CIL 2008 - Day 3 - Marketing Your Library with Web 2.0 Tools

[Beverly Choltco-Devlin]

I have to say that this is the one single confererence where I learn the most, am the most energized and become recommitted to our role.

Now I am in the Innovative Marketing Using 2.0 Tools with Helene Blowers who spoke in Utica and is the creator of the 23 things) and Michael Porter from WebJunction.

The notes below are paraphrasing of Helene's and Michael's comments.

Here are some good examples of marketing libraries using Web 2.0 technologies.

"A day in the life" with photos from the community
An entry for the library on Wikipedia
A video on YouTube of your library
Create a wiki for Book Reviews - including kids!
Blogs for any number of topics.
Link to the schools in the area.
Have a representation of the library and programs on Flickr.
Have a music event and then put videos of music events on YouTube
Create Moo cards from Flickr pictures.
365 Library Days Project-people take a picture every day of or a number of days. This will allow you collect an incredible document of the library activities.
Second Life - Library 2.0 - create a librarian avatar there
Put MySpace and Flickr links on webpage.

Helene said "Bottom line when we look at our brands - we are making a statement.
It is not about us - it is about our community"

Eg. Hennepin County Public Library
Photos of yourself reading Harry Potter. "They decided to invite their community to submit a photo of reading Harry Potter to the website and Flickr"

"We should showcase our patrons and communities"

Big Blue Labs at Charlotte Mecklenburg.

Denver Public Library had a YouTube Contest. Encouraged Teens to create a video about them using the library. How I had fun in the library for teens. The winning teen made a book angel with paperback books on a library table.

New Jersey Libraries - What are the 3 reasons you love your library? Put the videos on YouTube. Does not take people very long. Have community spread the word.

Summer Reading Campaign at the Louisville Free Library. Pictures with a sign. Library Champion Lives Here. Combining a traditional approach with a Library 2.0

8 Steps: ( Helene's famous E words)- These are her ideas about how libraries can begin to market their
1. Educate - Learn about Social Media
2. Experience - participate and join the conversation
3. Envision- think about a 2.0 marketing plan. Shift the focus
4. Engage - Create social celebrations
5. Enable - Help your library brand and content to travel
6. Expand - play with multimedia - create something that is engaging
7. Explore - Learn as you go and track success
8. Experiment Experiment Experiment.


"The best way to get customers to market your brand is to get the customers to promote your services"

This was a great workshop. I have a lot of ideas to bring back to Mid-York Library System.

[Nieves Gonzalez]

Thanks Beverly, your comments are very useful to people like me are too far of f event. I'm very interesting in results from application web 2.0 in libraries.

[Beverly Choltco-Devlin]

Hi Nieves, I believe all the conference slides will be available in about a week at the CIL 2008 Wiki at
http://cil2008.pbwiki.com. Some of the presenters also put their presentations at
http://www.slideshare.net It was a fantastic conference. I didn't get a chance to blog all of the workshops I attended because the wireless was a bit sporadic and I got a little behind.

[Nieves Gonzalez]

Thanks for the abstract. Do you know where is the presentations?.