Rebecca Wolford

My older sister lives in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. Picture drifts of snow blocking some dirt ruts running through forest and soybean fields, and that’s where she lives. Her house is off the grid and as self-sustaining as she and her family can manage, so a good part of her life is spent baking bread, milking goats, and digging their van out of snowbanks.

My sister also has the most insane collection of eyeglasses you can imagine. Oversized tortoiseshell frames? Yep. Traditional wire frames? Of course. Her latest pair is pink aviators.

These might seem like two unrelated facts about my sister, but when you introduce Warby Parker as her frames company of choice, it makes more sense. When she has to drive over two hours to get to any eyeglasses store that isn’t in the back of the local Walmart, Warby Parker’s marketing campaign hooked her.

What is Warby Parker?

Warby Parker was started by some college friends after one of them lost their glasses on a backpacking trip and couldn’t afford to replace them. They decided to make an alternative glasses company that wouldn’t overcharge their customers, but also would be built on social connection through their campaigns and social change through donating glasses to those in need.

What Makes Them Different?

Warby Parker’s option of trying on glasses virtually and sharing them for feedback through social media was a gamechanger for someone like my sister. She could take a picture of herself wearing a new style and share it via social media for her friends or her fashion stylist (a.k.a. me) to give feedback. When she commented on Warby Parker’s social media with a question about a style and again about their donation program and then AGAIN about colors, someone actually answered. Every. Single. Time. When she finally ordered the glasses, she had time to try them on and send them back if she didn’t actually like them. Warby Parker found that this engagement alone made customers twice as likely to complete their purchase, and built brand loyalty rather than a solely transactional relationship. This model was completely life altering for my rural sister, and obviously many others as Warby Parker has grown.

What We Can Learn

At this point, you might be asking yourself “so what?” How does an eyeglasses company translate to something like growing a social media presence for authors? Here are a few lessons we can take away for our own following:

• User Generated Content: Warby Parker did it by encouraging the people virtual trying out their glasses to post on social media. Engaging like that boosts their footprint on social media, and studies have shown that people are 50% more likely to buy when they post about a product on social media. You can work your own user generated content around new releases! Encourage readers to post reactions to the book, use trending content to make a video, and so on.
• Coming Through the Dissonance of Social Media: When faced with huge, well-established eyeglasses companies, Warby Parker found a way to connect to their audience and stand out with how they handled social media by being present and relatable. As a new author facing the power hitters like Rebecca Yarros or Sarah J. Maas, there are simple, authentic ways to make your voice heard. Which brings us to…
• Authentic Transactional Interactions: Whether between you as the author and your fans, or between the commenters themselves, encourage interactions. People tend to build loyalty where they feel heard and welcome. If the people that come to your social media feel like they’re part of something real, they are more likely to stay with you, and hopefully that means trying out your future books!
• Audience Engagement: While this plays off of authentic interactions, it also means more reach for your brand. The more engagement, the more people will see your name out there. Algorithms tend to favor the posts that have the most engagement. The more people see your name, the more likely you’ll find new readers!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments how you plan to use these concepts to market your books!