Social Publishing: How to integrate digital publishing and social media

Call it obvious, but if social media and digital publishing had a baby, it would be called social publishing. So why is it important to integrate Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all the rest with with your digital edition?

It would be very easy for me to throw around (as many do) buzzwords such interactivity, engagement and visibility. Simply increase all those, and you will have yourself a perfect social publishing solution.

There you go, problem solved! But let's explore a little further...

1. The digital marketing loop

Anyone who is anyone in marketing will have heard of the digital marketing loop. For publishers of the past, it has always been a challenge to link magazines, journals and other material into a fluid customer loop. I mean, you couldn't make anything interactive unless you subjected your readers to QR codes (worst idea ever) or included your email at the bottom of an article.

Publishers everywhere didn't exactly rejoice when digital became a thing. Replica editions flooded websites and eventually apps too, with little to no flexibility, except that fantastic (not) pinch-zoom option. Thankfully HTML5 was born which enabled readers to click links and share articles. It also made publications fully responsive for all sorts of devices, so pinch-zoom could be banished forever. Unfortunately, many publishers haven't made use of HMTL5 yet.

HTML5 has brought the birth of social publishing, making our marketing lives easier. For example, one morning I could be browsing Twitter and come across the TES feed. Perhaps I find their tweets really interesting and decide to download the app as a result. Luckily TES has both a replica view (PDF) and HTML5 on it's app so if I really like an article I can share it to my Twitter feed (where I have 2,000 followers), which is free marketing for TES. The Tes social media guru then sees I have shared an article and writes a reply saying he is happy I am enjoying their latest edition. This completes the TES digital marketing loop. There are hundreds of different ways the loop can be completed and this is just one example, but you catch my drift.

Easy enough right?

2. Think about your reader

Before an article is written or a magazine is released you must be thinking about the reader and their experience. You have to love your reader! If you were to publish a magazine purely as a replica edition (PDF) you wouldn't be considering your reader's behaviour and needs enough. You need to be asking yourself key questions such as, what if Jane wants to show her friends this article? Can social media users share this story to top platforms? Is my magazine fully integrated socially? Failing to ask these questions simply equates to hiding from your social responsibilities as a marketer. You would be ignoring the marketing loop, but most importantly you would be ignoring your reader.

3. Don't just plug a hole, fix it

When you finally consider addressing your marketing loop, improving customer satisfaction and bringing your publication into the 21st century, make sure you don't just stick a band aid over the problem. There are a whole ton of solutions out there but make sure you are always offering a HTML5 view to your readers. This is what will enable them to be able to click, share and engage with your magazine or journal.

If you don't have the capabilities or in-house expertise to convert your publication to a fully responsive HTML edition, then make sure you outsource, which is actually something Page Lizard offers. Never settle for just uploading a PDF to an app; with so many devices on the market now you need something that is responsive (reflows to fit any device's screen size) and can be shared on social media. After all, you don't want a rigid PDF ruining your street cred!

Any questions please comment below or contact me directly.