WordofMouth Marketing for Libraries

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Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Libraries

• Instructor
• Ann Miller
• annkenneymiller_at_yahoo.com
• An Infopeople Workshop
• Summer/Fall 2006

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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople
Project
Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
supported by the California State Library. It
provides a wide variety of training to California
libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
around the state and are open registration on a
first-come, first-served basis. For a complete
list of workshops, and for other information
about the project, go to the Infopeople website
at infopeople.org.
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Workshop Overview

• What is word-of-marketing and why you should care
• Making the most of social networks
• Electronic word-of-mouth marketing
• Case studies
• Action plans

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Introductions

• Name
• Library
• Position
• Burning desire that brought you to this workshop

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• What does the word marketing mean to you?

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Marketing - Textbook Definition

• The activities of listening to customer needs,
  assessing the competitive landscape and then
  designing and creating products and services
  accompanied by messages that shape audience
  perceptions, leading to opportunities for
  revenue.

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Translation

• Find out what they want
• Give it to them at a reasonable cost
• Tell them about it

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Four Ps of the Marketing Mix

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

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You ARE a marketer, now deal with it!
From the blog, creating passionate users
http//headrush.typepad.com
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Old School vs. Neo-Marketing
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Exercise 1Word-Of-Mouth Bingo
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What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

• Activities that generate personal recommendations
  and referrals for your library, its services, or
  products

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Why Should I Care ?

• Traditional marketing is becoming less effective
• information overload
• skeptical public
• narrowcasting

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Technology Pumps It Up!

• Potential for the exponential
• Message is recorded (somewhere!), no longer
  ephemeral
• Vital for hard-to-reach groups
• Affordable for libraries!

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It All Begins With One-to-One

• One-to-one is
• Trusted
• Timely
• Tailored

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I Thought Viral Was a Bad Thing ?

• Word-of-mouth person to person
• Viral word-of-mouth enhanced by online
  interactions
• Buzz Everyone is talking about it message is
  no longer moving linearly

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Word-of-mouth Is Not Appropriate When

• Product is complicated
• Forced, fake, or bought
• Product is a dog

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Creating a Buzz

• Lets give them something to talk about!
• The Wow! factor

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Six Buttons of Buzz

• Taboo
• Outrageous
• Unusual
• Hilarious
• Remarkable
• Secrets
• (from Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing)

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From David McCusker and American River College
Librarys Chimes newsletterIn an attempt to
minimize the inevitable confusion between JSTOR
and J-Kwon, weve prepared this handy chart for
quick reference for you and your students

• Librarians can help you and your students
  navigate JSTOR.
• Full-text articles in JSTOR are available only to
  students, faculty, and staff of participating
  institutions.
• JSTOR is a scholarly tool of enormous
  potential.
• Issues of journals in JSTOR are never out" they
  are always available.

• Unfortunately, if you have any difficulties with
  J-Kwon, you are on your own.
• Full text J-Kwon lyrics are available to anyone
  with an Internet connection.
• It remains to be seen what potential this young
  mc may possess.
• Our fruitless attempts to contact J-Kwon suggest
  that he is frequently out and rarely available.

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Exercise 2Adapt a Case History
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The People Who Make it Happen

• Influentials
• Mavens
• Ambassadors
• Salespeople
• Connectors
• (From Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point)

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Exercise 3Are You a Connector?
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Tapping Into Social Networks

• Who are three connectors you can use to spread
  your message?
• Sales people?
• Mavens?
• Ambassadors?

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Spreading the Word

• Listening not telling
• Use the feedback loop- even if it hurts

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Audience expectations

• Customized
• Content driven
• Creative
• Connected

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Napa Valley Register comment on a story
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The Long Tail

• Distributing more of niche market items

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Santa Clara County Library on Wikipedia
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Networking in Organizations

• Staff
• Library volunteers
• Service organizations
• Participate in your community

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Introducing Yourself to a New Network

• Your elevator speech
• clear, concise, compelling
• no mumbo jumbo
• end with invitation for interaction

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Exercise 4Words to Avoid
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You Can Only Go Up From Here

• http//www.elevatorspeech.com/index.cfm?fuseaction
  videos

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Not so good
Hi, my name is Ann Miller and I am head of
Collection Development for Boring Public Library.
My job is to expedite the workflow of our
catalogers and cataloging techs and to purchase
digital and print collections that provide
reciprocal and parallel functionality with the
other partners in our consortium.
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Sample Hooks

• Americans go to the library 16 more often than
  they go to the movies.
• There are more libraries in the U.S. than there
  are McDonalds.
• California libraries spent an average of 25 per
  capita for one year of public library service.
  Thats less than the cost of one book...
• Our library buys over 25,000 items every year.
  Thats over 2,000 new books, movies and music CDs
  that are on our shelves every month.
• Our library has 60 computers with high-speed
  Internet access. Thats 360,000 work of Internet
  access for free.

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Your Elevator Speech What can you say in the
time it takes for an elevator ride ?
Exercise 5
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Electronic Word-of-Mouth

• Email newsletters
• Link building
• Blogs

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Email Newsletters

• Publish for pennies
• Opt in
• Privacy policy
• Measuring email marketing
• good Opened
• better click-through
• best forwarded

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E-newsletter
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Example of an E-newsletter Report
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Writing for the Web

• Reading online is different than print
• Users
• skip intros
• scan headings
• Register first words of headings
• Average 51 seconds reading an e-newsletter

• http//www.useit.com/alertbox/newsletters.html

Eye-tracking heat map
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Library Blog Why?

• Build relationships
• Listen, get feedback
• Preview new services
• Build communities
• Solve problems
• Collaborate to create new and better library
  services

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Qualities of a Blogger

• Time and commitment to blog
• Well-informed
• Opinionated
• Truthful
• Good writer
• Authentic voice

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Link Building

• The usual suspects schools, newspapers,
  cities
• Unexpected links blogs, hobbyist groups,
  tourism sites, etc.
• Link bait using the outrageous or unexpected
  to drive people to your site

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Writing a link request

• Write to a person not just a title (webmaster)
• Start a dialog, be helpful
• Reference something in their site that shows you
  are an avid reader
• Be specific about how your site is relevant to
  theirs
• Give an example of what the link might look like

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Hennepin County Library on MySpace
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Individual Librarian on MySpace
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Boston Public Library on Wikipedia
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Libraryman on Flickr
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St. Joseph County PL on YouTube
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvrtYdFV_Eak
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Wikipedia Discussion about Boston PL
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Second Life
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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvrtYdFV_Eak
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Exercise 6Write Your Action Plan
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One thing you learned today?
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Evaluations