Transforming Scholastic Book Clubs customers into brand ambassadors

and introducing…

YouAreWhatYouRead.com

Remember these?

Making the jump to social media

144,000 fans144,000 fans

Strategy

Voice New titles;bestsellers

ExpertAdvice

Customer Service

Book BuzzExclusiveContent

Editorial recommendations

Behind-the-scenes

Platform for teacher/parent voices

Give back (huge component of Clubs business model)

Customer queries/issues

Employee perspectives

Content that can’t be found elsewhere

Experiment; be flexible; offer value

Experiment; be flexible; offer value

Growing our fan baseEarly fan drivers:• Facebook message to the “I <3 Scholastic Book Clubs” group

(netted 1,500 fans)• Personal email to customers from the President of Clubs,

introducing the Clubs Facebook page along with an exclusive sweepstakes

Fan growth post-email

Fan growth post-email

Targeted sweepstakes

FIRST sweeps: 12K entrants,

netted 50K fans

THIRD/most recent sweeps: additional 36K fans

SECOND sweeps*: additional 17K fans *Used Facebook advertising

Steps to creating a Scholastic Book Clubs sweepstakes:

•Create a tab on our Facebook page that directs users to a sweepstakes entry form on Scholastic.com (image 2)

•Create a branded entry form on Scholastic.com (image 3); make the directions very clear

•Post legal rules

•Execution: email the sweeps to customers. Sweeps link in email sends them to our Facebook page, which acts like an “ad spot.” From there, fans can choose to fan the page;

fan the page and enter the sweeps; or just enter the sweeps.

Want to run the contest on Facebook? Facebook has strict rules about conducting sweepstakes and contests when the form of entry lives on Facebook. Your best bet is to read the Promotions Guidelines set by Facebook.

Sweepstakes successes

13

2

Keeping our new fans interested• Needed to remember:

– Our community included teachers, parents, and people with nostalgic connection

– Messages/prompts/content had to be diverse enough to engage all community members

Highly engaged fans: teachers, parents, readers

The content • 5-10 posts/week• Constant communication among the editorial

team!

Customer-directed, fun prompts

Due diligence with customer service inquiries

Exclusive information for fans

The Team:Weekly meetings with the page’s editorial team

evaluate our successes and remedy what’s not working

EditorialMarketing Promotions Creative

Business/content

Sweeps/Contests

User experience/content

Product expertise/ recommendations

Corporate Communications

Two mid-level employees dedicated to Clubs Social Media

4-5 members from Scholastic Book Clubs Customer Service

Why it works Bridging the home-school connection

Their feedback informs the community

Their feedback informs the community

Teachers get answers from other teachers

Teachers get answers from other teachers

Teachers’ and parents’ perspectives are heardTeachers’ and parents’ perspectives are heard

TEACHERS

SCHOLASTIC

PARENTS

Social media and sales

Clubs looked at the spend, number of orders, and order frequency of 32,000 teachers who self-identified as a fan.

• On average:– Fans spent 29% more than non-fans– Fans spent 7.6% more per event than non-fans– Fans place 29.8% more orders than non-fans

A year later…• 144,000 fans• Monthly active users: 77%• Executive buy-in

– All messaging to customers– Even on our shipment boxes

• And it’s working:– Traditional media coverage– Page continues to grow and

thrive– The attacking organization

has turned to other brands– Spun Facebook page into a

BookTalk blog

A niche community

Parents/teaches demographics

Total fans

Low “hide” rate

Clubs set the stage for the rest of Scholastic social media

Session 1: Participation, trends, goals, ROI, monitoring

Session 2: Best practices, converting the skeptics, engaging Twitter conversations, case studies

Session 3: Tying goals to metrics, measurement, social media metrics, tools for sharing

What’s next, you ask?

MILLIONS OF BOOKS. WHICH FIVE SHAPED YOUR LIFE?

MILLIONS OF BOOKS. WHICH FIVE SHAPED YOUR LIFE?

You Are What You Read!To date, we have more than 130 participating Names You Know, including:

Join our community!

@Scholastic

Facebook.com/Scholastic

Facebook.com/ScholasticBookClubs

www.oomscholastic.com