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.
The #LibraryMarketing Show, Episode 175: Is this the end of social media marketing for libraries?? I know that’s a scary thought. (But, is it really?) There are signs that social media, in general, is not holding the audience’s attention as it once did. And that’s bad news for your library marketing.
In this episode, I’ll share my predictions and the four things you can do right now to move away from dependence on social media to promote your library.
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, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
When Julia Pitts walks into a library or flips open a newly checked-out book, she remembers her grandmother, Velma.
A frugal woman who grew up in the Great Depression, Velma embedded Julia with her a few lifelong habits, including frequenting the library for its free entertainment.
“With eerie clarity, I can picture her tiny body reading a hardcover crime novel wrapped in the plastic library sheathing under the glow of her lima bean green table lamp,” recalled Julia.
Julia Pitts and her grandmother Velma
Today, that lamp sits in Julia’s office at the W. Frank Steely Library on the campus of Northern Kentucky University, where she serves as Communications and Marketing Manager. Before taking the job at NKU, Julia was a freelance marketer. But after four years of feeling like she was always on the clock, she was ready for a change.
“The idea of working on a college campus where the target audience is primarily young adults actively working to create a better future for themselves excited me,” remembered Julia. “After all, what group of people could be more fun to market to than college students? Better yet, I could use my skills to share the work of a library, an institution designed to empower its patrons with free access to life-changing resources and services. It truly felt meant to be.”
The Steely Library Instagram account is a favorite of mine. Julia says the platform is where she focuses most of her content creation energy, and for good reason.
“From a strategic standpoint, it is where the most significant chunk of our primary target audience (students) prefers to consume their content,” she explained. “Additionally, Instagram is where the majority of NKU’s other social media accounts are the most active.”
“Steely and a handful of other NKU accounts have created a bit of an unofficial influencer circle. We tag and share each other’s posts on stories, increasing the visibility across the campus of NKU’s services, resources, and events. After all, we aren’t competitors and are working towards the same goal; student success.”
“On a personal note, Instagram is my favorite platform. It is where I feel like I can best humanize the library through visual and written storytelling, speaking in a voice that resonates with students, capitalizing on visual elements, and creating fun mini-digital user experiences to engage with our audience. It’s where I can let Steely’s hair down and have a little fun.”
In the spring 2022 semester, Steely Library launched a weeklong scavenger hunt-inspired social media campaign. Staff hid six baby dinosaurs, each with their own adorable personality, throughout the library. The goal was to increase Instagram engagement and build awareness about their brand-new makerspace, Stego Studio, named after a 20-foot-long sculpture created by artist Pat Renick.
“Stego is the library’s beloved unofficial mascot,” explained Julia. “The six baby dinosaurs represented Stego’s children, curious wanderers, and patrons of the arts who had gotten lost in the library. If a student found and returned a baby stego, we rewarded them for their heroic efforts.”
Stego, the unofficial mascot of Steely Library
Each day, Steely Library shared a photographic clue along with a brief caption personifying the baby dinos on Instagram. Each baby stego included a small tag redirecting students to the makerspace with a message that read, “Woohoo! You found me! Take me to Stego Studio (Room SL 215) to claim your prize.” The prize for finding one of Stego’s long-lost children consisted of a Stego Studio sticker, an “I found baby stego” keychain, and a certificate to create a project of their choosing (free of charge) in the makerspace.
“To increase the awareness of our campaign and maximize the number of students that could participate, we created a second way to win a prize,” revealed Julia “If students liked, saved, shared, and tagged friends in the campaign launch post, they were entered for a chance to win a study room for a day with a Jimmy John’s catered lunch for them and three friends.”
The idea for the campaign originated with the Board of Student Stakeholders (BOSS), the student library advisory board. Each year, the group receives funds to execute a library improvement project of their choosing.
BOSS’s idea to launch a social media campaign was the perfect opportunity to begin building awareness of the space and demystifying its technology to the student users. “With the makerspace’s off-the-beaten-path location in the library, we knew the campaign needed to contain an element that physically brought students into the space,” explained Julia.
“Once we launched, it did not take long to realize that we were on to something. The first baby stego was found in seven minutes, the second in 30 seconds, and the third in 20 (seconds). Before we launched, I was just hoping that the baby dinos would be found by the end of the day. I was not expecting (or ready for) the high level of interest we received.”
After the third baby stego was found so quickly, Julia knew it was time to go back to the drawing board and shake things up. What started as a simple scavenger hunt promptly pivoted into a trail of clues and challenges rivaling the Amazing Race.
Students formed teams, scouting potential hiding locations, camping out in study rooms to be close to the action, and tracking Julia’s movements once it was revealed that she was the baby stego hider.” One student even planted fake clues to lead other hopeful seekers astray,” remembered Julia. “It was pure chaos, and I loved every minute of it.”
“By the end, it was clear that we had created something that struck a chord with our students and accomplished our goals. Over the week, we saw a 4,381% increase in post interaction and 71 new followers on Instagram. But, more importantly, we introduced Stego Studio and its technology to a highly captive audience.”
When she’s looking for inspiration, Julia turns to other libraries, both academic and public. One of her favorites is the University of Kentucky’s social media accounts. “Their posts are fun, lighthearted, and have a unique tone of voice,” she explained. “I think far too often, libraries fall into the trap of only sharing text-heavy promotional graphics for events and programs. As a result, their feed can come off as impersonal and spammy. UK relies more on intriguing photography to lure its viewers in, and I knew I wanted to do the same.”
And despite the successes she has created at Steely Library, Julia knows 2023 will be a banner year. “The most significant project of my life is projected to launch on January 21…the birth of my first child (eeek!). So, for the first few months of the year, I will be preoccupied with learning and panicking over how to keep a tiny human alive and well. Upon my return, I’d love to start building a team of student content creators or a library marketing fellowship opportunity.”
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The Library Marketing Show, Episode 174: I received the best out-of-office message EVER from a librarian! And part of the reason it was the best was that it contained a marketing message.
Find out how you can promote your library even when you’re not at the library.
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, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
In my sophomore year of high school, I nearly failed my math class.
Geometry at Old Fort High School was taught by Mrs. Hoover, a quiet, unassuming woman with a bouffant hairdo reminiscent of the 1970s. She spent most of the class standing at the chalkboard, diagramming equations to calculate distance and space.
I believe she was doing the best she could do with me. But the numbers and formulas just didn’t sink in. I could not understand them.
I knew I’d be in trouble with my parents if I brought home an F on my midterm report card. So, I decided to take drastic measures.
I was working as a student assistant in the office. When the day of midterm reports came in, I set mine aside. It was easy enough to change my Geometry grade from an F to a B by connecting lines in the letters. I thought I was a genius.
Of course, I was caught. I should have known that my mother, who also taught in the school, would talk to Mrs. Hoover in the teacher’s lounge. I was assigned after-school tutoring several days a week until I eventually brought my grade up to a C.
It’s clear that I’m not good at math. But math is an essential part of my library job. Thankfully, I don’t have to calculate space and distance, at least not in the ways that Geometry requires.
Library promotion does require data analysis. For too long, this was a step that many libraries skipped.
But in the last year, the scales have tipped as more libraries see the benefit of analyzing their promotions. In the most recent Super Library Marketing survey, 55 percent of respondents said they are measuring their promotions to gauge effectiveness. HOORAY!
It would be SO EASY to just chuck the analysis. You are so dang busy. But you must do it because it’s necessary and because the results always reveal something important.
Without data analysis, you are blind to the trends that emerge in your community’s behavior. Your work is more efficient when you know how your cardholders react to messages and how those reactions change over time. So, to begin the new year, I want you to focus on analytics.
It doesn’t need to take you a bunch of time. You don’t have to be a math whiz. Focus on two core principles:
Identify what is working so you can replicate it.
Identify what isn’t working so you can STOP doing that.
Three tips to make data analysis easier for libraries
Tip #1: Record your results soon after you send your promotions.
Make it a habit to document your data as soon as the campaign ends. If you love spreadsheets, this is your chance to put them to use. Here are my recommendations for how soon to record the numbers for the most used promotional tactics.
Emails: three days after the send
Social media: two days after posting
Videos: 30 days after publishing
Blog posts and website promotions: one week after posting
Print flyers and bookmarks promoting events: As soon as the event happens, record attendance and how attendees found out about the event.
Tip #2: Clear your schedule and set manageable time expectations for yourself.
Schedule your promotional measurement time into your calendar like you would a regular meeting. That ensures that time won’t get taken away from you and that you won’t be tempted to give it up for other tasks.
As you begin making a habit of data analysis, you’ll get a good sense of exactly how much time you need to set aside. Then, shut the door of your office (if you have one) and hunker down. It takes discipline but it’s worth it.
Tip #3: Share your results.
Transparency in marketing is a good thing. It helps your co-workers have a clearer understanding of what you are doing when you promote the library.
In my day job at NoveList, we share our metrics each month. And inevitably, someone asks a question about the results that is relevant and insightful.
Library marketers are often so close and precious about their work, that they can’t see the forest for the trees. Your colleagues may look at the results and find some new insight that you missed.
Common digital metrics and why they are important
Social media reach and impressions
These two measurements should be analyzed together. They help you see how big your audience is. They also give you a good picture of the overall engagement of your social media content. But, because they are so closely related, they can be confusing to explain.
Reach is the number of unique users who saw your content on their screens. In basic terms, reach indicates the size of your audience on any social media platform.
Impressions refer to the number of times your content appears on any screen, even if one user saw the content many times. It’s a way to measure whether you are meeting the algorithm’s expectations.
If your posts are resonating with audiences and following the best practices of the platform, your Impression number should be higher than your Reach. If your Reach and Impressions are nearly the same, you know you’ll need to adjust something to make your posts more algorithm friendly.
Social media likes and reactions
Likes and reactions are a way for social media users to express their support for a piece of content. These measurements are proof that your audience connects with your content. Also, every algorithm uses likes and reactions are used as a ranking signal. More reactions lead to a wider audience.
Reactions can also help you refine your posts to increase engagement. For example, if you have an unusually low number of interactions on a post with a very high reach, you might want to consider changing up the text or graphic to make it more appealing to your audience and the algorithm.
Link clicks
Most of your library marketing is meant to drive action by your community members. Link clicks tell you whether people were inspired by your marketing to take an action.
If your promotions get only a few link clicks, you may need to adjust the text or accompanying media to be more enticing to your audience. You might also think about whether the promotion is being sent to the right audience on the right platform.
Video Views and Watch Time
Like social media impressions and reach, views and watch time should be analyzed together. Views can tell whether your video title, thumbnail, and video description are interesting to users. Watch time shows you how engaging the video is.
In my opinion, watch time is more valuable than total views. You’ll be working toward an average watch time of 70-80 percent.
Email open and click-through rates
An email open rate is the percentage of people who receive your email and open it. It can indicate the success of your subject line.
An email click-thru rate is the percentage of people who click on something inside your email. This is the true indication of success for your email. Once they opened the message, were they persuaded to click on your website or catalog by something you said? Compelling text, graphics, photos, and calls to action will all increase your click-thru rate.
Website visitors and bounce rate
As you analyze the success of your library website, record the raw number of visitors to your website. You’ll also want to keep track of the number of new visitors versus the number of returning visitors. And finally, track the length of time visitors spend on your website.
Note: If your main library marketing focus is on the collection, and your main focus is to drive people to your library’s catalog, your time spent on the website may be minimal. In this case, focus on tracking circulation stats for the titles or collection items in your promotions.
Blog views and visitors
Blog views are the total number of people who click on a post. This is a good way to measure the success of your post title and your promotion of the posts.
Blog visitors indicate the total number of people who visited any post on your blog.
In general, you want the number of your views to be twice the number of people who visit your blog. That would tell you that your visitors are clicking on more than one post as they visit your blog because your blog is filled with content that your visitors find interesting!
Can you measure non-digital promotions?
Non-digital library marketing, including print promotions and word-of-mouth marketing, is an effective way to promote your library when used in the right context. It’s true these tactics can’t provide you with the kind of clear, concise data that digital promotions can. But there are ways to measure them.
QR codes
Google Analytics: view traffic to specific landing pages on your website. You can see how well those print pieces work by filtering for time and date.
Circulation and visitor stats
Whenever possible, use your print marketing messages to drive your community to a digital platform, like your website, where you can collect more detailed data.
A potential downside to library marketing data
There is a balance to strike between data and creativity. Sometimes, the most successful library promotions happen when you take creative risks.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. And don’t let data paralyze you or prevent you from trusting your gut instinct.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 173: What if I told you, there is a calendar that can help you program all of your library emails for 2023? I’ll share this secret resource and more library email tips.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries. Thanks for watching!
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.
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 172: In this episode, I’m going to share the results of the 7th Annual Super Library Marketing survey and talk about the value of surveying your community.
How does your library compare to others around the world in terms of library promotion? Watch the video to find out!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries. Thanks for watching!
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.
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 171: In this episode, I’m going to share an example of a marketing campaign from the makers of the game Monopoly.
This campaign uses a very specific technique to get at the emotional motivation for playing the game. What does that have to do with library promotions? Watch the video to find out!
Kudos in this episode go to a group of Alabama libraries.
👏 I do a lot of bragging about libraries. But I can’t see everything everywhere, and I’m certain I’m missing some of the best #LibraryMarketing examples. SoI need your help! You can share anonymously if you like. Thank you!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.
Thanks for watching!
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.
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 170: In this episode, I’ll reveal the single most important question that you should ask every library guest. This question is the key to revealing your most effective library marketing tactics.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments. And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.
Also, I have a special request: I want to hear your best advice for library marketing in 2023! What did you learn this year? What are you excited to try next year? Share your thoughts for a future Super Library Marketing post.
Thanks for watching!
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.
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 169: We have news that could have an impact on your library’s social media strategy.
First, TikTok is testing audience insights, which give you a deeper look into your audience. We’ll talk about the features that could be a regular part of your data very soon.
Plus a new study from Pew Research Center uncovers how teens view social media use. And there are lots of takeaways for libraries.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.
Thanks for watching!
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.
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 