Posts tagged under: Marketing

Co-create authentically with your community

Co-creation is one of the most effective ways for libraries to turn diversity, equity, and inclusion ideals into real-world services. Fundamentally, co-creation happens when the people who are most impacted by a service or program take the lead in developing and implementing it. It requires intentional time and resources around supporting the aspirations of systematically excluded communities. And these communities, not the library, determine what goals a project should reach for, what success looks like, and what actions are most likely to lead to that success.

To get started with or deepen partnerships for greater equity, consider three important elements of a co-creative approach.

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Build new community connections with partnership marketing

Most high-level library marketing goals aim to expand services into new communities and increase engagement with current users. But traditional library marketing is often geared toward reaching people who already know and love the library. Partnership marketing can help meet all your library marketing goals and it can reach entirely new audiences, while also showing a different side of the library to people who may have a narrow understanding of available resources and services.

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Drive social media success that connects on a personal level

How can you engage purposefully on social media with the different communities your library serves while also addressing larger, system-wide goals and policies? The concept of “social care” offers a clue. Social care differs from traditional customer care in that the purpose isn’t to address one issue, answer one question, or solve one problem. It’s also different than public relations in that it’s not about “one size fits all” for every audience. For social care, the goal is to nurture a more inclusive, longer-term dialogue.

At the Pikes Peak Library District, we’re using these principles to create local and program-specific social media personalities. All of our distinct voices closely align with the unique groups we serve and fall thoughtfully under a system-wide set of values.

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A fresh look at public library marketing

Library-Marketing-Report-Banner

I’ve always been impressed by the incredible creativity and inventiveness public library staff show as they evolve to meet the needs of their local communities. Having spent my career in marketing, more than half working with libraries, I understand the challenges they face in raising awareness of those changes among library users and funders.

A new OCLC report provides a current overview of US public libraries’ approach to marketing and communications. Some of the results are not surprising—like the fact that libraries do a lot of marketing with little money and staff. And as is often the case, some findings simply raised more questions, which led us to talk to some of the public library marketers we know to gain additional perspective.

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