SIGLER RIDES SOCIAL MEDIA WAVE
Popular Author and Podcaster Scott Sigler has proven social media can create commercial success.
His recently released hardcover fiction book, Contagious recently made the New York Times Bestseller list, coming in at #33 – the result of a group of advocates (or junkies as Sigler calls them) rushing out to buy the book in a semi co-ordinated way.
We’ve talked about Scott previously in this blog, and his successful bids to top Amazon, by galvanising a highly involved audience to ‘bum rush the charts’. This, however is the first time success has crossed over so comprehensively to the mainstream.
Podcasting seems to be a highly underutilised online tactic, partly because of the relatively low numbers of people participating, compared to other online channels. (McCanns Wave 3 study puts Australian podcast participation at 16% (as a proportion of active internet users) with the highest market Taiwan at 24%.
However the connections created through podcasting can be extraordinarily powerful as this example shows. A small core of advocates can make big waves that are increasingly encroaching on mainstream waters.
Add to this increasing accessibility of audio content through…
1. The rising relevance of portable devices, such as internet capable mobile phones (and cheaper data plans)
2. The ability for Google to index audio content making it easier to discover
…and we think that the incidence of podcasting will continue to rise in the coming years.
On ya Scott.
