Month: December 2012

Marketing Masters

Six Questions with Ned Potter

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For this installment of the 658.8 Interview, I went across the pond and reached out to Ned Potter.  Ned is the author of The Marketing Toolkit and he writes about library marketing at his blog of the same name.  His book is chock full of case studies and his site contains even more.  I hope I get to meet Ned at a conference one day and chat between sessions!

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1. Where did you get your library education? (And I’m not talking about where you went to library school, if you did go to library school!)           Honestly, I got much of it online. Pretty much every day I’ll ask Twitter a question and apply the answers in my job. There’s so many great blogs out there – you can learn so much these days, without having to go anywhere or pay anything.

That said, events and conferences – particularly the little chats with people BETWEEN sessions rather than the presentations themselves – have been really important to me and my development. And there’s no substitute for just doing a job to really learn how it all works.  Continue reading “Six Questions with Ned Potter” →

Social Media

Inform, Engage, Listen, Respond

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At Lawrence Public Library, we have developed a social media presence that is engaging, responsive, locally-focused, and fun. While we post a lot of funny memes, share book-related photos (often cats are involved), and ask goofy questions, there is actually a well thought out strategy behind it.  A strategy that in the past two years has tripled our following on Facebook and Twitter, led to increased engagement on both platforms, and resulted in real, measurable outcomes such as increased partnerships, new programs, and a higher visibility in our community.

When I began coordinating our social media just over two years ago, I realized that we needed a guiding document, but I did not want a lengthy policy piece – something that detailed exactly what can and cannot be said on social media, who can and cannot say it, or full of language that might stifle creativity or seem too corporate in tone.

What I did want was something that would outline who we wanted to be on social media, what we wanted to do, and lay out some basic rules of engagement.  I also wanted it to be short!  Here the text of the one-page document that developed:  Continue reading “Inform, Engage, Listen, Respond” →

General, Tips & Tools

Read, Use, Join, Try, Do, Apply

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Read this – This article should be required reading for librarians, especially those who doubt the need for marketing. Ned Potter, author of Library Marketing Toolkit, interviewed Terry Kendrick, strategic marketing guru and author of Developing Strategic Marketing Plans that Really Work, for the latest issue of American Libraries.

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Use this – The American Library Association released an “Ebook Media and Communications Toolkit” that can help librarians communicate about the state of ebooks in libraries.  At Lawrence Public Library, we repurposed some of the content for a feature on our website.  Continue reading “Read, Use, Join, Try, Do, Apply” →