I’m starting a new segment! On the last Wednesday of every month, I’ll be updating you on three headlines related to social media that pertain to library marketing.
In this episode, I’ll update you on news about Instagram Reels and TikTok, Facebook, and a new Pinterest feature.
Kudos in this episode go to the Bristol and South Gloucestershire libraries in the UK for their involvement in the Collect and Drop Surge Testing Service for COVID 19.
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!
I don’t ever want to hear anyone tell me ever again that libraries can’t adapt and be flexible. My friends in the library world have proven their adaptability this year in dozens of ways.
The biggest sea change is around how libraries deliver programs to their community. Librarians shifted on a dime when buildings closed and limited service due to the pandemic.
One of the major changes came in the way libraries deliver programs. Almost every library I’ve worked with is now delivering programs live on Facebook. And they’re doing a fantastic job.
But many librarians say they have a hard time getting people to attend these live programs. They want more people to be a part of the livestreams.
It takes a lot of work to put a livestream virtual program together. And the more people who attend, the more likely they are to recognize the value of your library.
I’ve got some tips that will help you promote your Facebook livestreams to get more viewers.
Plan it out
Before you go live on Facebook, you ask yourself these questions:
What are my goals? Your main goal should be more than “I want to get 20 people to watch the livestream.” Think holistically about what you want your audience to get from your livestream. Be as specific as possible.
Some good goals are “To teach our audience how to search for articles, marriage and death notices, and other information about their families in our newspaper archive” or “To show viewers how to use the new feature updates on the Libby app from Overdrive to better manage their holds.”
A goal or goals for your live video will help you when it comes time to decide how you’ll structure your live and what you’ll say. It also gives you a measurable outcome that you can use to assess the use of live virtual programs.
What will my main message be? The main message is how you translate your overall video goal into a line that you can repeat in your promotion of the video and while you are live.
For example, if your goal is to explain those new features on the Libby app, your main message might be, “You now have more control over the e-books and audiobooks you check out from your library.” Repeating your main message in your video pre-promotion, during the video, and when you post the video on-demand will help drive that message home and make it stick in your viewer’s mind.
Who is my target audience? Readers of this blog know that the best way to have success in marketing is to pick an audience and market to them, rather than marketing to the whole of your cardholder base.
Picking a target audience is important when you’re working in Facebook, because the platform will pick up on any keywords you use in your program description. They’ll help you find those specific viewers by showing your organic post to people who may actually be interested in it.
Once you’ve answered these three questions, you’ll have a good foundation as you head into the stage where you promote your livestream.
Promote before you go live
Facebook suggests that you schedule an announcement post in Live Producer. That feature will automatically create a Facebook preview post. Your library followers can then set up a reminder to join the live broadcast.
You can also set up a Facebook event as a preview to your livestream. If you choose to go this route, be sure to explain that you’ll be going live on your main Facebook page, not within the event.
You can also create organic preview posts. Use an eye-catching graphic or photo and link to your virtual event calendar, where people can register to attend.
Registration for your virtual programs is a great option because it gives your library control over communication. Ask for your potential viewer’s email. Then, send them a reminder to watch from your own email marketing system.
In your reminder email, include other virtual program choices and collection items that compliment your livestream. You should also ask recipients to sign up for other email or newsletter marketing from your library.
Whichever option you go with, be sure to promote your livestream at least two weeks before it happens.
And don’t forget to promote your live program on your other channels, like in your email marketing, on your website’s homepage, or even with fliers or bookmarks that you slip into holds or curbside pickups.
Focus on the conversation
Your promotional efforts don’t end when you hit the “live” button.
Facebook will serve a notification of your live virtual program to people who may be scrolling the news feed while you are live. And the best way to get those notifications to happen is to make sure your audience is having a lively conversation.
To help facilitate the conversation, come up with a list of questions for viewers of your livestream before you go live. If the conversation with viewers lags during your livestream, refer to your list and ask the next question to spark comments again.
Now, that’s hard to do when you’re also the person who is hosting or talking during the livestream! So, ask one of your library co-workers with admin access to your library’s Facebook page to post a comment as the library.
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Angela answers a viewer question from a librarian at Pearsall Public Library. This librarian feels like she’s “drowning” on Facebook. She wanted to know if there were any libraries doing a great job on Facebook right now. The answer is…yes! Watch for my picks and add your own library Facebook page to the comments.
Also Kudos to everyone doing curbside service videos.
Don’t forget to subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week! Thanks for watching.
This blog consists of my own personal opinions and may not represent those of my employer. Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter,Instagram, and LinkedIn.
In this episode, I’ll share the latest research on how the #COVID-19 or #Coronavirus pandemic is affecting social media marketing. This research comes from Rival IQ.
I mentioned I’m doing three live webinars this Thursday, March 26 on social media marketing for libraries for EBSCO. The content is all the same for each so register for the time that’s best for you here.
Also Kudos to the Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Like many libraries in the US, they are closed to the public but they created a Hogwarts Digital Escape Room that is pretty fantastic.
Check the Upcoming Events page to see where I’ll be soon. Let’s connect!
This blog consists of my own personal opinions and may not represent those of my employer. Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter,Instagram, and LinkedIn.
In this episode, we talk about a hot button issue: deleting your library’s Facebook account.
Many libraries are thinking about quitting Facebook for a variety of reasons. In this episode, we go over a few key Facebook statistics to consider before you make a decision. NO JUDGEMENT HERE! Stats are courtesy of Social Media Today.
Check the Upcoming Events page to see where I’ll be soon. Let’s connect!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter,Instagram, and LinkedIn.
This week, Facebook announced it is making another change in the way the social media platform chooses to show content to its users. The big shift, as you likely know by now, is that Facebook will prioritize posts from friends and family in its news feed over public content from pages, like that of your library. In particular, the Facebook team will give top priority to posts that drive conversation between friends and family.
The announcement is causing consternation for many libraries, which rely heavily on organic, unpaid traffic for their promotional efforts. I honestly don’t know what the end effect will be. I have the same worries as most of my library colleagues. We’ve adjusted well since the last major algorithm change in 2015. So will we have to start over? In the wake of this announcement, I’ve wondered if the chicken comes before the egg. In other words, do our well-performing posts get more interaction because, prior to this week, Facebook has shown them to people in anticipation of interaction… or do they perform well because people are interacting with them? (Deep thoughts!!)
In the Facebook group, Libraries and Social Media, I asked social media marketers at libraries to comment on the change. Caleb Sheaffer of Shreve Memorial Library in Shreveport, LA said, “I never know what to expect until it actually happens. Right now, all the posts that perform well for our library are ones that have the most interaction anyway.”
Jennifer Redford from Boise, Idaho added, “I think that we’ll just need to focus more on writing and sharing great content. We’ve also started using events more and I wonder how that will be affected by the change.”
Finally, Molly Wetta, manager of the Santa Barbara Public Library, told me, “These announcements are pushing me to move forward more quickly with an idea I’ve had for a while. We’re experimenting with linked groups – I started one for youth services specific content, and we may also try one for smaller communities and branches within our system if this one is successful. The goals are to work more to create community connections in addition to marketing our events/services. I do love the events feature, and the notifications will hopefully be helpful but not intrusive. We’ll be sharing book recommendations and answering book-related questions, sharing early literacy tips and activities, and hopefully answering questions.”
The bottom line is that your library’s page may see your overall statistics drop. Your reach and referral traffic, your shares, and your comments may drop. MAY is the key word there. My overall impression of this change is that it will force library marketers to work smarter when using Facebook. All of the pointers in this recent article on Facebook still apply.
And now, more than ever, you must make sure your posts are really good. Share content from other sources related to books and literature–don’t just promote your own stuff, particularly on posts. Use events to promote your events. Ask questions. Create polls. And most importantly, shoot video. As we know, Facebook users respond in a big way to video. Facebook says live videos often lead to discussion among viewers and live videos get six times as many interactions as regular videos. So video marketing must be part of your plan.
You can also explain to your followers what is happening and ask them to choose to see your posts. People who want to see more posts from your library page can select See First in News Feed Preferences. You can also do what Molly’s library is doing and experiment with groups. One of my favorite Facebook pages did that this weekend and they put a little money behind it to make sure all their followers know about the move.
Finally, don’t bait people to interact with your posts. In this week’s announcement, Facebook made it very clear that they will penalize pages which use engagement bait, like. Use real questions and conversation starters. Read this article to see how to avoid engagement bait.
Here’s the thing to remember: posting content on Facebook is like building your house on rented land. It doesn’t belong to you and as much as it pains your library system when changes are made, there is little we can do about it. The big lesson is that we need to start relying on our own platforms and websites for promoting our programs and services. That means we should be building our own audience with blogs, podcasts, and other content delivery systems. We should be developing email subscriber lists so we can target and market to our specific library cardholders and give them the content they really want.
Facebook is great, but they’re not the only way to reach customers. Let’s make a concerted effort to start moving to other content delivery platforms where we have more control. Our fans are loyal and they’ll respond when we deliver content specifically targeted to them.
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.
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 