If handled properly the library marketing of electronic resources can lead to a deeper and richer relationship with library constituents.
—Dennis Dillon, “Strategic Marketing of Electronic Resources,” Strategic Marketing in Library and Information Science
You just spent a good deal of money and a great deal of time on creating a great digital collection you know your community will love. You built it, but will they use it? After all that work it may be tempting to step back for a while, but don’t rest yet. You need a plan to let people know where to find and how to use the collection. After the first burst of interest, continue to keep the collection in the public eye. There are a number of strategies and resources you can use to market your digital collection.
The term marketing was embraced by the library world in the early 1980s when libraries began to take advantage of the research and advances of businesses’ marketing.1 From a business standpoint the need is to increase awareness of their products among current and prospective consumers with the intention of increasing purchases. Libraries have similar goals; to increase awareness of the services to current library users and non-library users. You need people to first know about your product to draw them to the website or database. Marketing involves developing a strategy for promoting services by using a number of different resources. These resources could include local radio, television, newspapers, and social media.
How is this different from your outreach activities? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines outreach as “the activity or process of bringing information or services to people.” Marketing is defined as “the activities that are involved in making people aware of a company’s products, making sure that the products are available to be bought.” An advertisement in your local newspaper about a workshop on using your new digital collection is marketing for that event. Going out to the community showing people how to access your collection is outreach.
To market your collection you will need to have a plan covering who, when, what, and how information is provided.
▪ Who: Your outreach efforts can make marketing easier by creating a network of individuals who are interested in your library’s mission. Do you know who to contact at the local schools, historical societies, newspapers, and radio stations?
▪ When: Are there points before the project starts, during and after completion when you will market the collection?
▪ What: What type of information will you share?
▪ How: What are your outlets for communication?
Marketing is something which can occur before, during, and after your collection goes online. Although there are many types of marketing strategies, there are several types which are a natural fit for libraries which you can use to promote your collection. You may already be using some of these methods:
▪ Word of Mouth/Social Media Marketing: Use Facebook, Twitter, and your Friends to spread the word about your digital collection.
▪ Public Relations Marketing: Take advantage of newspapers, radio, and television.
▪ Co-Marketing: Connect to another organization, event, or individual.
People will pay more attention to the traditional marketing resources such as flyer, posters, newsletters, e-mails, and social media posts if they are coming from someone they trust and in connection with an interest rather than appearing in the mail without any context. Just as information can spread at a social event, resources like Facebook are a simple, official or unofficial way for people to share information. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, more than 71 percent of Americans 18 years and older use Facebook, including more than half (56 percent) of adults over the age of 65. The site is used daily by 70 percent of those surveyed.2
If your library has been working on outreach you already have very important resources. All of those individuals and organizations you have connected with can be a powerful tool for word-of-mouth marketing. Historical societies, genealogy groups, or other institutions may not be able to contribute financially but they can disseminate information among their members. Word of mouth can also function as a tool to keep promotion focused on a specific community or interest group. This gives the library more control over who is contacted as opposed to a general, widespread message.
Eileen O’Connell, branch manager and special collections librarian with the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System New Mexico has been using both social media and her partnerships to reach her audience. The library is expanding its reach by connecting with organizations with similar interests or goals who are willing to provide a link to library websites. The Albuquerque Historical Society has a link to the library’s digital collections on the society’s main page. Historic Albuquerque Inc. works with the library on a series of lectures titled “People Create Cities” and also provides a link to the library’s website among its own resources. These historical societies send information out to their membership, which provides helpful feedback on resource guides and encourages attendance at library lectures.
At these lectures individuals can sign up for announcements of similar events. The library uses an electronic discussion list to promote future occasions and reach an audience which is most likely to be interested. Because this announcement is electronic it can easily be forwarded on by the recipient.
The library also uses traditional posters and flyers, some of which are taken by a volunteer to one of the library’s partners, Oasis Albuquerque, a senior health organization. According to O’Connell this partner then “takes them into the community on our behalf.”
There are a number of social media tools being used by libraries including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. These resources can be interconnected with links from one leading to the other. Facebook and Twitter can be used to post announcements, encourage interaction with collections, and obtain feedback from users.
Who are you reaching when you use social media? When you use Facebook you are connecting with the people who have “friended” your library, or if a user “shares” your post their friend will also see your message. Facebook can directly promote your digital collection through posts or subtly link people to material by grabbing their attention and providing a link. Users are actively engaged with the site, sharing or commenting on posts.3
YouTube is primarily a source for videos and is second in popularity to Facebook with 6 out of 10 Internet users using the site.4 If you have a promotional video or oral histories these can be placed on YouTube. Content can be promoted through other social media services by linking to the video or by including the link in the library’s catalog record.
Instagram is a photo-sharing app which includes filters to correct images. Short videos and captions can be sent to followers. Twitter is a “microblogger” which allows people to share short, 140-character messages. Images and links to other sites can be included. Both will reach people who are following your account, and those they share your image or “tweet” with. People may send photos of your event, posters, items, send comments, or add metadata in the form of a hashtag (i.e., #mylibrary).
If you have volunteers scanning or adding metadata, ask them to note compelling images or stories. These can be used for regular posts with a backlog of possible posts ready to go online when needed. These can be divided into themes for different times of the year, connecting current celebrations with historic or local events: wedding photos for Valentine’s Day, picnics and parades in summer, along with recent author book signings or workshops. Facebook is also a great place for people to share their own stories. Encourage users to share their experiences and when possible link to blogs. Did your collection have a long-lost photo from someone’s family? Did they help a genealogist fill in a blank or locate a previously forgotten piece of history? See if users will share the experience and show how the collection is used and affecting users.
The Seattle Public Library takes its Facebook page very seriously with a dedicated team to monitor the library’s account. The library has a Marketing and Online Services team of ten librarians who volunteer for two years. The program manager, Kitty Ireland, provides direction for this group. Each day one member of the team monitors the various channels and posts content while another team member prepares posts for the following day. Twitter will typically have five posts, Facebook has one to three, while Pinterest and Instagram may have one post every two weeks.
The library has used its Facebook page to engage users, provide book recommendations, poll users, and connect to collections. Images catch the user’s eye while text encourages patrons to “check out this 1912 picture of our Georgetown library and visit our Neighborhood History Project online to learn more about the neighborhood.” A link connects the post to the history project. Another post shows an old image of a branch library along with a birthday message for the historic location. Text below the image provides a sentence about the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection. Posts like these promote use and awareness of the collections. To maintain a steady but not overwhelming stream of posts, the Social Media Team uses Google Calendars to schedule posts which can be created in advance and entered into a timeline for posting later.
Posts are accumulated through a library form where staff can submit content. Posts are intended to engage the audience and are limited to interesting articles, books, and posts about Seattle, especially history. These efforts aimed at the Seattle public are working. As of June 2015 30,000 people had “liked” the library’s Facebook page.
Similar to having a library event in a museum or another outside space, having a presence on a social media site can expand the reach of the library. Having a collection on YouTube is a way to reach beyond the regular library user and into another communal space. One other benefit is that the library is not required to store the files and maintain access, which can save space on the library’s server. For preservation purposes it is best to keep a separate, master copy.
Using video as the format for oral histories provides more options, such as the inclusion of still images, music, and sound effects. These features can be used to give context to the stories being told and encourage deeper engagement with media.5 By making the videos accessible through YouTube the library can monitor the number of views for each video and check comments.
The Hernando County Public Library (HCPL) in Brooksville, Florida, has its own YouTube channel for a program called Local History Live! The people interviewed have lived in the community for fifty years or longer. The videos can be located through the library catalog (DVD copies can be checked out), through the library’s Local History web page, or by searching YouTube. Fifteen videos are available. These integrate additional materials with the interviews such as old images of the speaker, events, or newspaper articles that are edited into the video. The video of Fred Blackburn’s interview includes an image of the doctor who delivered him, an advertisement for a Sears portable home similar to the one he grew up in (price including floor was $1,117.00), a local mine where many people had worked, his school, church, and a moonshine still. This single video has been viewed over 200 times since it was uploaded in 2013. The interview with Frasier Mountain, a resident of the community for 90 years, has had over 350 views and five “likes.”
The oral history program at HCPL is managed by Theresa “Resse” Bernier and started as part of Florida 500, a statewide celebration of the history of the state. Another staff member, Brittany McGarrity, provides background research and the supplemental images. The purpose of the archive is to preserve local history. According to Shan McQuown, who edits and publishes the interviews, they are promoted on the library’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts which have direct links.6
According to the Public Relations Society of America, “public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”7 With this method you take advantage of a network of contacts and resources developed through outreach activities to inform the public about your resources. It is important to develop a strategy regarding when and where to send your information and to choose the format such as press releases, public service announcements, or more in-depth coverage.
Press releases are a great, basic way to let you reach out to your local newspapers, television, and radio stations. Provide your release weeks before an event if possible. A short announcement should include a title, date, location, and a short description of the event. These media outlets will often provide public service announcements (PSAs) at no cost. Longer announcements or additional information may lead to fuller coverage of your topic. There is always a chance that you can generate enough interest to result in a longer story.
Newspapers are an obvious tool for spreading awareness of your collection. If you are digitizing a newspaper which is still published, it is also in the paper’s interest to promote its patronage or cooperation. The company will get positive publicity by connecting itself with a popular institution generally seen to be beneficent. Often newspapers will print a long press release (several paragraphs) but a story is even better. A story will engage the audience, incite curiosity, and connect on a deeper, emotional level.
Press releases for newspapers should be clearly written, include all the important information, be timely, accurate and brief. When preparing a press release make sure you cover all the basic information:
▪ What: What is being unveiled, or announced?
▪ Who: Provide information on your organization and who to contact for more information.
▪ Where: Give the URL for your collection, or if you are having an educational session, where will it be held?
▪ When: When will the service be available or the event occur?
▪ Why: Tell why your project is interesting or important.
If the information you provide is exciting it could lead to a featured article. Include an engaging image. The image may not be used in the press release but may help your story stand apart and result in a longer story.
When seeking coverage for your new collection it is helpful to already have contacts with the local newspaper. The Highland Park Public Library in Illinois had a press release published in the Chicago Tribune to announce that the library had won a large grant award to digitize material for inclusion in the Illinois Digital Platform.8 A few weeks later a story appeared in the Chicago Tribune featuring a large image of an elderly woman and quotes from her history as an early pioneer.9 The beginning of the article focused on the woman, whose strong gaze in the picture makes the reader curious about the rest of her story. This is not just a nameless woman in an old photo. This is Emilia Nafe, a women who spent weeks on a boat to come to America and once here survived hard winters. She is a person whose life experiences are familiar yet different enough to be interesting.
Greg Trotter, local beat reporter for the Chicago Tribune, saw the release and realized the potential for a longer piece. He spoke to individuals at the library and the historical society to learn more about the project and why it was important to digitize this material. In an effort to find some examples to make the story more engaging, he asked to see the interviews of the first settlers to Highland Park. As Totter dug into the transcripts he found that Emilia Nafe and her story read “like a novel.” The story of her life became the focal point for the article.
Trotter is “always more interested in a story if I get it directly” instead of through a mass news release sent to many other reporters. His advice for libraries who would like to have this level of newspaper coverage is to develop a relationship with the local reporters who cover the library or similar institutions. Let them know when you may have a story. Although press releases are useful for getting information out widely, reporters will be more interested in unique stories that will not be covered by others.
This story was an exception in that the press release led Totter to investigate further. Because Totter regularly covers library events and programs ranging from lending ukuleles to new archival material, he pays attention to the releases. The library’s public relations office normally contacts him if there is a story, but because of his relationship with the library he noticed the release and was curious to learn more.
If you are unsure who to contact at your local newspaper, try searching their stories and see if there is an individual who tends to cover the library, historical societies, or your community in general. Send information directly to this person and you may develop a mutually beneficial relationship.
Just as newspapers are limited to inches of space for your public service announcement, your local radio stations are limited to minutes or seconds. If your radio station has a limit on the length of the PSA, make sure your announcement is the correct length. Focus on the goal of your message, and if possible try to make the PSA personally relatable.
Dale Alger is another librarian who wears many hats. He is the school librarian and director of the Roundup Community Library and is vice president of the Musselshell Historical Museum in Roundup, Montana. When there was an opportunity for the community to get a grant to participate in the Montana Memory Project there were several collections they could draw from, including a rich collection of photographs at the museum.
Promoting the collection meant press releases to the two local papers and working with the radio station, which proved to be easy since Alger was already broadcasting on KLMB, 88.1 FM, Panther Country Radio on Tuesday mornings. Normally he talks about sports, the local museum, library, and events at the public schools. For a few weeks Alger could be heard talking about the Montana Memory Project and how the images could be accessed. The station reaches not only the local community of Roundup, but also four other towns and portions of Billings, the largest city in Montana.
Working with other organizations to market your collection can help your library reach a wider audience. These organizations and the people associated with them can be drawn in by a subject or someone famous who already has a following. Your library can take advantage of the other organization’s brand and name recognition. A known name can help your event, your library, or project stand apart from others and draw attention. Attaching a project to an author or celebrity (past or present) can help to generate interest in your collection. The Oak Park Public Library in Illinois has Hacking Hemingway: Cracking the Code to the Vault, and with that name comes the reputation of the author and a community of scholars and fans of author Ernest Hemingway.
In 2005 the Oak Park Public Library announced it had obtained a state library grant for $86,900 for Hacking Hemingway.10 The project had only just been funded but its name and subject matter were enough to generate early interest. On Facebook the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library posted a congratulatory message with the olive green logo for the project. The logo includes the project title with the first two words in a 1920s-inspired font under the author’s bearded image. The Chicago Tribune published a story about the project and the library’s Twitter account provided a link to a press release at OakPark.com. The project has the benefit of having name recognition and a collection which will draw interest based on the fact that Hemingway is a famous author associated with a specific time, writing style, and adventurous life.
How do you take an example where marketing is greatly aided by an already popular subject and turn it into something that will work for your collection? The efforts at Oak Park will be successful because many of the resources were obvious; audience, support networks, and a compelling story. With Hemingway there is already an audience and community connections in the form of societies which were established and willing to share information throughout their own networks.
But you don’t need a famous collection to take advantage of the same tools. Connecting with another organization or tying a collection to an author can help draw people to your digital collection. If your community has been the home of a famous individual, you may have an image of their home in your collection. If your library participates in the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read you can use that large event and theme to connect people with your collections.
CASE STUDY
SOCIAL MEDIA, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CO-MARKETING
Never limit yourself to one type of marketing. Depending on your goals and situation, find the method which will work best for your project. The Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Illinois, has used several methods to promote different aspects of the collection and resources, including a network of contacts. Although the library has the benefit of a dedicated marketing team, many of the tools they are using are available to most libraries. The library serves an area population of 144,597 with one branch, 27 librarians, and 90 other staff. They circulate almost one million children’s books each year. Over 33,000 children attend their programs annually. Total circulation of materials is well over two million.11 They are obviously not having any trouble reaching out to the community and this has been reflected by some of the many awards the library has received.
The Gail Borden Public Library District is accustomed to receiving accolades. The library was voted the Library of the Year in 2006 by the North Suburban Library System and the same year received the Marshall Cavendish Award for Excellence in Library Programing from the American Library Association.12 In 2009 the library was awarded the Elgin Image award for their veterans’ history project and the National Medal for Museum and Library Service for their efforts to “reach out to people of all ages and backgrounds and invite them to explore our wonderfully diverse history, culture, and literature.”13 The library received international recognition in 2010 when it received second place in the eighth annual International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ International Marketing Award for the program: StoryTubes: Kids Go Live with Books.14
The StoryTubes program and contest encouraged children to create a two-minute promotional video for their favorite book. This effort promoted the library, generated content, encouraged engagement, and contained learning components.15 StoryTubes was an effort which ultimately reached children in four countries and was copied by libraries around the world. This project used social media and the heartfelt enthusiasm of readers to spread interest in the library and reading in general. By creating easily shared videos on YouTube the children who created the content were able to share their videos with peers. Teachers promoted the project in the classroom and viewers could vote on their favorite video.
This effort became so popular that a search of YouTube results in over 10,000 results for StoryTube. When a marketing effort is shared by others online it can get widespread attention and the promotion is out of the hands of the library. There is a greater awareness of the institution, but you may find yourself with more interest than you can handle. This can be prevented through mindful marketing and utilizing the networks created through outreach to manage a word-of-mouth campaign.
The Gail Borden Public Library leverages both formal partnerships and personal connections to assist with word-of-mouth and public relations promotion. Melissa Lane, manager of local history and digital preservation, prefers to reach out to specific partners for content and promotion. For a number of years the library has worked to expand its reach beyond the walls of the library. This has involved connecting with and promoting events at other institutions. Art galleries, schools, museums, historical societies, the city of Elgin, and others are working with the library, hosting exhibits and events. By reaching out to these partners the library is able to augment its reach and potential market.
Knowing who to work with on a marketing project can be an important tool. The library administration understands this and each year compiles a list of library staff who are members of different organizations such as Kiwanis, Lions Club, and other societies. According to Lane, the library administration maintains a list of contacts with high-level individuals through a network library staff, but many of the marketing efforts are realized through lower levels of organizations. Lane is also the teen outreach librarian and has connections with teachers, school staff, and committees. She has “people I can call on at those locations that will help me market the programs because they are dear to that specific audience.” These connections have led to school trips to the library for different events. By knowing who to contact within the library for different events, the library is able to reach out to specific audiences who are interested and supportive of the subject matter.
The library has a team of four to five individuals who work to promote library events and collections. There is a twenty-page newsletters published every two months which lists book clubs, oral history projects, exhibits, and the many other events. There are so many different programs happening at this library that there is some friendly competition between departments to have an event listed. An online event calendar and the library Facebook page are also used to promote activities. By associating with other like-minded groups and individuals, the marketing materials developed by the library have a higher impact and greater reach than if the library was operating without this carefully developed network.
Just as the library hopes to take advantage of the opportunities that result from working with other organizations, those institutions benefit from working with the library. The library hosted the Big Read and the library newsletter is filled with events at the partner institutions. A 2015 event, Reflections: Flowing through Time, is expected to have 15−20 partners.16 The website for this project contains historic images, including one from the library’s collection of digitized postcards. Events listed include a cemetery tour to benefit the Elgin Historical Museum, an architectural tour by the North East Neighborhood Association tour, and a sky show and history lecture at the local planetarium. These events are included in the library newsletter and includes the logos of the partner institutions.
The networks the library has developed as part of its outreach efforts have proven to be a useful resource for word-of-mouth marketing. Lane feels that the majority of direct marketing (flyers and mailers) are ignored but “if you can make a connection and have a conversation with the person, they are going to be more likely to want to find out more about what you are trying to archive or they could work together with you.” Lane lives and works in Elgin. Her children went through the schools and she knows teachers, principals, and school librarians. Even living in a large community she sees many familiar faces and has opportunities to share information about library projects.
Two very specific digital collections drew inspiration and promotion from the 2013 Big Read and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. The Big Read is an annual event sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts to promote reading. Communities which participate are provided with training, educational and promotional materials, and benefit by being associated with a national event.17 This event series started in 2007 and has been very successful. A collection associated with the event will benefit from being connected to both the Big Read (a large and well-organized event associated with literacy, education, and community) and a chosen book.
For the celebration in Elgin there were over forty partners for this event, including several veterans organizations, the local police and fire departments, school district, university, community college, and several businesses. This was a large celebration with many components, one of which was a collection of images of local Vietnam veterans, some carrying objects they had with them during the war and others carrying scars. This series of images was directly connected to the subject matter of the Tim O’Brien book. Local veterans were contacted for participation. Marketing was linked to the larger event and took advantage of interest in the Big Read, the marketing resources for that program, and the partners.
That same year the theme of items carried by individuals was expanded to the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration. To find participants for the project and to encourage promotion, there was a specific individual in the library who had the professional and personal connections needed. Christina Viglucci, the Hispanic services coordinator, used her personal connections and Facebook to find local individuals who would share items representing their lives and links to their Latin American roots. As a member of the Elgin Hispanic Network she knew who to contact. Viglucci is responsible for Spanish translations of resources on the library website and made sure that the collection for Hispanic Heritage Month was available in Spanish.
Just as many libraries have used partners to aid in scanning and hosting material, and have reached out to their communities for content, marketing does not need to be a solo activity. The work you have already accomplished with outreach can be leveraged for mutual marketing activities to promote your collections.
Chapter Synopsis
Libraries can play to their strength as community centers and their connections with schools, businesses, and other like-minded institutions to reach a wider audience.
▪ Word of mouth is a powerful tool to promote your collections.
▪ Social media should be used consistently, but posting too often could overwhelm users.
▪ Take advantage of the interconnectivity between different social media platforms to save time.
▪ Social media posts can be handled by a small team.
▪ Having a carefully selected list of contacts will help you keep your message on track and connect you to different segments of your community.
▪ Partner with other organizations in your community and promote each other’s programs and events.
▪ Take advantage of name recognition.
▪ Use multiple forms of marketing to reach library and non-library users.
NOTES
1. Elizabeth J. Wood, “Strategic Planning and the Marketing Process: Library Applications,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 9, no. 1 (1983): 15−20; Alan R. Andreasen, “Advancing Library Marketing,” Journal of Library Administration, 1 no. 3 (1981): 17–32.
2. Maeve Duggan et al., “Social Media Update 2014,” Pew Research Center website, January 2015, www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/social-media-update-2014/.
3. Maeve Duggan et al., “Frequency of Social Media Use,” Pew Research Center website, www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/frequency-of-social-media-use-2/.
4. Monica Anderson, “5 Facts about Online Video, For YouTube’s 10th Birthday,” Pew Research Center website (February 12, 2015), www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/12/5-facts-about-online-video-for-youtubes-10th-birthday/.
5. Peter Kaufman, “Oral History in the Video Age,” Oral History Review 40, no. 1 (2013): 1−7, doi: 10.1093/ohr/oht033.
6. “Pay It Forward: Hernando County’s Local History Live Program,” Tampa Bay Library Consortium website (March 7, 2014), http://tblc.org/events/pay-it-forward-hernando-county-oral-history.
7. “What Is Public Relations?” Public Relations Society of America website, www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/publicrelationsdefined/#.VV4LevlVo.
8. Highland Park Public Library, “From the Community: Highland Park History Going Digital,” Chicago Tribune (January 16, 2015), www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/highland-park/community/chi-ugc-article-highland-park-history-going-digital-2015-01-16-story.html.
9. Greg Trotter, “Historical Tale among Artifacts to Be Digitally Preserved,” Chicago Tribune (February 3, 2015), www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/highland-park/news/ct-highland-park-historical-archives-lk-tl-20150130-story.html.
10. Jodi Kolo, “Library awarded $86,900 grant to Digitize Historical Ernest Hemingway Archives,” Oak Park Public Library, Janary 18, 2015, http://oppl.org/about/library-news/library-awarded-86900-grant-digitize-historical-ernest-hemingway-archives.
11. Public Libraries Survey, Fiscal Year 2012 (Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2012).
12. “Gail Borden Library Voted 2006 Library of the Year,” Gail Borden Public Library District website (2006), www.gailborden.info/about-the-library/history-of-the-library/244-2006-library-of-the-year.
13. “Gail Borden Library Wins Nation’s Highest Library Honor,” Gail Borden Public Library District website (2009), www.gailborden.info/about-the-library/history-of-the-library/930-gail-borden-library-wins-nations-highest-library-honor.
14. Christie Koontz, “Excellence in Marketing: 2002−2012,” in Marketing Library and Information Services II: A Global Outlook (The Hague, Netherlands: International Federation of Library Associations Publications, 2013).
15. Faith Brautigam and Denise Raleigh, Marketing Library and Information Services II: A Global Outlook (The Hague, Netherlands: International Federation of Library Associations Publications, 2013).
16. “Reflections: Flowing Through Time,” Gail Borden Library website, www.gailborden.info/library-info/1878-reflections.
17. “About,” National Endowment for the Arts website, www.neabigread.org/about.php.