Book Marketing Q&A with Scholastic’s Social Media Director, Morgan Baden

In Children's, What's the Buzz by Hannah Johnson

Morgan Baden, Social Media and Internal Communications Director at Scholastic

Morgan Baden, Social Media and Internal Communications Director at Scholastic

Hear Morgan Baden speak at the Reaching Readers Book Marketing Conference on May 28 in NYC!

PP: Who are the social media influencers in the YA scene? Media brands? Bloggers? Teen readers themselves?

Morgan: The teen readers (and the adult readers who read YA!) are hugely influential, and seeing their genuine reactions to the books they’re reading as they tweet and blog about them is priceless. But book bloggers also play an incredibly important role — they serve as critic and promoter and fan all at once!

Rumor has it that teens are abandoning Facebook. Which social networks are most effective for you right now?

We actually still see nice engagement among teens on many of our Facebook pages, including our teen-centered places like This isTeen and The Hunger Games. But it’s no secret that our teen fans are also hanging out on our Instagram account and our various Tumblrs. Their migration has definitely changed our social media strategy when it comes to marketing books.

Are the majority of your social media efforts directed at young readers, or are you targeting parents and teachers?

All of the above! Our book-centered conversations are primarily geared towards the teens who read our books, but parents and educators are incredibly important customer groups at Scholastic, so we’re also having conversations with them on our social channels. And of course, because of the huge crossover appeal of YA, often times our social conversations about books end up attracting the adults in the room, too! Which is great — there’s room for everyone.

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Morgan Baden is the Social Media and Internal Communications Director at Scholastic, where she directs the corporate social media strategy for multiple accounts across all divisions, attracting more than 8 million highly engaged social media followers. Morgan also plans the editorial calendar and oversees the writing and editing for the award-winning corporate blog, On Our Minds @Scholastic.

Along with Neil Baptista (CEO of Odyl/Riffle) and Nancy Martira (VP, Social Strategist, Ketchum), Morgan will speak at Publishing Perspectives’ Reaching Readers Conference (May 28, NYC) about how publishers connect with readers through social media.

About the Author

Hannah Johnson

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Hannah Johnson is the publisher of international book industry magazine Publishing Perspectives, which provides daily information and news about book markets around the world. In addition to building partnerships with international cultural and trade organizations, she works with the Frankfurt Book Fair to organize and support a number of its overseas initiatives. Hannah has also worked as the managing editor for an online media company, The Hooch Life, focused on craft distillers and cocktail experts. Prior to that, she worked as a project manager for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office, managing various business and marketing activities.