Today I went into Border’s and practically talked a guy into buying my book. I was with my wife and daughter, and as we generally do when we visit a book store, we went to the business and marketing section to make sure my book was in stock. My wife found it, took it down from the shelf, and turned it facing out to make it easier to locate for knowledge-hungry book buyers. (After we left, I explained that Borders doesn’t like people doing this.)

A gentleman was browsing the section, so I explained what we were doing and that I had written the book. He took it from the shelf and asked me, “What should I expect to learn if I buy this book?” I gave him a synopsis and said “I was only making conversation. I’m not trying to sell you the book.” He told me he was from Deloitte and that he was looking into social media. He wanted to know if I could recommend a book on personal branding. He asked me what large companies are using social media for, and then he said something about the difficulty of measuring the effect of social media on things like revenue and market capitalization.

It was an interesting experience. I had to leave, so I don’t know whether he bought my book. And I’m not sure hanging around in bookstores and selling the book one-on-one scales very well. There has to be a better way.

Tags: SocialCorp, Borders, Deloitte, word of mouth