When I was a child, my first pet was a goldfish.
I named it Goldie. Totally original, I know.
Goldie lived in a glass bowl decorated with neon-colored rocks and a tiny treasure chest that opened and closed to release bubbles. I’m sure when I brought her home from the pet store, she thought she’d landed in some kind of 1980s pirate hell.
I liked to watch Goldie swim around her bowl. And she liked to watch me.
When I did my homework or practiced my instrument or danced around my room to Phil Collins, she swam to the side of her bowl and stared at me. She could do this for hours. It would have been creepy had she not been a fish.
The statistic that some say ruined marketing
In 2015, large news organizations, including Time, The New York Times, and The Telegraph reported a single, mind-blowing finding from a new study by Microsoft.
The average human being’s attention span has shrunk to just eight seconds, about the same as a goldfish.
By the way, in researching this post, I found this great blog post from the University of Melbourne about the intelligence of goldfish. Their attention span is way longer than eight seconds.
The reports were grossly inaccurate
It turns out that the news organizations were not actually quoting the results of the Microsoft study. A BBC reporter investigated the origin of the goldfish statistic in 2017.
The goldfish comparison has since been removed from Statistic Brain. And the original study from Microsoft is no longer listed on their website.
But it was too late. The damage was done.
Marketers were told to create short, scannable promotions, use clickbait titles, and make sure our blogs and videos were “snackable.” Promotions began to all look the same.
Nothing stood out. Everything we created lacked depth and interest. And people actually paid less attention to us.
A better way to promote your library
It’s true that humans have difficulty dealing with distractions. But it’s also true that when we are consuming quality content, we can focus.
There are two kinds of attention. Transient attention is a short-term response to a stimulus that temporarily attracts us or distracts our attention. It comes into play when you read a billboard or a sign, or watch a TikTok video.
Then there is sustained attention. This describes your ability to focus on something for an extended period.
We use sustained attention when we binge-watch an entire season of Stranger Things in a single day, read a good book cover to cover in one sitting, or attend a concert, play, or sporting event.
Sustained attention is where great experiences are found. It is also the basis for information processing and cognitive development. It is where real connections are made.
That means that if you can engage your cardholders’ sustained attention, your marketing will be memorable. And memorable marketing is more effective.
How do we do this exactly?
There are circumstances in which you will need to create short promotions that appeal to transient attention. Social media is a perfect example. So are printed signs. A few, well-written but interesting sentences, and an eye-catching design are required for those formats.
But many of your library promotions should aim for the sustained attention of your cardholders. Blog posts and videos are perfect examples.
These pieces of content should be as long as they need to be to tell a good story. That means you can create a video that runs 8 minutes or write a blog post that is more than 1000 words, as long as they are interesting and compelling. They must also contain two key features.
- Emotion: The joy of finding a book, the fear of not getting a job, the frustration of another night of homework without any help… these are all emotions felt by our library’s customers. Other people can relate to these experiences and empathize. Emotion activates many portions of the brain, including the sensory, memory, and empathy sectors. The more active the brain is while consuming content, the more likely it is that the listener or reader will remember the story.
- Conflict and a resolution. Your sustained attention marketing must include some conflict and a problem or situation that is resolved. Without conflict, your story risks being flat and unmemorable.
How to get started
Pick one tactic to focus on. Your print or online newsletter is a perfect place to start. Take six months and watch as your audience transforms.
I’m speaking from experience here. In my former library job, I turned our print program calendar into a magazine filled with stories.
It took our community members about 10 to 15 minutes to read the magazine. That’s time they spent thinking about the library, empathizing with the patrons and staff in our stories, and committing our stories to memory.
And guess what happened? Our circulation increased. Database usage grew. Our brand awareness grew. We passed a levy to fund renovations to old libraries.
Podcasts are also a perfect example of long-form library content that holds attention. Most episodes last between 20 to 30 minutes. That’s an invaluable time in which you are talking directly to your community!
Further Reading
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It’s Not Personal: How to Deal with Negative Comments and Bad Online Reviews of Your Library
The lowest moment in my library career came about four years ago, when my library endured a year of bad press.
First, a local TV news station ran a story about drug overdoses at the library. Then, our administration briefly entertained the idea of selling a portion of our main library building to a developer, to raise funds for the renovation of other library branches in our system. You can imagine how the community surrounding the main library reacted.
Our marketing department handled the press coverage well. But, in the fallout, we noticed that the negative press coverage led to negative reviews of our library.
Our services hadn’t changed. Our commitment to the community hadn’t changed. But the negative news stories changed the public’s perception of us.
It played out several times a week when we would post announcements on social media. We were met with comments from people who used those posts to try and steer the conversation to the negative library coverage. I admit, it was exhausting and frustrating.
If you are lucky enough never to be the target of negative press coverage, your library will still have to deal with negative comments, one-star reviews, and NextDoor drama. Even when you are trying to make a difference in the community, you’ll be targeted by complainers.
Negativity is bad for you and bad for your library
Ignoring negative reviews and comments is not an option. They have the power to damage your library’s reputation. A study by Moz.com shows one negative review can drive as many as 30 people away from your library. The more negative reviews and comments you have, the more people you lose, according to the data.
Negative reviews can also hurt your library’s ranking in search. Search engines generally list the highest ranked organizations and businesses first.
What can you do?
It doesn’t matter if your library is giving away $10 bills with every checkout… someone is going to find something to complain about. They’ll probably do it online.
It’s hard to know how to handle the situation when an irate, antagonistic library user posts a negative review on a social media site or website. Your immediate reaction is to jump into firefighter mode, drag out the fully charged hose, and put out the flames… pronto.
But it’s important to take step back and see the opportunity in that negative review. It’s your chance to turn that angry user into an evangelist for your library.
If that sounds like an extreme possibility, I want you to read this post by Jay Baer. I’ve heard Jay speak at several conferences. He has taught me everything I know about turning negative reviews into positive customer experiences.
Create a process for responding
A plan for responding to negative reviews and comments is a form of a crisis communication plan. If you have a plan in place before you’re confronted with negativity, you can put your emotional reaction aside and respond calmly, rationally, and with empathy.
A thoughtful and measured response to a negative comment makes your library look human. When you respond to critics, you show that you value all your customers and their opinions. Your plan will have four components.
Respond as quickly as possible. It’s important to address the issue as soon as you can. Talk with staff and senior leaders about monitoring your social media channels and email as closely as you can. There should always be someone who can check the accounts, even at night or on the weekends. If you don’t, you’ll run the risk of other haters hijacking the thread and turning one bad review into a free-for-all.
Don’t censor. Unless the comment violates your social media or website standards of behavior, don’t hide the comment.
If the problem cannot be solved easily online, take it offline. Apologize and address the complainer with empathy, then ask them to contact you by email. You can say, “I’m sorry to hear you are having this problem. We want to make it right. Could you email me at **** and give me some more details about your experience? Then I can make sure your issue gets in front of the right person and is addressed.”
But try to remember that you cannot please everyone. Occasionally, someone will complain about something and you will not be able to fix the problem. Apologize, explain your library’s side of the situation as best you can, and move on.
Encourage library fans to give positive reviews to outweigh negative reviews and increase your overall search engine rankings. Find ways to solicit reviews from the people who love your library. Amplify those good reviews by sharing them on social media, in emails, and in your print promotional material.
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