up
• A Certificate of Attendance that may be used as evidence of training to count towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) target.

Aims

The opportunities for publishers to use social media are huge. From author blogs to video podcasts to bespoke social networking portals to Facebook applications, Second Life and Twitter, there is a vast range of low-cost online marketing tools to reach your communities of interest – and drive sales.

Using case studies and examples from publishing, this session will enable participants to begin to develop their social media marketing strategy by providing a non-technical overview of concepts and approaches to using social media for marketing purposes.

Because social media is a personal medium where authenticity matters, the job of a publisher is often to support and facilitate their author’s use of social media. Guidance will be provided on this, including how to choose appropriate tools.

This introductory session will cover the broad range of social media tools, including blogs, podcasts, microblogging (e.g. Twitter), social networking (e.g. Facebook), video (e.g. YouTube), and the virtual world Second Life.

The emphasis is on the culture of social media more than the technology – the context for using social media, which tools to use, when to use them, how to use them effectively to meet marketing aims and objectives – and how to measure your results. You will come away equipped to think strategically about your use of social media, and develop your own social media marketing plans.

About Jon Reed

Jon Reed is a social media consultant who previously worked in academic publishing for 10 years, including as publishing director for McGraw-Hill. He also has experience from an author’s point of view, since he is currently writing a book for FT Prentice Hall about how small business owners can use social media to market themselves.

He has lectured on social media on a number of courses in London, including at Birkbeck, Brunel and City Universities. His blog, Publishing Talk, is a key destination site for authors and publishers wanting to learn more about the marketing possibilities of social media. It also has a presence on several other social sites including around 30,000 followers on Twitter, making it one of the most followed Twitter accounts in the publishing world, and rated the ‘most influential’ Twitter account about publishing by the Twitter directory WeFollow.

See what Jon Reed has to say about social media for publishers and authors on his Publishing Talk blog, and in his published articles:

• “Small and Mighty”, The Deal: The Official Magazine of the London Book Fair, Spring 2009, pp12-14
• “Time to Talk”, The Deal: The Official Magazine of the London Book Fair, Spring 2008, pp12-15
• “Sell Yourself Online”, The Writer’s Handbook 2009, Palgrave Macmillan (July 2008), pp9-13

Agenda
Welcome, introductions and objectives
Social Media Concepts and Approaches – social media is a commitment, not a tactic
Using Social Media Tools – examples, case studies and how to choose your tool
Lunch (and continued discussion of social media tools)
Measuring Social Media – how do you know if your marketing is a success?
Social Media Strategy – developing a social media marketing plan

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session participants will:

• have a broad understanding of what social media is, including the ‘culture’ of social media marketing
• have some ideas about how social media may be applied to their own projects
• be equipped to start developing social media marketing plans.

Follow-up

Participants will have access to a secure area of the Reed Media website, where they will be able to download slides and handouts. Handouts will be made available in advance of the session, and slides uploaded after the session. Follow-up questions relating to the session may be submitted via the online discussion board.

Cost: £160 +VAT per participant. Includes:

• refreshments
• lunch
• resources, worksheets and slides, which can be accessed online
• FREE follow-up support via the discussion board on the resource site.

The following discounts are available:

• 10% earlybird discount – for workshops that are booked before the earlybird deadline
• 10% team discount – for second and subsequent participants from the same organization.

These discounts may be combined.

Places available: this workshop runs with a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 14 participants.

Booking: Book online with PayPal, credit card or by requesting a traditional invoice.

Cancellations: You can cancel 4 weeks or more before a workshop for a full refund. For cancellations of 1-4 weeks before a workshop, a charge of 50% of the course fee will apply unless we can re-fill the place or you can substitute a delegate. We cannot issue refunds for cancellations within 1 week of a workshop, and the full fee will apply. We reserve the right to cancel workshops at short notice if dates are under-subscribed, in which case you may opt for a full refund or a place on another workshop. Please check with us prior to making travel arrangements, unless we’ve confirmed the date by sending you a login to the workshop resource site.

This workshop can also be run as an in-house training course. Contact Jon for more information.