Jersey Bookseller Uses Facebook to Promote Indies & ABFFE

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Since January 2008, Rob Dougherty of Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, New Jersey, has been promoting the causes of independent bookstores and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) via the Facebook page "Independent Book Sellers."

At the time the page launched, IndieBound did not exist, and "there was not a lot happening on Facebook for indie booksellers," Dougherty explained. "I just wanted the word to get out there that we are everywhere."

Today, Independent Book Sellers membership is approaching 8,000, and it often drives people to IndieBound's own Facebook group as well as a page that promotes ABFFE. Dougherty has welcomed Paige Poe, ABA's IndieBound outreach liaison, as a co-administrator of the site so she can provide members with direct updates on IndieBound.

The Independent Book Sellers page encourages members to support the work of ABFFE through donations, "because it is one of the programs that so many people can identify with ... Freedom!" Dougherty said. To date, about $350 has been raised to support ABFFE's work on behalf of First Amendment rights.

"We definitely want to thank those who have contributed to ABFFE through Facebook," ABFFE's president, Chris Finan told BTW. "ABFFE's fundraising has taken a hit during the current financial crisis, and it is tremendously encouraging to receive contributions from a new source!"

In addition to promoting ABFFE and IndieBound, the Independent Book Sellers Facebook page is a conversation hub, as well as a place to post bookselling news. Current discussion topics include "Top Ten Reasons to Think Local First" and "Bookstore Tourism."

Dougherty has also created a 1,000-member Facebook fan page for Clinton Book Shop, which has driven up event attendance by 10 percent. Social networking sites readily lend themselves to independent businesses, he said. "I felt that after years of taking a backseat to online entities and box-stores, social networking was our opportunity to showcase what each individual indie has to offer, a unique reflection of the community that we serve."

Another bookseller who believes in the power of social networking to promote the indie cause is Tattered Cover Media Marketing Coordinator Patty Scott Miller. Last week's BTW profiled her Facebook group "Keep Independent Bookstores Around the World Thriving." (Read more.) --Karen Schechner