We have breaking news on the social media front. Instagram is making a huge feature change. This is so big that I upended my entire Library Marketing Show editorial calendar to record this episode.
We will discuss what will happen and how it might impact your library marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
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If you have ever wondered what metrics to track for your library marketing… wonder no longer! There’s a new infographic out, and I think it’s the perfect cheat sheet to help you figure out the metrics to track for any promotion.
I’ll explain how it works in this episode of the Library Marketing Show.
And a library staffer also nominates her co-workers for kudos for their creativity and work to promote a fundraiser!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
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For the first time ever, libraries that email their community to promote their services have metric benchmarks!
I will discuss how this new report came about (spoiler alert: it was born out of my annoyance!) and how you can get your hands on it in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus we’ll give kudos to a library that reached a whole new audience to promote their collection.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Amanda Weakley was pursuing a master’s degree in English when a comment from a professor changed the course of her career.
“I took an elective in Library Science,” recalls Amanda. “The class went well, and the professor commented that I would be a great librarian. Shortly after that, I noticed a vacancy at a local library and applied. Once I started working in libraries, I knew it was where I wanted to be.”
Amanda grew up in Rappahannock County, Virginia, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She’s been a cardholder of the Rappahannock County Library since she was a preschooler.
Now she serves as director of the library, where she started working 14 years ago. Rappahannock County Library is a small, rural library that serves a population of just over 7,000 people.
“Currently, we have 3.5 FTE employees, me included, so we all do a bit of everything,” explains Amanda. “If there is an idea, we work together to see it through, usually a person or two handling every detail from planning to presentation and assessment. It is a lot of work, but the reward of successful library services and programs is immeasurable.”
With such a small staff, the library must get the most out of every tactic they use to promote their library. Rappahannock County excels in two areas: their word-of-mouth promotions and their partnership promotions.
Partnership marketing involves collaborating with other organizations, businesses, or influencers in the community to achieve mutual goals. Word-of-mouth marketing is all about building a buzz through community members, staff, and volunteers. It encourages people to spread positive stories, experiences, and testimonials about the library.
Staff members are often the key to both strategies. They are trained to spread news about new services and upcoming events and look for partnership opportunities.
“It really is a way of optimizing resources,” says Amanda. “Especially with a small staff and a small community, it helps to have as many happy patrons as possible and community partners advocating for you and spreading your news. We have friends of friends, clients, and members of partner organizations attending our events, using, and recommending our materials and services.”
“For as long as I have worked in libraries, and even prior, my focus has been on positive experiences and connections. I want everyone to have a positive experience or association with the library, be it through participating in a program, staff interaction with individuals, or staff collaboration with community partners.”
“We know people talk, so let’s give them wonderful things to say about the library and library staff! In a small community, I think word travels faster, and our organic tactics have evolved into strategic decisions.”
Amanda says libraries of all sizes should focus on what they do best in their community. Then, build and maintain healthy relationships with patrons and community partners around those key resources.
And don’t be surprised if it takes time to see the results from word of mouth and partnership marketing.
“There is a reality that you can work hard to get the word out and make connections, but there will always be people who will not receive your message,” explains Amanda. “It’s frustrating when you do everything to share information and someone says, ‘I did not know you offered that!’”
“If you have the opportunity, talk to the person, and see where they seek or find out information. Learn from each interaction and try to meet people where they are with a positive library or library staff experience. After a positive experience, your mentions will stand out and have more impact.”
The strategy’s success is easy to see if you look at Rappahannock County Library’s Facebook page. They are often tagged in photos and posts by their partnership organizations. That gives their library exposure to a whole new audience of potential patrons.
“We want our patrons and partners to tell people about us, send people our way, and even send us or our services to people. It’s a cycle of working for people, and if all goes well, they seem to work for us by continuing to market for us without even realizing it!”
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As you create content for your library’s website, there is one tiny feature you should consider: how do your links open? Are they in a new tab or open in the same window? This decision will impact the experience of anyone visiting your library’s online presence. I’ll give you my advice… and then tell you why you might want to ignore it (!) in this episode.
Plus we’ll give kudos to a library that has accomplished A LOT in the marketing space in a short time.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then 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:
Sometimes it can be very difficult to get your library leaders on board with your marketing ideas. I’ve got five tips that I’ve used to persuade senior leaders and supervisors, and I’m going to share them with you in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus we’ll give kudos to a library that received press coverage for a new outreach initiative at their local airport!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
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The subject of today’s episode may surprise you. I want to talk about expert marketing advice. As a library marketer, you should take the advice of experts, including myself, with a grain of salt. I’ll explain in this episode.
Plus our kudos will be given to a library that did some promotional work AFTER an event. I’ll show you why this is a brilliant strategy.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. And thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then 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:
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has many implications for library marketing. And now, AI is changing how people search for your library on the internet. But…
There is one, relatively easy thing you can do to ensure people find your library when searching for it on ChatGPT, Google’s Perplexity, and Microsoft’s CoPilot. We’re going to get into it in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus we’ll give kudos to a library that’s cross-posting videos from one social media platform to another. Normally, this is a no-no but there is an exception… and this library is taking advantage of it!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. And thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
In a few weeks, kids in your community will head back to school. This time of year is a marketing opportunity for all libraries! Lucky for us, one of the major social media platforms just published a guide for marketing to back to school. I’ll share the top three takeaways for library marketing during back-to-school time in this episode.
Plus we’ll share kudos for a library that did something extraordinary by harnessing the power of their loyal library fans.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. And thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 