The Utopian Library

Helene Blowers, Director, Digital Strategy, Columbus Metropolitan Library
Michael Porter, Community Product Manager, WebJunction

Program description on the CIL2008 website.

Presentation slides on SlideShare.

• Helene Blowers blogs at LibraryBytes
• Michael Porter blogs at Libraryman

The library brand is more than just a logo. It’s about books and community.

Old marketing paradigm: controlling the look and feel of the brand

New marketing paradigm: influencing the character and portability of the brand

• See showusthecow.com… !

Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation… We need to learn to begin to let go.¹

Allen County Community Album

• a traditional service (archives)
• made into a new resource that invites user participation

Santa Clara Country Library

• maintains an editable wikipedia entry to which the public is invited to contribute
• “every library should have a wikipedia page”²
  • requires allocation of resources
  • no resources to support presence results in no presence, or presence with no content (i.e., blank flickr/youtube pages)

City of Palo Alto

• book review wiki
• blogs
  • PACL References and Resources³
  • teen blog: includes links to local schools
  • kids blog

Flickr MOO cards turn photos into promotional pieces for programs, events, resources

Libraries and librarians on Flickr

• best collection of library photos out there
  • Libraries and Librarians group
  • 365 Library Days Project

San Mateo County Library

• rotating banner ads on opening page direct site visitors to library programs, resources, and social web spaces

Promoting the library brand is not about the library, it’s about showcasing the community.

Libraries are typically not very good at telling their own stories. Web 2.0 resources allow libraries to get better at that.

Hennepin County Public Library

• Bookspace photos of patrons reading Harry Potter

  • (NTS and Christie: see online photo submission permission form!)

Gail Borden Public Library

• Storypalooza invited community members to take video of their favorite books
• content is displayed on their webiste

New Jersey State Library

• video collection/promotion: “We Love our NJ Library” (go here for video)
• very short videos… just a few seconds can do it!
• lets the community spread the word

Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County

• celebrates reading with Foto Fun
• invited community to create motivational posters about why the library is important
  • used bighugelabs image generator
  • submissions posted in Foto Fun Gallery
• showcases community, not library

Denver Public Library

• YouTube contest: “How I have fun at the Library”
• engaged and showcased teens and their videos

Louisville Free Public Library

• summer reading club finishers received lawn poster “a library champion lives here!“
• winners submitted photos of themselves with their signs
• photos are posted on library website

8 Steps to Marketing 2.0

1. Educate: learn about social media
2. Experience: participate and join the conversation
3. Envision: develop a 2.0 marketing plan
4. Engage: create social celebrations
   • celebrate the customer
   • celebrate the community
5. Enable: help the library brand and content travel
   • widgets let users take a part of the library and put it in their own space… that’s portability!
6. Expand: play with multimedia
7. Explore: learn as you go and track success
8. Experiment: have fun, play, practice with the tools

The best way to get customers to market your brand is to allow them to promote you.

1. A.G. Lafley, Chairman & CEO, Proctor & Gamble; see slide here [↩]
2. M. Porter [↩]
3. hmmm… couldn’t find this on their website… [↩]

Filed under: CIL2008, conference notes, libraries, library 2.0, marketing and outreach, social software