In this episode, I’ll share three easy design tips for your library’s social media graphics.
Kudos in this episode go to the Carmel Clay Public Library for turning a vacant supermarket into a super cool library space.
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 video tip for libraries each week.
Thanks for watching!
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I have never been one for spontaneous excursions. When I travel (boy, do I miss travel!), I like to have a plan.
I research restaurants. I research tourist attractions. I check to see if there’s a library in the area. I might even jump onto Google Street View and “walk” the area myself to make sure I’ll know where I’m going.
I do all of this because I want to get the most value out of the time I’m spending in a new place. I don’t want to miss anything fun, interesting, or historic.
But occasionally, I’ll stumble upon something amazing that I didn’t find in my research. Those discoveries always end up being completely amazing.
On my first few hours in Edinburgh, Scotland, I had lunch in a tavern. As I left a tour of Holyrood Palace, I realized I hadn’t eaten in 12 hours. I was starving. I didn’t feel like walking another mile to one of the restaurants I had chosen in my pre-trip planning.
I found Tolbooth Tavern tucked into a tiny corner of an ancient-looking wall near Holyrood Palace. It looked quiet and unassuming. And everything on the menu posted outside sounded delicious.
It was the best meal I had in Edinburgh. The haggis was spectacular and beautiful. The beer was perfect. The atmosphere was exactly what I imagined I’d find in that city. It’s one of my favorite memories of the trips.
What in the world does this have to do with library marketing?
On most occasions, I believe in planning. A well-executed marketing plan that’s strategic and focused is the best recipe for library marketing success.
But sometimes, you can stumble upon an amazing promotional opportunity that you didn’t plan for. And those unexpected opportunities can be surprisingly successful.
If inspiration strikes or you see a chance to grab a new marketing or promotional opportunity, you should absolutely do it. A quick pivot can lead to engaging and successful promotions.
Planning for the unpredictable
Anyone can include some flexibility in their marketing schedule. The key lies in planning… which sounds contradictory. But the trick is simple.
When you’re laying out your regular marketing schedule, be sure to deliberately leave holes where you might be able to drop in promotions.
In general, most of your editorial calendar, around 75 percent, will consist of promotions that have hard deadlines. The rest, 25 percent, can be open spaces for those opportunities that you cannot plan for.
How does this work, exactly?
Be on the lookout for opportunities to do some flexible marketing. Great promotional stories sometimes appear unexpectedly. They may include:
User-generated content on social media
A connection to an event happening in pop culture
A suggestion from a customer or staff member
An idea you got from another library
A last-minute opportunity from a vendor or a partner organization.
A great event that’s been planned by a branch at the last minute.
If you purposefully leave 25 percent of your editorial calendar open, you can seize these opportunities for the space you’ve deliberately set aside.
Example: My library turned around a movie promotion sent to us by a vendor, who offered a free first-run movie streaming on their site on the same day that the movie was released into theaters.
We got word a week before the movie premiere. The movie had a great cast that we thought might be popular with our cardholders.
We swung into gear. We created graphics for our website, social media, and an email campaign to let users of our digital services know about the promotion. We managed to do all of this in two days.
And the promotion was a success! On a normal day, we stream about 25 movies to cardholders. After this promotion, we streamed 244 copies of this first-rate movie alone.
This happened because we left holes in our calendar for opportunities just like this.
You won’t have to turn a last-minute campaign around every week or even every month. But when you do… it will be worth it. Sometimes the gold nuggets of promotion are the ones you can’t plan of time!
The benefits of flexibility in your library promotions
Flexible marketing can be fun. You may do some of your best work when you are formulating promotions in a few days or a few hours. A deadline or a great idea with a time limit can push you and your staff to be creative in ways you’ve never imagined.
Flexibility allows you to adapt to unforeseen shifts in your community’s needs and wants.
And flexible marketing makes it easy to continuously improve the way you do library marketing. It gives you an excuse to experiment.
And when you do that, you will learn new things about your audience, what they like, and what they dislike. Your marketing overall will improve.
What happens if I don’t have anything to fill my calendar holes?
Nothing.
Give yourself a break. Take that day off from promoting your library.
I know this is a crazy concept coming from a blog that is all about library marketing. But we need to spend more time in reflection if we want our library marketing to be amazing.
True creativity, the kind that adds value to your workplace and your life, is something that needs to be treasured and cultivated. If you want your library to succeed, you need to take time to be creative.
An unfilled hole in your editorial calendar is the perfect opportunity for that.
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It’s time for social media updates for libraries! We’ll highlight three headlines and talk a bit about their impact on library social media.
Kudos in this episode go to the Columbus Library for their help with Operation Backpack.
Special note
I'm hosting a live Twitter chat next Tuesday, August 31 at 12 p.m. ET. It's on changing public perception through storytelling. To join, follow #CMWorld on Twitter. We'll ask five questions during the chat. You can answer using the hashtag. I want to make sure libraries are represented in this chat. See you there, friends!
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 video tip for libraries each week.
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 on the lower left-hand corner of the page.
I love to read anything in print. The texture and smell of the paper, the actual physical weight the words have in your hands, and the ability to re-read and annotate the pages give a sense of importance to the printed piece that you can’t get when you read something online.
Digital exhaustion is a real phenomenon, and the pandemic has only made it worse. According to Statista, the average daily time spent with digital media is expected to increase from seven hours and 50 minutes in 2020 to just under eight hours in 2022.
Even though people are spending more time online, that online space is crowded. It’s harder for the library’s message to break through all the content noise.
People want a more personal connection to their marketing. A printed promotional piece appeals to the senses. It’s tangible. It occupies physical space and creates the value of possession. Your audience must physically interact with it, and that makes it authentic and reliable.
And for members of our community who don’t have access to the internet, or who don’t have a connection strong enough to support streaming videos or high-resolution downloads, print is the key to marketing success.
Most libraries have a printed newsletter. I want to challenge your library to take that piece and transform it into a powerhouse marketing tool.
To do that, you’re going to trim down the number of events in the piece and add stories about your library and its patrons.
Here’s how you can transform your newsletter into a promotional masterpiece that people will want to read. There are examples of great library print pieces at the end of this post!
Make a plan and an outline.
Divide your publication into pages. Then, plot out what you are going to put on each page.
You’ll want to create a balance between the sections of your piece. Start by dividing your publication into thirds.
One third will be dedicated to promoting collection items, including booklists, streaming music and movies, your physical movie and music collection, and magazines.
One third will be dedicated to events and programs.
The final third will be stories about patrons and staff and the ways the library has impacted their lives.
Pick one big story to serve as your cover.
Some cover stories we used at my library included:
A father and son who visited all 41 branches of our library in one day.
Once you determine your cover story, place it in your outline about halfway through your publication. You want people to have to read several pages to get to it.
Here are some other ideas for stories to put in your publication.
Staff and patron reading recommendations, including quotes about why they love and recommend the books.
Stories behind the forming of a book club.
A profile of a teacher or a school librarian who takes advantage of services like teacher collections and support from the library.
How your library has helped someone find a job or earn a degree.
Profile of a small business that used your library to launch a successful company.
Behind the scenes of a certain department at your library. For example, I interviewed the manager of our Preservation Lab, which restores and preserves rare items in the library’s collection such as military uniforms, books written on palm leaves, and all kinds of historically valuable photographs. In another issue, we took people along for a ride with our Outreach Services and talked to the people whose lives were changed by the simple act of bringing books to their homes.
Make sure each page includes at least one call to action.
End each article with a call to action, like, “To learn more, email us.” Or “To join this book club, visit our website.”
The whole point of your print publication is promotion. Make sure that you give your readers a way to interact with your library and take the next step.
Give yourself time to edit and review.
Typically, it took me about a month from start to finish to write, edit, and review my 12-page print publication. Specifically, my timeline looked like this:
Four weeks before we went to print, articles written by other staff were due.
Three weeks before we went to print, I thoroughly read and edited each article. I used my own punctuation and grammar skills, plus Microsoft Word’s review editor, and a Grammarly extension on my browser to perfect each article.
Two weeks before we went to print, I made copies of the publication and passed them around to at least five staff members inside and outside of my department. I asked them to carefully read the articles and mark any mistakes they noticed.
One week before we went to print, I gave copies to senior leaders for final approval.
I also made a copy for myself and read it out loud. This is a trick I learned from journalism school that I still use today for this blog! Your brain may automatically correct errors when you read silently in your head but if you read each word out loud, as if you are doing it for an audience, you’ll find missing words or grammar errors that you never noticed before.
Some examples of great library print promotional pieces that incorporate promotions and stories about the library (that you can read online!)
Does your library have a print publication that you’re really proud of? I’d love to see it! Please let me know where I can read it by hitting the Feedback button on the bottom left-hand side of this page.
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In this episode, I’ll answer a question I got from a library staffer: What are the biggest mistakes you see library staff making in their marketing and promotions?
I’ll talk about the three most common boo-boos and give you ideas for avoiding these pitfalls. Don’t worry… you can do it!
Watch to find out who gets kudos!
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 video tip for libraries each week.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on the “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
It’s sometimes insanely hard to get any new marketing ideas to pass approval in a library.
If there is a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that the crisis helped libraries to see that there are new ways to market and promote their library. It’s opened the door for experimentation.
Even so, presenting a new marketing or promotional idea is sometimes challenging and intimidating for library staff. I know this because every time I talk with librarians at conferences or in one-on-one consultations, they ask, “How do I get buy-in for this great promotional idea with my supervisors and co-workers?”
Here are the four things you can do to gather support and approval for your great new marketing and promotional ideas.
Tell me about a time you had to pitch a library promotional idea. What was the idea? Did you get a yes or no? What did you learn from the experience? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Thoroughly research and prepare your pitch.
Before you pitch a new idea, do your research. You’ll want to present a clear, concise, and strategic case for your idea. Include the following information in your pitch:
How the work benefits your community and cardholders.
How the work ties into your library’s overall strategy and goals.
How the work will get done by staff.
The timeline for implementation.
What the success measures will be.
What the long-term goals of your promotional idea will be.
How you will handle problems that may arise.
The data to back up your claims.
Here’s an example pitch that includes these points.
You’ve determined that Facebook is not giving you the results you want when you promote individual programs. Registration and attendance at programs have been unchanged or decreasing in the last six months, despite the many posts you create. Instead of using social media, you want to start a targeted e-newsletter sent to the people who frequent each branch in your system. You believe these targeted emails will be more effective because they will reach the audiences most likely to attend these programs.
Your pitch will begin by explaining the problem using data. Include registration, attendance figures, and Facebook engagement figures especially clicks on your registration or event information links. Show how the Facebook posts are getting very little engagement and lead to no increase in registration or attendance.
Next, explain how the move to branch-specific e-newsletters will be better for your community and cardholders because it will offer information about events happening in their neighborhood that are specific to their wants and needs. Look for wording in your library’s strategic plan that will make it clear to senior leaders that you are working to fulfill the strategic goals by offering community-based access to information.
Next, make the case that e-newsletters are a more efficient use of your time because they will be more effective and targeted. Again, be specific when you talk about how long it takes to create a Facebook post versus an e-newsletter.
Now, talk about the ways you’ll measure success for your new e-newsletters: increases in registration and attendance, plus open and click rates on the emails. Be specific and use numbers. This will show that you are confident that your new idea will work.
Spend a few moments talking about your long-term goals: how many new subscribers do you want to get in the first six months or year? How much would you like to see registration and attendance grow? What other library services can you imagine promoting using your e-newsletters?
Layout a timeline: when do you think you can launch your first e-newsletter? How long will it take to grow your subscription list? How often will you send these e-newsletters?
Finally, talk briefly about problems you may encounter and how you’ll handle them. What program will you use to send the e-newsletters? Who will create them if you’re sick or on vacation?
Review and rehearse.
Review your plan several times. It’s a good idea to leave a few days in between each review of the plan, to let your ideas marinate. You may think of new benefits or pitfalls during those breaks. You’ll want to be fully prepared to answer any questions and defend your idea with confidence.
Next, practice presenting your idea to a friend at your organization. Choose someone you trust to give you honest feedback about your idea and your presentation.
You might also consider recording your pitch on Zoom or another video recording program. Check to make sure you are speaking slowly and clearly. Evaluate your tone of voice, eye contact, and body language during your practice pitch.
Pitch strategically.
Find a time when your supervisor won’t be rushed. They’re more likely to listen to you when they have time to truly consider your idea.
Pick the right day of the week for your pitch. For example, Mondays are often busy and stressful for bosses. Your supervisor may be more negative at the beginning of the week and it’s likely not the best day for your pitch.
When you pitch, be mindful of your body language. If you are sitting in a chair, don’t pivot back and forth nervously or jiggle your legs. Sit still, but upright, and with confidence.
If you are standing, try separating your legs about shoulder-width apart. This is a “power” pose that will help you maintain good posture and will subconsciously give the impression that you know what you are doing… even if you don’t feel that confident!
If the answer is no, don’t necessarily give up.
A “no” doesn’t have to mean the end of an idea, especially if you think it’s beneficial to your library and customers. There are no bad ideas–just ideas whose time has not yet come.
Write yourself a note in your work calendar to revisit the idea in six months. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities to present your ideas in a different format.
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In this episode, I answer a question from Jenny of Burlington Public Library: “Can you share some ideas for Library Card Sign-up Month in September? I’m especially looking for video ideas and outreach for youth, but I’ll take any ideas!”
Kudos in this episode go to the Saint Louis County Library for offering enrollment in Headspace with a library card.
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 video tip for libraries each week.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on the “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
Instagram is super popular right now, especially with people under the age of 34. That’s a key demographic for library marketers.
According to Web Hosting Rating, 60 percent of users log in daily, and more than half of those people log in more than once a day. Best of all, the average U.S.-based Instagram user spends a whopping 53 minutes a day on the app. (That’s me! 🙋)
If your library posts to Instagram, it’s time to take it up a notch. To drive your engagement stats, there are two things you can do.
Instagram takeovers and Instagram highlights are an easy way to get more reach on your Instagram account.
Instagram takeover
An Instagram takeover is when you arrange for a partner organization, library department, senior leader, or fan to take over your account for a day or during a special event.
A takeover will expose your library to a new audience of potential followers. It will also give your library external credibility.
A takeover can be done without giving your takeover partner the password to your account.
Ask your takeover partner to save each individual story slide to their camera roll.
Next, they’ll email the slides to your library.
Then, you’ll upload them, one by one, to your Instagram story.
Before you agree to a takeover, be sure to establish some guidelines.
Be specific about what you want in terms of content and number of slides.
Set a deadline.
Put all of that in writing.
Here’s a template you can use to set up the guidelines for your own library’s Instagram takeover.
My former library did an Instagram takeover with a nearby library system, with whom we had a reciprocal lending agreement. It gave each participating library access to a new audience. And people loved it! Each story got an average of 605 views.
Patrick Kinsella, Library Communications Coordinator for the library at the University of Salford in Manchester had even more success with his Instagram takeover success story.
He said, “As our Library is in the final stage of a £6.2 million redevelopment, we decided to run a campaign to promote our study spaces outside our main library. We have five main study spaces outside of Clifford Whitworth, our main library, that could give students a place to study and help make up for the reduction in space in Clifford Whitworth.”
“We also decided to take over our university’s main Instagram account to give their followers a tour of what lies beyond Clifford Whitworth. Followers were also invited to send pictures of themselves studying outside Clifford Whitworth in exchange for £5 worth of printer credits.”
“The Instagram story was viewed over 1,200 times and 14 students sent us pictures of themselves studying outside Clifford Whitworth. The cross-promotion of our Instagram account @salfordunilibrary through the story also gained us more than 20 new followers. The user-generated content that we received also allowed us to build a Twitter campaign displaying their images.”
Instagram highlights
Highlights are custom containers for similarly themed Instagram stories. After you add content to your story, you can choose to highlight that content by saving it to one of these containers.
Unlike regular Instagram stories, which disappear after 24 hours, highlights live on your Instagram profile forever, or until you delete them.
Highlights showcase the best of your previous Instagram content to new followers. And they create an archive of content, especially those stories that contain “evergreen” content that never expires and is always relevant. Instagram highlights are a great place to save library FAQs, book reviews, tutorials, and other wide-ranging topics.
To create a highlight from an active Instagram story:
View the story.
Click on “Highlight” in the bottom tool bar.
Click on the plus icon to create a new highlight container or add to a highlight container you have already created.
Click on “Add”. You’re done!
You can add photos or videos to each of your highlight containers any time you want. There is no limit to how many photos and videos each highlight container can hold.
Springville Library uses highlights, and they’ve created icon-based covers for each container.
You can change the title of your highlights containers at any time. Just open the highlight, and then tap on the name of the highlight container in the upper left-hand corner. You’ll be given the option to edit.
Share your tips for library Instagram success! Click on the Feedback button to tell me about what you’re doing on Instagram. I’ll share your tips with others on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!
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Before I worked in library marketing, I spent nearly 20 years as a broadcast television journalist.
I was a newscast producer for a local TV station. I created a nightly newscast from scratch. I decided which stories would be told, who would tell them, how long they would be, and more.
Every day, I was part of the newsroom decision-making process. I know why certain stories get airtime and others don’t (ratings). I know why important facts end up “on the cutting room floor” (time constraints). I know why online media outlets and newspapers write sensational headlines (clicks).
For the last eight years, I’ve been on the other side of that world. I’ve been the one sending press releases and asking, sometimes begging, for coverage of my library or for the libraries I work with in my current job.
A library blog and a video marketing strategy are the best ways to control the narrative and tell your own library story on your terms.
But let’s be honest… media coverage can be great for your library.
So here are my top six tips to help get more positive press for your library.
Did your library get amazing press coverage? How did you do it? Share your story by clicking on the feedback button in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.
Send news releases early.
For events like author visits, grand openings, and other programs, send press releases four to six weeks before the event. Then, send a reminder to the media again about a week before the event.
If your library is unveiling a new service, send your press release one to two weeks before the new service launches.
For big announcements, like awards, send the press release one week before the official announcement and include a line that embargos the release. That means the news outlet can’t cover the story in print or on air until the day the embargo ends. Put the embargo right in the sub-headline of the press release, to be sure the journalists see it.
Write a news story instead of writing a press release.
If you send the newsroom a publishable piece of content with photos or video, you win on two levels.
First, you’ll increase the chances that your library will get coverage. Second, the narrative is exactly as you want it! You make the important points. You have control.
So, write a story which the media outlet can copy and paste into a script or column. Use Associated Press style and these four basic journalistic principles:
A catchy lead sentence;
The who-what-where-when-why sequence, interspersed with a quote or two;
Clear writing without library jargon or technical terms. If you must use a technical term, explain it clearly. And,
A concise ending.
Make your quotes sound like they come from a real person.
Reporters and editors can spot a manufactured quote a mile away.
I know a manufactured quote is often a necessity in libraries. So, if you must make up a quote from your director, don’t write: “Our dynamic approach to customer service is central to our strategic initiatives. We are scheduled to implement more of these forward-thinking tactics.”
This is so much better: “We are adding an online, real-time reading recommendations service because we wanted to do a better job of answering our patrons’ questions and help them find the books they want. We’re hoping to really shake up the service experience. But mostly, we want to make it easy for people to get personal attention and a great book.”
Don’t send your press release in a mass email.
A reporter is much less likely to follow up with you for a story if they are part of a large group of journalists who’ve all received the same story. Journalists want the “exclusive,” even on small things. So don’t let on that you are also sending your release to other outlets.
When you create your list of media contacts, include information about that outlet’s target audience, the kind of stories they usually cover, and the reporters with whom you have a personal connection.
Then, match your potential story with the right reporter rather than sending your release to every reporter you know. It’s a better use of your time and energy, and you’re more likely to get media coverage.
Find good interview subjects ahead of time.
Reporters are looking for compelling quotes that add depth to a story.
They’ll love a quote or a soundbite from a child who finally catches up in reading because of extra tutoring from a children’s librarian. They’ll jump at the chance for a quote or soundbite from an immigrant who got help at his library filling out a naturalization form.
Arrange diverse interviews, including people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. Most newspapers, TV, and radio stations will tell you their target audience is women, ages 25-54. Your interview subjects should be relatable to people in that demographic.
Pick interview subjects who are comfortable on camera and can “talk in soundbites”. That means they can make a point in three to four sentences.
Respect the reporters’ deadline.
When I was a journalist, it was frustrating to call an organization hoping for an interview or answers to questions only to be told that the person was out of the office or wouldn’t be able to call me back until late in the day.
If a reporter is calling you, chances are that they’re working on the story for today’s edition or newscast, which means they’d really like to have all the elements by early afternoon at the latest, to give themselves time to craft the story. Tomorrow is too late.
Move heaven and earth to accommodate the reporter as much as possible. When you do that, you’re more likely to get coverage every time you ask for it.
Newsrooms often have crews available at odd hours, like 10 a.m. or 8 p.m. Sometimes reporters will squeeze in a story during a very limited window in their day. They may call you and say they can come to the library in 10 minutes. Make sure you and your interview subjects can accommodate those last-minute requests.
I have a special request.
I’m putting together a conference presentation and I’m looking for some examples.
Libraries that have reopened and have had some success drawing people back into the physical branch.
Libraries who believe they’ve figured out the hybrid program model.
Libraries who are trying to turn their pandemic digital users on to other services now that the library has reopened.
I know you are doing amazing work. I want to highlight you on a national stage! Thank you in advance.
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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 