Maybe we're the only one with this problem, but when we invite a wonderful guest, do the posters, send the press releases and do all the other 'right' things, we still aren't assured of good attendance and I always wonder if there was something else we should have done.
Thinking of promoting our events in terms of "marketing" is a newish concept for me--it seems so "corporate," or something, but Laurie Boettcher 's (PR guru at Indianhead Federated Library System) blog says this about marketing events using social media: "Social media is not a craze, this really is a powerful new way of marketing. It is not, however, a one-size-fits-all guaranteed success. With each marketing campaign we do for an event, new program, new service, or whatever, we do our research, do our very best, and then hope our strategy was on track and works. Social media is no different. It's another tool in our belt that helps us reach our target audience. But, it only reaches that audience if we actually do it." Here is her blog address: http://laurieboettcher.blogspot.com/ .
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Jane,
ReplyDeleteThis is frustrating. Putting time, money and thought into a great program and we can't get the people to come.
I think Laurie Boettcher makes a great point. Our websites are our most important advertising tool. We need to have a website that directs our patrons easily and at the same time make them aware of some things that they didn't necesarily come there for, but are glad they did.
I think incorporating RSS feeds into our websites for updates to library programming might be beneficial.
Building a twitter account and actively twittering interesting information about new books, new programs and exciting happenings at the library can only enhance what we do. Building our twitter followers carefully and for the right reason.
Posters and press releases are a thing of the past, still necessary, but there is so much more we can do.