Screen Shot 2012 03 20 at 5 05 00 PM

David Renard, Senior Analyst and Partner, mediaIDEAS, moderator:  problem is how to find what products you want, but don’t know a name, just a category. 27% of buyers who bought an ebook first went to a retail store to find the book they wanted. Discovery is not just about getting someone to look at a product, but to also get them to download or use it.

Mik Stroyberg, Director of Consumer Engagement, Issuu:  Have a lot of publications so get a long tale on Google.  Don’t forget the old, valuable material that is not current but still will bring people in. Google is the discovery right now for publications.  Need to filter out what people are looking for.  Need to cluster interests, not just what type of magazines people read, but what articles in the magazine. Very important that when convert a magazine to digital you need to do more, not just convert. Need to take advantage of the abilities of digital because consumers expect that you will.  Also, in digital people don’t mind having ads on digital magazines. People still like print and they see that many people like both.  Making books to sell other books is a very clever idea and works well for Harry Potter books, some of which are free and contain advertising for paid books.  All about getting the right reads, getting the right leads and getting the right stats.

Rachel Pasqua, Executive Director, Mobile Organic Inc.:  to drive discovery it is very important to understand the power of SEO.  Problems with iTunes, get only 100 characters for metadata and it is an exact search.  Makes it difficult.  In gaming, advertising in a “like” game works very well.  Media will drive downloads but downloads don’t necessarily mean a subscriber or a dedicated user.  New generation is growing up almost exclusively digital and they will probably be much more selective about what print they will buy.

Caroline Marks, CEO, Bookish:  SEO very important.  Need to understand the algorithms that the various search engines use.  Winning at the social game is probably the best method of discovery right now.  Need to bypass the search engines. Can buy “virtual front tables” and these make a big difference even on the net.  Facebook has democratized access to data.  Many recommendation services are coming up that will make discovery easier.  Interesting that are seeing that people are buying the same book in both digital and print formats.  Print and digital products should be differentiated.  When new applications come out it is important to get in early. Find out which of your audiences are self-renewing.

Fred Voxa, partner Mag consulting: need to pick the right outlets to engage with consumers.  Fremium can work for discovery because it tends to push you up to the top of lists, like on iTunes.  Across every single media segment big data is becoming more and more important in terms of engaging with consumers.  Change in mindset, need to be linking in data from all your different touchpoints with consumers.  Big data is very important and need to look at all your sources of data.  Need to look at commerce in general, especially if you are a magazine.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

NO COMMENTS

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.