Marketing in Libraries – It's the People

I promised to post more about marketing in libraries before, but then I got caught up in ALA preparations. So here’s some more thoughts on the subject.

(Photo of kids in a school library from flickr user Bombardier)

In the marketing chat that Jill Stover hosted on June 14th, there was a lot of discussion about word of mouth marketing- in particular, Jill described her program that works like a museum docent program – you get people (in this case, students) in and train them to give tours on their own. I worked as a student docent for the Sheldon Art Gallery here on campus when I was an undergrad, and it was amazing. The best docent programs not only give you the training you need to really give great tours, they make you feel like you are a respected member of the team. The Sheldon held awards for their docents and treated them to free food and behind the scenes tours. Not only does this get you people to give tours for free – important in a severely understaffed museum – it created Museum advocates. I always liked the Sheldon (I was an art Major after all), but after I became a docent I was much more likely to talk about the Sheldon outside of school – suggesting it for outings, talking up recent exhibits, encouraging newcomers to Lincoln to go. I am still a vocal advocate for the museum, in large part because I was able to take part in this program. Derik Badman mentioned his ARCL Blog post on Daisy Benson and Keith Gresham’s talk about building a network of users that will do marketing for you. Same basic idea- build a base of users passionate about your product.

Libraries are very similar to museums- they form part of the backbone of a shared cultural heritage- one in which the average citizen does not have to be wealthy to see fantastic works of art or be well read. Lots of people take pride in these concepts, and would be willing to help the providers of these services if given the chance.

Reading marketing books and studying marketing methods is a great start for any library that wants to raise their visibility in the community. There is much that a library can do, though, that is far more effective than “traditional” marketing. I put traditional in quotes because the oldest form of marketing – word of mouth- just may be libraries’ best chance. People are tired of constantly being marketed to. People are tired of being a demographic. Advertising burnout is settling in for many Americans.

(Photo of art fair from flickr user mateoutah)

So what’s the alternative? Libraries need to stretch their connections- as is often the case, it all comes down to networking. Talking to people face to face is the best way to spread awareness. I’ve seen library booths at local art fairs, cultural events, etc. This is great, and should be standard for any event. Many events give free or cheap booths to non profits- libraries can use this opportunity to put a human face on the libraries, sign people up for library cards, and show off collections. Imagine, for instance, showing off (and maybe even checking out) art books at an art fair, cultural and foreign language books at a culture fair, and recipe books at a rib fest. Such booths can be staffed by both volunteers and librarians, and could be a recruitment effort for more volunteers.

Social software is another venue for promoting libraries. For a long time, there wasn’t much in the way of local communities online- everything was pretty much national or international. The shift has started to move back to the local, though, and it’s possible to find a friend in your own town by going online now. The problem is, people scatter to different online services, and it may be hard to find where the people are. In Lincoln, the local flickr group is 159 members strong. There are probably also myspace and facebook groups. A site called lincolnite.com brings together blog posts, restaurant reviews and Lincoln news. One of the most popular (or at least most talked about) blogs in town is written by our police chief, Tom Casady. Lincoln City Libraries have started to build a presence online- they contribute to the flickr Lincoln group pool, and list events on upcoming.org. (I have the feeling that’s the work of one or two diligent employees.) The problem here is, no one can know everywhere local people hang out online (or offline, for that matter). This is where volunteers are essential – as well as all members of our workforce.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t believe schooling = smarts. I’ll extend this to say that just because someone is the lowest on the totem pole in the library doesn’t mean that they don’t have anything to contribute to marketing efforts. I’m very lucky that here at UNL, even though I’m “just” a library assistant, I get chances to take part in professional development, give my input, and volunteer for promotional events. It’s not that way everywhere, and it could be better even here. Libraries, like every business, need better ways to discover and make uses of people’s talent. Just because someone was hired to shelve books doesn’t mean they can’t spend a little time promoting the library every month.

Community analysis is important- but so is getting out there and actually meeting and talking to the community- as large a cross section as possible.