Social media campaign for Lucado’s ‘Fearless’

Written by Eric Tiansay

Thursday, 20 August 2009 02:19 PM America/New_York

Thomas Nelson has launched a multifaceted social media campaign to promote the release of popular author Max Lucado's newest book.

The company is utilizing the influence of its online "friends" and "followers" to help spread the word about Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, to be released Sept. 8.

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt kicked off the campaign Aug. 10 on his blog with a video book review, while offering the first chapter of Fearless for anyone to download. Hyatt also offered the first 100 commenters a free copy of the book and 1,000 copies for bloggers through the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program.

Nelson gave away a total of more than 1,200 copies of Fearless, company officials said. "When we decided to give away copies, I assumed we would get a lot of interest," Hyatt said. "But even I was caught off-guard by the surge of traffic that overwhelmed my blog's server. The response was tremendous. And I hope this only a sign of things to come for Fearless."

During a video town hall meeting Aug. 14, Lucado answered questions from live audience members related to various subjects, including fear of job loss and losing loved ones. Click here for excerpts from the video town hall, plus chapter excerpts from Fearless, which are available for download.