June 21, 2009 18 Comments

Get Into Trust Agents Ahead of Time

Trust Agents Fan Page

As you know, I recently deleted my Facebook fan page. It just didn’t feel right. I didn’t want a page dedicated to me. But the book I wrote with Julien Smith? That’s another matter.

You are invited to join the Trust Agents Fan Page, where we will have discussions about the book, post about upcoming events like book signings and secret tweetups and flash events, and share photos and videos with each other, not about the book, but about what the book’s themes mean to you.

This page is for the Facebook-friendly folks of the world. Don’t forget we also have an official Trust Agents web page that points out where to preorder the book and other stuff.

Experimenting with Book Marketing

As this is our first mainstream book, both Julien and I are approaching this like a grand experiment. Our publisher, Wiley, has their own plans about how to promote and market our book. Julien and I are taking a lot of different routes. Inspired by new media authors like J.C. Hutchins and Scott Sigler, and with friendly advice from David Meerman Scott and others, you’ll get to see some of our experiments here as we hatch them.

The benefit to you, of course, is that we’ll be able to report openly about what works and what doesn’t in our marketing efforts, and we’ll be able to learn together what to do better for next time. You get all this information for your own purposes just by hanging out. Fair?

So, swing by the Trust Agents Fan Page and feel free to give us your opinion of what else makes a fan page work or not work. It’s all part of the experience for us.

And thanks.

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  • http://solutionzmedia.blogspot.com chickefitz

    Chris – as you know, any experiment that you do quickly becomes “common practice”. I LOVE the title of the book. It is consistent with everything that I'm learning on Word of Mouth Mediaâ„¢. Trust is foundational to relationship and without relationship, social media is just noise. I can't wait to read your book and would love to interview you about the book this fall on Solutionz Live! when my radio show comes off summer hiatus.

  • http://madpropstobakedpotatoes.com Brian

    I think this will work well for your book. Fan pages are great for people with an established base.

    I've seen some situations wherein people will put up a fan page without that base, and I'm not sure it's a good idea. If you build it an nobody comes, I think it can actually hurt more than it helps.

    Will be interested to see how you utilize it and make it a destination -

  • http://www.newintel.co.nz JamesStewart

    Sounds good – will be interesting to watch the effectiveness of each concept and will make a good case study!

    PS I don't think you should have deleted your fan page – that's the way I hear about heaps of posts and why I keep missing yours!!

  • http://www.teachingforthefuture.com David LaMorte

    Like everyone else I really want to read this book! I was rereading trust economies and thinking about the implications on K-12 and higher education.

    It would be cool if there was some way to create a stream or some kind of feed that would feed interviews or discussions about the book to those who have preordered your book. Like how Scott Sigler podcasts his books and sells them, but you and Julien could discuss your ideas and how they apply to certain markets or products.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    How about we make sure those get added to the Facebook page and then also the trustagent.com site?

  • http://www.teachingforthefuture.com David LaMorte

    Think of it as exclusive content. Like the extras that come with the DVD. It would be cool if you could leverage the preorders through Amazon.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    We're definitely looking for ways to make certain purchases special. For instance, if you've got a pre-order, maybe we'll trade you that copy for a signed book. That kind of thing.

  • http://www.teachingforthefuture.com David LaMorte

    That's a great idea!

    On another train of thought I was actually thinking about buying second copy of the book and donating to my public library. I know Cory Doctorow has a program where you can donate a copy of his YA novel to a school library.

  • http://www.TheSmallBusinessGuru.com smbizguru

    What a cool idea to not talk about the book to your fans but the share the conversation with them about what the book’s themes mean to the readers. This is most obvious and natural but traditional marketing might have a different angle. My friend Sandra Shubert has advance pub uncorrected copy and is apparently loving it (from BEA). Looking forward to reading it.

  • RebeccaCaroe

    Chris
    I helped promote the UK side of Partnering With the CIO for Mike Barlow (http://partneringwiththecio.com/) and we used LinkedIn extensively for the business to business campaign.
    You may find it helpful too.
    best
    Rebecca Caroe

  • http://nathanhangen.com/blog Nathan Hangen

    Chris, I'm curious how you have time to write a book. You are the multi-tasking man! Keep rocking.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Now that's pretty cool. I wonder if I can get that moved even bigger, so that I can buy entire SYSTEMS a copy of the book. I like your thinking on this, Dave.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    A little known secret about me: I write about 4000 words a day. You only see about 1000. : )

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Connie-Bennett/1438433879 Connie Bennett

    Chris, I'll be eagerly watching to witness the results of your book promoting “experiment,” which I'm sure will be quite successful since people trust and respect you. As chickefitz points out, it will become “common practice.”

    I'm looking forward to reading “Trust Agents” to learn your gems of ideas. Also, see my email to you inviting you to be on my Gab With the Gurus Radio Show.

    By the way, what do you think about building fan pages for books that have already come out?

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I don't see why not. But what you might try as an alternative would be a Ning group. Depends whether or not you suspect people will come rushing in to build a community around the subject matter. If not, FB fan pages are a nice way to gently ease in. If you've got a huge audience, start with a Ning site and see what comes of it.

  • http://www.thehappyaccident.net Greg Pincus

    Chris – if it's of any use, I'd spearheaded a wiki of book promotion on the web tips and success stories for a breakout I led at the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference in 2008: http://bookpromotion.wetpaint.com/page/Tips

    You may or may not have run through all these options, of course. Regardless, Dennis Cass' Book Launch 2.0 linked at the bottom is worth a look when you need a laugh when thinking about this subject.

  • http://www.uggsale.org/ huangqin
  • huangqin