Using Social Media for Branding in Publishing

Publishing has experienced an increasing sensitivity for the economic and commercial realities of the business in recent years. By asking the question how social media affect branding and brand management in publishing, this article addresses two subjects that are of great significance for modern publishing. The purpose of our study is to explore whether employing social media for branding in publishing leads to a significant increase in purchasing probability for products associated with social media strategies. The theoretical framework for this research is based on brand management theory and the brand function of risk reduction. T-tests show that social media offerings that can be associated with publishing products do in fact increase the probability of customers purchasing the products - regardless of whether they concentrate on branding the author, the publisher, the character or the series.