How many spam Facebook messages have your library’s Facebook page gotten? Lately, they’ve been downright scary.
They tell you that your account is at risk of being suspended because you’re violating regulations. They make it seem like your library has done something wrong and they try to pressure you to respond. And they are a security risk.
I’ve learned a technique to stop these messages. I’ve used it on NoveList’s Facebook account and it works.
I’ll show you exactly how to do it in this episode.
Plus, kudos go to a library from a library marketer who admires their work.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. And 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. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
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:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
I won’t bury the lede on this post. I will no longer be promoting Super Library Marketing on Twitter/X. And I hope that you and your library will stop promotions there too.
I’ve been debating this move for a while now. I am keenly aware of the challenges libraries face when reaching their community. Libraries need every single free resource at their disposal to effectively promote their library.
But you don’t need Twitter/X. Not anymore.
The number of libraries that use Twitter/X for promotion fell an astounding 17 percentage points this year, according to the 2023 Super Library Marketing Survey.
Only 38 percent of libraries are currently actively marketing on Twitter/X. I hope this post convinces them to stop.
The platform’s promotional effectiveness continues to plummet. It sincerely is no longer a beneficial use of your time.
And the man who runs it has made changes that allow hate speech, trolling, and abusive behavior on the platform. He’s reinstated numerous banned accounts and freely allows posts from climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, as well as antisemitic dog whistles.
In fact, on Friday, December 15, as I was writing this piece, he published this Tweet.
I don’t want to support that, and I don’t think your library should either.
Statistics to support a Twitter/X exit
If you want to see numbers, here are the latest statistics from What’s the Big Data.
Twitter is the 7th most popular social media platform worldwide and has far fewer users worldwide than any other social network we’ve covered in the recent Social Media Guide for Libraries.
10 percent of Twitter users account for about 92 percent of the Tweets shared on the platform. Most users aren’t active. They visit to consume content rather than interact with it.
Only 33 percent of Twitter users come to the platform to follow brands and companies.
Elon Musk, Twitter’s current owner, has imposed limits on the number of Tweets and direct messages your library can send in a day, as well as the number of accounts your library can follow.
Other library marketing experts agree: It’s time to leave Twitter/X.
Ned Potter splits his time between being Faculty Engagement Manager: Community + UX at the University of York and running freelance workshops on library marketing and social media. He’s worked in the academic library world since the mid-2000s. He was featured on this blog in 2022.
Ned recently published a piece laying out several reasons he believes libraries should leave Twitter. He echoed my concerns, including hate speech, misinformation, and Musk’s behavior.
Ned has worked with libraries across the world and says he does have mixed feelings about leaving Twitter/X.
“I have found the librarian community to be fantastically open, generous, and curious,” said Ned. “I really value my networks online too, which is why I’m so sad to have been driven to leave Twitter!”
Laura also wrote a recent post calling for libraries to leave Twitter. Her reasons include the platform’s focus on monetization and the fact that so many people have left the platform. Laura also believes libraries’ public perception may be damaged if they continue to post on Twitter/X.
She admits this is going to be a difficult move for some organizations.
“I have heard from some that they plan to address their libraries’ administration about it,” said Laura. “I suspect it will be an uphill climb.”
Ned says he can understand that pushback. But he has some good advice for staff members who want to make the case to their supervisors.
“I’d point to statistics,” advises Ned. “You absolutely see the reduced numbers of likes, impressions, and link clicks happening on the platform. So we’re not achieving the things we’re on social media to achieve, like driving behavior and influencing perceptions of the library.”
“I’d also point to the potential reputational harm of being on a platform run by someone so seemingly intent on causing harm and being so openly hostile to almost everyone.”
“But I’d also focus on the positive – leaving social media platforms can be incredibly liberating. If it frees up your creative energies to be spent on, for example, Instagram instead, that account is going to benefit hugely from that! You’ll see engagement levels skyrocket, and your impact increase.”
Laura says library staff who want to leave Twitter should share articles with their supervisors about how companies are reacting to the chaos and actions of Twitter and Elon Musk.
“Provide data about how much referral traffic the library (probably isn’t) getting at this point,” adds Laura. “Remind admins that they really don’t want their libraries associated with an international disinformation mechanism. Twitter isn’t what it was a year ago.”
What to do if your library decides to leave Twitter/X
If your library decides to stop promoting on Twitter, don’t delete your account. Things may change in the future, and you don’t want someone else claiming your handle. Instead:
Pin a post to the top of your profile, letting your followers know that you no longer will be posting on the platform.
Give Twitter/X users an alternative way to find information about the library (ideally, a link to your email opt-in page!).
Remove the Twitter logo from your emails and website.
I’m curious: what are your library’s thoughts about Twitter? Let me know in the comments.
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:
Fact: the effectiveness of social media in promoting your library’s programs, services and collection is declining.
But that is not a reason for despair. One of the best minds in marketing says there is a way to turn your one-off, in-person library events into effective marketing. The idea is brilliant and pretty easy to pull off.
Get the scoop in this episode of The Library Marketing Show. Plus, we’ll give away kudos to a library that did something spectacular and innovative using its Maker Space!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Subscribe to this blog to receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter youremail 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:
Setting goals for library marketing is incredibly important. A couple of weeks ago, I issued a challenge.
You all responded and I accepted. So here’s the payoff: we’re going to set some goals in 60 seconds in this episode. And you’re going to see just how easy it is.
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.
Subscribe to this blog to receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter youremail 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:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
A few months ago while at a conference, Meghan McCorkell, got the email of a lifetime. The chief of Marketing, Communications, and Strategy for the Enoch Pratt Free Library, she called back to Baltimore and put her team on speaker phone.
Meghan was delivering great news: her team won the coveted Library Marketer of the Year award from Library Journal.
“We all jumped around excited (them in the office and me in a hotel lobby),” recalled Meghan. “More than anything I am so proud that we won as a team. We had to keep it a secret for about two months. So that was challenging.”
Meghan’s road to award-winning library marketer began in the 7th grade when she volunteered to shelve books for her hometown library, the Brielle Public Library on the Jersey Shore. Little did she know that years later, after a successful career as an Emmy-award-winning television journalist, she would assemble a team and lead the marketing for the vibrant Enoch Pratt Free Library.
“I love being surrounded by creative people, who all think differently than me,” explained Meghan. “I’m constantly blown away by the ideas that bubble up from our team. Six years ago, the Pratt didn’t have a marketing department. With support from the CEO, we built it.”
“The Print & Design studio was originally part of the Programming department, with four talented designers, Katherine Marmion, Eric Archibald, Jamillah Abdul-Saboor, and Jack Young. The studio was reorganized into a new marketing department.”
“We hired Andrew Klein to oversee the robust work that department does, as well as to lead the revamp of our Compass magazine. Our social media manager, Vianey Becerra, was made full-time, and translation duties were added because Vianey is bilingual.”
“A few years in, as we built out our email marketing strategy we brought on Ashley Barnes, a digital marketing strategist. And finally, I advocated for a photographer/videographer position. John Cassini was a former news photographer, so given our skill sets together the Pratt now has its own full-service production studio.”
Like many libraries, Enoch Pratt really had a challenging time communicating with patrons during the Covid lockdown because of the digital divide. Nearly 40 percent of Baltimore residents had no access to a computer or Wi-Fi at the time lockdown began.
“When we knew we’d have to close library doors, we started working nonstop to figure out how we’d serve the customers who rely on us,” remembered Meghan. “We started trying new things to see what worked.”
“We used census data to send targeted postcards with QR codes and unique URLs in communities where internet in households was unreliable. We let them know about device lending and our free outdoor Wi-Fi. We geofenced those communities and pushed targeted ads that looked like those postcards.”
“We sent targeted emails based on location and library usage trends to customers. We were specific in how we reached people, who we were trying to reach, and measuring what was successful.”
“That all may sound pretty complicated and expensive, but targeting that way actually really cuts down on the cost. If you can mine the data and figure out who needs to hear your message, you can send 5,000 postcards instead of 50,000.”
Once the doors of Enoch Pratt reopened, the team faced a huge challenge: rebuilding cardholder usage.
“It was a daunting task,” admitted Meghan. “We define active cardholders as customers that used the library in the past year. During COVID we lost more than half of those cardholders. But we learned a lot of lessons along the way too, and we doubled down on what worked.”
“Pre-pandemic we sent around 5-6 emails a month. That expanded massively as we launched more regular campaigns and saw success.”
“Today, we send anywhere between 35-40 targeted emails a month to different audiences, have an unsubscribe rate of less than 1 percent, and regular open rates close to the 50 percent mark.”
“Our print publication, the Compassused to be a 16-page list of programs. Over the past 4 years, we’ve expanded to a 24-page magazine that tells the library’s story. Staff across the library also stepped up with dynamic programs and services responding to community needs. Last week, we hit 3,000 more active cardholders than our pre-pandemic high. So, we’ve climbed the mountain.”
Reflecting on the work, and her team, Meghan clearly gives credit for their LJ win to her team, whom she says make it a joy to come to work. They even came up with a creative approach to their award photo shoot.
“Library Journal let us take our own picture for the feature, and of course, we couldn’t give them something normal,” exclaimed Meghan. “The Brady Bunch style photo perfectly captures the spirit of everyone on the team. We shared a behind-the-scenes video on the Pratt’s Instagram page of our photo shoot.”
Though Meghan has a wealth of riches in her large and talented team, she still faces struggles in terms of budget. Many of the tactics her team uses to reach cardholders can be replicated by smaller libraries.
“My advice would be to look at low to no-cost tactics,” explained Meghan. “I think targeted emails can really change the game.”
“Start a sign-up list at your library for people interested in kids’ events. Create a really specific monthly email for that audience and keep an eye on how it performs and if it’s achieving your goals of getting more people through the doors. That’s how we started our email strategy. Then we were able to leverage the success of those lists to convince our Board that we could be more successful with fancy software.”
“I also think you should try things, and if they don’t work, let them go. Just because things have always been done a certain way doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. Try new things. Fail. Try more things.”
Meghan’s team is now focusing on cardholder retention and data collection.
“I don’t like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing if it sticks,” said Meghan. “I want to run measurable marketing campaigns the whole way through.”
“We’ve got some fun upcoming projects like our Macy’s-style winter windows that have become a Baltimore tradition thanks to our amazing graphic design team. We’ve got some challenges too including messaging out a Master Facilities plan and a series of upcoming renovation projects. Our designer Eric is probably already stressing the design of next year’s Summer Break Baltimore shirt! His design this year has been directly cited by customers for a 36 percent increase in program participation. (no pressure, Eric!)”
When she needs inspiration, Meghan looks at the work of other library marketers.
“I’ve made amazing friends in library marketing. I send them emails and say ‘What do you think about this’ all the time. The environment is so collaborative.”
“For inspiration, I’m often looking at other industries and seeing how we could adapt ideas from there. Right now, I’m in love with our Library Card Sign-up Month video campaign. That was born out of a brainstorming session with our whole team. Our graphic designer Katherine said, ‘What about those annoying lawyer commercials?’ That idea led to a 3-video campaign that is becoming wildly popular on social media. We even have it running on a TV station and in a movie theater now.” (Here are the videos: Lawyer Commercial, Car Commercial, Pharma Commercial.)
Meghan wants my readers to know that, although she’s had a lot of success in her current role, there was a time not too long ago when she was uncertain. For support, she turned to you… the community of library marketing professionals!
“Six years ago, I felt like I was just figuring out what the heck I was doing in a new career,” remembered Meghan. “One of the things that helped was finding the community of people in this field.”
“Library marketers are really collaborative and we’re all facing the same challenges. I love hearing from colleagues who want more info on going fine-free, or major renovations. I reach out to friends in the field to talk about ideas. From this blog to social media groups, and conferences, there is a sea of people out there all rooting for each other to succeed. Go find them!”
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The 13-year-old son of one of my viewers has been giving some library marketing advice to his mom and to others. He says libraries should be posting on YouTube Shorts.
Is he right? I’ll let you know whether this kid is a future library marketer 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.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter youremail 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:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
This week I want you, my dear reader, to make me a promise.
Please, for the love of all that is wonderful and majestic about libraries, add one critical step to your library marketing and promotions.
I want you to start setting goals.
Now, I know this may make you sigh/scream/cry/get angry at me. I know you are incredibly busy. I know you are trying your best every day to create effective library promotions. And I want you to have ALL the success possible.
Which is why I am asking this tiny but incredibly important thing of you.
Goals are an absolute necessity for library marketing success. Full stop.
And they will make your work EASIER for you. I promise.
Why you should set goals for your library promotions
Goals will help you:
Focus your efforts, allowing you to measure your progress and determine whether your promotions are successful.
Establish priorities so you can show your supervisors, your co-workers, your community, your donors, and yourself where your energy is best spent.
Stay motivated. Goals will help you identify your successful promotions so you can repeat them and create more success!
Reach your library’s overall strategic goals more quickly.
Where to start with goal setting for library promotions
Your marketing goals should align with and support your library’s overall strategic goals.
For example, let’s say your library’s strategic plan includes an objective to improve the kindergarten readiness of children in your service area. A goal you could set for your library marketing is:
To increase the circulation of our library’s picture book collection.
But that goal isn’t quite good enough. To turn this from an okay goal to an effective, meaningful marketing goal, you have to add two things:
A number to reach for
A time frame for reaching your goal.
Here’s your new, more meaningful goal:
To increase circulation of our library’s picture book collection by at least 10 percent before June 30, 2024.
Here’s another example from a real library. The Buda Public Library’s strategic plan includes this objective: “Create and circulate Maker Kits, for wider accessibility of the library’s technological resources.”
Their library will likely do all sorts of things to promote the Maker Kits: emails, social media posts, bookmarks, and more.
A meaningful goal they can (and should!) set is:
To get 100 checkouts of our library’s Maker Kits in a 12-month period.
See how easy that is?
The most important thing to remember about goal setting for library marketing is to define what you want to do specifically.
Do you want to increase circulation? By how much? And in what time frame?
Are you looking to boost the use of a certain part of your collection, like your digital materials? By how much? And by when?
Are you trying to get more people to participate in your event? What percentage increase in attendance do you wish to achieve in what amount of time?
You can set both long-term and short-term goals for library marketing success. A long-term goal might be to get 500 downloads of your library’s new app by December 31st. A short-term goal might be to increase Kanopy streams by 25 percent before the end of the month.
One important question to ask yourself
A key element of library marketing goal setting is to make sure your goal is realistic. If your goal is too far-fetched, you and your coworkers may end up feeling demoralized when you fail to achieve it.
For example, if you try to double traffic to your library website in a month, you are likely setting yourself up for failure. Instead, ask yourself this question when you are setting goals: Is this goal ambitious AND achievable?
The final step
Once you’ve set a goal, write it down. Why? Studies show the most successful people write their goals down on paper!
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Terrance is a senior in high school, with a bright future ahead of him.
He’s gregarious, curious, and extroverted. He lives with his dad and two younger siblings. His dad is managing to make ends meet, but there isn’t a lot of money left over for things like vacations or extra-curricular activities.
Terrance doesn’t have a car, but he’s been using public transportation all his life. He really wants to go to college. He’d be the first in this family to go. But the application, the financial aid paperwork, interviewing, and essay writing required for admission feels overwhelming to him.
Terrance isn’t a real kid… not exactly. He was a target persona I built when I worked at a library.
Terrance was based on real teens who used our library. And when I read that description, I could clearly see Terrance in my mind. (I still can–can you?) More importantly, I could find the words I needed to say in library promotions that would reach Terrance.
Terrance helped me figure out how to create effective library promotions.
What is a target persona and why do we need them?
A target persona is a fictional profile of a person who represents one of your key target audience groups, based on the characteristics of your community members.
Target personas help us get granular about our target audience. Getting granular helps us create promotions that let our community members know that we see and hear them.
Simply put, we can use target personas to create marketing that convinces those community members to use the library.
A target persona is not supposed to detail one specific person. It should never be based on one specific individual. It’s a composite sketch, like Terrance, that should reflect most people it is supposed to represent.
How to build target personas for your library
Your community members can be broken down into core segments, or groups, based on their wants, motivations, and the problems they need your library’s help to solve. Those are your target personas.
The number of target personas your library will need will depend entirely on your library’s strategic goals and your marketing goals. Some libraries only need 2 or 3 target personas. Some will need more.
The first thing your library will do is gather demographic information about the community or target group for which you are building a persona. You may do this by researching census data or other data available from your city or town government. Settle on a general answer to these questions:
Age range
Income
Education level
Living situation (Married, single, living with multiple generations in one house, living in an apartment, unhoused, etc.)
Transportation situation (Do they have their own car or do they use public transit?)
Current library usage
Then you want to add depth to your persona. Write down answers to these questions:
Their motivations. Are they career or money-motivated? Are they family-focused?
Their attitudes. Can you identify their perspective on social issues like environmental welfare, human rights, or intellectual freedom?
Their pain points: What problems are they looking to solve?
Their aspirations for the future.
The activities they participate in, both inside and outside of the library.
Their religious and political affiliation.
Using ChatGPT to create target personas
Once you have gathered as much information as you can on your target audience by answering the questions above, it’s time to create your target persona. ChatGPT can help you get started.
Let’s say you want to build a target persona for someone who might use your library’s small business center.
Put all the information you have on your target persona together in a description and feed it into ChatGPT like this:
“Pretend you are a marketer. Build me a target audience persona for a person who is in their mid-50s, who was laid off from the job they held for more than 20 years. This person has always wanted to start their own business, and they figure now is the time. But they do not have a business or marketing degree, and they have very little money. They are single and are living off savings now. They do have a bachelor’s degree in English. They have their own car. They use the library to check out books about once a month. They could use library resources to help them start their small business.”
ChatGPT generated a target persona for “John Anderson, a resilient midlife entrepreneur on a mission!” ChatGPT assigned characteristics that I hadn’t considered, like tech savviness and media consumption.
Here’s the rest of the ChatGPT-generated target persona for John Anderson.
Goals and Motivations
Fulfilling a lifelong dream of starting his own business.
Achieving financial stability and independence.
Creating a legacy and finding personal fulfillment through his work.
Challenges
Limited budget and financial resources.
Lack of formal education in business and marketing.
Navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship later in life.
Hobbies and Interests
Enjoys reading, especially classic literature and business-related books.
Values community engagement and local events.
Appreciates the arts and cultural activities.
Media Consumption
Relies on traditional media like newspapers and local community bulletins.
Limited online presence and social media usage.
Listens to podcasts or watches videos for learning and entertainment.
Tech Savviness
Basic computer skills but may need assistance with advanced online tools.
Open to learning and adapting to technology for business purposes.
Values
Values hard work, perseverance, and integrity.
Desires to make a positive impact on the local community.
Values practical and actionable advice.
How the Library Can Help
Access to beginner-friendly business books and resources to guide him through the basics of entrepreneurship.
Workshops and one-on-one assistance on creating a business plan, marketing on a budget, and utilizing digital tools.
Free or low-cost online courses for building essential business skills.
Networking events to connect with local entrepreneurs and mentors.
ChatGPT also said, “Understanding John’s unique situation and tailoring library resources to cater to his specific needs will be crucial. Marketing messages should focus on the practicality, accessibility, and community support the library provides for someone like John as he takes the leap into entrepreneurship.”
If I worked at a library, I qould take this ChatGPT generated persona and add or subtract the things that apply to my community.
Are personas too generalized?
There is nothing that replaces a personal conversation with a community member. But it is physically impossible to talk to everyone who lives in your service area.
Personas allow us to find the commonalities of the different segments of our audience. This exercise will lead you to create promotional items that connect with your target audience.
Your target personas will likely change over time. They may be different for different programs or goals that your library is trying to reach. That’s okay! Your target personas should be like your library: adaptable, flexible, and able to change to meet the needs of your community.
But by having defined target personas, you are better equipped with the insights needed to build an experience that consistently and efficiently speaks to your patrons as individuals – with content that’s super relevant to them.
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:
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 