This document discusses strategies for libraries to effectively utilize social media and web 2.0 technologies for marketing and outreach. It emphasizes engaging patrons through conversation rather than just broadcasting information, being present where patrons are online, and positioning libraries as guides who can help patrons navigate new technologies and information. The key is demonstrating how the library can help patrons achieve their goals.

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3. ... a direct successor to „web 1‟ or whatever
you want to call the rest of the internet. There
are still plenty of useful and active sites which
aren‟t web 2.

4. …an approach. People consume Web 2 in new
and different (non-passive) ways. Web 2
applications are typically characterised by
interaction, sharing, collaboration, interoperab
ility, uploading – in short they are
participatory.
It‟s not a broadcast, it‟s a conversation.

5. ... a poster featuring details of a new database.
That’s advertising.
It‟s not an online campaign about a new service.
That’s promotion.
It‟s not an article in the paper about the librarian.
That’s publicity. (If the article is about the librarian welcoming
a celebrity to the library, that‟s PR.)
And it‟s definitely not a piece of A4 coloured paper with
something written about the library in Comic Sans.
That’s just awful.

6. ... an ongoing conversation with your target
audience, which combines
promotion, publicity, PR, and advertising in an
organised, strategic way, using interactive
online tools to speak directly to the people
who matter and LISTEN to what they have to
say.

7. ... an opportunity to find out about your
patrons and potential patrons, go to where
they are already, interact with them, tell them
about stuff they might find useful, listen to
what they want, and ultimately demonstrate
to them how you can help them get from A
to B a little easier.

9. You can divide them by type:
... students ...
... academics ...
... researchers ...
... senior university types ....
... the local community ...
... other libraries and institutions ...

10. Or what about dividing them by their needs?
... general information about the library ...
... the kind added value we provide via Info Lit etc...
... to master the world of academia ....
... to scrape a 2:1 ...
... to hit their REF targets...
... to complete their research whilst raising small children...

11. Or even their information-seeking behaviour?
... immersive books and journals ...
... the article level universe ...
... the paragraph level universe ...!
... the off-site searcher of electronic resources ....
... the on-site browser of paper stock ...

13. Make sure the tail isn‟t wagging the dog.
There‟s no point in signing up for a new social
media platform unless you know why you‟re
going to be on there, and how you‟re going to
use it.
When you create an online presence, it should
have goals and a purpose. That’s what
makes this marketing.

14. “Inspire lifelong learning by asking and
answering questions that encourage
patrons to challenge their assumptions .”
New York Public Library | Social Media Strategy

15. “It’s better to do one thing properly than
to end up with lots of sad, neglected
profiles all over the web.”
Frances Taylor | Marketing Manager, Business & IP Centre, British Library

16. In theory it‟s good to create, launch and assess your social
media profiles one at a time, to ensure each one works and
doesn‟t end up as a dead end. In practice the accounts often
work together, so it‟s not always practical to take a „step by
step‟ approach.
Whatever happens, only launch begin using a web 2 platform
in your library‟s name if you can commit to running it well
over a sustained period. Dud accounts do more harm than
good.

17. Because Web 2 is all about dialogue, the tone you use in
marketing your services needs to be conversational. Many
institutional accounts begin rather stiffly – that‟s okay, but
they do need to relax and become more informal over time.
In most cases, the tone you should be aiming for is:
Informal but not overly familiar; friendly but not overly
personal; colloquial but grammatically, syntactically and
orthographically* correct.
just cause ur using social media dont think that means
u should b using txt speak! 
*Orthographically basically means „spellingly‟...

18. It‟s a conversation, remember? Imagine how many focus
groups you‟d need to set up to get the kind of access social
media provides! Utilise this, and get people‟s opinions.
“Our approach to social media is to make sure that we
spend as much time following and listening to other
people as posting information about ourselves.
When organisations only post information about
themselves on Twitter it can be very off-putting. I use
the analogy of going to a party – you wouldn’t stand in
a corner of the room and shout at people. It’s exactly
the same on Twitter. You need to ensure that you’re
interested in the people that you follow, and that you
engage with them.”
Frances Taylor | British Library

19. Marketing works best with a blend of old and new
media, the two worlds working together.
“I see social media as one piece of a larger
puzzle. Often I will run campaigns that involve
the full marketing mix, including press, e-
newsletters and e-flyers, the website, advertising
campaigns, working with partners, etc. By using
a range of media, you can ensure that your
campaigns have maximum impact.”
Frances Taylor | British Library

20. In my opinion, library use of Web 2 platforms should be
aiming to accomplish this:
Add value in order to increase engagement in
order to deliver key messages to a wider
audience.
In other words, make your twitter feed (or whatever)
more interesting so more people follow you, so that
more people then get the really important messages
you want to market about your library.

22. ... you have a captive audience ...
... you know quite a lot about them already ...
... they have (relatively) common needs ...
All of this should put you at a huge
advantage.

24. Half the battle with marketing is knowing
what you want to say. (The other half is
saying it in a way which has the most
impact.)
Ask yourself what your library wants to
communicate with the various stakeholders
we‟ve discussed.

25. Is your aim to promote manage the library‟s
reputation, to increase general awareness of
its existence, to promote specific content, to
advertise events and training courses, to
make people aware of the services you offer?
(It’s probably all of the above.)

27. Sometimes, libraries and librarians seem
obsessed by process.
Instead, we need to focus on
outcomes, aspirations, and benefits.

28. We describe features when we should be
describing results.
We describe products when we should be
describing services.
We talk about searching when we should be
talking about finding.

29. No one cares how we do things. They just
care how the things we do will effect their
working lives.
No one should have to work out how we can
help them. The responsibility is ours, to
identify their needs, and explain how we can
help them in language they can identify with.

30. “We subscribe to over 100
databases!”

31. “We can find you stuff that
Google can’t.”

32. Like Stephen Abram says, Beauty Salons are
called Beauty Salons because beauty is what
they help you achieve. (In theory...) They‟re
aren‟t called Ugly Salons or even Becoming
Beautiful Salons.

34. The answer is Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
Where are the
PEOPLE?

35. Let’s market services more, and products less.
Let‟s promote ourselves, as librarians. Let‟s allow a little
personality.
It‟s the PEOPLE who separate libraries from other more
straightforward sources of information. Luckily, Web 2 tools
are personal, so we can start to redress the balance.

37. Twitter is the first platform I‟m covering, for two
reasons:
1) Although more library users are on Facebook, they
seem to be prefer interacting with the library on
twitter in a lot of cases.
2) Twitter users are much more influential than those
on any other networks.
“What happens on Twitter, doesn‟t stay on Twitter”
- thenextweb.com

38. Don‟t be afraid to add personal touches to your twitter
page – even though it‟s an institutional account, people
know they‟re dealing with individuals.
Try adding pictures of the tweeters to your
twitter’s profile page’s wallpaper, or editing the
bio to end with “On duty: [insert currently rota’d
tweeter here...]”

39. It‟s easy to set up searches for your twitter account, which
you can then „save‟ and re-access easily.
Set up a search on the name of your library, so you can
monitor (and if necessary respond to) what‟s being said by
people who aren‟t using your full @ twitter handle.
Set up a geo-locational search, of people using the term
'Library‟ within 1 mile of your site‟s post-code. (This is
surprisingly easy to do, just go to Advanced Search.)
Respond to people who you think could do with your help or
input, otherwise don‟t go overboard on @ replying to people
who aren‟t directly addressing you.

40. Sometimes human error creeps in and the person
tweeting gets mixed up between their personal and
institutional accounts.
When this happens, respond
quickly, honestly, and apologise with the
appropriate level of seriousness.

41. There are a million-and-one twitter tools out there which
analyse your account. Stick to the ones which provide
actionable results.
• http://www.twocation.com to find out where your followers
are based. (Significant overseas followers might vary the
times you tweet information.)
•http://tweetstats.com/ to find out what percentage of your
tweets are @ replies or RTs. (This gives you an idea of how
interactive your account really is.)
•http://klout.com/ to find out your influence. (Don‟t get
caught up with your overall score, but use Klout to track your
„Network Influence‟ and „Amplification Probability‟.)

42. Research shows student expectations are morphing – they
now expect interactions with the library to take place across
platforms like Facebook. This is not the same world into
which 1001 ill-advised library MySpace accounts were born. If
a study about Facebook was written before 2010, it has
limited value – attitudes are changing so quickly.
Your students ARE on Facebook.
So: “...you might reach new people, or you might reach the
same people in a different way.”
-Helen Murphy | University of Cambridge

43. Your Facebook account should, if possible, compliment
your main website (so users find value in both) but also
lure in new patrons who wouldn‟t otherwise engage
with the library.
It needs to be informal, engaging, and if possible it
needs to have a purpose of its own.

44. Rescue Buried Treasure
A million and one useful services may be on your
library‟s website, but the launches have been and gone
and they‟re now mainly forgotten about. Draw your
users‟ attentions back to useful things that would
otherwise be hidden to most.
Ask questions
“Don‟t just link to a new service. Say: „here‟s a new
service from the library - have you tried it, and what
did you think?‟”
Sue Lawson | Manchester Libraries

45. Pull in Content
If time is limited, it‟s straightforward to populate your
FB page with content from elsewhere in the library –
RSS feeds from a library blog, your twitter feed, events
calendar and so on (and you can use Yahoo! Pipes to
aggregate several feeds into one)
Embed a Search
Get an OPAC search on there so people can find stuff in
your library without having to leave your page (and
maybe add a JSTOR one where subject appropriate)

46. Great design is important, but remember the vast
majority of people interact via the Wall.
Keep in mind people use Facebook ALL DAY. This
changes how you approach your strategy – you can
feed into their daily activity, rather than having to hit
them with all the key messages at once.
Use the Insights tool (essentially analytics) to learn
more about your users, and adapt the content
accordingly.

47. Institutional blogs are a great way to communicate with
patrons in a way which is less formal than via press release
or the main website, but which is still the library imparting
information in a way it can control.
Blogs can actually be fairly broadcast orientated (setting up a
blog to document progress on a library refurb, for example)
or they can be more conversational (asking questions of the
readers, soliciting feedback on new services, encouraging
discussion between subscribers and so on).

48. Put a number on it
For whatever reason, a post entitled “5 tips for doing X” will
get more views than the same post entitled “Guide to X”
Ask a question
Blogs are a rare opportunity for libraries to give their patrons
ownership of something. Ask a question, either in the title of
the post or at the end, and give them a voice via the
comments section.
Use the hashtag in the title
If your post is about a particular event or theme which has
accompanying twitter hashtag, use the actual tag in the title
of the post. That way every time someone tweets a link to
it, a wider audience will have a chance to read the post.

49. Get out there
Comment on other blogs AS your institutional blog – people
are happier to engage with you if you‟re engaging with
others, plus it‟ll link back to your blog.
Make sure you’re listed
Have you registered your blog anywhere? It‟s a lot easier for
Google to find it if you tell Google it exists; same goes for
other search engines. Also, stick a link on the UK Library
Blogs wiki.
Most importantly, make it infinitely shareable
Your patrons should never have to think for more than half a
second about how to share your blog – whether via
Twitter, Facebook, email, or whatever pertinent platform.

50. If you know that you‟re about experience a spike in traffic
(for example because of a presentation in which you give the
URL, or an article appearing with a link to the blog) then
make sure there is something absolutely mint displayed on
the front-page, to lure the new readers in and hook them...
Now is not the time for your most recent post to be an
apology about building works!

51. Youtube
Do not make a video UNLESS IT IS GOOD! Simple and
well executed beats ambitious and ropey every time.
Flickr
A great opportunity to allow users to have some
ownership of library content – allow them to upload
their pictures to a particular collection, curate a
collection of user pictures around a particular subject
area, or crowd-source information about obscure stuff
in your archives.

52. Wikis
Vastly overrated as tools for engagement!
Slideshare
Vastly underrated as a tool for engagement!
LinkedIn
Essential for business libraries. But for
everyone: follow your academic staff.

54. By the end of next year, the majority of internet access will
come via mobile devices rather than PCs.
By the end of the decade, ALL phones will be smart-phones.
(So you‟ll have one whether you want one or not...)
People’s whole lives will be organised via their
mobiles, so they’ll expect the library to be there too.

55. “An awesome library website needs to reach into peoples
pockets and purses … via a mobile website. If your customers
really value your library and its services, they will put you on
their speed dial, add you to their Facebook friends list, and
ReTweet the events you're holding next week. Create a
mobile-friendly website, and your customers can do these
things while at home, while standing in a long grocery store
line, or during a quick break at work.”
David Lee King | Digital Branch & Services Manager, Topeka and Shawnee
County Public Library

56. “I‟ve just become Mayor of Being Really Annoying!” ... but
geolocational apps are here to stay, and will only become
more prevalent.
It‟s worth bearing in mind your library is likely „on‟
FourSquare already, whether or not you‟ve set up a
FourSquare account.

57. Libraries are becoming early adopters of new platforms. This
is great – not least because it allows us to market via
them, and also market our abilities with them to our patrons.
The key is not the technologies or platforms
themselves, it’s about positioning ourselves within
those them, and within the wider narrative.

58. It‟s not about saying “Hey the library is an expert in
FourSquare!” – it‟s about saying “The librarians know about
new trends and technologies, come to us and we‟ll guide you
through it!” and then when FourSquare (or any other
geolocational social media app, or anything else) goes
mainstream, our patrons and customers already have as in
mind as potential experts.

60. Leather background:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrysti/2250220
661/sizes/l/in/photostream/
This background:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxfwilliams/3
296799591/sizes/l/in/photostream/
The quotes in this presentation are from Case
Studies included in The Library Marketing
Toolkit by Ned Potter, to be published in 2012.
Background images are from Chrysti and MaxfWilliams via Flickr Creative Commons

61. Email me: ned@thewikiman.org
Follow me: @theREALwikiman
Read me: www.thewikiman.org
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for more details)
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