Business Lessons from Emily Giffin

By Amanda Bala

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Emily Giffin, her novel and the movie based on it, Something Borrowed.  I want to revisit Emily once again this week.  When you look at what she has done to help the promotion of this movie, it is truly amazing.  All business owners could take a lesson or two from her. 

First of all, Emily is not above getting right into the trenches, so to speak, when it comes to promoting Something Borrowed.  I am both a friend and fan of hers on Facebook and every day she is posting something about the movie.  She keeps her fans up to date on the revenue the movie has brought in.  She lets us know how much more it needs to make in order for the sequel, Something Blue to be made.  She posts interviews with the cast and reviews from different sources.  It keeps us invested in the movie and all the inside scoops are wonderful! 

Another thing that Emily does well is to get us excited about the movie.  Every weekend since it has been out, I see her post which theatre she will be seeing the movie at in Atlanta, her home town.  She invites all her friends and fans to come out and join her if they are in the area.  She also has fans send in pictures of themselves with their ticket stubs and posts them on her website.  Additionally, she held a contest to see who had the most original picture and that lucky gal received a personal phone call from Colin Egglesfield (read the article from the winner here).

One of the most ingenious ideas she has come up with recently is that if a girl has a husband or boyfriend who will not take them to see Something Borrowed, they can email Emily herself via Facebook and she will call the significant other and convince them to take their wife/girlfriend!  It is great to see her posts about her calling husbands and boyfriends to get them to take their girls!  She even recently may have spurred one on to propose! 

Emily obviously has a lot invested in Something Borrowed doing well.  However, it is more than that.  You can see that she truly loves her work and enjoys what she does. She is great to her fans and in return, they are extremely loyal to her.  She is dedicated to making this movie and success does what it takes to make that happen.  Business owners, look, listen and learn!

Leave a Reply