Push Play and Record: The Library’s Guide to Video Production (including a list of equipment to fit your budget!)

*Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library*

There is nothing like putting a face on a story.

In my television news days, we worked hard to get on-camera interviews for every story. We knew that there was no better way to express emotion and build empathy for the subjects of our stories than to show their faces and hear their voices.

Your library can and should be producing videos for library marketing to build empathy and connection with your organization.

To be clear, I am not talking about TikTok or Instagram Reels videos. TikTok or Reels are fun and give you a chance to engage new audiences. And those videos do build brand awareness for your library.

But that should not be the only video your library is creating. Your library should produce some longer-form videos, lasting a minute or more, that tell a specific story or have a specific library marketing goal. These are videos you will embed on your website, and post natively to Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Vimeo (or all the above if you’re smart!)

Why?

Videos help you rank higher in searches.

According to Oberlo, more than 82 percent of global internet traffic comes from videos. That means video can be a powerful tool for driving community members to your website to check out your services.

Demand for video is increasing.

According to a survey conducted among consumers worldwide by Statista, people watched an average of 19 hours of online video content per week in 2022. That hourly total has been steadily rising since the survey was first conducted in 2018.

Every major social media platform will reward you for producing longer-form videos.

They boost video posts organically. And the more video your library posts to those platforms, the more organic reach your other posts will get.

Video makes your marketing memorable.

Video is the closest you can get to experiencing something without being physically present. It’s relatable. As I mentioned earlier, seeing faces and hearing voices builds empathy and allows people to really feel the emotions your videos convey.

And if you use staff in videos, community members will end up recognizing those staff members as they come into the library. They’ll feel more comfortable because they will “know” the person behind the desk.

Your library’s long-form video strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. And you don’t have to break the bank to buy equipment. So, let’s lay out a plan in three parts.

Set goals and brainstorm video ideas to meet those goals.

The easiest way to decide which videos to create is to refer to your library’s strategic goals. What does your library wish to accomplish? Your videos should serve to make those strategic goals a reality. For this section, let’s pretend your library has a strategic goal to increase visits to the Makerspace by 10 percent in the next year.

Once you decide which of your library’s overall goals to focus on, the next step is to set your own marketing goal for your videos. For example:

Your video marketing goals:

1000 views on YouTube
200 views on the library website
50 Makerspace sessions booked by people who watched the videos.

Setting your video marketing goals before you decide what videos you want to create might feel backward. But you’ll have more success if you set your marketing goals first. That’s because you’ll be asking yourself: What kind of videos will help me achieve these goals?

If you have trouble coming up with video ideas, try searching your website analytics to see what your cardholders are looking for when they visit your site. Do they have specific questions or use specific keywords or terms to search for information related to the strategic goal you’re focusing on?

You can also check keywords used in Google searches in connection with your library’s strategic goal. This keyword research will uncover the questions your community has related to the goal you’re trying to accomplish. You can use video to answer those questions!

For our MakerSpace example, let’s say you look at Google Analytics for your library website and you do Google keyword research. And you discover that people in your community are searching, for “3D printers near me.” If your Makerspace includes a 3D printer, you’ll want to make sure some of your videos are about that piece of equipment.

Let’s say you also discover many searches of the phrase “cost of 3D printing”. Now you know that cost may be a barrier to use for some community members. You can address that with a video.

Plan and produce.

With your goals and keyword research in hand, it’s time to make more concrete plans. Start brainstorming and make a list of ideas. Depending on your goal, you may want to produce more than one video.

Let’s go back to our previous example of increasing visits to your Makerspace. Your library may decide to make a series of videos to reach your goal of 50 Makerspace sessions booked.

Interview a patron who made something unusual on the 3D printer.
Interview a patron who used your 3D printer for their small business.
Showcase Makerspace staff using the 3D printer to make common items, like repair parts, for a fraction of the cost of buying those parts.
Show how to book the Makerspace.
Show how a typical Makerspace session runs, from greeting to finished product.

It took me about five minutes to come up with that list! If you are having trouble coming up with ideas on your own, ask your co-workers. For our Makerspace example, it would make total sense to ask the staff working in the Makerspace to help you come up with ideas.

Plan your production.

It’s time to create a production schedule. You’ll want to add your videos to your regular editorial calendar, giving yourself plenty of time to produce them. In general, it will take you about a month to produce a video lasting one minute or longer. Here’s a sample schedule:

A week to write an outline or a script if necessary.
A week to get your outline or script approved.
A day to shoot the video.
A week to edit a draft.
A week for approvals and edits.

With this schedule, you could release one longer form video each month.

Refer to your video style guide as you begin the work of bringing each video to reality.

Now you’re ready to shoot and edit your videos. Then, it’s time to make some important decisions.

Choose the thumbnail picture for your video carefully.

The thumbnail picture is the billboard advertisement for your video. Research shows that faces are more likely to draw viewers. If you can, choose a face showing an emotion.

If you are creating a series of videos, be consistent with the look of your thumbnails. You’ll want your audience to recognize the video as being from your library and part of a series.

Use keyword research to come up with video titles.

Video titles should be 100 characters or less, so you’ll need to use that limited space to your best advantage. Do a few test searches to see what keywords lead viewers to popular videos. Then try to work those keywords into your video title.

Include a Call to Action and track results with special codes.

When you create and promote your videos, include a Bitly link to drive viewers to your website, catalog, or other owned property.

Promote your videos.

It’s not enough to post your video and forget it. You’ll make sure people see your video once it’s released.

Within the first 24 hours of uploading and releasing a video, send an email to promote your video. You’ll want to match the content of your video to the segmented email list that will be most likely to want to view it.

The exception to this rule would be system-wide video announcements, like the opening of a new branch or a change in service for your entire library system. You can send an email to your entire list, letting them know there’s a video available with exciting information!

Email notifications about your video will alert your audience that the video exists. More people will watch the video. And the more views you get in the first 24 hours after you’ve uploaded a video, the higher your video will appear in search rankings.

Bonus: Affordable equipment list for library marketing videos

Camera: Canon EOS 2000D is great for beginners. It also has a Wi-Fi connection, so you can easily share your videos. And it gets great ratings. This p ackage from Walmart is fairly priced and includes extras like memory cards, a backpack, and a tripod.
Ring light: The Sensyne Ring Light is an affordable option for libraries and it comes with its own tripod.
Wireless Lavalier microphones: You’ll want to buy at least two. This model from ZMOTG can be used with phones and a DSLR camera and gets great reviews.
Editing software: Here’s a great list of free editing software.

More Advice

5 Easy and Surefire Ways To Decide What Videos You Should Create for Your Library’s YouTube Channel

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April 24, 2023 0

Virtual Library Programmers–Heads Up! Here’s a Super Easy, Step-by-Step Plan to Establish a Style Guide for Your Library Videos

There’s a trend in library marketing now. It’s born out of necessity and determination.

More libraries are producing videos. They’re using the format to deliver programs to their community. They’re using video to explain the value of their library, as they brace for the economic impact of the pandemic.

I’ve long been a fan of video library marketing. And, even before COVID-19, there was mounting evidence that video is an effective and engaging way to communicate.

Video is easy to produce, really. Anyone with a smartphone and some editing software can make cool videos that look professional. My 19-year-old taught herself to edit this week in about two days’ time. I imagine many of you are doing the same thing.

But there’s one step in the process you may have missed. And for this, I must thank Mary from Evergreen Park Library. She asked me to talk about creating a video style guide.

Why you need a video style guide

Any content coming out of your library will need to look like it’s coming from your library!

It’s the same philosophy you may have for any print material you create. You likely have rules and specifications about the look of the text, the placement of the logo, the use of colors, and more. Even if your guidelines are just a few sentences, someone along the line has likely laid out the rules.

Your videos need a similar set of guidelines. We want people to be able to recognize your work on all platforms.

And once you create a video style guide, it’s important to make sure everyone who creates content adheres to it. It’s incredibly important that we reinforce your library’s brand to your community. We want them to immediately know the video was produced by your library. Later, when we need support for funding, they’ll remember your work and the value you provide.

Creating your video style guide

In your style guide, answer these questions.

Logo: How often will your logo be used in the video? Where does it need to appear on the screen? How big should it be? What color should it be? If you have several versions of your logo, which one will be used in videos?
Fonts: What font should be used for onscreen text? What color does it need to be? How large should it be? When should it appear?
Graphics: If your video creators are adding additional graphics, what colors are allowed? What style of graphic should they use? What program should they use to create them?
Video: How should shots be framed? What resolution do you want recorded? What aspect ratio will be allowed? Do shots need to be focused? Does video need to be stable or will you allow shaky shots?
Audio: How loud should audio be in your videos? Should on camera talent use a microphone, headsets, or camera audio? If they edit music into the final product, how loud should the music be versus spoken words?
Talent: Which library staff members are permitted to record, edit, and upload videos? Should on-camera library staff wear something specific, like your library’s uniform shirt or a library branded t-shirt?
Process: Is there a senior staff member who must give final approval for your video? How will the video be transferred between staff members at various stages of editing, approval, and posting?
Patron privacy: How do you go about getting permission from everyone who appears on camera, even in the background? This is especially important when library buildings reopen, and we start capturing video of patrons. It’s likely part of your library’s overall privacy policy. So, check to see what kind of permission you need to get from participants and set guidelines to make sure your video creators know that’s part of their responsibility.
Liability and copyright issues: What music can your video creators legally use? What still photos can they legally use? What extra footage can they legally use? Be explicit about fair use standards.

Examples of video style guides

Pepperdine University

Oxford Brooks University

Washington University School of Medicine

You might also want to read these

Butts in Seats: Which Video Metrics Count as Attendance in the New World of Virtual Library Programming?

Videos Can Reach Library Users at Home Now and in the Future. Here’s Your Starter Kit.

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May 4, 2020 9

Butts in Seats: Which Video Metrics Count as Attendance in the New World of Virtual Library Programming?

This week’s post is inspired by a question on the Libraries and Social Media Facebook page. A library staff member asked this: “We’re being asked to track the virtual ‘butts in seats’ numbers for each of our programs and also how many views each get in the first hour. I can’t for the life of me find that in insights.”

Analytics on views for videos, both live and pre-recorded, are measured differently by each platform. So, tracking actual attendance can be confusing and time intensive. But it is valuable data.

I have done some research this week to find updated information about how to track video views on the platforms where most libraries are posting video and doing live stream programming: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Special note: Libraries are also using Instagram for live streaming and video views. However, analytics for videos on Instagram are nearly impossible to track. My advice is limited by that fact.

What counts as attendance?

Before you begin analyzing video views on any platform, you’ll want to establish what will count as attendance to a virtual programming. It may be easiest to align your library’s definition of what counts as video attendance with the way each platform measures a video view.

Most platforms based their metrics on someone viewing a very short portion of your video, not the whole thing. That sounds like good news. But, like an email open rate or a social media follower count, the simple video view is vanity metrics. We want our videos to impact our community. We need to push our definition of video program attendance into deeper territory.

You’ll also want to consider whether your library will use a different metric to measure the number of people who attend a live stream virtual program versus a pre-recorded video. My recommendation is to track both numbers separately. This will give you a sense of whether your followers prefer live streaming over pre-recorded video.

When you live stream, you can see right away how many people are “attending” your event. When you finish your live stream on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll have the option of saving your video to your device. Always do that.

Then, you’ll be asked if you want to upload your live stream recording to the platform for on-demand views. You should do that too!

As soon as you end your live stream, Facebook and Instagram both tell you right away the number of people who viewed your live stream. Then you’ll need to decide how often you check the on-demand views of your live stream. You’ll also need to decide how long will you track the on-demand views on each live stream recording.

Make these decisions now so you can consistently report the attendance and compare metrics on videos to see which ones perform best. If you have one type of video program that does well, you should offer more of that!

Once you decide what will count as attendance by one person on each platform, you’re ready to start recording your views. If you are using a social media scheduling platform, this will be easy. Most scheduling platforms have a video performance section that will help you analyze your views. If you can’t find it, go to the “Help” section of your platform. You should also check your scheduling platforms help section to get more information about how they gather those metrics.

If you don’t have a social media scheduling platform, you’ll check the video views on each platform. Here’s how to do that.

Facebook: Go to your library’s page. At the top, under the general Facebook search bar, you’ll see “Insights.” Click on that. Then scroll down the menu on the left side of the page until you see “Videos.” Click on that.

Instagram: You can see how many people viewed your live stream after it’s finished. If you post your live stream to your stories, you can see how many people viewed it. Be sure to check it before the end of your 24 hour period, because it will disappear! If you upload a video to IGTV, you can see how many people viewed the video, but there are no further analytics. You cannot track video views for videos posted to your normal Instagram feed.

Twitter: Go to Google and type “Twitter Analytics.” If you are logged into your library’s Twitter account, the URL will automatically populate with your library’s analytics. At the top of the page, to the right of the Twitter logo, you’ll see the word “More” and a drop-down menu. Click on the arrow to find “Videos.”

YouTube: Go to your channel. Click on YouTube Studio, then Video Analytics.

Side note: You can see my latest book review did not do very well on YouTube. I am comforted by the fact that it was gangbusters on Facebook. And that’s a lesson too. Different videos will work better on different platforms. You’ll learn how to pair a video to a platform by tracking video analytics.

The top three video metrics to track

#1-Video Views

Facebook and Instagram: a view is counted anytime someone watches your video for at least three seconds.

Twitter: a view counts if someone watches at least two seconds. Additionally, at least 50 percent of the tweeted video must be visible on screen to be registered as viewed. This rule is to account for the auto-play function.

YouTube: a view is counted anytime someone watches your video for at least 30 seconds.

#2-Watch Time

Facebook reports this metric in insights and calls it “minutes viewed.”

Instagram, as far as I can tell at this writing, does not report watch time. (BOO!)

Twitter reports minutes watched under the “video details” of every video you publish on the site. In addition, they have a cool graph that tells you how long the average viewer watches your video. This is reported in quarter percentages. You’ll also get the completion rate, or the percentage of viewers who watched your video from start to finish.

YouTube will tell you the average total watch time for every video you create.

Let’s say you post a 10-minute video on YouTube. You might have 500 views, which means 500 people watched at least the first 30 seconds. Then you’ll have an average watch time of say, 5:33, which means most people watched at least five minutes and 33 seconds of your video.

YouTube prioritizes videos with high watch times in its viewing suggestion algorithm.

I can tell you from my own experience posting The Library Marketing Show to YouTube each week that it’s rare for someone to watch an entire video from start to finish. I challenge myself every week to improve my watch time.

#3-Engagement

As always, you want to record likes, comments, and shares of your videos, as you would with other social media posts. These metrics can tell you how many people were compelled to act based on your video. You can help boost these numbers by actively asking your viewers to like, comment, and share.

Shares are the most important engagement metric, because that means someone liked your online program so much, they wanted their friends and family to enjoy it too.

You might also want to read these⬇️

Videos Can Reach Library Users at Home Now and in the Future. Here’s Your Starter Kit.

The New Guide to Library Marketing Social Media for 2020! Part Four: Maximizing YouTube for Video Plus What About Tumblr, Snapchat, and TikTok?

April 27, 2020 8

The Best Posts and Videos to Get Started in #LibraryMarketing! The Library Marketing Show: Episode 28

WATCH NOW

The #LibraryMarketing Show, Episode 28: Brenna Jaco at the Lubbock Public Library in Lubbock, Texas submitted this question: “I just discovered your blog and I wish I had the time to go back and read all your posts from the beginning. In your opinion, what are the most important/useful/favorite blog posts and YouTube videos you’ve done over the years?”

Thanks for the question, Brenna! I give the top three blog posts and videos, ranked by views. That means other library marketing pros found them helpful. I hope you will too!

The Top video was Fighting Back Against the Endless Poster-Flyer-Bookmark Cycle! #LibraryMarketing Show: Episode 8.

A close second was Best Free Ways To Reach Non-Cardholders! #LibraryMarketing Show: Episode 13.

And finally, people love Advice for Digital Signage in Libraries! The #LibraryMarketing Show: Episode 21.

Now for the top three blog posts. The top post is The Best Library Customer Service Advice from an Expert! I interviewed Dan Gingiss, author of Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media.

People also love my early list of the best conference for library marketers. There’s no link because it’s outdated now, but a new list for 2020 is coming out on February 3rd!!

Finally, one of the most popular posts is about how my library increased participation in our summer reading program by 97% one year!

And KUDOS go out to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System because they have a Library Road show! It’s a whole 30-minute show on YouTube. It’s well-produced and informative. Great job!

Want more Library Marketing Show? Watch previous episodes!

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.

January 15, 2020 0

What a Firecracker and a Watermelon Have to Do with Library Video Marketing

I am so excited that the focus of marketing in the current era is video. I’m positively giddy at the prospect of how this medium will help us transform the popular view of libraries. The power of video is mind-blowing. It’s easier than ever to create a video. The hard part is compelling your viewers to watch it and to keep coming back for more.

I want to encourage you by sharing tips I learned from an extraordinary marketing expert. Andrew Davis is CEO of Monumental Shift and author of the book Brandscaping. He is a former journalist and producer for The Muppets and Charles Kuralt. He’s a brilliant storyteller and a gifted speaker. He spoke at Content Marketing World this year about the power of video marketing and how to make sure your videos are working at their fullest potential–engaging viewers, building compelling stories, and getting your whole message through to your target audience. His talk was energizing and I want to spread some of his enthusiasm around!

Davis says we need to change the way we think about engagement. Most libraries declare engagement victory when we get a certain amount of views, impressions, shares, or likes. But the social media landscape is so saturated that those numbers really have no meaning anymore. We need to shift our definition of engagement to audience retention.

Audience retention is, simply put, the amount of time our cardholders spend viewing our content. This translates to watch time on YouTube and Facebook and page time on Google Analytics. A compelling video will persuade people returning to those platforms to view your content over and over. Davis says we must stop blaming our viewers for having the attention span of a goldfish. It isn’t that our viewers can’t pay attention to what we are saying. The problem is that what we are saying is boring.

Create videos that your cardholders really want to watch. To do this, you’ll need to get inside the mind of your viewer. Start by creating a series of “how to” videos, which have high audience retention. How-to videos are low-hanging fruit for a library. Your librarians can be your guide–ask them to name the questions they are asked most often by cardholders and then help you create a simple video to explain the answers. To prove the power of the how-to video, Davis played this video, which is one of the most watched how-to videos on YouTube.

Davis says your next video marketing challenge is to create suspense by raising the stakes. The best way to explain this concept is with this video from the Slo-Mo guys.They inserted a firecracker into a watermelon. It takes 18 seconds from start to finish for it to blow up. I admit it’s kind of exciting. But it’s over in less than half a minute–not the greatest way to create audience retention!

Davis says there is a better way to do that video–and the example comes from Buzzfeed. They did a Facebook live where they burst a watermelon with rubber bands. It took forever to make the watermelon explode but tons of people were watching when it finally blew up. At the 20 minute mark, they had 375,000 viewers. By 40 minutes, they had 800,000 viewers. In all, more than 11 million watched it on demand after the fact. So the lesson is… DON’T INSERT A FIRECRACKER INTO A WATERMELON.

Next, Davis says, teach your audience to chase answers. The pursuit of the answers builds momentum. Your videos need to occupy your audience’s desire to know more over time. Davis says you need to stop worrying about how long a video is. Rather, ask yourself if your entire video worth watching. When someone says your video is too long, what they’re really saying is “I have no more questions.” Make sure there are questions that need answering and keep the audience constantly asking what’s next.

Remember that building suspense isn’t just part of the story line of your video. The title and the thumbnail you choose is part of the equation–don’t give it all away in those two elements. To demonstrate, Davis shared this video from the ancestry research company 23 and Me. Honestly, if you just read the title and look at the thumbnail, you will already know what’s going to happen. There’s no suspense and that translates into no real reason to watch.

A more compelling example of building suspense through the title and use of video is this Dove Choose Beautiful spot.

Finally, Davis says when you are creating drama with your videos, it is important to remember to pay it off. Make sure you deliver a catharsis or an emotional release our audience craves. If you don’t, you risk alienating your viewers. For example, Billy Gene The Wolf of Advertising made the following video. Watch it and see if you can guess why it was widely criticized.

There is no resolution! You must resolve every question you raise by the end of the video. Be sure to provide answers to all the questions in your video, so you avoid frustrating your audience. A frustrated audience will not come back to watch more of your content.

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.

February 5, 2018 3

Secrets For Library Videos People Will Actually Watch

Amy Schmittauer Landino is an expert on video and video blogging. Not surprisingly, she is all in on video marketing. She’s the Founder of SavvySexySocial.com, Vlog Boss Studios, and author of Vlog Like a Boss. I’ve watched her channel for more than a year and so I was super excited to be in the same room with her for 45 minutes at Content Marketing World, where I attended her session on how to create and repurpose video content to get more attention for my library.

And by the way, Amy led this session mere days after her wedding in Vegas. She’s a true pro and is committed to helping others.

Video marketing will be a large focus for my library in the next year, and honestly, I hope it is for you too. It’s not as intimidating as it seems. You don’t need fancy equipment to market with video successfully. In fact, what Amy says you need to focus on the parts of video marketing that don’t even involve the camera. She told us that anyone can become a talented video marketer–all you have to do is start making videos and then keep practicing. All of the technical stuff–lighting, shots, background, audio–can be perfected through practice. But there are non-technical things you can do to improve the chances your video will be watched and shared and they are just as important as having a beautiful finished product. Here are her tips.

Plan and be consistent. Plan your programming ahead of time. Think of the videos you produce as you would if you were running a station. What are you going to do for the next several months? How much time do you need to shoot, edit, and get approvals? Planning will ease stress for you and will help you to secure the interviews and shots you need. Post your videos on a consistent basis, on the same day and time if you can. Your audience will begin to expect your videos!

Make videos about things your customer wants to know–not what YOU THINK they want to know. Amy says this is mandatory for creating videos that are watched and shared. Stop focusing on what your library thinks it needs to communicate and start thinking about what your cardholders need to know. What do they think about? What are they Googling? What questions are they asking at the reference desk or at the front door or in programs? I went to our chat service and asked them for a list of the top ten questions asked by our cardholders. That’s my video plan for next year!

Keywords are so very important. When you post your video, make sure you do your keyword research ahead of time so your audience will be able to find your video! Posting your video with whatever keywords come to mind is not consistent or helpful. You have to plan and use the relevant keywords in captions, the title, and the description. Amy recommends doing your keyword research on Tubebuddy.

Post, then wait. Amy posts her videos first on YouTube and then waits 48 hours so YouTube can categorize and rank her video. Once that happens she does a Facebook post and points people where she wants them to watch it–whether it’s on her YouTube channel or on her website. It’s an interesting concept if your library decides you want your cardholders to mostly watch your videos on YouTube. Don’t be afraid to experiment and react according to the results.

Make sure your video passes the share test. Amy says you must ask yourself if your video passes the share test. Will your audience say to themselves, “I have to share this because it is that good!” If your stuff doesn’t pass that test, don’t even shoot it. Focus your energy on videos that people will share.

Does your library produce videos? Please comment or send me an email at ahursh@yahoo.com. I’ll be featuring great library marketing videos in an upcoming post and I’d love to include your library!

October 23, 2017 2

Powerful Library Video Marketing Ideas To Delight Your Cardholders

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I’m all in on video marketing.

Why am I so gung-ho on video? As a former broadcast journalist, I have seen the evidence first-hand of the impact a string of moving pictures has on people. It’s more powerful than any other medium, even print. You can read the story of how the library changed the life of a cardholder. But when you see them on the screen and hear their voice, you suddenly feel emotions–empathy, excitement, joy–on a level that you just can’t get with words in print.

So get your iPhone or your DSLR camera ready, because I’ve got some ideas for videos you can create to get your video marketing strategy moving!

Facebook Cover Video: Facebook recently launched a feature that lets libraries use a video as their cover image slot. This is the perfect starting point for your library. If you have a beautiful atrium in your library, shoot a slow pan of the atrium during a busy point in the day. Or train a camera on the door when you open and record video of customers streaming into the building, then speed up the video for a time-lapse effect. Take your camera into the hidden stacks and roll as you walk among the thousands upon thousands of books. Shoot video of your processing area. Shoot video of workers loading your trucks for daily deliveries to your branches. Shoot video of your drive-up window. There are about a thousand possibilities! You can pick something that requires little or no editing, create an eye-catching visual for your Facebook page, and give yourself some confidence in video marketing.

A few notes about Facebook cover videos: They must be 20-90 seconds long, the resolution has to be 1080p (check your iPhone settings or use a DLSR camera), and be aware that the top and bottom of your video might be slightly cropped by Facebook, so shoot with a little extra room around the margins of your screen.

Video Book Reviews: Create a series of book reviews by librarians, volunteers, and customers. If you’re worried about someone going on and on about how great or awful a book is (readers are passionate!), set a time limit and use that as you shtick. “The 60-second book review” is catchy and gives value to the person watching without risking a diatribe that lasts ten minutes. Try to select reviewers ahead of time and give them a clear set of rules about how the segment is set up–they’ll want to say the title and author of the book at the beginning and end of the video. You can use a number of apps to add text to the video. Upload the video separately to Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and your website. Do this because most social media platforms now penalize you for sharing video from another social media platform. For a great example of video marketing reviews, check out this series from the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

Librarian Stories: My library did a series of customer impact stories earlier this year that was extremely popular. Each was only a few minutes long and was loosely scripted. We asked librarians to tell us about memorable interactions they had with a customer. We did edit in b-roll (that’s the video that covers part of an interview and usually relates to what the interviewee is saying). We did five of these videos and, all told, it took us about two weeks to shoot, edit, and upload in addition to our other duties. Again, you can use these on multiple platforms. It’s a great piece of content marketing for your library and it also is a great way to boost morale for the front-line staff… they really loved talking about their work. We also took transcripts of their stories and used them in our print publications, so you can repurpose this content for other mediums too!

First Look at New Construction: Is your library building a new branch or doing a renovation? Shoot a video (when it’s safe) inside the building before all the paint is up and the furniture is in place, to give your cardholders a sneak peek at what’s coming! They’ll love it. Here’s a great example from the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia!

I’d love it if you share examples of great library marketing videos you’ve seen in the comments… I need some new ideas to steal, er, copy for my library!

August 28, 2017 4

Q&A: How a Tongue-in-Cheek Message Sparked Success for Chicago Public Library

Q&A

A few weeks ago, a video by the Chicago Public Library caught my attention. It was part of a series of videos designed to promote a fine amnesty program.

If you haven’t seen them, you need to.

There are a whole series of these videos and personally, I think they’re brilliant–and more importantly, memorable.

And so I contacted Mary Beth Mulholland, Director of Marketing for CPL, who graciously agreed to a Q&A. Mulholland’s educational background is in nonprofits, fundraising and philanthropy. She received her Master’s degree from Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy (Now Lilly School of Philanthropy) and began her career as a Director of Development and Public Relations for a nonprofit. She began at CPL as a Press Rep and moved into the Director of Marketing role last year.

Mulholland has been a library user her entire life. Now, in her role at Chicago Public Library, she promotes services which reach nearly every neighborhood in Chicago through 80 locations. More than nine million patrons visit each year to check out materials, attend an author or children’s program, use the Maker Lab, view an exhibit or use a computer. CPL has more than one million active cardholders.

Tell me a little about how the idea for the fine amnesty campaign was born. Why did the library decide to do such a sweeping plan?

We decided to do a “Welcome Home” Fine Amnesty to kick off a larger marketing campaign called “Home of the Curious,” created in partnership with FCB Chicago. The last time we did a fine amnesty was for three weeks in 2012, and the results were very successful. During that amnesty, we had 101,301 overdue items, valued at approximately $2 million, returned. More importantly, we had over 40,000 Chicagoans renew their Library card.

During this two-week amnesty, we welcomed home 13,197 patrons to the Library through replaced or updated library cards. We had 33,886 items returned with an estimated value of $819,243. We knew the numbers wouldn’t be as high as in 2012 since we had so recently held an amnesty, and we are happy with the results.

One of the reasons I love libraries is because we are all about access. Our Commissioner, Brian Bannon, and our Mayor Rahm Emanuel are very passionate about CPL providing opportunity and resources to all Chicagoans. Oftentimes fines serve as a barrier to access. As we were planning the Home of the Curious campaign, we decided that another opportunity to wipe fines and welcome patrons home would be a great kick-off to our visibility campaign.

The Home of the Curious campaign, created in partnership with our pro bono partner FCB Chicago, is based on the idea that everyone who walks into the library has something in common – curiosity. There are so many things to explore at the Library, and through this campaign we highlight different programs and resources in which people use the Library, or call the library home. In addition to the ad campaign running throughout the city, we’re featuring the individuals and their ‘titles’ on our website weekly to highlight Library resources and collections. The ad campaign was made possible through the support of the Chicago Public Library Foundation.

In addition, we used this opportunity to do a brand refresh. We updated our CPL logo to better cohesively represent all of our sub-brands.

Tell me about the creation of the videos: What was the objective, who wrote them, how long did it take you to create them, and how much did they cost?

The videos, for me, were the most fun part of the process! We wanted to promote the amnesty and incorporate Library staff so they felt like ambassadors for the campaign. I think the staff enjoyed filming, and I think patrons loved seeing their library staff on camera! I loved that we were able to include sign language, Spanish and Chinese into the videos as well to appeal to our diverse patron base.

Our partners at FCB Chicago helped us create the videos — they were written by a brilliant and fun team over there. The video scripts were out of the box and humorous, while still being authentic to CPL and our purpose.

We did about seven hours of filming and hammered out all the videos in one day. FCB did more work in post-production to incorporate our logo and captions. Because the videos were done on the back-end of some filming work FCB was doing for Chicago Public Library Foundation, they did not cost us a dime! I am so grateful because they helped garner visibility for the fine amnesty, but also built a lot of good will with staff and patrons.

Did your library do any other marketing to spread the message about the fine amnesty program?

We had in-branch info flyers and “Wanted Posters” to promote the amnesty, a website banner and home page post up for the full two weeks, and utilized social media with about 3–4 posts a day spread over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In addition, we tried to leverage local press to get the word out about waived fines. Over 50 different outlets covered the fine amnesty program with combined circulation of over 20 million. Coverage included our local TV and radio stations, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, and local Chicago papers like DNA info, Chicagoist, and Red Eye.

Was the campaign successful? How did you measure the success?

I think it was hugely successful. The full Home of the Curious campaign runs through the end of April with ads around the city and website promotion, so we can’t quite yet measure the success of that campaign. However, with the launch of that campaign with the “Welcome Home” amnesty kick off, our circulation increased by 13% in the month of February compared to last year. We also issued over 4,000 new library cards in the month of February in addition to the over 13,000 renewed cards.

During the two-week “Welcome Home” amnesty, we saw a 1000% increase in our social media engagement. In fact, the day we announced the amnesty, Chicago Public Library was trending on Facebook. That felt like such a win to me — if we can get the public talking feverishly about the Library then I think it’s been a huge success.

In general, the positive feedback we received from patrons and the good will towards the library that the amnesty inspired made it a success. We had a feature on our website where patrons could submit their amnesty stories, and we had a few explain how their fines had prohibited them from using the library. Our staff described how it made them love their jobs because they got to make so many patrons happy by waiving their fines. We got a lot of missing materials returned and put back into circulation, and most importantly, welcomed home thousands of library users.

What’s one piece of marketing advice you’d give to other library marketers about putting together a campaign of this scale?

I think that we need to remember as we promote library services to our cities and our patrons that it’s okay to be a little tongue in cheek or out of the box. It’s okay to break library stereotypes. Our services are no longer just those of library past, so why shouldn’t our marketing efforts evolve too? The videos we created with library staff, the “Wanted” posters in branches and our social media efforts were all a bit untraditional.

I’d also suggest leveraging the resources you have at your disposal. This campaign would not have come together as a success without the pro-bono work of FCB Chicago or the financial support of Chicago Public Library Foundation. Through the strategic partnership with FCB, we were able to build our marketing capacity and work with their very creative team. If working with a large agency isn’t an option, and even if it is, make sure to use the free or inexpensive tools at your disposal like social media. Using our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts with a calendar of scheduled posts and spending a nominal amount for social media ads and promoted posts increased our engagement and visibility. Make sure your front line staff is on board. In promoting the fine amnesty and making sure that went smoothly, they were a hugely important resource to the campaign’s success.

Finally, be adaptable. There were some bumps along the way, delays in execution and a few logistical challenges. The final iteration of the campaign and amnesty elements looked different in execution than they did during initial planning. Keep an open mind, keep pushing forward, and rally your team around you.

What are you reading?

I just finished A Different Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab (from our March recommendations list created by our librarians. I trust them more than anyone to steer me in the right direction every month!) and am starting The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah.

If you have any questions or comments or if you would like to write a guest post for this blog, let me know in the comment section below.

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March 28, 2016 0

Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion