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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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Save Time and Reach Your Whole Audience With an Incredible Trick! (Includes Guide and an Example You Can Steal)

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Last week, we went over the Marketing Rule of 7 and how consistent messaging delivered many times over multiple channels will lead to promotional success.

But that does NOT mean you must create 500 versions of every promotion you do. PHEW!

So, let’s talk about the easiest way to make the Marketing Rule of 7 happen within the constraints of working in a library. We do that by repurposing our content.

Repurposing content

Repurposing content is the practice of reusing elements of existing content to expand that content’s reach.

Repurposing content makes it easy to fulfill the Marketing Rule of 7 because you don’t need to write every post, shoot every video, and design every infographic from scratch.

Instead, you can use a piece of new content as the basis for lots of other content.

Why repurpose your content?

Your community is diverse. Their preferred methods of receiving information are diverse.

Some of them are visiting your website every day for updates. Some are seeing your social media posts. Some are waiting for your next email to hit their inbox. And some are fans of your Reels, TikTok, or YouTube videos.

Re-purposing content helps you reach more people on the channels they prefer efficiently, so you can go do all the other things you need to do in a day!

I repurpose this blog every week. (Did you notice?!) Here’s how I do it.

I pull out a few lines, usually from the first one-third of the post. I may use the lines exactly as they are in the post. Or I might rearrange them, adding more humor or emojis… things I wouldn’t necessarily do in my blog post.

Then I take those lines and I post them across my social media channels and in my emails.

I also take parts of a post and use them in other posts, especially if these are key points I really want you to remember. For example, I strongly believe books are your library’s brand. And I say so… often!

Sometimes, I take parts of my blogs and use them in presentations.  I also turn them into an infographic or a 60-second video.

How will this work at your library?

Let’s say you’ve created an infographic to communicate the value of your library in the past year. We know infographics are a great way to present those statistics and give a whole picture of your library’s contribution.

But infographics take time to build. And some people will still need those stats broken down for them, piece by piece, in order to comprehend their meaning.

So you can take each of the points on that infographic and create separate social media posts. This really helps your audience digest the information.

Those separate pieces of breakout information can also serve as a springboard for your library to write blog posts or longer social media posts specifically diving into those key stats and what they mean for your community.

Choose three of the facts on the infographic. Pick a staff member who loves being on camera and ask them to create a 60-second Reel or TikTok video using trending audio and creative elements to explain this serious subject: the value proposition of your library.

Need more help figuring out how to make this work at your library? I created a 4-step guide for you!

Easy 4-step guide to repurposing content

Let’s say your library is publishing a promotional blog post about Book Club Kits. It might look like this.

Get Convenient, Easy Help Leading Your Next Book Club

Are you someone who enjoys discussing books, sharing insights, and hearing different perspectives on a story? Or maybe you’ve been thinking about starting a book club but don’t know where to begin. Well, look no further! Our Book Club Kits are designed to bring people together through the power of literature, and here’s why you should definitely consider checking one out:

  1. Diverse Selection: Our Book Club Kits include a wide range of titles covering various genres, themes, and authors. Whether you prefer classics, contemporary fiction, non-fiction, or even a mix of everything, we have something for everyone. From thought-provoking novels to inspiring memoirs, our collection is carefully curated to spark engaging discussions.
  2. Convenience: Starting and maintaining a book club can be challenging, especially when it comes to sourcing multiple copies of the same book. With our Book Club Kits, we’ve taken care of that for you! Each kit includes multiple copies of the featured book, making it easy for your group to access and read the same title simultaneously.
  3. Discussion Guides: To facilitate meaningful conversations, our kits come with discussion guides. These guides provide questions, prompts, and talking points to help guide your book club discussions, ensuring that everyone gets a chance to share their thoughts and insights.
  4. Cost-Effective: Participating in a book club can sometimes become costly when you have to purchase multiple copies of a book. With our Book Club Kits, you can enjoy reading and discussing a wide variety of books without breaking the bank. It’s a budget-friendly way to explore new literary horizons.
  5. Community Building: Book clubs provide an excellent opportunity to meet new people, make friends, and engage in lively conversations. By checking out one of our Book Club Kits, you can be a part of a vibrant community of readers right here in your own neighborhood.
  6. Flexibility: Whether you prefer in-person meetings or virtual gatherings, our Book Club Kits are designed to accommodate your preferred format. You can use them to start a club with friends, family, or even coworkers, making it easy to connect with others over a shared love of reading.

You can use that post as a base for repurposing.

Step one: Write a two-line version of your blog post.

This is going to be the mini-version of your post… the elevator pitch, so to speak.

For this example, I would say:

Book Club Kits from the library make it easy, convenient, and cost-effective to start a book club. The library provides free book copies and discussion guides that allow everyone to participate and build community.

Step two: Promote in your emails.

Add your two-line version of the blog post to your newsletter and any other email you send over the course of the next month, with a link to the full post.

Step three: Share on your social channels.

Post your two-line version of the blog and include a link to the full post in the comments of your social media post. (Here’s why you want to put it in the comments instead of the post.)  

Keep the momentum going on different social media channels by creating more two-line versions of your blog. For example, during week one, post this to Instagram and Facebook:

Book Club Kits from the library make it easy, convenient, and cost-effective to start a book club. The library provides free book copies and discussion guides that allow everyone to participate and build community.

In week two, post a new two-line version on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn:

Book Club Kits from the library bring people together through the power of literature. The curated kits are convenient and flexible to help any book club leader.

On week three, you put another two lines on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X:

Meet new people, make friends, and engage in lively conversations about books without breaking the bank. Check out the free library’s Book Club Kits.

And so on. Mix it up to make it sound like new content while driving home the key points you wish to make.

Step four: Use the promotional message on print promotions.

Create a bookmark, flier, and sign, with your favorite two-line pitch from your blog post. Include a QR code linking to the blog post.

Place the bookmarks and fliers in every hold or checkout. Place your sign on a display of books that have been assembled into book club kits.

Re-purposing all content

You can do this with any piece of content, from podcasts to press releases. Break the content down into pieces and spread them across all your available platforms.

In this way, you can make sure everyone in your community sees your message. You also can make sure the work you are doing right now will have maximum impact.

The added benefit to re-purposing: more data.

It won’t take long for you to learn where your audience is getting news about the library. If you notice that engagement is high on one marketing channel, you will know which channel to start with when you are promoting your library.

P.S. Want more advice?

Libraries Have a Huge Competitive Advantage: Customer Service! Here Are 3 Promotional Tips To Drive Home That Message

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The Magic of a Consistent Message: How to FINALLY Break Through the Noise and Promote Your Library

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

A few weeks ago, I walked through my neighborhood listening to the Library Marketing for Library Marketers podcast. Katie Rothley was interviewing a woman named Sarah Tolle, who manages content for a large Canadian agency. And Sarah said something that literally stopped me in my tracks.

“People take comfort in hearing the same story repeatedly. They like knowing that they know the story and that they understand you. And they anticipate the ending. “

-Sarah Tolle, content director for Black and White Zebra.

I was standing there on the sidewalk, staring at a squirrel gathering nuts from the front yard of an indiscriminate house, and I thought, HOLY SMOKES, this woman is dropping some truth bombs.  

Sarah was talking about the value of a consistent message. The timing of this episode could not have been more perfect. In my day job, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how library marketers can get the most bang for their buck.

Many of the libraries I work with are struggling to figure out how to do three big things:

  • Drive more visitors to their buildings
  • Get higher attendance at their programs
  • Get their cardholders to use their cards more often.

They’re working alone or with a small team, with very little money, and very little time. It’s an impossible formula.

Except, as Audrey Hepburn once said, “Nothing is impossible. Even the word itself says, ‘I’m possible.'”

And the secret to success may be found in the form of a marketing axiom that’s nearly 100 years old.

The Marketing Rule of 7

The Marketing Rule of 7 was developed by the movie industry in the 1930s. Studio bosses discovered that a certain amount of advertising and promotion was required to compel someone to see a movie.

It takes time and consistent marketing to make people aware of your library. One message, delivered on one platform, one time, is not going to be enough. We must work to make sure people are familiar with our library.

Now, I know what you are thinking. The Marketing Rule of 7 makes sense. But it’s also in complete contradiction to another marketing fact that is entirely a product of the digital age.

The Reality of Content Shock

Marketing expert Mark Shaffer, author of more than 12 books on marketing, defines Content Shock as “the phenomenon when exponentially increasing amounts of content intersect with our limited human capacity to consume it.”

In other words, there’s too much stuff to read and not enough time to read it. (Are we talking about my inbox or my TBR?  Or both?)

So how do we square both marketing truths? And how do we figure out a way forward so we can reach the goals of our library marketing?

First, the number 7 in the Marketing Rule of 7 is an arbitrary number. It could take somebody more than seven times the exposure before they become a loyal library user. Or maybe it will only take five times. Or two times.

Don’t focus so much on the number. Focus on the consistent message.

Because when your audience is overloaded with content, sharing one, consistent message, repeatedly, will break through.

Political candidates know this is true. When they’re trying to get elected or whip up support for a bill, they come up with a main message. They repeat it everywhere: on fliers, social media, in interviews with the press, in speeches, etc. They do this because they know they must repeat the message to make sure their constituents hear and understand it.  

How to Create a Consistent Message

Let’s say you work for a high school library and your goal is to get more kids to check out books to read for pleasure (because, let’s be honest, most kids do not find reading Catcher in the Rye all that pleasurable).

First, write a few lines that succinctly encapsulate the message you want to get across.

Read something for once just for fun! The library is filled with books that won’t give you class credit but will take you on an adventure you’ll never forget.

Now, use those two lines across your promotions: on bookmarks, posters, displays, and in morning announcements. Repeat it to kids who wander into the library looking for something to read. Do it all year long. By the end of the year (and probably sooner), the message will have sunk into the kids. That’s consistent messaging.

Next week: I’ll give you a four-step plan for repurposing any piece of content you create across multiple channels without losing your consistent, core message. (Yes, it can be done!)

More advice

How to Properly (and Legally!) Share Creative Content on Your Library’s Social Media Channels

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Survey Says: A Midwestern Library Marketer Shares Her Library’s Secrets for Uncovering Patron Motivations

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Jenie Lahmann’s parents were DIYers before it was in style.

Growing up in Richmond, Indiana—”a fun midwestern town with rich history and endless green spaces to explore”, her family made weekly visits to Morrisson-Reeves Library (MRL) to indulge their need to craft and create.

“Dad would go to the Do-It-Yourself section and Mom would get cookbooks and the latest Erma Bombeck writings,” recalls Jenie. “My brother Pat and I were off to explore the shelves in the Children’s Department. We always left the library with an armful of books.”

“My father was a self-taught craftsman and could build anything. He drew plans for making a sailboat from library books and reference librarian’s tips. From concept to completion, he used the library every step of the way. He even sewed the sails with help from Mom’s sewing talents. It’s incredible what you can learn from the library!”

  • The infamous sailboat
  • Jenie’s dad making sails

Jenie started working at the library in high school, following in her big brother’s footsteps. She spent a year as a shelver. Then a manager started to mentor her on print promotion. “We created bookmarks, booklets, and other helpful printed tools for patrons before the age of library digitization,” explains Jenie.

“The first day, I was so nervous I fainted in her office, and we formed a strong friendship after that. She trained me in using all the printing machines and developed a trained eye for layout and design.”

Jenie now works as Marketing and Communications Manager for the library. This year, she co-led a team of five people during a major project: a survey of their community.

MRL was looking for data to help the library create a five-year strategic plan. They included lots of questions that are standard for libraries. But Jenie says they really wanted to get to the root of what motives their community members.

“We dug deeper and asked what services they enjoyed, and how their experience was when they walked through the door,” elaborates Jenie. “We want to see how we can improve our services to best meet our changing community’s needs and to help enrich their lives.”

“We asked them to prioritize a list of eight services we are thinking of adding or expanding upon. We asked them to rate what type of programs they wanted to see, what made them happy to use the library, and what didn’t work for them.”

MRL partnered with a local business consulting company to help them formulate the survey. Library staff met over the course of 6 weeks and looked at previous library surveys to determine which questions to ask. They added specific questions based on how often the community members used the library.

“It was difficult to formulate the questions while keeping in mind the end goal of having data we could use to formulate the BIG Strategic Plan,” confesses Jenie.

Jenie was kind enough to share the final survey with us.

v5_final_mrl-surveyDownload

The library released the survey into the world for a three-week stretch, accompanied by a carefully orchestrated plan to ensure they got the survey in front of as many community members as possible.

“First, we created a landing page on the library’s website,” explains Jenie. “It was the hub for all the content and links. Consistent graphics and wording were used.”

“We talked on radio programs, developed videos, e-newsletters, postcards with QR codes, and social media campaigns. We had staffers reach out to their contacts to ask them to fill out the survey personally.”

“The survey was also offered in Spanish. We canvased apartments, churches, and social groups too.”

MRL had a goal of 500 responses. But get this: they more than doubled their response rate goal, gathering 1,104 survey responses! About 11 percent of responses came from paper copies. The rest were filed online through a Survey Monkey page.

However, the survey wasn’t the only tactic MRL used to make decisions for their strategic plan. Along with their business consulting firm partner, MRL conducted focus groups. They gathered teens, parents of teens, preschooler parents, senior citizens, community influencers, community partners, and potential community partners.

These small groups gave robust input that was combined with the survey data to give the library an overarching sense of what their community wants and needs from the library.

“It was enlightening news that our regular library users love us,” exclaims Jenie. “We heard from many people who said they don’t know about library services beyond books and storytimes.”

“We heard that many people get their library info from e-mailed newsletters. Many people suggested that we needed to improve our message through marketing. Tough news to hear for me, but we see it as an opportunity to grow and reach people in new ways.”

“The main interests in the library were gathering spaces, a small business resource center, performing arts, and DIY maker spaces. People may not have access to these free services elsewhere and seek the library for these things.”

“A big surprise was about weeding. Many patrons don’t know how or why we weed books from the library. We use library standards for weeding, but we’ll need to do a better job of explaining that to our patrons.”

Jenie says if she could do anything differently, it would be to make the survey shorter. MRL’s questions took 15 minutes to complete.

Her advice for any library looking to conduct a community-wide survey such as this is to define your end goal. “Spend time formulating your questions for the outcome data you are seeking,” advises Jenie.

“Having a few narrative data entry questions and the rest with a rating scale can prove to make the data processing task easily graphed or charted to show trends and outcomes. Test the digital survey on mobile, desktop, and other digital devices.”

Jenie and the folks at MRL are now discussing a campaign idea they got from the survey, as well as an origin story campaign, asking library users to explain why they use the library, with a superhero theme.

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Threads: Is It a Dud or the Next Big Thing in Library Marketing?

Watch this video now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 205

🕦 It’s been more than a month since Threads was released into the world. And I’ll be honest…

I still have no idea what to think of the newest social media platform.

Every day that goes by I wonder… is it going to be the next big thing in library marketing? Or is it an experiment doomed to fail?

I’ll share what experts are saying in this episode.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for watching!

Miss last week’s 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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When I Heard This One Step To Increase Organic Reach on Social Media, I Got So Mad at Myself, I Did a Face Palm🤦

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#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 204

There is one very simple tip that you can use to increase the organic reach of your library’s posts on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook (and X, if you still use that). And honestly, when I heard about this tip, I felt like smacking myself. How did I miss this? It’s so easy. I’m going to share it with you.

Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in library marketing.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching!

Miss last week’s 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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Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Your Job in Library Promotions? An Expert Explains Why It’s Not Time To Freak Out

Watch this episode now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 203

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) a threat to your job as a library marketer? It’s a serious question I’ve been pondering for a while. I turned to someone I truly admired for advice and we’ll unpack what she has to say about AI and promoting your library in this episode.

Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in library marketing. And this week, it’s a surprising choice!

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!

Miss last week’s 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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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

Upcoming Appearances

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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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📈2 Proven Ways To Entice People To Read Your Library’s Emails

Watch this episode now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 202

I have a tiny favor to ask of my library marketing friends. 😌

I need you to do something different when it comes to email marketing. It is an effortless, quick thing to change! I’ll make my case to you in this episode.

Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in library marketing.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching!

Miss last week’s 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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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!

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