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Juanita posted this in Marketing on January 26th, 2012 One of the marketing “P”s at which librarians excel is Promotion. One of the most popular promotional vehicles for many libraries is their blog. Many libraries, like many organizations, assume that “if we blog it, people will read it.” And rarely do libraries look at how the blog fits in their overall promotion or marketing plans. So, before you set up a new blog – or continue on your current blog, scope out the plan. Consider what you are trying to achieve with the blog, and how you plan to achieve that goal by answering the following questions:
Purpose: What is the goal of your blog? What do you want to communicate or promote? Be clear about this.
Description: What do you want your site to look like? Plan the physical description of the blog. Sketch out your vision so you can “see” it before you build it.
Schedule: How often will you be updating your blog? Set a publication frequency that’s reasonable.
Audience: Who are they? What’s the target market?
Cost: How much? Even electronic publications have a cost, including - and especially – the “cost” of your time!
Distribution: How are you going to ensure that you reach your audience? Where is the “Place” (another marketing “P”)?
Person(s): Where does the responsibility lie? During set-up, you may want to create a project plan to identify milestones – especially if you are relying upon outside expertise to deliver certain aspects of your site. After you are up and running,
Continue reading Promotion 101: Is blogging part of your plan?
Jane Dysart posted this in Lib, IM, KM, Marketing, Tech & Tools on November 30th, 2011 Are you ready? Hamilton Public Library Chief Librarian Ken Roberts and I talked about ebooks a few weeks ago for an Education Institute “Conversations with Leaders” series. We talked about was the huge increase in ebook circulation over that last 18 months and how there was a real spike after Christmas last year. A recent Toronto Star article emphasized the same situation with ebooks in the Toronto Public Library.
So have you made your plans for supporting the even greater tsunami of ebook seekers following holiday gift giving of electronic goodies? If you thought it was ebook crazy last year, this year will be even multiplied at least ten fold. Suggestion: make it really clear on the front page of your website how to deal with ebooks — how to download to particular devices (step by step), how to find ebooks in your collection, tips, FAQs, etc. Be prepared so your customers don’t get frustrated and bypass your library.
Retailers have Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I think libraries should have a catchy name for the ebook extravaganza following electronic holiday giving – Ebook Xday, or maybe just Ebookday. Got some other suggestions?
Social media (from Tom Stewart) just pointed me to a fascinating article, Anatomy of a Trending Topic: How Twitter & the crafting community put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters. A great story but what I really loved was the lessons learned:
1. Don’t underestimate the power of Tribes.
2. If you have customers, social media matters.
3. People love a cause.
This is great news for libraries who have a fabulous cause/s — literacy (of words, technology, life and more), who have lots of customers (but could use more champions and supporters), and who certainly know lots about social media. Here is a great story about the impact of social media. Let’s learn from it and get some great impact stories for libraries!
Rebecca Jones posted this in Lib, IM, KM, Marketing on May 11th, 2011 For years we’ve talked about the importance of having our “elevator speech” ready so that when we encounter a decision-maker or influencer in an elevator, at a function, or wherever, we can quickly articulate what we do and how we contribute. While it’s important to be clear on our role & contribution, a chance encounter with a decision-maker is a fantastic opportunity to hear about them — what are they working on? where are they headed today? have they ever heard of the information centre? You don’t have to stick a mike in their face & pepper them with questions, but showing interest in people — finding out about their work — is the basis for all good relationships not to mention the foundation of “service excellence.”
I’m regularly in meetings with information professionals discussing their positioning within a community, the university or organization. Inevitably the conversation turns to ways & means of taking the information centre or library message to those who are new — the orientation of what the library can do for them. In the same way that the elevator encounter shouldn’t be our chance to speak but rather to ask and listen, orientation sessions are our chance to meet & listen to the newbies. Especially if you are meeting one-on-one with a new faculty member or employee, welcome them — take them a coffee, or better yet, take them a voucher for a coffee to use for your next conversation — & find out where
Continue reading Elevator Listen
The only problem with Computers in Libraries is that I can only attend one session at a time. There were so many sessions I wanted to be at today, and those I did attend were exactly what I look for in conference sessions: interesting, idea-generating learning events.
What keeps conference organizers awake at night? The nightmare that a keynote speaker may not arrive on time to address several hundred attendees. Although this happened this morning, Jane, Tom Hogan and other Information Today organizers handled the situation gracefully quickly creating a panel with Roy Tennant, Stephen Abram, Marshall Breeding and Dick Kaiser who discussed the issue of e-books-publishers-lending-libraries. My takeaways from this session:
Although many in the library sector have been challenging Harper-Collins, the sector should focusing on Simon and Schuster who won’t license e-books to libraries at all Overdrive has been doing their best with e-books in the library environment Google’s agreement for every library to have “one Google terminal” for Google-digitized content does not include downloading or printing rights.
Madeline Barratt, Strategy & Performance Manager for Enfield Libraries in the UK spoke of London’s Libraries Consortium. Growing from 3 members to 15 in a couple of short years, the Consortium is yielding real benefits for all the boroughs. Madeline’s articulate, humourous delivery was engaging. My takeaways:
“Challenges grow like weeds” even for those who fiercely believe in public libraries, collaboration & consortia One challenge is to maintain a collaborative model as membership grows; they are developing their governance model
Continue reading CIL2011 Day 1: Stories Not Statistics
Jane Dysart posted this in Blog Posts, Learning, Marketing on February 14th, 2011 I am looking forward to interviewing Patricia Martin, Litlamp Communications and author of Renaissance Generation: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer & What it Means to Your Business. Here’s a video, Library Renaissance, of Patricia following a talk she did last year about not being shed.
Patricia’s latest book is called Tipping the Culture: How Engaging Millenials will Change Everything. It is an ebook and is available for free download. We are going to be talking about this book and how we can learn from, live with, and influence millenials next week in the Conversations with Leaders series from the Education Institute. To join us, sign up and listen in from your desk or a conference room with your colleagues. It will be fun and interesting!
Woot! We have a wonderfully busy week ahead at OLA’s SUPERconference (and a super time it is, for everyone!). We are co-sponsoring the Poster Sessions with dmA Planning & Management Services, highlighting our new strategic alliance with dmA & planning thought-leader Jim Morgenstern. Woot!
We’ll be tweeting @ #SC2011.
Check out the Poster Sessions Thursday, February 3, 2011 and Friday, February 4, 2011, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM Each day a set of 16 displays will be set up for viewing for the full 2 hours. Individual presenters will be given a 45-minute presentation time within the 2-hour period.
We are also talking….and talking….and I don’t just mean talking in that restaurant at the Intercontinental (although we WILL be talking & laughing in there too!), but at sessions. These sessions!
Thursday February 3 @ 9:05 a.m. Visioning: More Than Words or Plaques! Stay tuned for those slides.
Later that same day…..@ 3:45 p.m. Thinking Strategically & Critically: Seeing Possibilities. Here’s the slides, but do come & test your critical thinking approaches.
Thinking strategically & critically: seeing possibilities
View more presentations from Rebecca Jones.
Friday February 4 @ 2:10 p.m. Innovative Approaches in Library Service Delivery. We’ll present with Deane Zeeman of Library & Archives Canada about research regarding innovative information services underway in corporate & government organizations.
Innovative Services Research for Library & Archives Canada
Innovative Approaches in Library Service Delivery View more presentations from Rebecca Jones.
And, later THAT day @ 3:45, Jane will present Change Management: A View with
Continue reading OLA 2011 Superconference: Strategic, Shopping & Services
Rebecca Jones posted this in Lib, IM, KM, Marketing on January 22nd, 2011 The energy within Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) is palpable. There are movie parody posters throughout the Library using humour to market services and tools.
These are just a sampling of these ads, with Arnold Hirshon, Associate Provost and University Librarian, as “Executive Producer” and other staff in various starring and creative roles. Brilliant.
Then there’s the Samuel B. & Marian K. Freedman Digital Library, Language Learning & Multimedia Services Center within KSL, buzzing with students using the state-of-the-art equipment to “to utilize both analog and hardcopy information sources in digital works, presentations, and research” and basically create whatever they imagine.
KSL is, like many academic libraries, rethinking its physical spaces and places. To fully engage students, they are holding a contest, awarding $2500 to the winning proposal – not just a design concept, but an architectural design in support of strategic programming. Wow. This is a happening place – with happening staff who are forward looking, collaborative and wonderful to work with. Wow.
Continue reading Kelvin Smith Library: Forward Looking & Fun
Jane Dysart posted this in Marketing, Web & Social Media on October 27th, 2010 We have been trying for years to come up with a good term to call our customers and clients in libraries. We’ve tried users, patrons, members, and a number of other terms. But this morning, Mike Ridely, CIO & Chief Librarian at Guelph University suggested “participants” and it really resonated with a number of us in the audience at Internet Librarian 2010. In our Web 2.0, very social world, active participants are what we all want in our communities. So I’m going to use the term “participants” as much as I can! Thanks, Mike.
Jane Dysart posted this in Conferences, Marketing on September 30th, 2010 I had a great conversation this morning with Pat Martin of Litlamp Communications and author of Renaissance Generation: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer & What it Means to Your Business. Pat is an expert marketer, strategist, and a wonderful speaker. She is the opening keynote speaker at Internet Librarian 2010 next month, Monday October 25th, in Monterey CA.
Continue reading Pat Martin: Consumers & Generations
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