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Social Media in the Enterprise

Shelfari Review

In our current age of technological development, some people believe that books are being replaced. Why read an entire book when you can listen to podcast, read a blog post, or watch a video that offers the same information or enjoyment? It is true that the definition of a book is changing. No longer is it a pile of bound paper, but a literary work that can be presented in many different mediums. This includes electronic books available online and through e-readers like the Nook or Kindle. Regardless of what format a book is read and enjoyed, there has been a definite rise in interest for book lovers to interact with technology. Websites have even been developed to create a more global community of book lovers through social media. These websites include:

Among these sites, Shelfari shows a lot of potential for becoming a widely used social technology.

Shelfari is an emerging social website launched in 2006. It was later acquired by Amazon.com in August of 2008. Since it has been released, the site has targeted book fanatics, book clubs, authors, aspiring authors, and publishers in order to enhance the reading experience. The site offers numerous useful links for avid readers including: featured books and most popular books. Additionally, you can search for books of potential interest based of their tags or by browsing authors, series, subjects, etc. Shelfari also encourages its members to connect with each other using the following features:

  1. Building virtual bookshelves

  • Bookshelves are customized (different styles, colors, and designs) lists (catalogs is a better word) of books that the member has read or plans to read. Beneath each book you can view how the member has rated it. This bookshelf can be made public or private depending on the preference of the individual user.

  1. Sharing with circles of friends

  • As a member you can follow other members and they can follow you. What you share with the public has a lot to do with your preferences. You can share a short biography, profile picture, your bookshelf, receive and send messages to people privately or publicly on “public notes”, view or share other members’ friends or groups they are active in, view reading stats, view reading goals, and view any posts or edits that you or other members have made about books or “Book Extras”. According to Shelfari,

      “Book Extras are curated factoids by the Shelfari community that provide readers with helpful information while they’re reading or deciding if they should read a book. These Extras include character descriptions, important places, popular quotations, themes, book-specific glossaries and more. We have integrated with the Kindle Apps for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch, Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac. You can also access Book Extras on the Kindle device, Kindle for Android and a growing number of devices and applications.”

  1. Rating and discussing books online

  • Pretty self explanatory. You can do this through reviews and the “Book Extras” feature described above. There are also numerous discussions that a member can take part in by simply searching topics they wish to read more about or participate in the ongoing discussion.

  1. Being linked or suggested to interact with people who have similar reading tastes

  • You can search the Shelfari Community and filter results to a tab of “Members Like You” in order to follow this members or sift through their bookshelf if it is open to the public.

  1. Participating in online book groups

  • Similar to a book club, these online book groups focus on a book topic, author, genre, or a defining feature of the people in the group (such as profession) and discuss whatever the deem relevant.

  1. Interacting with authors

  • This can be compared to following “famous” people on twitter. Members of Shelfari can find authors they like who are part of the Shelfari community and see what books they are reading or just message these authors privately or publicly with their admiration.

Shelfari users can connect their Shelfari account to other social websites by adding the Shelfari widget to their personal blogs for instance. Additionally, Shelfari allows its members to connect this social site with his or her Amazon account. However, I have not seen any added benefit minus the ease of logging into Shelfari more quickly and the ability to read the first chapter of some books in order to see if that book appeals to my tastes (a function of Amazon).

Although Shelfari is a well designed website with several useful features, the site itself is not considered as popular as Library Thing or Good Reads. Shelfari users often complain that they are not finding groups or discussions relevant to their literary interests and that the social aspect of the site is not practical unless you want to waste hours browsing the site. Users also complain of legitimate spam to the email address they chose to connect to their Shelfari account.

However, users have also expressed a dislike for Library Thing due to its poor design and the fact that Library Thing costs money if a user catalogs more than 200 books (a surprisingly low limit).

In my opinion, Shelfari has the most potential for growth and further development due to its affiliation with Amazon. Recently, it has even added the option to access a mobile version of the Shelfari site where the member can use some of the more popular features such as viewing your books on your shelf, adding and editing these books, learning more about books, and viewing your friend’s books.

To receive more information about Shelfari follow their blog: http://blog.shelfari.com/

To get more information on reviews of Shelfari and its competitors go to the following sites:

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