ala pr2010

Leah KrevitRice University

The Rest of Us

Stephen Abram, MLS, Gale Cengage LearningALA Public Relations Forum

ALA in DC - June 27, 2010

PR Forum: Next Practices in

Communication @ your library

These slides will also be available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

Change and Challenges

Is Your Library an Event?

What experiences are you promoting? What’s the benefit?

ALA PR

June 24, 2007

18 PR Tools for Libraries

1. YouTube 2. Second Life 3. MySpace 4. Facebook 5. Flickr 6. Podcasts / iTunes 7. Wikipedia 8. Ning 9. WebEx / LiveMeeting

10.Twitter 11.Mozes 12.NowPublic 13.MyBlogLog 14.Blogging 15.Tagging, Scanning, RSS 16.SEO 17.LinkedIn / Plaxo 18.SurveyMonkey / Zoomerang

A

Social Glue and Libraries

ASK YOURSELF

• What is more important for value-based funding?

• What tugs at the heartstrings?

• 6% annual increases in circulation?

• 100% increases in ILL?

• 500% increases in website hits?

• 1000% increases in database results?

• 50% increases in customer satisfaction?

Or Stories?

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number One:

• What are your top reference questions?

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Two:

• Promote your staff – FB, Tweets, web pages, photos

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Three:

• Do a Signage Audit and a walkthrough

• (physical and virtual with a newbie)

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Four:

• Get Some Widgets (Hint: API)

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Five:

• Get Jiggy with GIS.

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Six:

• Go Beyond Statistics

• Google Analytics

• Foresee

What We Never Knew Before

27% of our users are under 18. 59% are female. 29% are college students. 5% are professors and 6% are teachers. On any given day, 35% of our users are there for the

first time. 29% found our products via the library website. 59% found what they were looking for on their first

search. 72% trusted the content more than what they found

on Google. But, 81% still use Google.

Driving User to the Library

• Encyclopedia.com

• HighBeam

• WorldCat

• iPhone App

• Questia

• Geo-IP measures

• Etc.

• Watch for more . . .?

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away

• Number Seven:

• Develop a STORY collection strategy

The thing about success, is that it’s not about things.

Or 2.0 Technology

Are we going to a totally build it yourself world?

Imagine IKEA merging with GM...

Yes, this is ancient wisdom: clients aren't buying your hammer, they are buying the deck of their

dreams. Help them build it.

OK – What is happening that

will change everything?

“The Internet has now

progressed to its infancy”

Google Books

Settlement

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

Google Editions:

Bookstore

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

SEO:

Search Engine OptimizationSMO: Social Media Optimization

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

I my customers

Geo-IP LIBRARIESCOMPETE

Top 10 Ways to Drive People to the Library Using Social Media

1. Find the Influencers

2. Connect with the Influencers

3. Motivate the Influencers

4. Build Buzz and Interest

5. Kodak Moments

6. Flip Camera Crazy

7. Tweet and be Tweeted

8. E-mails – yep – they still work

9. Survey

10.Measure and refine (rinse and repeat)

Bonus: Testimonials!

TransmogrifyingContainers

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

Broadband

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

The Cloud

…printing…software…storage

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

The Article Economy++

Format Agnosticism

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

The Yahoo!/BingiPhone,

FacebookMigration

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

Devices like iPads,

Kobo, Kindles,

eDGe, and Mobile

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

eBook Growth

Supporting the 21st Century book experience?

Kobo, iPad, Amazon, Apple, iPDF, etc. . . .

Mobile

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

The Experience

LIBRARIESCOMPETE

A Third Path

Context is King, not Content.

Curation and Contact Rule

Community

Stories

Conversations

Stories

Relationships

Stories

Community Networks

The Social Life of Information

Stories

Life

Stories

Connection

Stories

Personalization

Stories

Comfort

Simplicity

Learning

Trans-LiteracyMove beyond reading & PC skills

• Reading literacy

• Numeracy

• Critical literacy

• Social literacy

• Computer literacy

• Web literacy

• Content literacy

• Written literacy

• News literacy

• Technology literacy

• Information literacy

• Media literacy

• Adaptive literacy

• Research literacy

• Academic literacy

• Reputation, Etc.

These are exciting times.

Choose between achieving a dynamic and exciting future vision

or longing for a nostalgic past.

The power of libraries

Speak Out!

Surprise Them!

Trust Experiments!Shelf Chetoon desc

Join us on the Hill!

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAVP strategic partnerships and markets

Gale Cengage LearningCel: 416-669-4855

stephen.abram@cengage.com

Stephen’s Lighthouse Bloghttp://stephenslighthouse.com

Twitter: sabram