In this month's podcast episode we’re talking about social media and its influence on bookselling, what the popularity of these online communities built around books mean for the industry, how backlist titles are having second chances thanks to TikTok, and more.

(Scroll down for a transcript of the conversation.)

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Transcript

Nataly Alarcón: Hello BookNet Canada podcast listeners, I’m your host, Nataly Alarcón, one of the marketing associates at BookNet.

Lately, I’ve come across multiple media reports on how social media, mostly TikTok, is having an impact on bookselling. You might be thinking, well, this isn’t totally new, and you’re right, BookTube for example, has been around for years, and just like #BookTok, it also has had an impact on bookselling. And that’s exactly what we will be talking about today: social media, who’s using these platforms, what social network is dominant in Canada, how social media is impacting discoverability and bookselling, and much more. Oh, and of course we’ll add a sprinkle of insightful stats to put all this in a data-driven Canadian context.

One thing before we continue, the links to all the resources mentioned in today’s episode will be listed in the episode notes, this includes BookNet’s free reports Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2020 and Canadian Book Consumer Study 2020. As well as Ryerson University’s Social Media Lab report The State of Social Media in Canada 2020.

Let’s start with big picture numbers. According to Statista, there are about 25 million social network users in Canada. For context, Statistics Canada estimates that the Canadian population in 2021 is a little over 38 million. That is over 65% of the population using social media.

According to Ryerson University’s Social Media Lab report The State of Social Media in Canada 2020, Facebook is the dominant platform — 83% of Canadian adults report having an account. As for the other platforms, 65% of Canadians use messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., 64% have a YouTube account, 51% have an Instagram account, 44% use LinkedIn, 42% use Twitter, 40% use Pinterest, 27% are on Snapchat, 15% on Reddit, and 15% on TikTok. Only 15%? Yes, you heard that correctly. But even though TikTok’s market share is still pretty low, it is #5 on the list of social networks used daily by Canadians.

A quick note about Ryerson University’s The State of Social Media in Canada 2020 report. Whether you’re passionate about social media or someone who works in marketing or advertising in Canada, we highly recommend giving this report a read. In it, you’ll find insights about social media adoption and the frequency of social media use, as well as detailed sections featuring the top-used platforms. Each of these sections includes detailed demographics of the users – age, gender, income, education, and employment status. And, for comparison purposes, they also included 2017 data, which really helps understand how important social media has become and how it has been changing as the early adopters get older and new platforms come into play.

In BookNet Canada’s Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2020, we learned that 77% of readers browse social media and the web daily. In fact, 40% of readers, visited one or more book-specific social networks such as Goodreads, 49th Shelf, Shelfari, etc. We also learned that in 2020 for 22% of respondents, social media was one of the three main ways in which they generally discovered books. But social media was not only a tool for discovery, it was also one of the ways in which readers engaged with books and book-related activities – 17% of readers report going online to read about the author or follow them on social media.

From our Canadian Book Consumer Study 2020 we learned that 10% of book buyers (Canadians who bought at least one new book in March, June, September, or December 2020), 24% of readers, and 23% of audiobook listeners became aware of the book they read thanks to social media.

Let’s look a bit closer at four of the main social platforms that are influencing bookselling — Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

From book cover reveals to rainbow-looking shelfies, Instagram has been used as a platform to highlight books for years, from publishers to average readers, the picture-centric, and now video-driven app has allowed many to share their love for books, discover new reads, promote their work, and more.

Bookstagrammers, like BookTokers or BookTubers, are users who have dedicated their online presence, in this case on Instagram, exclusively to books — often while building communities around their love for literature. An example of this is @spinesandvines, a Bookstagrammer with over 24 thousand followers, who has a passion for books and wine and has used her platform to amplify the work of women-identifying authors.

Harper, the person behind Spines and Vines, created the hashtag #DiverseSpines which has been used in over 52 thousand posts. In an interview with The Washington Post, Harper said: “I had booksellers telling me they follow the hashtag to know what people are reading and what to stock, and so many people say they use it as a resource to pick out what they’re going to read next.”

Instagram offers huge marketing opportunities for the book industry, evidence of that is the use of book-related hashtags. The hashtag #Bookstagram has been used over 67 million times, #Bookstagrammer has been used over 10 million times, #BooksOfInstagram has been used over 63 million times, and the list goes on. And don’t forget that 51% of Canadians report having an Instagram account and that 69% of these users report using the app daily.

Let’s shift gears and look at Facebook. While this social network doesn’t have a widely known term used for their bookish community, like BookTubers and such, readers, writers, publishers, and book lovers in general also use this platform to connect, promote books, and even sell. An example of this is The Write Life Community group which has over 29 thousand members. There’s also the BooksGoSocial Readers' Group, POPSUGAR’s book club, and many other examples of how book people have been using Facebook and its features to connect with others.

There are also tons of articles on the internet about how to market a book on Facebook, how to boost sales, and many other related topics. And there’s a reason for that. At least in Canada, Facebook is used daily by 77% of its users, and remember that is also the social network with the largest presence — 83% of Canadians have a Facebook account. So, naturally, marketers and authors have taken notice, and while contrary to most of its competitors where you can execute a fairly solid marketing strategy not spending a dollar there are still huge marketing opportunities to take advantage of — in case you didn't know, Facebook is known for having an algorithm that benefits paid content.

But who’s using Facebook in Canada? Is it the right platform for the age group you’re hoping to reach? The largest group of users are those between 25 and 34 years old — 93% of users, followed by the group between 35 and 44 at 88%, next we have the 45 to 55 group tied with the 18 to 24 years old group at 84%, and lastly we have those who are over 55 years old at 76%.

Now let’s look at YouTube’s bookish corner. As I said in the introduction, BookTube has been around for years — more than a decade. It has evolved from a small community into a huge group of creators that keeps growing every day. BookTube for many has been a tool to promote books by traditionally marginalized communities, to find like-minded people, to discover new reads, and ultimately, share their love for books.

And publishers have been capitalizing on BookTube’s success. Sending advanced reading copies, gift bundles, or establishing formal partnerships in which BookTubers get paid to promote a book or series and hype up their audience usually before the pub date has become part of the marketing plans for many titles at many publishing houses. Even Michelle Obama saw an opportunity to connect with potential readers and promote her memoir Becoming by joining the YouTube team and a group of BookTubers for a Q&A.

These alliances between BookTubers and publishers have been taken to the next level like with Christine Riccio, the creator behind the polandbananasBOOKS YouTube channel which up until today has over 418 thousand subscribers, and has published two books in recent years, Again, but Better and Better Together.

If you’re planning to include BookTubers in your marketing strategy, here are some stats that might be of interest. As mentioned earlier, 64% of adult Canadians report having a YouTube account. When it comes to frequency of use, 64% of YouTube users in Canada use the platform daily and 26% weekly. In terms of age groups, those aged 18-24 represent 90% of the users, followed by 25-34 years olds at 81%, 35-44 at 76%, 45-55 at 66%, and 55+ at 43%. Of note, the highest level of growth of YouTube’s user base is among people aged 35 to 55.

Just like its competitors, TikTok, the video-sharing social network, has become a hub for book lovers. #BookTok, a hashtag with more than 14 billion views combined, is not just a way of tagging content anymore, it’s also a section within the Barnes & Noble website and a display in their brick and mortar stores in which the most popular books on the social platform are featured.

#BookTok is also giving a new life to backlist titles. They Both Die at the End a young adult fiction novel by Latinx author Adam Silvera originally published in 2017, has found its way back to the top of bestseller lists – its resurgence is greatly attributed to #BookTok. The Ice Planet Barbarians series is another example of the power of #BookTok, this series of books was originally published more than five years ago, but thanks to TikTok users, these niche books have found fame and are now listed in Amazon’s bestseller lists.

New authors have also seen the benefits of having their books at #BookTok’s centerstage, part of Chloe Gong’s strategy to promote her debut title, These Violent Delights, included building a following on TikTok. In an interview with NBC News, Gong said “Leading up to release, I was able to reach so many more people than I could have really imagined.”

While only 15% of Canadians report having a TikTok account, 63% of these users use the app daily, 21% weekly. The dominant group age among TikTok users in Canada is between 18 and 24 years old at 55%, followed by those aged 25-34 at 24%.

If you want to explore a bit further what all these hashtags and labels mean, check our episode notes for links to a list featuring 24 Black BooksTagrammers, a list of BookTubers to watch in 2021, and a list of what according to Popsugar are the best TikTok accounts for book lovers. Your next reader might be one click or one fun video away. It’s time to get social!

Before we go, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that BookNet Canada staff, board, partners, and our makeshift podcast studio, operate upon the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and Huron indigenous peoples, the original nations of this land. We endorse the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and support an ongoing shift from gatekeeping to space-making in the book industry. And we hope that our work, including this podcast, helps to create an environment that supports that shift. We'd also like to acknowledge the Government of Canada for their financial support through the Canada Book Fund. And of course, thanks to you for listening.