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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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Google Ad Grants Improve Your Library’s Chances of Being Found in Search: How To Apply and Manage This Incredible Opportunity

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Five years ago, I was listening to an episode of a library podcast about Google Ad Grants, which offers $10,000 monthly advertising credit to qualified nonprofits. Thousands of nonprofits use the program. You apply once, and the grant continues indefinitely.

Wow!

Many libraries have taken advantage of this program since it was launched in 2004. Some of those libraries collaborate with a company called Koios, currently run by Maggie Carson and Peter Velikonja.

Koios is a member of Google’s Certified Ad Grant Professionals group, which has been vetted by Google to manage ad grants. It is the only member of this group specializing in public libraries.

Koios has successfully applied for and managed Google Ad Grants for public libraries since 2017. That grant money has been used to promote catalog items, educational resources, passport services, business and career resources, summer reading programs, and more.

“Library marketing professionals know that different online audiences are reached in different ways,” says Peter. “Advertising with Google reaches everyone. That makes it the best way to reach new people, including, critically, the underserved.” 

Peter says paid search using a Google Ad Grant may represent 25 percent or more of a library’s overall website traffic, depending on the size of the library’s service population.

“Ads appear at the top of search results – where they are most likely to be seen,” explains Peter. “Since libraries are trusted institutions, people are more likely to click on an ad for a library than a commercial ad.”

“At an average of $2 to $3 per click, a library can potentially bring about 4,000 visitors per month to its website, mostly new people who were not necessarily thinking of a library but were searching for something. It presents a library with an opportunity to show up at the right time with the right information, to the right person.”

A sample Google ad for Passport Services at Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio.

And what does Google get out of this deal?

“Google’s primary motivation, we believe, is to perform a social good by helping nonprofits,” says Maggie. “But the program also helps Google fill unused advertising space. It’s like having an empty billboard – better to put something up for free than to leave it blank and potentially leave the impression that the space is not valued.”

A library can apply online here.

“First, you create a Google for Nonprofits account,” explains Maggie. “Google will verify your foundation or friend’s group nonprofit status through their partnering organization, Percent, after which you can submit an Ad Grants application. The process generally takes a couple of days or a week. For libraries that would like help applying, Koios will gladly guide you for free.”

Google Ad Grants are not competitive grants, but there are some details and requirements to be aware of.

“Nonprofits with 501(c)3 status are eligible, so a library should apply through their Friends or Foundation,” suggests Maggie. “Google will also review the library’s website for quality and security issues; it will reject websites that are not https-enabled or do not meet their quality standards.”

Once a library is accepted, someone from the library will need to do ongoing research and keep up to date on compliance.

“Google’s policies require active management of advertising accounts, which means they expect you to check the account at least once per month,” explains Maggie. “Google has a set of policies to follow, and they regularly issue updates to these policies or create new ones.”

According to Peter, it takes some ingenuity and persistence to get the full value from an Ad Grant. Google says the average spent is only 17 percent of the full value of the grant. Google does offer some automated options for account management, which may be the best choice for busy staff. Koios can also manage the grant.

“First, we apply for an Ad Grant on behalf of a public library,” says Peter. “It is not complicated, but we have experience working out glitches that may come up in the application process.”

“Then we set up the Google Ads account that comes with the grant – we do all that for free because we want libraries to use the resource, whether we are involved or not. After that, a library can manage the account themselves, or we can do it for a yearly fee.”

“Most libraries choose to have us manage the account because we can exercise it more fully. We promote a library’s online catalog, which contains hundreds of thousands of terms and concepts that can match the words and phrases people search for. It’s a sort of Big Data capability libraries don’t usually have.”

Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library GA4 Web Traffic Acquisition Data, March 2024

Like most library vendors, Koios prices its services by the size of a library’s service population.

“Given the potential of receiving up to $120,000 per year in advertising credit, our subscription fee presents an excellent return on investment,” declares Maggie.

A screenshot of the Koios member dashboard for Barrie Public Library in Ontario, Canada, showing a 30-day view of 18 active campaigns.

If you’re interested in learning more about Koios and Google Ad Grants, email Maggie and Peter at info@koios.co.

P.S. You might also find this helpful

The Clever yet Simple Trick One Library Marketer Uses To Remind Her Community of All Her Library Offers Every Day of the Year!

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The Clever yet Simple Trick One Library Marketer Uses To Remind Her Community of All Her Library Offers Every Day of the Year!

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

When Donna Forbis graduated from the 8th grade, her parents gifted her a 10-speed bike. Her mother decided she was old enough to ride to the Peoria Public Library‘s Lakeview branch. 

“Back then, kids were not allowed in the adult stacks, so I was limited to my ‘side’ of the library,” remembers Donna. “I was very short (under 5′ tall), so even as a teen, I still looked like a kid. My ventures into the adult stacks would sometimes draw ‘looks’ from other patrons, but the library staff knew I was in search of mysteries I had not yet read!”

Donna’s love of the library never abated. She now works for the Illinois Prairie District Public Library. The library is small, with rural and suburban areas covering a service population of about 25,000 residents.

“We have fewer than 25 staff members (including our Director) servicing our six branches,” explains Donna. “Many staff members do double- or sometimes triple-duty.”

“My official title is Marketing & Events Coordinator, but I am also the branch manager for our Germantown Hills branch. I oversee all adult programming at our branches, and I coordinate with our Youth Services Librarian/Assistant Director on teen programming. I am responsible for creating nearly all of our promotional materials. What I don’t generate myself is usually shared with me to make sure it fits our style and brand before being shared with the world.”

It’s a lot of work, and Donna’s library still struggles to reach community members, especially regarding their programs and events. But Donna’s library is doing something that seems old-school yet innovative: A wall calendar!

“The idea for the wall calendar came from our Director,” explains Donna. “Several area outlets like banks and stores used to offer free wall calendars to their customers, but the practice has dropped off in recent years. While the world might be more comfortable with digital calendars, many patrons still want a wall calendar. Since the banks were not offering free calendars anymore, we decided to fill that void.”

“With a wall calendar, we can promote the library every day for a full year inside our patrons’ homes. We want our patrons to think of us as their go-to for research and resources, educational and entertainment opportunities, and a central community gathering spot. The calendar is a daily reminder that we are here for our neighbors.”

Donna and the rest of the library staff spent about three months working on the format and layout for the 8.5″ x 11″ wall calendar.

“The first version was nothing more than a stack of stapled papers, with notes on each page of a suggested layout,” recalls Donna. “Then I created an initial mock-up of the calendar in MS Publisher and shared it with our Director for critique. From her feedback, I shifted some photos around, added, and subtracted date-specific holidays, and determined what other information we wanted to include.”

“One topic of discussion was whether to have the library info pages at the beginning of the calendar or the end. My logic was, that if the info pages were at the end, behind the December calendar, they would be accessible to users all year long without taking the calendar off the wall.”  

The final calendar is a mix of fun content and library news. You can see it here.

“Our calendar is set up to highlight our branches, reading challenges, and some of our evergreen programming,” says Donna. “We also provide ways to connect with the library through a page filled with links and QR codes to get to our website, catalog, calendar, reading challenge platform, and social media channels.”

The library printed 725 copies and distributed them beginning the week before Christmas. Calendars were available at each branch and through some of the library’s community partners, including nursing homes and daycare centers.

Donna also promoted the availability of the calendars through the library’s regular marketing channels. And until just a few weeks ago, she posted a notice of the calendar’s availability in every library email newsletter. They managed to hand out nearly all their copies.

“We are very pleased with how it came out, and our patrons have been very appreciative,” remarks Donna. “When looking at it from a cost-benefit analysis, we spent a little under $2300 (plus shipping) for the calendars. That equates to roughly $200 per month in advertising spread across our community for a full year. And it is in a form that our patrons want and need. Even on a tight marketing budget, the expense was worth it.”

If Donna does the calendar again for 2025, she says she’ll have the final design done by Thanksgiving, so patrons have a longer window of time to pick one up.

And where will her next great library marketing idea come from?

“Inspiration can come from anywhere,” declares Donna. “I maintain connections with other library marketers through the Library Marketing Book Club, the regional Heart of Illinois Library Marketing networking group, and professional groups like the Illinois Library Association’s Marketing Forum.”

“One of my all-time favorite pieces of library marketing came from the Invercargill (New Zealand) City Library back in 2017, which was 2 years before I became a library marketer! They did a parody of a Hollywood Reporter magazine cover featuring the Kardashian clan at the height of their Keeping Up with the Kardashians fame. When I look at it today, I still laugh!”  

“I keep an eye on what advertisers in other industries are doing through organizations like Adweek, HubSpot, and other marketing tracking organizations. If someone on one of those platforms is writing or commenting about a particular piece of advertising, it may be worth noting.”

“As far as other libraries go, I am awed daily by my peers! Because of my ‘solo marketer’ limitations, whenever I see a library with a catchy video on TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, I am completely jealous! There are not enough hours in the day for me to learn how best to shoot and edit videos, get them uploaded, and do it regularly to build and maintain a following and get all my other stuff done!”

Donna has a piece of advice for anyone working on library marketing.

“Regardless of the situation, whether you have a program or promotion you want to try, need money or materials, or anything else – If you don’t ask, the answer will always be ‘No.’”   

“People generally want to be helpful and be of service, but often they don’t know the best way to do it. Tell others what you need and ask them for their help, and you might be surprised at the answer, even for the ‘impossible’ ask!”

P.S. You might also find this helpful

What’s It Like To Promote a Library With a Non-Circulating Collection? Marketer at a Cultural Institution Takes Us Behind the Scenes

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Library Marketer Shares Her Ingenious Trick for Making Sure Her Community Sees Her Social Media Posts

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Becky Denes grew up on the shores of Lake Erie and spent her formative years in the main branch of the Lorain Public Library System. She recalls hunting for new books, playing Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on the PCs, researching local legends, and scrolling through microfilm for fun.

“As a twelve-year-old, I was even lucky enough to attend the dedication of the Toni Morrison Room at the branch,” remembers Becky. “I met Ms. Morrison, and she signed my mom’s copy of Beloved. For those who don’t know, she was born and raised in Lorain.”

Becky is now a reference specialist at the Amherst Public Library in Northern Ohio. And like many of you, her job includes library promotion.

“I am a one-person PR department,” explains Becky. “I oversee our community engagement, social media, most publications, and other marketing and public relations duties.”

“I post to Facebook and Instagram, typically 5 – 10 posts per week just depending on what we have going on, usually no more than 1 or 2 posts per day. I look at our social media accounts as an avenue for advertising, so most of our posts are program and event promotion and photos, and promotion of our eMedia and materials.”

I met Becky at the Library Marketing and Communications Conference in 2023. She went to the microphone at the end of a session and revealed the secret way she ensures her social media posts are seen by more people in her community.

She uses email.🤯

Becky got the idea to share Amherst Public Library’s social media post by email during the pandemic.

“When we closed at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in mid-March of 2020, like many other library marketers, our social media accounts became my main focus and were our primary form of communication with the public,” recalls Becky. “I did send out email updates as well, but day-to-day, I was posting multiple things on social media on a morning/afternoon/evening schedule.”

“Within the first week or two of this, one of our staff members reached out to me and asked how people who don’t have social media accounts would be able to follow along. This gave me the idea for the Weekly Roundup.”

I’ll be honest: I was flabbergasted by this idea. It never occurred to me to send an email of social media posts to library community members. But it turned out to be a highly effective marketing method for Becky.

“I sent out the first issue of the Weekly Roundup on April 4, 2020,” explains Becky. “It’s going on for almost four years now. It’s scheduled to send every Saturday morning at 8 am, with a two-week hiatus during the winter holidays.”

“The email includes anything that was posted on our social accounts for the week ahead that isn’t time-sensitive like program reminders the day before or the day of a program, for example.”

Becky says the emails are an effective way to reach people in her community of 33,000 residents.

“One of our former board members mentioned to me that several people have told her that they look forward to receiving them,” shares Becky. “Recently, one of my regular patrons asked me if I was the one who sent the emails and told me how much she likes the Weekly Roundup because she doesn’t use Facebook and it’s an easy way to keep up with what we’re doing.”

In addition to the ongoing social media email, this year Becky is considering a rebrand, including a style guide for her small library. She draws on other library marketers for inspiration.

“One of my favorite ideas came from Instagram, where a library that was closed for construction used the phrase, ‘Pardon our progress’”, says Becky. “I used the tagline for our expansion and renovation project that started a few months later in the summer of 2021. I really liked it because, as I told staff and colleagues, our expansion and renovation were something to celebrate, not something to apologize for.”

“While there are some best practices for library marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution! What works for my community might not work for another, and vice versa. The best advice that I can give to anyone is to just try things to see what works.”

P.S. You might also find this helpful

This Viral Librarian Shares His Simple yet Effective Formula for Promoting Your Library: Don’t Be Afraid To Share Stories

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Big, Bold Billboards: Are They Worth the Money for Library Marketing? Some Things To Consider Before You Buy

Watch this video now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 225

They’re big and bold. They promise your library continuous exposure to a diverse audience. And… they’re expensive. Are billboards actually a good use of your limited library marketing budget?

I’ll lay out the pros and cons of billboard advertising for libraries in this episode. 

Plus, kudos go to a library that received media coverage for bringing back a popular program.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Or do you want me to come and speak at your event? Let me know here. And thanks for watching! 

Miss the last episode? No worries!

Will I see you soon?

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The 7 Important Things You Need To Consider Before You Buy a Radio Ad for Your Library

Watch this video now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 224

Morning drive time. Evening drive time. Afternoon talk show. Radio stations, their formats, their audiences, and their ad prices vary greatly.

You might be wondering if an ad on a radio station is an effective use of your limited library marketing budget.

I’ll break down the list of things you’ll need to consider if you want to buy a library radio ad in this episode.

Plus, kudos go to a library for media coverage of a new service at their organization.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Or do you want me to come and speak at your event? Let me know here. And thanks for watching! 

Miss the last episode? No worries!

Will I see you soon?

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:

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⭐It’s Never too Early! Get Ready to Promote Your Library on TikTok This Holiday Season

Watch this video now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 210

I know, we haven’t even gotten to Halloween yet. But guess what??

TikTok has released its holiday shopping guide for marketers! And although this guide was created for shops and profit brands, there were a lot of really great tips in here that you can use at your library. Let’s dig into the guide in this episode.

Plus someone will receive kudos!

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!

(P.S. Here is the guide mentioned in this episode, no email required!)

tiktok_holiday_playbook_direct_2023Download

(P.S.)

Miss last week’s episode? No worries!

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Empathy Marketing: How To Use Greed, Fear, Love, and Hope To Motivate Your Audience

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

The worst day I’ve ever had in a job was in 2009.

I was working in television news as a producer. It was during the recession, and times were tough for TV stations. Most of our ad dollars came from car dealerships. Vehicle sales fell 40 percent that year, which meant the dealerships had no money to spend on television ads.  

One morning, as I sat down at my desk, our news director called one of our morning editors into his office. Andy was in there for about 10 minutes. He emerged crestfallen.

Over the course of the next two hours, a dozen or so of my 60 fellow co-workers made the same journey in and out of the news director’s office. When they emerged, all of them had lost their jobs.

I could barely function that day. Writing was hard and my concentration was nonexistent. The only thing that got me through the day was the conversations I had with my fellow, still-employed co-workers, in hallways, offices, and in the back parking lot. We spent time trying to process what had happened and how it would impact our work.

I’m certain you have a similar story. And to make it through the day, it’s likely you pulled aside a friend, or a co-worker, or called your spouse or parent and talked it through. Sharing your story and receiving validation for your experience made you feel better or at least, more able to handle the crisis. Someone practiced empathy for you.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It can, and should, play a role in your library promotions.

Libraries are uniquely positioned to put empathy marketing to work. We care about our communities. We want our patrons to find the information they have, to experience joy, to learn, and to feel included. And that can play a significant role in creating effective promotions.

What is Empathy Marketing?

Empathy in marketing means communicating with your audience that you understand and share the emotions they feel. It’s more than pushing out promotions, one after another, on all channels.

Empathy marketing shows your community that you understand their pain, frustration, hurdles, and problems. When you demonstrate that, you’ll unlock the key to turning your audience’s emotions into action.  

Emotions that drive action

Think about your favorite novel. The author used empathy to make you care about what happens to the characters. Without that, you likely would never have finished the book.

In the same way, a promotion that lacks empathy is just noise to an audience. You need to make people understand that you care by harnessing emotion in your library marketing.

People are motivated to action by four main emotions: greed, fear, love, and the chance to grow. And under those main emotions, there is a range of nuance: stress, anxiety, worry, compassion, hope, and many more.

How does this work in the real world?

Research shows empathy in marketing increases engagement. Social media platforms take full advantage of this. They count on users to respond emotionally to posts with emojis, and comments, and share the thoughts, struggles, celebrations, and memories of their family and friends.

This is why storytelling works so well in marketing. When your promotions are emotional, they are more memorable. Your audience can see themselves in the story and imagine how they would react in the same situation. And the emotion someone feels after hearing that story has a greater influence on whether that person takes action and uses their library. It’s that simple.

When I worked in a library, the people in our community were worried specifically about jobs. They wanted valuable, stable employment. Many were stuck in low-paying jobs with no prospects for advancement.

At that time, there weren’t many programs in our area aimed at giving people the basic coaching they needed to put together a resume, ace an interview, or even sort through prospective job openings to find the right fit for their life and their family. So, my library partnered with another organization to put on a series of free workshops aimed at improving the job prospects of members of our community.

The emotion we’ve used to market that program was hope… a sense of hope for the betterment of our community and a sense of hope for those who want a better-paying, more fulfilling job. Hope is related to that fourth base emotion: the chance to grow.

Hope infused every promotional piece we created to promote the workshops. We knew that if we really leaned into the hope this program provided, we would compel our target audience to sign up and attend the workshops.

And it worked! Our workshops filled up and we had to start a waiting list.

A subtle but important shift

I want you to take a look at the last few promotions you have created. Were you merely telling your audience that a service existed in your library? Did your promotion include any emotion?

Here’s how to bridge that gap. Look at the difference between the two paragraphs below promoting Weiss Financial Ratings Site, a library database that allows patrons to find and compare insurance companies. Let’s say you want to compel your community members to do their insurance coverage shopping using your library.

Push marketing: Introducing Weiss Financial Ratings – Your Ultimate Insurance Database!  Tired of sifting through endless insurance options? Look no further! Weiss Financial Ratings is a comprehensive database that helps you find the perfect insurance company tailored to your unique needs.  

Empathy marketing with fear: The fear of making the wrong insurance decision can be overwhelming, leaving you vulnerable and uncertain about your coverage when it matters most. But your library is an unwavering ally in this sea of uncertainty. Weiss Financial Ratings, available for free at your library, lets you easily and confidently navigate through insurance options. Peace of mind is non-negotiable when it comes to safeguarding your future.  

See the difference?

Here’s another example. When I worked at a library, we had a personalized reading recommendation service called Book Hookup. Cardholders used a form on the website to tell a librarian what books they like. Then the librarian gave them three personalized reading recommendations.

When we sent emails promoting this service, I used empathy in my subject lines. To parents, I appealed to their need for convenience, saying, “You’ve got a lot to do. Let us pick out your next favorite book.” To teens, I used greed and a little bit of rebellion as motivation, saying simply, “Read something YOU want to read for a change.”

For a streaming movie service, you can center your promotional message on frustration, saying, “Tired of endlessly scrolling through streaming platforms, only to be met with the frustration of not finding anything captivating to watch? Say hello to a free, curated selection of blockbuster hits, timeless classics, and hidden gems. Your precious time deserves to be spent indulging in the magic of cinema, not lost in the labyrinth of choices.”

It’s a slight, but effective change in wording that leads to big results. For your community, empathy marketing feels less like promotion and more like help.

How do I know what emotions motivate my community?

If you want to get to the heart of the emotions that motivate your community, use psychographics.

Psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research (Oxford Dictionary). They go beyond basic demographics: location, age, gender identity, and library card usage.

To segment by psychographics is to divide your library audience into groups according to their beliefs, values, and reasons for being. It delves deeper into your cardholder’s values, dreams, desires, and outlook on life.

Psychographics identifies motivation. Why does your library community take certain actions? Why do they feel the way they do about the library? How do they see the role of the library in their life? And what activities do they participate in, both inside and outside of the library?

Once you identify the emotions that motivate your community, create messages that help, rather than promote. Here’s an easy thought process to use as you sit down to create promotions. Ask yourself:

  • How does my community see this problem?
    What do they do about it right now?  
  • What are their fears?
  • What are their hopes?
  • What do they really need from my library, and why do they need it?

Psychographics lead to compelling marketing messages because they focus on your community’s unarticulated needs and motivations. Learn how to identify your community’s psychographic makeup here.

More Advice

Customer Service Is Helpful: How One Library Scores Big Promotional Points by Being Friendly

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Turns Out, There’s One Social Media Platform That Really, Really Works To Promote Your Collection to Gen Z and Millennials! Here’s How To Take Advantage of This at Your Library

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

I must be honest. I’ve never seen survey results like this one.

My library marketing friends are ALWAYS trying to figure out which social media platform will give them the best results for their goals.

And if your library is trying to drive circulation, it turns out there is a definitive answer.

TikTok.

The platform now boosts a million posts every two months JUST ABOUT BOOKS. And those posts are having a measurable impact on reading habits.

In May of 2023, Casino.org surveyed 10,000 TikTok users between the ages of 18 and 45 (the Gen Z and Millennial generations) who live in the United States and Canada.

Yes, an organization dedicated to gaming did a survey on reading. 🤷

They asked three reading-related questions.

  • Are you reading more because of the BookTok community?
  • If the answer is yes, how much more?
  • Have you ever read a book as a direct result of a BookTok recommendation? 

Hang on to your hat, my friends.

48 percent of the survey respondents in the United States and 53 percent of Canadian respondents said they are actively reading more books because of their exposure to BookTok.

Americans said the platform resulted in a 60 percent increase in their reading activity, with Canadians reporting an increase of 58 percent.

That means that a member of Gen Z or the Millennial generation who previously read 10 books a year is now reading as many as 16 books a year because they watch #BookTok videos.

Holy Kansas.

Casino.org also collected location data and used that to compare the impact that BookTok had on reading by location.

Here’s another stunning result: every state or province reported an uplift in reading among TikTok users.

In the United States, the impact on reading was the most profound in Maine, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, and Kentucky. Other states where readers reported reading more because of BookTok were California, Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois.

In Canada, Saskatchewan saw the biggest increase in reading due to BookTok. But 57 percent of TikTok users in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta also stated they are reading more because of BookTok.

If your library is posting on TikTok, you should 100 percent be creating videos that promote books. Here are five tips on how to drive circulation and promote your collection using this specific social media platform.

Ask a question of your staff.

Troy Public Library asked staff members to name a BookTok book that they think is overrated. The video is short, and it’s shot in a way that builds suspense. That’s the perfect way to get people to watch the entire video.

Use trending audio.

Scranton Public Library used this very popular piece of audio from a popular #BookTokker in this video.  Chambers County Library System used audio from the Creepy Book Club account on TikTok to share reading recommendations from two of its library staff.  

Bourbonnais Public Library chose a clip from Wicked to promote Kindle checkouts. But my favorite example of this comes from Milwaukee Public Library. Just watch it… you’ll understand.

Using popular audio will boost the organic reach of the video by increasing the chances it will show up on a reader’s For You page. And if you’re running low on ideas about what to post on TikTok, just check out the trending pieces of audio as a place to start.

Use humor.

Vaughn Public Libraries used a short snippet of a popular movie soundtrack to create this hilarious clip. At just under 10 seconds, it perfectly introduces the library to a trigger-happy TikTok scroller.

It also subtly promotes the fact that the library’s BookTok recommendations are popular and nudges readers to follow the library account for great book recommendations.

Do something unexpected.

Most people think a library would only promote books with great reviews. But McHenry Public Library turns that notion on its head to highlight a one-star review of a book that most people would consider a classic. And they used a Taylor Swift song, capitalizing on her popularity to boost their organic reach.

Take advantage of staff creativity.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the script for this hilarious and creative TikTok came from staff at the Los Angeles Public Library. We’d expect nothing less from a city just seven miles from Hollywood.

I bet there is someone at your library who is brimming over with creative ideas for BookTok videos. Put out a call for the best script or concept from staff and fill your content calendar while getting buy-in for the impact of BookTok from your co-workers. They’ll be more likely to share your videos on their personal accounts when they’re personally invested in the process.

For more tips on how to market your library using BookTok, here’s a great article by my co-worker Yaika Sabat. I must give her credit: she called out the impact of BookTok long before Casino.org did!

More Advice

8 Secrets to Writing Irresistible, Must-Open Library Email Subject Lines PLUS 6 Free Tools To Ensure Success!

Upcoming Appearances

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