Opportunity Knocks
Avon A also has experimented with community- building via social networking sites Facebook.com and Gather.com. By collaborating with these existing Web sites, Avon has been able to strengthen its reader base through an already-established online infrastructure. The publisher taps into those Web sites’ users by offering original content created around its titles and authors, such as articles and book reviews; organizing author participation, such as in live chats; and providing visitors with a platform to converse and connect around shared interests and passions, notably reading. On Gather.com, for example, Avon sponsors a fiction-readers group, which has nearly 500 members who engage in content and discussion related to Avon books and authors.