Marketing Strategy (Don't Fall Asleep Yet!)

It sounds odd to think of marketing in a school context, although perhaps less so to those of us working in the Independent sector, where many of the parents already view themselves as clients and can have demanding expectations. I don’t work in Admin, but I’m pretty sure that my school has a marketing strategy, and would be surprised if it’s not written down somewhere (they love that stuff!), but does it include social media? I don’t think so. At least I don’t see much evidence of it.

Now, what about the library? Well, it has a blog, but I don’t think anyone knows it is there. They could definitely do with some kind of policy for their social media marketing, but what should they do exactly?

Well, Brown’s (2009, http://www.examiner.com/article/developing-an-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy) first tip is to actually write something down. What’s the point having a blog if you don’t plan how you will use it? Just getting something down on paper would provide the beginnings of a concrete plan of action.

The best place to start would be to consider the client-base. Who do we want to communicate with? In this case there are two distinct groups with different expectations. On the one hand there are the parents, and on the other the students. We need to consider their preferred methods of communication. Is a blog the right way to go, or should the library set up its own Facebook page or Twitter feed? It is quite likely that the parents have different preferences to the students in this regard. I would recommend a survey to gather data on this.

We also need to consider the categories of user, as demonstrated on the Bernoff/Schadler ladder ( see http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html). What are we aiming to achieve with our social networking? Do we expect students to be engaging as conversationalists or simply checking out what we have to offer as spectators. Obviously there will be a range of internet user types within the client-base, but we need to set ourselves some targets, even if it is simply to be viewed a certain number of times within a set period. This will then allow us to plan for improvement and growth.

Finally, there are the practicalities to consider. This is Brown’s number two tip: set how much time will be devoted to this. Life may be hectic in the library, but nobody will know unless you find the time to keep them informed, and your network will flop unless you keep it regularly updated, so we need to set a regular amount of time aside each day/week to maintain our social profile, and this should be clearly recorded in the policy.

Blog or Bleaaaurgh?

Ok, so I’ve read the A-Z of social networking for libraries (Brown, A., 2010, http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/) and I want to consider how they apply to my own school library.

B is for Blog. Hmm... well, I had to check this one. My school is a P-12, divided into a Primary campus and a High School campus. After a little hunting through the student portal I found a blog for the High School library, but as suspected there is not one for the Primary library at all. Considering that these libraries co-exist at the same school this incongruity just seems to signal that there is a lack of collaboration within the school. I think the best option would be to share one together. Then, of course they need to make it more obvious. It’s so hidden that I doubt anyone except the High School librarian has ever actually looked at it.

I is for interesting. I have to admit that at first glance I wanted to leave the library blog page because it looked so dull. It is dominated by a background of bookshelves (because it’s a library!) and the posts are all text. To be fair they have also included a series of images alongside the posts to try and liven it up a little, but they are almost exclusively photos of static displays of books from around the library. There are really few redeeming features to this blog, and it is not surprising that I could not find a single comment on any of the posts.

S is for Slideshare, and P is for podcasting. Both of these would liven up the blog no end and could involve student collaboration in their creation (simultaneously lessening the burden on the library staff!).

M is for mobile, and thanks to our school’s hardworking IT department we even have our own app. The school culture certainly embraces mobile technology, but the library is falling behind. Perhaps a Twitter feed would be the way to engage the students with what they have to offer?

Overall, my school library does not have a D for direction in its use of social media right now, but with a little Z for zeal they could still embrace the library 2.0 ethos.

4Cs at ASU

Arizona State University provides an impressive amount of information to its students through social media. On top of maintaining their website they also provide Twitter updates, Facebook posts and create YouTube videos (also posted on Vimeo). So, are these networks being used effectively? Are they achieving the 4Cs of Web 2.0: collaboration, conversation, community and content creation.

In terms of collaboration there is not a massive amount going on between the library and students/faculty staff online, but the videos push the message that the librarians are there to work with you, and articulate clearly how they are contactable and how they can help with resources, or simply providing group collaborative spaces to work in.

Conversation is certainly encouraged by the ASU library. Their Facebook page actively elicits comments from users. However, having said that, although a few users ‘like’ things on the page, written feedback is minimal. The real conversations presumably take place face to face or on IM.

This isn’t entirely surprising. Although what I think the library does best is to provide a sense of community through its regular updates and the lively information videos, ultimately they are still a part of the organisation and the majority of students are unlikely to want to contribute on their Facebook page even if they have viewed it. Possibly their most useful conversation is on Twitter, where they have over 2000 followers. While the Facebook page is used mainly to review things that have already happened, the Twitter feed keeps students up to date with current and upcoming news, as well as occasionally reminding them about library resources. I would certainly have found this useful when I was an Undergraduate. I’m sure that 90% of what was going on  passed me by unnoticed.

Overall I would give this library a big thumbs up for its use of web 2.0, but it does perhaps fall down on content creation. Yes, it creates an awful lot of excellent material of its own to keep visitors interested and coming back, and although feedback is encouraged, I did not actually see much contribution from those visitors, although obviously I am judging based on the most recent communications. Possibly, due to the constantly changing nature of web 2.0, in a month’s time I would be given a slightly different impression.