Now the Facebook marketing platform Odyl, which Scholastic turned to for the Hunger Games and which is used by the Big Six, is in the midst of rolling out a new one, Riffle. 

A social media tool powered by Odyl, Riffle takes its name from the word for thumbing through a book. And that’s exactly the sense of discovery that Odyl founder and CEO Neil Baptista would like to re-create online.

He wants to go beyond the current Internet phase where anybody can write a review. “We’re going to focus on bringing the audience to the table and curating the information. There’s a ton of online expertise, and we want people to push their content through Riffle,” says Baptista, who plans to work with book bloggers, booksellers, authors, and others to create a “distilled single feed” for books.

To do so Baptista will make use of data and insights about readers that Odyl has already gleaned through its marketing work for authors and publishers. And he plans to add new Riffle members slowly. People can’t just sign up, they have to fill out an application. 

“Pinterest is still invitation only,” he points out. “That made them ensure that they had quality content before you sign in. The first impression is key to inspiring a user. Invitation only is a way to give us an idea of what people want so we can give them great content.”

Click here for the full article.

Source: Publisher's Weekly