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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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content curation for libraries

The Top 13 Places To Find Library Content To Share When You’re Tired and Overworked (Bookmark This Post!)

Courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Promoting your library can feel a lot like feeding a very hungry, very demanding giant.

You want your community to know that your library is the source of rich and valuable information. But, let’s be honest. When you are doing the entire job of promoting your library by yourself or with a small staff, keeping up with the audience’s expectations can be exhausting.

Heck, doing it with a big staff is exhausting. Marketing is tiring.

And the more exhausted and overworked you get, the more your original content suffers. You can’t put your best work out into the world when you are weary.

Your original content, like blog posts, videos, newsletters, and social media posts that talk about what your library offers and how your library helps your community, must be as engaging as possible. Those pieces of content take precedence. You should devote your energy to making those shine.

But there are so many content holes to fill! That’s where a little trick called content curation can be super helpful.

Content curation is sharing articles, infographics, case studies, videos, and other content created by other organizations on your library’s platforms.

Now, I know this sounds counter-intuitive to promoting your library. Why would you share the work of someone else with your audience? Shouldn’t you take every opportunity to engage your followers with your library’s stuff?

That would be ideal. But I know darn well you don’t have a staff of 20 writers to fill your content needs every day. And besides helping you fill your editorial calendar, content curation has other benefits.

Sharing content that aligns with your library’s mission, vision, and values will strengthen your library’s brand. It does this by building trust in your library as an institution of knowledge and inspiration. And it helps you to drive home important messages, like the joy of reading.

Before you begin sharing

The library I used to work for was huge: 600,000 plus cardholders and 41 locations. However, I had a small marketing staff. We often shared content from other sources to fill gaps in our social media and email calendars.

We set a focus for this shared content: anything we shared from outside sources had to be related to books and the literary world. This aligned with one of our library’s overall goals to drive circulation.

That focus was both simplistic and broad. It allowed us to fill our content needs with posts about authors, new books, books being made into movies, health news related to reading, beautiful libraries around the world, historic libraries (including our own), and a lot more.

Our library’s curated content led to higher organic reach on social media. Those pieces of shared content were intriguing additions to our emails. The curated content got a high click rate.

This strategy positioned us as a news source for all things related to the book world. Our followers and fans thought of us as more than a library. They turned to us for information on all topics related to literature.

So, I advise you to set a focus: one that is simple and aligns with your library’s strategic goals.

For example, Hennepin County Public Library’s strategic plan includes the line:  “Offering free access to essential technology and connectivity.” Their curated content focus can be on technology and the benefits of open access to a community.

Here’s another example. One of Montgomery County Public Library’s strategic goals is to make sure all children ages 5 and younger are ready for kindergarten. Their curated content focus might be on shared literacy tips for caregivers of young children, as well as any content that helps caregivers prepare their kiddos for school.

Once you’ve set your focus, you can start sharing. Here is a list of 13 websites where you can find library-related content to share with your audience.

Do you know of a website I should add to the list? Comment below the post to let me know!

BuzzFeed Books

This fantastic BuzzFeed spin-off is a rich source of fun content related to books, authors, and celebrities.

reddit Books

This list of user-generated content on books, libraries, and the literary world is invaluable. Use the discussion boards to give your ideas for fun, and interactive polls to create for your social media followers or email subscribers.   

NPR Books

A good source of more high-brow literary news and lots of book reviews. Use this site to help you decide which books to highlight for individual promotions on social media and through email.

HuffPost Books

Like NPR Books but with a lot of news about politics, book challenges, and diverse authors.

Book Riot

Find in-depth articles and interesting angles on literary themes. Scroll down to the bottom for links to a host of podcasts on every kind of literary subject.  

Electric Lit

A high-brow website with a fun, cultural perspective on literature.

NoveList

My team is responsible for the blog and newsletters, and we work hard to make sure they are a rich source of content curation or promotional ideas for your library. Steal away!

Library Journal’s technology section

Periodic stories about how technology can impact libraries and their patrons. They publish about once a week.

School Library Journal

A great source for posts about books and other library-adjacent services for young readers.

The Princh blog

This company is based in the UK and sells printing options for libraries. Their blog is rarely about printing. Instead, they cover library topics like the impact of early literacy strategies and the joy of volunteering at a library.

American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom blog

Need help curating content that educates your community about the dangers of book challenges? This is the premier spot to find it.

Content Prompt

This daily email from Megan Kowalski (profiled here) will give TONS of great, daily ideas for content. She’s a whiz at following those little-known holidays that can make for great fun on social media (Hello, Fish Tank Floorshow Night!)

Any blog from another library or one of your partners!

If you type “library blog” into Google these days, you’ll come up with a whole list of libraries that are publishing content on a variety of subjects. They’ll appreciate you if you share their content. And you’ll know those content pieces are well-researched and written from the library’s perspective.

Your partner organizations will also be flattered if you share their content. For example, if the town yoga instructor who occasionally holds a class at your branch posts about how yoga helps relieve stress, and your content curation focus is on mental health, share that post!

P.S. Want more advice?

Empathy Marketing: How To Use Greed, Fear, Love, and Hope To Motivate Your Audience

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Feeling Overworked? There’s a Secret Trick to Get More Mileage Out of Your Library Marketing Content!

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Not long ago, I read the results of a new survey. It kind of blew my mind.

Orbitz Media asked content creators about the amount of time they spend blogging. They found the average blog post now takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write. That’s up 65 percent from 2014! The same survey shows 52 percent of bloggers report that it’s getting harder to get readers to engage with their content. WOW.

We live in a world dominated by a relentless and never-ceasing stream of content. But libraries can’t just turn off our content communications streams. Our very existence depends on our ability to educate the public about what we offer. We use our content to convince people to use the library.

So, what’s the solution, when your library staff is overworked, and your audience is oversaturated? Be more efficient.

There is a way to make your work stretch further and get your communication into the world. You can do this by republishing your content.

What is republishing content?

When you republish, you take an old press release, blog post, infographic, or video, and update it to include new and relevant information.

If your library has been publishing content for a while, you probably have quite a catalog. Most of it is still useful and relevant! Good content will never go out of style. These “evergreen” pieces of content are opportunities for you to republish.

Republishing content has many advantages for libraries.

  • It saves you time.
  • It improves your library’s chances of being found in search. When you improve content in the republishing process, you optimize it to bring it up to today’s best practices for headlines, tags, keywords, and length. That leads to improved search results.
  • It helps you to fill your editorial calendar when ideas and staff are sparce.
  • Your audience has changed since your original publish date. You’ve gained new cardholders and fans.
  • Your audience needs a reminder that you offer certain services.

How do you decide what pieces of content to republish?

Here are some ground rules.

First, take inventory of what you have already. This is called a content audit. Use a spreadsheet or organizational software to write down the blog posts, videos, and other pieces of content you previously published (and start keeping track of the new additions).

In your audit, make note of the following:

  • The type of content (blog post, press release, video, brochure, etc.)
  • The original publish date
  • The original headline
  • The keywords or tags used in the original piece
  • The word count or length of the content
  • The number of views, likes, comments, and shares the content originally received

Now you’re ready to make some decisions. What are your marketing goals? Are you (or your supervisors) looking to drive more people to your library webpage? Are you trying to increase social media engagement? Once you establish your goals, look at your old posts and determine which ones will help you reach those goals.

For example, if you want to drive more people to your webpage, and you have a video about your genealogy databases that drove a lot of traffic to your website at the time it was published, mark the video to be updated. It will likely have the same effect today, particularly if it’s refreshed.

Here’s another example. Let’s say your library director really wants to see likes, shares, and comments increase on your library’s new Instagram account. In your list of old content, you notice a blog post from two years ago about a uniquely themed story time that drove a lot of engagement when you posted it on Facebook. Mark that post to be updated. Chances are, with some careful recrafting, it will create the same kind of audience reaction when the updated version is promoted on Instagram.

Now what?

Once you identify the pieces of content you wish to republish, it’s time to update those pieces. Here’s a checklist of options for updating your content.

  • Are the statistics still relevant?
  • Are the links and resources still available?
  • Are quotes still relevant?
  • Are there new keywords or tags to add?
  • Can you freshen up the headline?
  • Do you need to adjust the original length of the piece to make it longer or shorter, based on current best practices?
  • Can you add a poll, a survey, or a comment section to enhance the content experience?

If your original piece of content requires no changes, you can republish it in its original form. Make a note at the beginning to let your readers or viewers know that you’ve republished it without changing it. You might say, “Here’s a popular blog post you may have missed” or “Here’s something from our archives.” Include the original post date for full transparency.

Have you republished content? What were the results? Share your experience in the comments.

Bonus tip

A few months ago, I wrote about another way to stretch your content distribution. Here is the article: Re-purposing Content Saves You Time and Reaches Your Whole Audience. Here’s How to Do It Right.

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Eight of the Best Websites With Curated Content Ideas for Your Library!

Creating content for your Library social media feeds and blogs can feel a lot like feeding a very hungry, very demanding giant. You want your audiences to know that you are the source for all kinds of rich and valuable information but, let’s be honest, when you are doing the entire job of marketing for your library by yourself or with a small staff, keeping up with the audience’s expectations can be exhausting. And the more exhausted you get, the more your original content suffers. You can’t put your best work out into the world when you are feeding the beast.

That’s where content curation comes in. Content curation is the idea that you can share the blog posts, infographics, case studies, and interesting posts created by other organizations on your platforms. Now, I know this sounds counter-intuitive to marketing. Why would you share the good work of someone else with your audience? Shouldn’t we take every opportunity to engage OUR followers with OUR stuff? That would be ideal, but I know darn well you don’t have a staff of 20 writers to fill your content needs every day. Neither do I. The expectations of your audience are the same for you as they are for big brands. You simply can’t keep up, no matter how hard you try.

But here’s the really surprising thing about sharing curated content. If you do it right, by sharing content that aligns with your library’s brand and image, curated content actually helps to strengthen your library’s brand. At my library, we have a strategy which includes sharing curated content related to books and the literary world. That’s a pretty wide definition and it allows us to fill our content needs with posts about authors, new books, books being made into movies, anniversaries of books being made into movies, health news related to reading, beautiful libraries around the world, and a lot more. This strategy has positioned us as a news source for all things related to the book world, and our followers and fans think of us as more than a library. They turn to us for information on all things literature.

I want to share eight websites we use to find content to feed our curation strategy so you can find the same success.

BuzzFeed Books: We pull something from this fantastic BuzzFeed spin-off nearly every day. One word of warning though: check the posts for inappropriate language. BuzzFeed is loose in their writing style and occasionally, they’ll allow an obscenity or two.

reddit Books: This list of user-generated content on books, libraries, and the literary world is pretty invaluable.  It also gives us ideas for polls to ask of our followers or original content posts, based on popular discussion boards. It’s a good way to put your finger on the pulse of the reading world in real-time.

NPR Books: Another place where you can find high-brow literary news and lots of book reviews. I use this site when I’m trying to decide which books I should highlight for individual promotions on social media and through email.

HuffPost Books: Similar to NPR Books but with a lot of news about book-related movies.

BOOK RIOT: A slick and modern website with more in-depth articles and interesting angles on literary themes. Scroll down to the bottom for links to a host of podcasts on every kind of literary subject. This website really warms your soul when you just want to immerse yourself in the world of books and think about how literature affects the lives of everyone.

Books – Flavorwire: The posts here are less frequent but are more varied than other sites. Their writers are very cultural and their perspectives are rare.

Electric Lit: A high-brow website with a fun, cultural perspective on literature. I also just love the look of their website.

NoveList: I’m pretty sure you all know this one exists but if you are like me and you didn’t come to this line of work from library school, this is THE go-to list for librarians who want to learn about new books or find reading recommendations for cardholders. I love their blogs and newsletters, which can be a rich source of content curation or promotional ideas for your library.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button on the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter and Snapchat–it’s where I talk about library marketing! I’m @Webmastergirl. I’m also on LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. Views in this post are my own and do not represent those of my employer.

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