Not good at tooting your own horn? You don’t have to brag, just give your awesomeness a voice. A lot of librarians recoil at the thought of self-promotion, and that’s both understandable and admirable; however, nobody’s going to make use of the resources and programs you’ve carefully pruned to perfection until they hear about it. So if you’re not comfortable talking up your efforts, here are a few pointers to get you proactive while keeping you humble:

Work with your marketing, PR, or communications department.

These are the guys who get paid to do this! They are passionate and skilled at getting messages out to your patrons, plus they are the official voice of the library itself. Regularly updating your marketing department guarantees that your public will see what’s going on. If you don’t have a dedicated marketing department, get in touch with whoever runs your social media. Having an online presence is the best way to reach all sorts of potential patrons.

Use your own social media account(s).

If you’re a librarian, you have friends who love books, free activities, and useful services. Use that to your advantage by posting about your specific awesomeness on whatever social media accounts you happen to already have. This doesn’t require signing up for anything new, attempting the awkwardness that is making new online friends or trying to attract followers, or doing anything besides posting a link to what you’re most excited about in the upcoming days. Trust me, your followers will be very excited to find a post they can actually use in the midst of brunch photos and election headlines. If you don’t have a social media account, consider signing up for either Facebook or Twitter; they have proven their staying power, don’t cost anything, and let you post as much or as little as you want.

Connect to a bigger group.

What if your library marketing initiative doesn’t seem to be making a difference? Don’t sweat—if you’re connected to bigger groups such as ALA and PLA, you have another platform to showcase your ideas. Professional organizations are built to connect workers in the same field, which means that you can get advice from peers as well as use the network to pass along your awesomeness to an otherwise inaccessible audience. This is a two-way street—give back and share your successes to someone you recognize is struggling, too!

Marketing shouldn’t be hard, but we have to work with the reality to reach who needs us the most. Have you had any massive successes or failures in getting your library’s awesomeness out there? Share in the comments!

The post Sharing Your Awesomeness: Personal Library Marketing first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Why Tell Your Story Online?

Many libraries are restricted by city or county rules on employee advocacy. When funding or programs are at risk of getting cut, staff have to get creative in promoting the value of the library in the community. Digital advocacy is a great method of not only visualizing that value, but also disseminating it to your community through social networks, email newsletters, and your website.

The Rockefeller Foundation published a report in 2014 called Digital Storytelling for Social Impact, which offers insights and ideas from interviews with thought leaders in entertainment, brand strategy, and philanthropy. One of the key quotes from the report reinforces the importance of digital storytelling or advocacy for community-centric organizations, such as public libraries:

“Stories can embody values; they can show how an organization is living its life by giving tangible examples. Putting faces and names to [an organization’s] values goes much further to promoting high-level concepts that aren’t as tangible.” [1]

So where to begin? One place to start is by interviewing community members or staff members about what they like about the library and what they do while they’re there. You could also frame your story around library usage data or a timeline of a project, such as a summer reading program or an event of which you’re particularly proud. Also remember that digital advocacy comes in many forms, from blogs to videos to digital slideshows.

A Few Examples of Digital Advocacy in Action

TechSoup has an annual digital storytelling contest called Storymakers, but we’re always supporting nonprofits and public libraries in telling their stories online through educational webinars, product donations, and informative content. I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite examples of digital advocacy that we’ve seen over the years.

The Norton Public Library won the prize for Best Library Video in the 2012 Storymakers contest with its video, 12 Things to Do in a Library. Teen patrons created the video to promote the library’s collection of pop-up books. This project not only gave the teens a chance to show off their video skills, but it also created a new generation of library advocates.

The Oakland Public Library (OPL) is also engaging its community to tell the library’s stories. Sharon McKellar, the community relations librarian, talked about the importance of sharing everything you do on a TechSoup for Libraries digital storytelling webinar. Much of the library’s sharing is done on the OPL’s network of blogs, where library staff and partners write about events, share new additions to collections, and answer community questions. Sharon also does a fantastic ongoing series on strange ephemera found in the Oakland Public Library’s books, which has gotten the attention of local media as well as Library Journal.

Digital advocacy doesn’t end after the creation and production of your story. The M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury, MA got a construction grant from the Massachusetts Boardof Library Commissioners, but it needed a local match to actually receive it. The library had to privately raise funds in five months, so library staff members produced a video called Where Would You Be Without Your Library?

The staff reached out to the Massachusetts Library Association to promote the video and somebody from the association got Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing interested. After he shared it, the campaign went viral with promotions from John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, and other library-loving celebrities. But the video’s success wasn’t sheer luck: the library strategically reached out to cause-driven websites and newsletters, as well as library and book-related blogs, and told them about the campaign.

At the 2016 Public Library Association conference, Crystal Schimpf of Kixal and I will be presenting on behalf of TechSoup for Libraries about the ways that digital stories can be used for advocacy efforts, from raising awareness to political action. We’ll be sharing tips and ideas on how to create a compelling story for your library, and how to leverage it to show your impact in the community. Be sure to drop by Lights, Camera, Advocacy: Digital Storytelling for Your Library session at PLA 2016.

References
1. The Rockefeller Foundation, May 06, 2014, “Digital Storytelling for Social Impact.” p. 8. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/digital-storytelling-social-impact/. Accessed October 26, 2015.

The post Share Your Library’s Impact with Digital Advocacy first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Summer Reading Club 2015 – Read to the Rhythm from Vernon Area Public Library on Vimeo.

The video itself took approximately two months to make, from the initial concept to the finished product. Three Youth Services Librarians, including myself, were on the SRC promotional video team and we decided that a current hit would be a good way to engage all ages. Once we picked “Uptown Funk,” we had to write the lyrics! Youth Services Librarians are known for their creativity and silliness, and our crew is no different. We knew what main points we wanted to cover and filled in the lyrics to go with the original melody. We made sure to emphasize that it really was for all ages. We then recorded our lyrics on GarageBand and used a karaoke version of “Uptown Funk” as the main track.

At this point, it was time to storyboard, which turns out to be the most important element of making a great, professional-looking video. It’s also a great way to keep the filming process on track. You can google “storyboard template” for a variety of free templates. We had an idea of how to visualize the video based off our lyrics and then combined moments similar to the original music video. We used the library’s camera, a tripod, and iMovie and GarageBand on our library’s Macbooks to do the film and soundtrack editing. We didn’t use anything that most public libraries wouldn’t already have on hand!

For more creative shots, we used duct tape and taped our camera to a library cart for stability. We also recorded more footage than we needed in order to ensure that we had enough material to work with. How did we convince other departments to participate? By gently reminding them that “it’s for the children” and by bringing donuts for all participants as friendly bribery. We filmed for an hour before the library opened one morning, and for an hour after the library closed one night, with all participating staff paid for their time (something we had discussed with all of our department heads ahead of time).

One caveat of making a quality music track and music video is that you do need to have at least one person on your team who is comfortable working with or learning to work with iMovie and GarageBand. If no one on your library’s staff is familiar with this technology, you can use lynda.com for some training if your library has it available, or search on YouTube for instructions. Once you know the basics, you’re ready to make a promotional video that engages the library staff and your patrons. Plan ahead and you’ll have a rollicking start to next year’s Summer Reading Club!

The post Summer Reading Club Promotional Videos first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Think about it: if you use social media on a personal level, the chances that you’re checking your Facebook profile or Twitter feed every moment of every day are slim to none. Your patron base operates much the same way; for example, if your community is like my library’s and most residents work a traditional 9-5 job, they are probably not logged in while they’re getting ready for work or during a morning meeting. They might be more likely, though, to look at their networks while eating lunch or fighting off mid-afternoon boredom.

Because social media marketing is a relatively new concept, there is not a tremendous amount of consistent research on the topic. Many experts agree, though, that certain times are better than others to post. Very few marketers recommend posting on weekends or after 10PM when people are spending time with their families or sleeping. By the time your followers log back into their accounts, your posts will likely be pushed to the bottom of their newsfeeds.

The best times to post are generally when your audience is looking for ways to procrastinate or focus on something other than their work. This means 2-5pm for those working a typical shift. Of course, it’s important to know the audience you’re trying to engage; if you’re trying to reach moms who shuttle multiple kids around after school, 3:30PM is not a wise time to advertise your children’s programming. Not sure what type of lifestyle your patrons lead? Talk to them! Even simple small talk can give you an idea of the times people are busier than others.

Once you’ve figured out the best times to post, it’s time to put your plan into action. If you’ve found that making a daily Facebook post at 2PM reaches the most followers, don’t think you have to be sitting in front of a computer at that time if you have other responsibilities to take care of. Create an account on a website such as Hootsuite that allows you to schedule your posts in advance. Most email marketing vendors include this capability as well; for example, I often write my weekly youth services newsletter ahead of time and select the “schedule” option on GetResponse to have it go out around lunchtime on Mondays.

Scheduling in advance can also help cut back on similar or inadvertently repeated posts. Additionally, it is a useful way to avoid over-posting. Of course, I tend to leave some wiggle room so any breaking news can be posted as needed, but a general schedule can save a lot of time and stress while making sure you reach the maximum amount of people.

Discouraged? Don’t forget that social media marketing is both an art and a science. The same practices don’t work for every library, and you shouldn’t expect them to. The key is figuring out what your followers want and when they want it.

The post Timing is Everything: Effective Social Media Marketing first appeared on Public Libraries Online.