Angela Hursh leads an outstanding team of marketing and training professionals at NoveList, a company dedicated to helping libraries reach readers. A 2023 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, she has also created courses on LearnwithNoveList.com designed to help library staff learn how to create effective marketing. Before her job at NoveList, Angela led the content marketing team for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. She also has more than 20 years of experience as an Emmy-award-winning broadcast TV journalist.
There’s an easy trick that your library can use to get attention in the email inbox.
What is it? I’m going to share with you in this episode!
Plus we’ll give kudos to someone (or perhaps a group of someones?!) doing great work in Library Marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryouremail addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
A few weeks ago, as part of a post about exhaustion in marketing, I asked you to share your experience with burnout on the job.
To be honest, I didn’t want to get any responses.
I was hoping my fears about the prevalence of burnout were totally unwarranted and off base.
But….
I received more than a dozen anonymous messages. All were thoughtful. And incredibly heartbreaking.
My readers love their job. They love the library. They are trying their best.
But…
They are freaking tired. They are overworked. They feel disrespected and unappreciated.
There was a common denominator in all the responses. Many of my readers are dealing with unrealistic deadlines and results expectations.
Here is a sampling of responses.
“I have observed a lack of comprehension among management regarding the substantial time investment necessary to fulfill their expectations. It is crucial that we cultivate a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by library marketing professionals and foster a supportive environment that prioritizes their well-being.”
“If a program or event is a success it’s the people who ran the program that made it a success. If it’s a flop it is because it wasn’t marketed well.”
Libraries in general do not respect marketing. They look at us as glorified flyer makers. If you aren’t a librarian, then your opinions and recommendations on how to best promote something are not as valid as theirs. Regardless of how many years of professional experience you have, it doesn’t matter.”
Oof.
I know you are not a miracle worker. You know you are not a miracle worker.
But…
You are expected to be a miracle worker.
And while I cannot promise you that I can completely fix this issue, I can relate. I faced these same issues in my time at a library.
I do have a 5-step guide, created from my experience.
This will not erase your burnout. But it can make your work environment more tolerable. It will do that by building respect and understanding of your library marketing position.
“I feel like I work on an island,” she told me. “Everyone just thinks I sit around playing on social media.”
Your co-workers, supervisors, and library administrators don’t understand your job, just as you might not fully grasp what it means to work in collection development or cataloging.
So, the first step in managing their expectations is to give them an idea of what it is you do every day. Create an internal communications plan to explain, in simple terms, how promotions work to make their job easier.
You can do this by writing a post for your internal staff website, sending an email to staff, in casual conversations with your co-workers, and requesting time at the next staff meeting, as Chris Boivin of the Jacksonville Public Library did.
I’d also suggest you consider allowing co-workers to shadow you for a day, I did that during my time at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library and it was incredibly effective.
In each of these interactions, explain to your co-workers the timeframe a good library marketer needs to:
Research a target audience for a library program or service.
Create promotions, including writing creative, impactful copy, making graphics, creating an email newsletter, etc.
Tell them about the Marketing Rule of 7 and how you compete with all the other content in the world.
Show them how you set success measures for your promotions.
You might also think about creating an infographic or a timeline chart to visualize the process for them. And then, invite them to collaborate with you. As one of my readers said,
“Marketing is not a solitary endeavor but rather a collective effort that benefits from the ability to bounce ideas and thoughts off one another. Encouraging teamwork not only enhances the quality of marketing initiatives but also fosters a sense of camaraderie and support among library professionals.”
In your conversations with co-workers or supervisors, ask for their ideas. Can they picture a certain graphic? Do they think the audience on a certain social media channel will align with the promotion? What would they write about it if they oversaw the copy?
Step #2: Consider their needs and fears.
Let your staff members and supervisors tell you what they need from promotions.
Much of the criticism of library marketing comes from a place of fear.
Is your co-worker worried about losing funding? Is program attendance tied to their job performance-rated problems? Is the director worried about losing a ranking or their job due to low circulation numbers? Are they worried about being embarrassed when no one shows up for their promotions?
In all your conversations with your fellow staff members, make certain you ask them what a successful promotion would look like to them. That gives you a chance to understand how to explain how doing library marketing right will help them to avoid bad outcomes.
Step #3: Set promotional guidelines.
Now that you and your staff have a clear understanding of each other, it’s time to set expectations.
As you do this, be sure to explain that these guidelines are in the best interest of both you and your fellow library staff members. You are all on the same team and working for the same goals.
Set a clear timeline for when information needs to be submitted to create effective promotions. If your library allows your co-workers to review work related to their department, let them know when they can expect those drafts and what the timeline is.
In every back and forth with co-workers, repeat these expectations and make sure your deadlines are clear. In my job, I use email to ask for review and feedback and I set a day and time, which I highlight in bold lettering.
Step #4: Share your successes AND failures with context.
Reporting is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate to your co-workers why a promotion does or does not work.
You don’t have to share the results of every promotion you do for your library. Pick two each month to highlight: one that was successful, and one that didn’t do as well as you hoped.
“Wait, you want us to talk about our failures?”
Yes. I do.
Share the basics of the promotion. Where did you release it? Was there any positive or negative feedback from the community? How effective was it? What would you do differently next time?
Step #5: Repeat.
The Marketing Rule of 7 also applies to your internal audience. And turnover is heavy at libraries. You’ll need to keep working on erasing the mystery of your work, talking with your staff about their needs and fears, explaining your guidelines, and sharing your successes and failures, every month.
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Your library’s digital signage is every bit as important as the print signs and posters you put up. But how can you maximize the effectiveness of your digital signs?
I have five tips to help you get the most out of that incredibly valuable space, all learned during my time with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.
Plus we’ll give away kudos to a library doing outstanding work in library marketing. Watch the video to find out who is being recognized.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryouremail addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
For my birthday, my 23-year-old daughter gave me a gratitude journal. She told me about her own practice of writing in her journal first thing in the morning and right before bed. She gives herself space to list what she’s grateful for and sets her mindset for the day.
In fact, she’s got a whole routine for morning and night that’s incredibly healthy. She eats well, exercises, and tells me all the time that I’m worth taking care of. She’s my self-care inspiration.
I’m trying hard to follow her example. I think people of my generation (Gen X) have been trained to overwork. We were told that productivity equals worth. But that philosophy leaves many of us feeling exhausted, overworked, and underappreciated.
Burnout is real, especially for communicators. Nearly 75 percent of people working in marketing and communications say they experience burnout.
I want to help my readers avoid burnout and love their job in library marketing! These are my personal tips for managing stress.
10 tips to manage stress in library marketing
#1: Create a space where you want to work.
When I worked at the library, my office was in a windowless basement. It was lit by fluorescent lights and was incredibly sterile. It looked like a glass cage.
I was happy to have my own workspace, but it was not a space in which I wanted to work. So, I made a few minor changes.
I hung blue twinkling lights around the perimeter and bought a funky blue desk lamp at Goodwill. I papered the glass windows with cards and notes that I’d received from former interns and co-workers. I bought a tiny portable speaker and played soft music through my iPhone while I worked.
These changes may seem very small. But they worked to create a place where I looked forward to coming each morning.
You can do the same by auditing your current workspace. Is your desk a place that will foster creativity and productive work?
If not, then spend some time working on your workspace. Dim the lighting. Declutter your desk. Store some snacks or your favorite candy in your desk. Bring your favorite mug to work to make coffee or tea time more enjoyable. Hang some artwork.
If you’re working in a shared area, do what you can to add a personal touch to the space. And invest in headphones so you can play music or white noise or whatever you need to help you focus.
#2: Don’t eat at your desk.
Stopping for half an hour to eat gives you a natural boost in productivity and it helps to refresh your mind for the second half of your workday.
Don’t use this time to catch up on emails. Grab a book. Head outside if you can and spend half an hour in the sun.
#3: Don’t try to multitask.
It’s tempting to try and tackle several tasks simultaneously. That seems like a productive use of time. But it’s the opposite because you do none of them well.
Constantly switching focus makes you less productive and strains your brain. Try your hardest to focus on one task at a time.
I’ll often close my email and Teams when I know my focus might be pulled away from an important task. When I worked at the library, I would take my laptop into the stacks or into a conference room. A change of scenery can often help you hyperfocus on a task that needs tackling.
#4: Take breaks during the day.
You want to look away from your computer every 20 minutes. And every hour, give yourself a few moments to take a mindful break. Stretch, look out the window, or go outside and really pay attention to what you see, hear, feel, and smell.
If you need help with this, there are lots of apps for your phone that will remind you to take time for yourself. Or you can use Tomato Timer on your laptop or desktop to nudge you.
#5: Create a shut-down routine.
When you’re done working, create a routine to tell your brain that work time is over. Turn off notifications on your phone if you can. Shut the computer. Resist the temptation to look at your library’s social media accounts when you’re not on call. This is an especially important step for those of you who work from home.
#6: Give yourself the grace to be imperfect.
Even though I know it feels like it sometimes, no one will die if your email or social media post doesn’t get the engagement you were hoping for.
So much of what impacts our marketing is out of our control. And all of marketing is an experiment. That’s what drives innovation in your promotions.
If your promotion fails, it doesn’t mean you are a failure. Give yourself permission to try something else!
#7: Celebrate success.
Success is a great motivator, and we often focus too much on what we have to do next. We should spend just as much time celebrating and examining the emails, social media posts, flyers, website graphics, videos… etc. that do well.
Why did a specific promotion work? How did that tactic help your library reach its overall goals? Ask yourself this question for every promotion you do. Pretty soon, you’ll start to see your successes pile up!
Before you leave work each day, write down one thing you did well that day. Share your successes with your co-workers (and keep a running list for your performance review.) You can also share your successes every Friday on the Library Marketing Book Club Facebook page.
#8: Find ways to recharge your creativity
You might have noticed that every time I interview a library marketer, I ask them what they do for inspiration. That’s because motivation naturally flags over time. It helps to have sources of inspiration and energy when we’re stuck in a rut.
Go to a conference. Read a book. Listen to a podcast. Watch a TED Talk. Read a blog post. Meet with a mentor. Pick one thing that will get your creativity and productivity flowing again and schedule it as part of your regular work routine.
#9: Use your vacation and sick time.
If you are having a day where you’re just feeling drained, exhausted, and stressed, use your sick time to take a mental health day.
And plan to take time off from work at least once a year. For me, disconnecting from work for an extended period is the best productivity boost. For the first day, I’m super tempted to check my email. Then, I go into a period of about 2-3 days where work is the furthest thing from my mind. I have a job?? Then, right around day 5, I start to process new ideas for promotions and posts for this blog! I end up sending emails to myself with those ideas so I can tackle them when I get back.
But I firmly believe that I would never come up with those new ideas if I didn’t give myself permission to not think about work. And for me, that means physical separation from the office. Maybe you’re the same way!
#10: Ask for help.
73 percent of people don’t ask for help on the job when they need it, according to Study Finds. The survey also found that 53 percent of people feel held back from achieving certain goals in their lives because they try to go at it alone.
These numbers are incredibly sad. And I would hope that you would feel comfortable enough in your library to ask your co-workers and fellow library marketers for help. But if that’s not something you can do, you can always reach out to me. I’ll always do my best to get back to you.
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My childhood TV crush is organizing an event at public libraries across the United States and your library needs to get ready for it, especially in terms of promotions.
Watch this episode for tips on how to prepare now and educate your community about the importance of inclusive reading.
Plus we give away kudos. Watch the video to find out which library is being recognized.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryour email addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
I sometimes daydream about taking a nap in the middle of the workday.
It would be easy enough. My office is in a shed in our backyard and ya’ll, there’s a pullout bed in here. I could totally take a power nap any time I wanted to.
But I never do.
Why NOT?? Seriously, what is wrong with me?
For many of you, a midday work nap is something you could never consider. You simply don’t have time. Marketing your library is not the only work task you are expected to do. You are answering phones. You’re filling holds. You’re making sock puppets for story time. You’re cleaning the restroom.
Your work is demanding. And for many of you, it’s leading to staff burnout.
Burnout is a big problem in library marketing. A quarter of all public libraries in the United States lost staff positions after the pandemic, according to the Public Library Association. And in more than half of those libraries, those positions were not replaced.
So, we’re doing more with less. And the burden is even heavier for those of you working to promote your library.
According to a survey by Blind, the burnout rate for anyone working in marketing and communications was already high pre-pandemic, at 74.8 percent. After the pandemic, that rate shot up to 83.3 percent.
We have a problem. But I’m certain my readers already knew that.
What do we do about it?
For the next two weeks, I want to address this issue. I’ll share some strategies I’ve learned in my own work and research.
I decided to write this series now because:
Summer is stressful and busy for library promotions.
You’ll do better promotional work when you aren’t stressed, and that’s good for your library.
I like you. A lot.
What the heck is burnout?
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies burnout as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
There are three main symptoms:
Feelings of fatigue, lethargy, or exhaustion
Feelings negative or apathetic about your library marketing work
Reduced productivity
Why are library marketers experiencing burnout?
This is, by no means, a comprehensive list. But I talk with libraries every day as part of my day job. And here are the main causes of burnout I’ve noticed.
Outside threats, like book challenges, hostile library boards, and antagonistic community members.
I put this first because, to be honest, I think it’s the biggest threat to libraries right now.
The constant, never-ending, soul-sucking, scary, demeaning, and demoralizing effects of book challenges are doing more than impacting our freedom to read. It’s threatening the very existence of libraries by making working conditions impossible.
This month, during Pride, I have held my breath every time I see a library post on social media. I tentatively check the comments, looking for anyone who might say something derogatory.
I hear stories from fellow library marketers who tell me they receive replies to their regular library emails from people threatening and demeaning them.
And I’ve listened as library staff break down in tears, describing hostile community members who threaten them, dox them, and call them all kinds of names, for doing their jobs–providing inclusive books and services.
Lack of support or recognition from leadership
You, my readers, are smart. You think strategically about your promotions and measure your results. And when you take those results to your boss and they ask you to keep doing the thing that isn’t working anyway… that leads to burnout.
If you are a manager reading this, here is a call to action: your job is to support your staff. Your job is to remove hurdles so your team members can do their best library marketing work.
That doesn’t mean you have to agree with every idea your team members bring. But if you disagree, provide context. And allow your team members to conduct library promotional experiments, even if you personally think they’re going to fail. You could be wrong. And the goodwill and trust you build with your team members are valuable.
Unrealistic deadlines and results expectations
How many times have you been asked to create an email, a social media post, or an ENTIRE campaign… right now, like yesterday.
Library marketing work takes time and it’s difficult to get others to understand that. And when they don’t, that leads to stress and burnout.
It’s also stressful when you’re receiving pressure from fellow staff who expect you to drive hundreds of people into their programs.
Remote work and mobile devices
There is a downside to remote work—one I personally struggle with.
Before the pandemic, most of us had to commute. And that driving time, as stressful as traffic can be, did create a barrier that helped us disconnect from our work.
Now, it’s so dang easy to open your laptop after dinner and finish that email newsletter you didn’t quite get through today. Or to check your email. We also carry these little computers around in our hand/purse/pocket that keep us constantly connected to the office.
For a while, my home office was in my bedroom. HUGE MISTAKE. I would wake up in the middle of the night, glance over at my to-do list for the next day which was laying on the desk right next to me, and suddenly, the gears in my brain would start churning.
Don’t get me wrong: working at home is FANTASTIC. But remote workers do have to consciously create a barrier between their workday and their home life.
The never-ending promotional content cycle
The work that sets library promotions aside from every other bit of work in the library is the constant need for online content.
Update the website. Write a blog post. Record a podcast episode. Post to social media.
The content beast is always hungry. And that constant need to feed the beast leads to burnout.
Are you experiencing burnout?
If you are feeling like one more social media post or newsletter is going to put you over the edge, you are not alone. Next week, I’ll share 10 tips for avoiding burnout for anyone working in library promotions.
Meanwhile, if you feel comfortable, share your burnout experience here. This form allows you to remain anonymous. I’m not a therapist, but hopefully, the act of writing about your feelings will help ease the burden a bit. I care about you.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
One of the websites I use to learn about social media has just published an industry report. And there are some very interesting details in there that have big implications for your work in library marketing.
I’ll explain how this new data can help you make your library’s social media promotions more effective.
Plus we give away kudos. Watch the video to find out which library is being recognized.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryour email addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
When Renee Naylor was a child, the library seemed like the most wondrous place on the planet.
“I couldn’t understand how it was legal to be allowed to borrow as many books as I wanted!” remembered Renee.
Now Renee gets to spend every day surrounded by books (and other great services, of course) in her role as Library Education and Communications Coordinator for the Law Library Victoria.
Law Library Victoria is based in Melbourne, Australia, and is the umbrella organization that manages the collections of the Victorian law jurisdictions: the Supreme Court, County Court, Magistrates’ Court, Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and Victorian Bar libraries. Their physical and digital collections are made up of legal databases, textbooks, legislation, journals, law reports, and research tools.
“Our aim is to help support the administration of justice by providing access to authoritative legal information to judicial staff and lawyers,” explained Renee. “We provide research support and training and assist users to find the information they need.”
Renee has been in her current role for 8 years. It’s a position that seems tailor-made for her!
“I applied for my first role as Reference Librarian with no experience in law, but the library director liked my personality so much she hired me,” remembered Renee. “She later told me ‘I can teach legal research, but I can’t teach enthusiasm.’”
I can’t claim credit for discovering Renee’s library marketing work. One of you did that!
In the last Super Library Marketing survey, a reader recognized the Law Library Victoria for doing great work in promotions and marketing. Specifically, they said, “They are a hybrid of government and public library, similar to the service we offer, and it’s great how they manage to have everything in a website with an amazing crisp design.”
“We are actually in the process of a complete rebuild,” exclaimed Renee. “The functionality and design will be improved, with a better user experience. The menus, content, and access to resources will be easier to navigate, with new features coming such as ‘My List’, where users can save a custom list of shortcuts. This will be launched in late 2023.”
The Law Library Victoria has an outstanding social media presence. As a special library, Renee takes a nuanced and targeted approach to how she decides what to post.
“For special libraries on social media I would say look at related organizations in your field, see what they are doing and what their audiences respond well to,” advised Renee. “Build relationships with them so they start sharing your content. This will increase awareness and give your library a sense of authority in the eyes of its audience.
“We have Twitter for timely information such as judgment alerts and announcements,” explained Renee. “I try to schedule at least 3 posts per week, always with an image or video, but we often end up posting every day.”
“LinkedIn is still fairly new for us, and its focus is education and research skills. We post exclusive content there, such as videos and research articles. We post less often as the audience is still small, once every week or two.”
“And we have Instagram. It’s very popular, and the focus is more on general engagement. We post pictures of the heritage Supreme Court Library, and of our collections, and will include some facts or interesting information.”
There are challenges to promoting and marketing the Law Library Victoria. Like many of you, Renee battles for attention amidst the constant barrage of content coming at her target audience.
“There is so much information coming at lawyers every day, via email, social media, and websites,” explained Renee. “It’s hard to penetrate and reinforce your brand identity.”
“We get confused with other organizations, or people aren’t aware of how modern we are and the digital focus.”
“Getting people to read your content and act on it is a challenge we are still grappling with. Stakeholder relationships are key, and leveraging our relationships with well-known legal organizations has really helped.”
Renee Naylor
When she’s looking for inspiration, Renee says you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
“I look at what related organizations are doing on social media, and complete regular professional development, such as social media conferences, communications courses, and webinars,” she said. “They allow me ‘creative thinking time’ for new ideas. I really like what the Victorian State Library does on their social media, it’s very engaging across all channels.”
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Tell me if this sounds familiar: your library staff wants you to promote their events and programs, but they don’t give you the information that you need to create those marketing messages in a timely manner.
How do you set up a system where your fellow staff members help you help them? I’ll share some tips I learned on the job at my former library to make effective library promotions.
Plus we give away kudos. Watch the video to find out which library is being recognized.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryour email addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 