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Building Advocates and Allies: How One Library Marketer Used Storytelling To Improve Promotions and Unify His Library

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Effective internal communication is incredibly important to the success of any library. But it’s hard to do successfully.

Last week, I shared advice from libraries that have had success communicating with staff and stakeholders using tactics like email. But a friend of mine went about it in a slightly different way.

He used his storytelling skills to improve communication between his marketing team and other library staff members. And in doing that, he built support and unified his library around common promotional goals.

Chris Boivin is the Assistant Director of Community Relations and Marketing at the Jacksonville Public Library in Florida. He’s been there for six years. He’s also the host of The Library Marketing Book Club on Facebook (Not a member yet? We’d love to have you!)

Jacksonville is a large library, with a main location and 20 branches. Chris’s team manages all the marketing for the system, including the website, social media, podcast, graphics, and volunteers.

“Our work is governed by three things,” explains Chris. “Requests for marketing assistance from other departments (Public Services, Learning Services—centralized programming, and others), an annual promotional calendar that we create with input from Library Leadership and Library staff, and the needs of the Library Director to meet the library’s strategic and operational goals.”

Like many libraries, the marketing department at Jacksonville Public Library operated on an order-taking model. Library staff would request flyers, posters, bookmarks, social media mentions, or digital slides for an event or service they wanted to promote.

Those requests were often not what the audience would respond to. And Chris and his staff were left to talk their co-workers into finding a way to reach their target audiences.

“This built up a lot of conflict between marketing and the rest of the library,” remembers Chris. “People felt like we enjoyed declining their requests and were either finding ways to do less work or doing just the things we liked doing.”

Chris says his department realized the form that library staff was using to make requests was part of the problem.

“They were looking at it like an order sheet (because that’s what we gave them) and focused on the stuff, not what they were trying to actually achieve,” explains Chris. “So, we created a new process where instead of the order form, they fill out a questionnaire that asks:

  • What problem is this solving for the customer that wants this?
  • What does success look like for this thing?
  • Who is the target (and it can’t be everyone)?

This new focus helped the marketing department improve things, but Chris says the change wasn’t easy for everyone on the library staff.

“Many of the folks we work with had been doing the other request process for so long that it was very hard for them to give it up,” he recalls.

Then Chris had an idea. He asked for some time at the monthly manager’s meeting to review the process, ask about pain points and gaps, and share marketing’s vision for how promotions could improve at Jacksonville Public Library. There were also some misconceptions about marketing’s role that needed to be addressed.

“There was a long list of things,” says Chris. “There was a clear lack of trust with our internal clients. It needed to be addressed head-on.”

So, Chris carefully crafted a presentation that would give his coworkers a clear understanding of how his department worked to support them and the library. When the day arrived, he was a mix of emotions.

“I was worried that they weren’t going to receive what I had to say well,” recalls Chris. “But (I was) also excited because I was confident that I was going to show them lots of things they probably didn’t even realize we were doing to promote things, and I had data and results to back up the methods we use.”

“I used some of the tactics that Dr. JJ Peterson from Storybrand talks about in this podcast about speaking,” said Chris. “I started by saying that this is how they might feel when they are trying to get messages to customers – they’re shouting and shouting but getting no reaction.

“I said that we in Community Relations & Marketing often feel that way too, and I’m going to tell them what things we do to make that better. I also acknowledged that they might feel this way when working with us.”

“Next I set the situation: where we are, where we need to get to and how we can help each other meet these goals will follow. I talked about how important email is to get the right messages to the people who have the problem that we can help them solve.”

Chris used examples to explain how email marketing is working for his library, emphasizing the importance of collecting addresses to build their subscriber list. He also explained how the library and marketing can work together to solve problems for their community. And he positioned marketing tactics, like bookmarks, the website, blog, and flyers as ways to provide an exceptional customer experience.

“I saw a lot of head nodding, got a few laughs, a few looks of ‘oh, I get it now!’ recalls Chris. “I felt like this was making sense, especially the opening where I talked about their frustration with customers and with the marketing department. That frankness really seemed to help disarm everyone and set up a good conversation.”

It’s been a few months since his presentation, and Chris says he’s seen a positive impact. “Resistance to complete the new request forms has gone down, and my team is reporting more cooperation and less tension than before,” reports Chris. “It’s a long road but the more we keep delivering this message, the better.”

And now Chris’s presentation is part of his library’s new employee orientation. He’s also looking for chances to recognize library staff to foster a sense of community amongst workers and encourage them to find positive solutions together.

Chris has some great advice for libraries that want to make sure all staff understand and value the role of marketing. “Use every opportunity you can to inject your messages whenever talking with staff and leadership and try not to get hung up when people aren’t getting it,” advises Chris.

“Remember that in this scenario YOU are the guide, not the hero. Your staff are the heroes using the strategy and plan to find their success in helping customers. Celebrate every win even if it’s just a fist pump to yourself.”

“Lastly, when you find those staff members who get it, keep them in the loop and ask them for their advice and feedback. You’ll build wonderful allies and advocates.”

He also encourages you to connect with other library marketing staff members in the wider library world. “There is a wonderful community of support out there for those who market libraries,” explains Chris. “You will find that we are all experiencing the same frustrations and will be thrilled to learn of any breakthroughs no matter how small you might think they are.”

“It’s easy to feel like you’re all alone because you’re operating in a sea of people who largely share the same skills, experiences, and goals as each other (but different from you). They may seem like the enemy sometimes, but you can help them reduce wasted time and effort and really make a difference in your customers’ lives.”

“Reach out to Angela, me, and other library marketers and library marketing enthusiasts anytime you feel unsure, frustrated, or just want someone to share in your success. You got this. Seriously.”

Chris was also recently featured on the new podcast, “Library Marketing for Library Marketers“, hosted by Katie Rothley. Listen to his episode.

You May Also Want to Read These Posts

Effective Library Internal Communication Is Not Impossible! Libraries Share Tips for Keeping Staff Up to Date, Engaged, and Happy

The Most Frustrating Part of Library Promotions: Real Advice on How To Manage Approvals

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Effective Library Internal Communication Is Not Impossible! Libraries Share Tips for Keeping Staff Up to Date, Engaged, and Happy

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

The library I worked for when I started this blog had an annual tradition. Every year, our staff would march in the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day parade.

Now, you must understand that Opening Day in Cincinnati is a holiday. Legitimately. And people look forward to the parade as much as they do the game. So, marching in it is incredibly exciting.

It was my job to organize the library’s entry every year. That involved getting library staff members to sign up to march in attire and carrying props that matched our summer reading theme.

You’d think that would be easy.

It was not.

Every year, I’d panic because I had too few staff members signed up to march. Then, staff would start calling me days before the parade, asking why they hadn’t heard about our library’s entry.

This happened because we had a messy, unorganized internal communications strategy. And that was dangerous.

If we were having problems getting information to staff about a fun event, we were really in trouble when it came to communicating the information they needed to do their work properly.

Internal communications: marketing’s forgotten stepchild

On this blog, we focus mainly on marketing and promotions aimed to reach your library community. But for the next two weeks, we’re going to turn our attention to a different audience: your staff.

Effective internal communication is incredibly important to the success of any library. Without it, staff feels disconnected from the library, their community, and each other. Morale can drop. Initiatives may not be successful when workers don’t feel like they understand the context and their role in the work.

And when library staff feel frustrated, they quit. Turnover is bad for your library. It costs you money and productivity.

But the people who really suffer in this equation are your community members.

That’s why every library, however big or small, needs an intentional internal communications plan.

Setting a realistic course of action

First, let me tell you from experience that an internal communications plan won’t magically transform the staff experience overnight. These things take time. But, if you create a solid plan and are consistent in your communications, you will see improvement.

You should approach this work just as you would for a customer-facing marketing campaign. First, you’ll want to answer some questions about the state of your library’s internal communications.

Ask:

  • Do you have a strategy? How effective is it?
  • What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
  • Who is currently involved in shaping and executing your current internal communications?
  • Who needs to be involved in improving those communications?

Next, you’ll want to determine your goals. Use the SMART goals framework to set your library up for success.

Your goals should be:

  • Specific: Define what you want to accomplish in clear, simple terms that everyone on your library staff, from front-line workers to senior leaders, can understand.
  • Measurable: Create milestones and targets that can help you see your progress toward each aspect of your goal.
  • Attainable: Set goals that are manageable and realistic.
  • Relevant: Create goals that develop your library staff members, serve your community, and connect to your library’s overall strategic plan.
  • Time-based: Create a specific timeframe for reaching your goals. This timeframe will ensure you are accountable to the staff. It will also prompt you to reflect on how your plan is progressing, and change direction if you encounter any issues.

Finally, you’ll want to decide how you’ll measure the success of your internal communications. You may want to measure:

  • Decrease in employee turnover  
  • Increase in candidates applying for new jobs  
  • Increase in staff workplace satisfaction
  • Increase in staff performance review ratings

Library staff is an audience

The next task is to uncover the best way to connect with your audience: the staff. What do they need to know? When do they need to know it? And how do they want that information delivered?

Jill Fuller is a Marketing and Communications Librarian for Bridges Library System. Her job involves a lot of communication with staff at various libraries in the system. And she uses surveys, like this one, to figure out what her audience wants to see in her staff emails.

“They have excellent open and click rates,” she explained, “but I wanted to get quantitative data too. I asked them questions about how helpful they were, whether they were relevant to their jobs, which topics they wanted me to focus on, the frequency and length of the emails, and more.”

“I never knew how much the emails were appreciated! With the data I gathered, I have been able to focus more on the topics the library staffs were most interested in and scaled the frequency down to every other week.”

Use Jill’s advice and create a survey to gauge the needs and preferences of your staff. Jill suggests you ask:

  • Their preferences for getting information
  • How they share system information with their staff or colleagues
  • Whether they feel they receive enough communication
  • Whether they feel the communication is accurate
  • How comfortable they feel contacting your library with questions.

Make the survey easy to fill out, and as short as possible. Let the staff know that the survey is their best way to share their thoughts about the direction your library should take with internal communications.

And give staff time to fill it out. It should be available for at least two weeks. You want a participation percentage of 80 percent or higher. Reminders in email, delivered by managers, and in signage in staff areas will help.

Even better, ask managers to set a meeting appointment on staff calendars for filling out the survey.   

The benefit of a newsletter for internal library communications

If you have a lot of information to share, as Jill does, consider creating an internal library newsletter. Newsletters take what could have been multiple emails and condense them into a simple, easy-to-read format.

Cindy Starks is the Communications Coordinator for Coal City Public Library District, a small library southwest of Chicago, Illinois. They serve a population of 11,000 residents and have 22 employees. 

After each monthly department heads meeting, it’s Cindy’s job to prepare a summary in a newsletter to staff called the Staff FYI Newsletter.

“The newsletter can be a lot of information to retain for staff,” admitted Cindy, “but by having it emailed they can refer to it at any time when they don’t remember something.”

Tips for a staff newsletter

  • Provide the right news and information. Carefully consider the kind of information your employees need. Try not to send too much information in one email, or too many emails.
  • Remember your calls to action. Encourage staff to take the next step, such as sharing information on social media, filling out a survey, or signing up for training or new initiatives.
  • Strengthen your subject lines. You want staff to open your emails, so consider your subject line just as you do for any email communication to patrons. Use emojis or power words to catch the attention of your staff.

Advice from a library

Grace Riario and Anita Baumann of Ramapo Catskill Public Library System send a newsletter six times per year to all library trustees serving on the Boards of their 47 member libraries. 

They’ve got three pieces of advice for internal communications.

“Keep the text short and positive,” says Grace. “Pictures representing the topics are a must.”

“Lists, such as the three best things about being a library director, ensure that people will read that piece in your newsletter,” continued Grace.  

“A third ‘strategy’ we employ is consistency in formatting and color palette,” shared Grace “Prominent display of the organization’s logo, as well as a uniform look and subject line in the email when it’s distributed help readers to recognize the material when it hits their inbox.”  

Staff communication beyond emails

My library ended up adding an internal communications position to our ranks. That person attended meetings, created talking points for managers to explain new initiatives, and organized our internal staff website. She discovered our staff liked to hear the news directly from senior staff, so she started a weekly video series where senior leaders appeared in short videos to share information.

If your library cannot add a staff member specifically tasked with internal communications, there are still things you can do. Libraries can be very siloed and bureaucratic organizations. But the libraries that open those siloes and promote productive and meaningful conversations have success in internal communications.

This can be done by leaving space for question-and-answer sessions at the end of all-staff meetings. You can also add a Q and A board to your internal website. Encourage staff to ask questions and share information with each other.

You May Also Want to Read These Posts

Building Advocates and Allies: How One Library Marketer Used Storytelling To Improve Promotions and Unify His Library

An Academic Library Increased Their Instagram Reach by 1149% in a Year! Learn Their Secrets for Success

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.

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Your Library CAN Compete With Amazon for Readers! Here Are 4 Ideas To Beat the Big Box Giant at the Book Game🏆

Watch the Episode Now

The Library Marketing​​​​​​​​ Show, Episode 154: In this episode, I will share how your library CAN compete with Amazon for readers!

A study by two researchers from Portland, Oregon shows us why readers prefer Amazon.

But libraries can win those readers back with some simple changes. I’ll show you what the researchers said libraries need to do to compete with Amazon.

Kudos in this episode go to “the lone librarian” of Castle Rock 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. And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.

Thanks for watching!

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A Major Research Study Sheds Light on the Reading Habits of Millennials and Gen Z: What the Results Mean for Your Library Promotions

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Self-absorbed. Screen-obsessed. Entitled. Lazy. Those are just four of the many stereotypes I’ve heard about young adults.

I’ve raised two Gen-Zers. My daughters, now aged 18 and 22, are hardworking and socially conscious. They set boundaries for their work-life balance. They have an easier time setting down their phones than I do. And they read books from the library.

Their generation and the one before them (Millennials) are the subjects of a study by two researchers from Portland State University. I first learned the results at ALA 2022. This is one of the only studies that shed light on this key demographic’s reading and library habits.

Dr. Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berens’ findings are part of a larger study that included questions about video games, publishing piracy, and TV and movie-watching habits. Noorda and Berens’ drilled down on the results of about 2,000 Millennial and Gen-Z respondents who were part of their original study.

Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 is considered a Millennial. Anyone born from 1997 onward is Gen Z.

Pew Research Center

Noorda and Berens made a lot of fascinating discoveries, some of which I’ll cover in an upcoming episode of The Library Marketing Show. Here are five key implications their research has on your library marketing.

Millennials and Gen Z toggle between virtual and physical spaces.

What this means for library marketing: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all your promotions aimed at Millennials and Gen Z need to be in the digital space.

92 percent of people in this age group check social media every day. But 54 percent have visited a physical library location in the last 12 months. That compares with 45 percent of Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980), 43 percent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), and 36 percent of the Silent Generation (born before 1945).

Remember the Rule of 7 marketing principle: it takes an average of seven exposures to your marketing message before a person will act on it. The rule is less about the number. It means you must promote your library services, collection, and events more than once on multiple channels.

You’ll want to check your platform insights to identify the preferred digital platforms for these two age groups. For most libraries, you’ll likely discover that your Gen Z and Millennial patrons prefer TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and email.

And they love print materials, especially mail! This article has lots of great stats about young adults’ attitudes toward print promotions. It’s clear that postcards, brochures, and magazine-style pieces, must be part of your marketing aimed at Millennials and Gen Z. 

For more tips on communication with Gen Z and Millennials, watch this:   

Millennials and Gen Z reader get their book recommendations from many places including the public library and online library catalogs.

What this means for your library marketing: Collection marketing and readers’ advisory must be a part of your strategic promotions. We want young adults to turn to your library for expert reading recommendations. That will help your library to build loyal users in these two generations.

Booklists need to be front and center on your library’s website. Book recommendations should make up most of your library’s promotions aimed at young adults. And if your library offers personalized readers’ advisory, you should be promoting it specifically targeted to this generation.

Millennials and Gen Z prefer print, eBooks, and audiobooks… in that order.

What this means for your library marketing: Your collection marketing promotions aimed at young adults should include cross-promotion of titles and formats.

The study respondents told Noorda and Berens that they are deterred from checking out digital items by long wait times. So, if there is a shorter wait list for holds in another format, offer a choice. And include read-alikes in multiple formats when the holds list is long.

Don’t feel conflicted about promoting both your print and your digital collections. Over time, promoting print and digital offerings on a consistent basis will drive home the idea that your library is focused on the wants and needs of your community.

Coming up next week: Key points about digital and print reading habits that will help you create effective promotions of both formats!

1 in 3 members of this demographic bought a book they first found in a library.

What this means for your library marketing: Author events at libraries drive book sales. But publishers have no idea that we are helping them make money.

Most libraries work with authors, not publishers, to schedule events. As a result, publishers are often unaware of library events’ positive impact on sales. They need to know that your work is having a positive impact on sales for these two generations.

Your library needs to track, measure, and communicate your full impact on book sales back to publishers. Develop a media kit that defines the audience of the event, and the actual monetary value of promotional platforms like email, social media, and press coverage. Once the event is over, send that data to the publisher directly. 

Millennials and Gen Z readers are motivated to read by escape, self-improvement, and social connection.

What this means for your library marketing: This study uncovered the psychographic motivations of these two generations. Those pieces of information are the key to compelling marketing messages.

The words you use, the images you use, and the emotions you create with your promotions should be focused on evoking these motivations. Think about how you craft your messages to activate the things young adults care about.

Further Reading

Your Library Can Reach Teens With Programming and Marketing! A Look Inside the Lives and Minds of the Elusive Generation Z
You Don’t Have To Be Cool To Promote Your Library to Teens! Here Are Seven Seriously Easy Ways To Connect With Gen Z

Angela’s Latest Book Review

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Marketing Your Library to Senior Citizens: How to Circumvent Stereotypes and Authentically Connect With Older Patrons

 

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

A few weeks ago, I learned that, as a 50-year-old, I can technically join the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

I have NO INTENTION of retiring for many, many more years (maybe never?!). But in learning about my newfound status, I start to think about how libraries market to senior citizens.

More than 54 million adults ages 65 and older live in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That accounts for about 16.5 percent of the nation’s total population. And seniors are expected to outnumber children in the United States by 2035.

Goals focused on seniors require marketing target to seniors

Depending on your library’s overall goals, it may be critical for your organization to focus on attracting and retaining a larger percentage of your community’s older residents.

For example, the Queens Library’s strategic plan specifically says, “The borough is growing older, with its elderly population projected to increase by more than 30% by 2040.” The plan then lists among its goals, a provision for providing a more robust large print collection, as well as a goal to connect the older residents intentionally and strategically with library services.

Today’s senior citizen is not your stereotypical grandma

If your mental picture of an older person is frail, technologically challenged, and dependent on others, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Older patrons are Interested in keeping healthy so they can stay independent at home. And they’re active on social media. More than 70 percent have a Facebook account, and more than 40 percent are on Instagram. And The Guardian recently published statistics that show the number of older people on TikTok is growing significantly.

Particularly during the pandemic, seniors learned to embrace technology. They readily engage with video chats and content on mobile devices. In fact, three out of every four seniors say they depend on technology to help them manage their lives and to stay in touch with family and friends.

More than half of older adults still work at least part-time. They’re more likely to volunteer their time. And the poverty rate is high among this group. 10.5 percent of white Americans over age 65 live in poverty and rates are three times higher for Hispanic and Black Americans.

Getting to know your older patrons

Of course, the older patrons in your service area may have different wants and needs. You’ll need to do is your own market research. A strategic survey targeted at this age group will help your library get concrete data on the makeup and needs of your older population.

You can also consult data provided by the US Census Bureau to build an accurate picture of your older patrons. Finally, conduct focus groups in partnership with senior community centers. You’ll have the chance to get direct feedback on the ways your library can connect with, and serve, your older residents.

Based on what you learn, you should develop a marketing persona to specifically address segments of your older population. And you may find you need more than one persona to capture the essence of your older patrons.

For example, you may find that you have three key groups of older residents: those approaching retirement, those who are retired and active, and those who require assistance from caregivers. These three groups will all have distinct library service needs. They’ll respond differently to your library promotions.

Highlight the things they value

Older folks love to bargain hunt and save money. This is where price comparison and other promotions that highlight the savings provided by a library card can be advantageous for your library.

For example, if you check out kitchen tools in your library of things, a “try before you buy” message drives home the value of the library. Your marketing piece should include the price of one or two kitchen tools, purchased new, to help your older patrons see they can potentially save money by trying the gadgets out first.

Seniors are looking for advanced tech help. Surveys show that people ages 50 and older want to learn how to manage smart-home technology, stream entertainment from sites like Hulu or Netflix, and video chat with friends and family. Programs at your library should address this need.

Focus on communicating the mission, vision, and values of your library. Seniors are more likely to vote and more likely to believe in investments in institutions.

Have a plan to target your older population with value-oriented messages. Build empathy through storytelling and show how your library provides value. You will be rewarded with the support of your older population.

In-person outreach is critical to targeting your older population. This demographic values personal, face-to-face interaction. Partner with faith-based organizations, meals on wheels, senior clubs, and community centers to distribute promotional material and get a chance for those in-person opportunities with your older community members.

Include testimonials and storytelling as part of your marketing strategy aimed at seniors. Older patrons aren’t influenced by sweeping claims or generalizations. They value personal experience, especially from people they can relate to.

More tips to create effective marketing targeted at seniors

Older people love print marketing materials. Seniors grew up receiving advertisements and physical catalogs in the mail. Print is familiar and even nostalgic to this group. They prefer something tangible they can hold in their hands.

Make digital communications accessible and mobile responsive. The Marketing Rule of 7 applies to this demographic. And they do love to sign up for email newsletters and visit websites. So make sure your digital marketing material is accessible to meet the various physical needs of this age group. Use as little text as possible, surrounded by white space and generous margins. Make fonts on your website, emails, and in print material 16 pt. or larger. Increase the size of your website and email buttons for messages aimed at this demographic.

Facebook posts are especially effective for targeting seniors. Regular readers know I’m not a fan of Facebook for marketing. The exception is this. Senior patrons are still heavy users of Facebook. I would recommend experimenting with a focused Facebook strategy aimed exclusively at connecting with your older population.

Examples of great library marketing aimed at seniors

Montgomery County Public Libraries

Milwaukee Public Libraries

Has your library created marketing targeted at older community members? Add your examples in the comments!

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An Academic Library Increased Their Instagram Reach by 1149% in a Year! Learn Their Secrets for Success

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An Academic Library Increased Their Instagram Reach by 1149% in a Year! Learn Their Secrets for Success

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Readers: Please take this one-question survey!

Here’s the understatement of the century: every library is battling for success on social media.

But one librarian is seeing it, and this week, he’s sharing his secrets with us!

Ned Potter works for the University of York Library & Archives in the United Kingdom. Recently, his organization was asked to share an internal guidance document with another organization. In the document, the library outlines its approach to @UoYLibrary on Instagram.

Ned says, “At that point, we thought why not share them more widely for anyone else who is interested? So here they are.”

He posted the internal document here: University of York Library’s Instagram Guidelines. And he wrote a blog post about the impact those decisions have had on their Instagram account. (You should subscribe, BTW!)

He’s seeing great success with this approach. Says Ned, “Using these guidelines we’ve increased our Instagram reach by 1149% in 12 months. This stuff really works!” Ned kindly granted permission to reblog his post here.

The caveat

This is an internal doc. It’s literally just the guidance I wrote for the York staff who help me do the Instagram. So that means it’s not a definitive all-encompassing guide! There are probably things we’ve talked about internally that everyone knows, so it’s not codified here.

Also, we’re an academic library so it may be skewed towards that sector. Generally speaking though, I think pretty much everything here is applicable to any non-profits using Instagram.

Another small caveat is, that I’m not trying to present York’s Insta as the finished article, the account to which everyone should aspire. We’re still learning, still improving, and still trying to increase our reach. We don’t nail everything, we still post things people don’t respond to. We’re a work in progress, and this post is really about how to make that progress happen.

The context

Our Instagram was created in 2016 by a Comms Team rather than by us in the library. We finally got control of it ourselves in mid-2017. From that point on it went okay, gradually building up followers and levels of engagement but not setting the world on fire.

From the time the pandemic started, I spent much more time actively involved in social media rather than just writing the guidelines, and our Instagram use increased accordingly. We posted a lot more to the Grid, essentially tried harder, and, frankly, started to do more of the things I was always telling other libraries to do in social media workshops. It worked well, but it was still very much in the shade of our Twitter account, and not quite hitting the heights we wanted.

Exactly a year ago, I decided that we needed to invest more time in Instagram and make it work better.

Instagram is absolutely essential for reaching undergrads

It is THE communication channel on which to get messages to undergraduates, nothing else comes close. Our Twitter was doing really well and was where we put the most time, and all that time paid off with lots of growth and engagement. But I did some follower analysis and, at least among those who engaged by replying and quote-tweeting us, it was clear that our audience there primarily consisted of PostGrads, Researchers, and Academics. So our key social media messages were not getting through to UGs. Insta is the answer to that problem.

In 2021 I co-presented at an event with Liverpool Uni Library, whose social media really is something of a gold standard in academic libraries. Before the event we chatted on zoom – they had grown their Instagram massively in recent times, which made me think perhaps we could do the same. So I asked my colleague Rebecca Connolly to go on a little fact-finding mission and check out Liverpool, Glasgow and other university libraries with good Instagram engagement went about their business and what we could learn. Rebecca produced a brilliant report and we set to work on transforming our Insta into something much more effective for getting key messages out to undergrads in particular – a process that is still ongoing.

How we changed our Instagram

Some things we tweaked right away, like following more York-based accounts and using Stories a lot more. Using Stories is key and I really feel like it was something I didn’t understand well enough before Rebecca became involved with the account at York. She is an essential part of the progress we’ve made. Stories are so good for newsy items, and the more success you have with Stories the better things seem to go on the Grid too.

Other things evolved over time, like avoiding the use of words and graphics on the grid (only using them on Stories), and making sure to pair big announcements in the captions (NOT the picture) with visually arresting pictures of the library.

If you’ve not read the guidance doc linked at the top of this post, have a look – we basically did all the things in that document! In addition to all that, we’ve created and posted a lot more Reels (you can see all our Reels videos here), and also tried some fancy split photography, that involves dividing a wide-angle shot up into even squares so it can be seamlessly swiped through. Here’s an example that I posted that I really like…

The results: Increased Instagram engagement

With any kind of social media, I’m always looking for engagement rather than follower numbers. I want more followers of course – a larger audience of students and staff for our key messages. But they come naturally as a by-product of posting stuff that gets engagement. So for Instagram, I’m looking at Likes, Comments, Shares, and Reach, and hoping that if we increase those our followers will increase at the same time.

As it happens, our followers have increased by about a thousand people in the last twelve months. That’s great. More excitingly for me, is that the number of Likes has gone up 42 percent, despite us posting slightly less frequently overall. So the likes Per post has actually gone up 69 percent – meaning we’re posting stuff the students actually respond to, more of the time. Over 2 years, our total number of Likes has increased by over 350 percent.

Shares are way up, and Comments also increased which is great because we want that interaction and chance to answer questions – up by more than 600 percent over the two years.

What isn’t captured by the analytics is the amount of DMs we’ve had – either just messages out of the blue or responses to questions in our Stories. I can’t get figures on this without manually counting but the increase is huge. People love feedback one-to-one on Instagram.

The reach is the thing that most amazed me though – an increase of over 1000 percent in the 12 months is just fantastic. And the reason is that if people don’t Like your posts, Instagram doesn’t share them widely. So now that we’re posting content that gets engagement, a much higher proportion of our followers are seeing our posts. This means our key messages are reaching more undergraduates, and that was the whole aim of this focused attempt to increase engagement.

Like with all social media, the key thing is to learn what your particular community responds best to, and do more of it.

Ned Potter

Finally, do check out Liverpool, they’re so good

So that’s it! There was a lot to get through in this post; if you’ve made it this far, I salute you. I hope people find these guidelines useful, and if you have any questions leave me a comment below.

I’ll leave you with a recommendation to look at Uni of Liverpool Library’s Instagram account – however good our numbers are I know theirs will be astronomically better! They’re really good at this stuff, and you’ll find them @livunilibrary.

Read These Articles Too!

Spending Library Money on Social Media: The Beginner’s Guide to Buying Promotional Ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube 

Sneaky Secrets to Help You Find More Music for Your Library’s Instagram Reels

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“A Carnival of Snackery” by David Sedaris

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How One Library is Promoting Themselves by Handing the Microphone to Patrons and Letting Them Make the Case

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Libraries know the power of storytelling. Most of us are literally and physically surrounded by some of the best stories in the world.

But the quest for library stories that have emotion and a compelling story arch is daunting for many libraries. A Kentucky librarian has the solution: let your patrons tell their own stories!

Levi Simonton has worked for the Jessamine County Public Library for three and a half years and is now the library’s social media coordinator. “I love this place,” said Levi when I asked him about his work experience.

In January, Levi and his library launched a video series called Share A Story. The videos were created to amplify the voices of library superfans.

Levi’s library believes that patrons’ real-life experience is the best way to increase the use of the library and relay the library’s value. “We think that a community member is more likely to visit the library after hearing a story from one of their peers rather than seeing an advertisement from us,” explains Levi.

Approaching a patron and asking them to share their story is often intimidating for libraries. But Levi has a remarkably simple approach. “We typically ask other staff members if they know anyone who might be willing to share an impactful story with the library,” says Levi. “We may also ask for patrons with experience on a specific topic we plan to promote. Sometimes it’s a bit more serendipitous, though. We met the first patron we interviewed by chance at our big comic con event last October.”

The interview itself doesn’t take much time, according to Levi. He typically spends about 45 minutes interviewing his subject. Then he focuses on getting footage of the subject that matches what the patron talked about (in the TV world, this is called B-roll). The footage is used later in editing, to cover parts of soundbites and edits. It also makes the video more interesting.

Once the interview and footage are shot, it’s time to put it all together. For Levi, this is the most labor-intensive part of the process. “These particular pieces usually take 10-15 hours over a week or two,” recalls Levi. “Honestly, that’s longer than it should take. I’m just new to video editing and have a bit of compulsive behavior when it comes to getting those darn details right.”

When the library launched the first video, the reaction was positive, both from patrons and staff. “We showed the videos at a recent staff meeting,” says Levi. “They seemed to resonate with everyone. Hearing directly from patrons about the library’s impact on their lives brought at least a few staff to tears.”

So far, the library has released three videos in the series, including one from a woman who has been visiting the library since she was a little girl. “I grew up in an environment that was considered impoverished,” says Anna Kenion, who is featured in one of the videos. “However, my way of escape, to solitude time and to dream bigger was when I would go to our public library,”

The library is taking a break from releasing videos over the summer to focus on summer reading. But they are working on videos to promote their new outreach vehicle and children’s storytimes. “We may release podcasts, written pieces, or other media that fall under the Share A Story umbrella in the future,” said Levi.

Is your library telling patron stories as part of your marketing? Let me know in the comments!

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How to Gather Patron Stories for Library Promotion!

Your Library Should COMPLETELY Ignore These 4 Pieces of Promotional Advice! Plus What To Do Instead for Real Results. 

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The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

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Your Library Should COMPLETELY Ignore These 4 Pieces of Promotional Advice! Plus What To Do Instead for Real Results. [ARTICLE]

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

We live in a world full of advice.

We get tips (whether we ask for them or not!) on health, fashion, finance, work, and family nearly every day.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word advice means “guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action.” Personally, I will take all the help I can get for prudent future action!

There are a lot of blogs, videos, and newsletters that contain vast amounts of promotional advice. Some of it is valuable. And some of it is hogwash.

I’ve worked with libraries for nine years and in the communications field for another 20 years before that. One good thing about working in this field for so long is I can now identify the marketing advice that simply does not work for my library friends. In some cases, that bad advice has the potential to harm library promotional efforts.

👉Ignore this: “You need to go viral.” 

Your library should not pursue the goal of going viral with anything. Libraries are about community. They must focus on making personal connections with the people who use and fund them.

When you focus on going viral, you do so at the expense of creating relationships with the people in your local community who need you. And frankly, you need them too.

Going viral is a fluke, not a real goal. It’s like winning the lottery. It happens rarely and randomly. And your library won’t reap any lasting benefits from the exposure.

👍Do this instead: Create engaging content that speaks to YOUR audience.

If you want to break through the noise and become a subconscious part of your cardholders’ thought process, you must do two things.

The first is to segment your patrons based on their hopes, dreams, needs, and wants. This works particularly well for promotions by email and for social media posts.

Then, you should weave storytelling into your promotions. Stories create emotion and make your promotions more memorable to readers and listeners. Here’s a great example of how one library staffer used stories to change the public’s perception of her library.

Stories also help your library explain your services in a less clinical way. They demonstrate your value and relevance in real, tangible ways that your audience will relate to.

👉Ignore this: “All you have to do is share good content and your audience will find it.”

Your library is creating engaging, entertaining, and informative videos, blog posts, emails, and print pieces. So why isn’t anyone seeing them?

Creating content is only half the job. This blog is a great example. My posts and videos don’t get much traction until I send an email to my readers and post a link on my social media channels.

👍 Do this instead: Have a distribution plan for your promotions.

The Marketing Rule of 7 states that a prospect needs to hear or see your library’s message at least seven times before they’ll take an action like register for an event, download an eBook, or use a service.

For your library, the Marketing Rule of 7 means it’s important to publish content on various platforms and in multiple formats. This will allow your library to reach your entire target audience.

Marketing expert Andrew Davis gives good advice that you can trust! He taught me how to use a tiered strategy–which means that you publish content and then promote it one area at a time, overlapping your amplification efforts.

For example, let’s say you write and publish a blog. You promote it on Facebook. A few days later, you promote it on Twitter. A few days later, you include a blurb and a link in your email newsletter.

With a distribution plan, the work you put into creating that content will reach a wider audience over a longer period of time and get more engagement.

👉Ignore this: “You must increase your social media follower count.” 

It doesn’t matter how many followers your library has on social media. The algorithm decides when and where your library’s organic posts are shown.

I know of libraries that have tens of thousands of followers but suffer from lackluster engagement. And I know of libraries with hundreds of followers who get high engagement.

And the difference between those two kinds of libraries is the content of their posts. Successful libraries post content that gets likes, comments, and shares. Those three actions will determine the success of your library on any social media platform, no matter how many followers you have.

👍 Do this instead: Focus on creating posts that serve your audience.

Look at your insights on each of the platforms to which your library posts. Your audience will be different for every platform. Make a list of the different audiences.

Then, focus your content on serving that available audience. And this may mean you have to pull back on posting to certain platforms. That’s okay!

Focus your energy and resources on creating engaging posts that help your library reach its overall goals. Quality posts will always be better for your library than a high quantity of posts.

👉Ignore this: “There’s a new social media platform or feature that you HAVE to use!”

Twitter Spaces, Snapchat, Clubhouse, TikTok, Reels… the list of new social media platforms and fancy new features increases every day.

Libraries have limited time and energy. But we feel immense pressure to take advantage of these new features and platforms.

We (understandably) fear missing out on a chance to reach a new audience. And we fear missing out on a chance to prove our modernity and relevance.

👍 Do this instead: Claim your domain. Then make decisions based on your library’s goals.

If a new social media platform emerges, it’s important to claim a domain for your library. Make an account and create a handle that matches your other social media platform handles. This prevents nefarious dealers from masquerading as your library.

Next, take a step back and decide if your audience is on the platform. You may need to track the platform for several months to see what kind of audience it builds. Then, you can decide whether that audience is one you need to reach.

You must also think about whether your current library strategy aligns with the platform or feature. For example, if you don’t have the time or resources to shoot and edit short video clips, a platform like TikTok or a feature like Instagram Reels is not an effective use of your time.

Finally, consider your resources. You may not have the staff or time to manage another account or use another feature now. And that’s okay!

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Maybe the Biggest Lesson for Libraries from Content Marketing World: Why Broad is Flawed!

The Top Four Reasons To Use Content Marketing To Promote Your Library on Every Platform

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Let’s Not Do That Again by Grant Ginder

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2

A Library Staffer Reveals the Secret Formula for Connecting With and Entertaining Patrons. (Spoiler Alert: It’s a Podcast!) [ARTICLE]

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library digital collection

At nearly every conference I attend, there is a session on podcasting for libraries. And no wonder, as podcasting has the cost of producing episodes has declined while listenership has skyrocketed.

57 percent of Americans have listened to a podcast, according to a study conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital. That same study found that the number of people who listen to a podcast has grown nearly 30 percent since 2018.

Dylan Posa works for the Lebanon Public Library in Ohio, which is located about 29 miles to the northeast of my home. We met at the Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries Summer Planning Conference in January, where Dylan was presenting a session on podcasting.

The idea for LPLCast was born in the first days of the pandemic. “When our library shut down in March of 2020, the Director tasked each member of the staff to find ways that we could continue to reach our patrons and community while the doors were closed,” recalls Dylan. “My wife had recently turned me on to podcasts, so she suggested that the library create one. I immediately knew who I would choose for a co-host, as we had an easy rapport at work already.”

Dylan’s co-host is Barb Leitschuh, a Circulation Desk Supervisor at the library. Barb has been working at the library for more than 22 years and is a longtime resident of Lebanon. “She knows everyone on a first-name basis, and has a very snarky sense of humor, which makes our conversations that much more fun,” says Dylan.

The next step for Dylan and Barb was to set some goals for the podcast. Dylan knew that the work he was doing needed to align with his library’s overall strategic goals. “Our overall strategic goals have always been focused on community,” said Dylan. “For instance, we have never installed self-checkout stations because we feel it’s important to have contact with all our patrons whenever possible. Our goal for the podcast is to create a fun and informative environment where we can highlight library services while supporting our community.”

The first episode was published on September 20, 2020. Dylan and Barb keep to an ambitious publishing schedule, releasing new 30-minute episodes every week. “We feel like this is a decent amount of time to invest, from a listener’s point of view,” said Dylan. “The type of podcast we were creating wasn’t going to be serialized, and we didn’t want to inundate listeners with lots of detail and data. I think people would be surprised at how fast 30 minutes goes by when the talk is light and breezy!”

Dylan, a musician, and home recording enthusiast used his own equipment to produce the few episodes. Eventually, his library saw the value of the podcast and agreed to invest about $250 in equipment. “The first cost was the hosting site, “said Dylan. “I looked into several options, and the one I signed up for costs $15 per month.”

“The library had microphones and cables, so I got a 4-channel USB mixing desk that all inputs can go through,” continues Dylan. “Then I decided to use a free piece of software called Audacity that enables me to record, edit, and upload files to the hosting site. I use Garageband to create the ‘bumper’ music for each segment of our episodes; bonus points for also being free! You also need a piece of promotional. I used a free site called Adobe Spark to design something eye-catching.”

Barb oversees finding guests. In the beginning, she would just call patrons who she was already friends with and ask if they wanted to be on the podcast. But this task has gotten easier since Barb and Dylan have moved to a new format, which isn’t dependent on having a guest in every episode. “We started to open up our programming a bit, and we wanted to integrate more of the other departments into the podcast,” says Dylan.

“The first segment is an overview of what the library has going on over the next week – programs both passive and active, events, displays, etc.,” explains Dylan. “The second segment is now open for guests but is also a chance to talk to employees about whatever they want to talk about.” Each episode ends with book recommendations.

During the pandemic, Dylan would bring the equipment to Barb’s living room. But lately, they’ve been recording in their library’s training room. “We record about 35-45 minutes of material, and I edit it down to get rid of any weird noises or digressions,” says Dylan.” Sometimes a guest will ask to re-do a section, or I will have to get creative to work around some technical glitch.”

“It usually takes me about 30-45 minutes to get the episode published,” continues Dylan. “Between editing, exporting to a smaller file format, uploading onto the hosting site, creating the metadata, and double-checking to make sure I posted the right file.”

The next step is marketing each episode. Dylan says his library relies on bookmarks, which he says is… “the best marketing tool a library has! We also make sure to let people know when they check out books, and every week we post a link to the newest episode on Facebook and Instagram. We also rely on our guests to promote their own appearances to widen our exposure.”

So far, listener feedback is positive. “They have told us how fun we are to listen to,” Dylan said. “It definitely helps to have two people who like to talk to each other!”

Dylan has some advice for libraries thinking of starting a podcast. He says it’s crucial to figure out who your community is and create content that caters to their wants and needs.

Dylan also says there are lots of options for library staff to create a podcast even if they don’t have a budget or Dylan’s technical expertise. “I want to emphasize that a lot of this information is simply what works for us and our library – for instance, I definitely over-engineer our recording,” says Dylan. “There are a number of options for recording podcasts that exist as apps for phones and tablets.”

Dylan Posa is the head of the Lebanon Public Library’s reference desk and is also the manager of Acquisitions. Dylan uses his outside experience in the music business and retail industry to create new and interesting program ideas for his library.

Further Reading

Podcast Like a Pro! Amazing Advice from a Library Podcast Expert

I Asked a Podcast Host to Stop Interrupting His Guests.  What His Reaction Can Teach Us About Library Customer Service.

Latest Book Review

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

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