At the BEA Day of Education this year, one of the questions posed at the end of the social media panel was: "Two years ago, you told us we had to look into Myspace. Last year, it was Facebook. This year, it's Twitter. What's it going to be next year?"
Allow me to present a possible contender: Glue. Glue isn't just a possibility for the next level of social media; it also challenges us to re-think the way we're using social media.
Glue is a software that works with your web browser to connect you with the likes and recommendations of your friends regardless of which website you're on. As a way to see what friends are interested in, it's the reverse of what we're used to with current social media. For example, on Facebook, to see what your friends are reading, you have to look at their info page or status updates. With Glue, the software is organized around the books. (Or the movies, or the TV shows, but this isn't Screen Awareness.)
So, for example, if you were looking at a book on IndieBound, in addition to seeing all the normal information on the webpage, a bar would pop up on the bottom with more information: friends and other Glue users ("neighbors") who have also looked at that book, if they liked it, and their review if they've reviewed it. But what makes Glue unusual is that it will show you if they looked at it, liked it or reviewed it anywhere on the web that works with Glue's technology. So, whether you're looking at a book on IndieBound, Amazon, Wikipedia or a publisher's website, all that information is being gathered into one place--that bar at the bottom of your screen.
Fraser Kelton, v-p of business development at Glue, sums it up this way: "Glue is focused on creating a web-wide experience for people who love books, regardless of the site they visit."
When I first learned about Glue, I was wary of working with software that includes all book sites. After all, I don't think all book sites are created equal, and I'd be reluctant to have something on my bookstore's website that might send business to a competitor.
However, the more I've worked with Glue, the more I've felt that by being site-agnostic, Glue is doing independent bookstores and our websites a favor. This kind of software and these sorts of connections across the Internet are something that a massive corporation might have the money to create for itself, but that an independent bookseller isn't likely to be able to fund. On a deeper level, Glue is expanding the definition of what a book website is simply by making them all equally accessible. To the average web browser, looking for a book means looking at Amazon. By providing consistent evidence at the bottom of the screen that there are lots of places to learn about (and buy!) books, Glue becomes a sticky reminder that IndieBound exists, and that a publisher's website can be an even more valuable source of information than Wikipedia.
"A single website will never be the sole resource for individuals interested in books," says Fraser. "Even if the majority of people buy from a single online retailer, we read reviews on other sites, check out what our friends are reading on various book social networks, etc. Our book experience online spans multiple sites, and it's naive to think that an independent bookseller will ever be THE site for books. I'd love to see independent booksellers embrace this idea and focus on providing the best experience for the individual."
Glue is a different approach to social media in that it is media-focused rather than individual-focused. It's also a different approach because using it requires us to think about our place in the book industry and online differently. Right now, we're using Facebook and Twitter to talk about ourselves to people who seek us out or find us and want to hear from us. Our use of that social media is dependent on being found and being heard, and it certainly has worked to improve the position of independent booksellers among those who already support them. Unfortunately, that group is currently about 7% market share, according to PW a few weeks ago.
Glue has the potential to push beyond that group in a very non-invasive way. Simply by using it, by having it imbedded in our sites or even using it at home, we can become part of a larger book-loving web community that might slowly be remembering we're downtown and have downloaded the IndieBound iPhone app, but is still not thinking about independent booksellers being on the same playing field as Amazon.
Since a lot of us are re-thinking our visual web presence lately due to IndieBound's move to Drupal, now's a good time to re-think it philosophically as well. What is the website for? Is it possible to serve our existing community while reaching out to a new community, too? If so, what might we need to change or add to do so? I believe that adding Glue can be a low-impact way to start to include your bookstore in the large, vibrant, vocal, fantastic conversation about books that's happening on the web. How can you do that?
Start by going to the website and downloading it for your own computer. Use the Internet as you normally would for a few days and try it out.
If you want to use it on your site, "there are a few ways to get going with Glue," Fraser says. "If the bookstore has access to a web developer, then the easiest place to start is to integrate AB Meta into their webpage. It's a super simple format for annotating pages about books. By adding a few lines of AB Meta to your site you'll be plugged into the Glue network." And if that all seemed like so much Greek to you, e-mail: fraser@adaptiveblue.com
--Stephanie Anderson
Sick of hearing about social media? What other technology do you want to hear booksellers discussing? E-mail stephanie@wordbrooklyn.com. And if you'd like to hear more of Fraser Kelton's ideas for independent booksellers beyond Glue, read this blog post.