A social media story in five parts:
- I'm obsessed with Murakami and tweeted my notice that WORD Brooklyn was doing a midnight event for his new 1Q84 book that becomes available for purchase in the U.S. on Tuesday, October 25th.
- Carolyn Kellogg retweeted with a question and included @skylightbooks as a possible place for me to check about a midnight event. Alas, I had already checked and there was no event planned.
- Hours later, tweets from Skylight indicated they were trying to make it happen.
- The next day, it was confirmed.
- Tonight, they are hosting a #midnightmurakami event from 10pm - 12:01am in celebration of Murakami's new book.
Here's the thing:
THIS is what I wish everyone of my clients would do. THIS is what all the social media folk tell their clients to do. THIS is what every Mashable article is ostensibly about - connecting with your customers, finding a way to bring the online world into the offline world. You talk about social reading (yes, my much longer piece on this and its many definitions is forthcoming)? THIS. IS. IT. Facebook it if you will but I can think of no better way to show your customers how much you care about them than to pull together this kind of event, impromptu-style, from an online request to an in-person experience.
Crazier still:
On this very day, with the event only hours away, there's a piece in Publisher's Weekly about the trouble Skylight Books is having in these oh so scary for indie bookstores times. This bookstore, struggling to stay open, is doing it right. They care so much about their customers that they are staying open tonight for us. You can talk all you want about tech and how it is changing the digital reading landscape (it is) and how you lament your favorite bookstore closing - but it means nothing if you don't put your money where your mouth is. Have you visited your local "favorite" bookstore lately? Have you purchased anything? If you live in LA, please join me and many others tonight at Skylight Books at 10pm to do your part. Buy the Murakami book, buy several others. I'll see you there. Let's do this.
