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Grassroots Strategies for Connecting with your Community

Grassroots Strategies for Connecting with your Community. Instructor: Penny Hummel penelope@hummelworks.com An Infopeople Workshop Summer 2004. This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople Project.

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Grassroots Strategies for Connecting with your Community

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  1. Grassroots Strategies for Connecting with your Community Instructor: Penny Hummel penelope@hummelworks.com An Infopeople Workshop Summer 2004

  2. 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 Web site at infopeople.org.

  3. Today’s Agenda • What is grassroots promotion? • Identifying audiences • Developing a message • Working with internal audiences • Tools and partners for promotional success • Implementing your promotional plan

  4. Who Am I? • Public Relations Manager at Multnomah County Library • Past lives: • Public relations consultant • Foundation and humanities council staffer • Library volunteer: FOL president, foundation trustee, advocate • Passionate promoter of libraries!

  5. Introductions • Name • Library • Position • One thing that’s happening at your library that you feel really good about

  6. Unleash your ferocity upon an unsuspecting world! -Bette Midler

  7. What is Grassroots Promotion? • Economical • using the resources you have • Entrepreneurial • creative and ingenious • Engaging • connecting with people and organizations • Evangelical • involving everyone you can think of!

  8. Why Grassroots Promotion? • Starts from the ground up • Emphasis on partnership • Huge budget not necessary • Homegrown and practical

  9. Why is Grassroots Promotion Essential? • There will never be enough... • staffing • funding • resources • There will always be too many… • other things going on outside the library • competing priorities within the library • Nothing’s more important than connecting people with your library!

  10. Components of Effective Grassroots Promotion • Connecting with your audience • Building relationships with individuals and organizations • Small steps (taken by many people) make a big difference

  11. PR and Marketing --What’s the Difference? • Relatives, not identical twins! • PR: communication designed to deliver a message • Marketing: activities designed to inspire an action • Peter Persic, Melissa Richardson Banks, 2004 PLA Presentation

  12. Questions for the Group • Why is it important to encourage more people to use, attend or support your library’s services, activities or events? • What are some of the common pitfalls of promotion in “Library Land”?

  13. Summer Reading Story times Book discussions Homework help Volunteering Reference Outreach Computer classes Online databases Reader’s Advisory Services and Activities to Promote

  14. Events to Promote • Author visits • Celebrations and anniversaries • Opening of new/renovated buildings • Community forums • National Library Week

  15. Your Audience • Who are you trying to reach? • Finding out about their priorities • Creating a tailor-made strategy

  16. Age Gender Race/Ethnicity Socioeconomic status Neighborhood Language Interests Other characteristics Who’s Your Audience?

  17. Library users (in general) Voters News media Elected officials Volunteers Friends Donors Trustees Staff Secondary Audiences

  18. How to Find Out Your Audience’s Priorities • Staff reports • Comments (cards, e-mail, letters) • Focus groups • Surveys • Research and analysis

  19. Staff: The Internal Audience • Your eyes and ears in the community • Your mouth in the community • Ensuring that their contributions are for good (not evil)

  20. Question for the Group How have library staff helped or hindered your efforts to promote what’s happening at your library?

  21. Engaging Library Staff • Include them in planning • Keep them informed • Provide training and tools • Keep asking for their input • Encourage those who “catch the fire”

  22. Key Messages • A call to action • Short, clear and to the point • Offer what your audience wants • Library-positive

  23. Examples of Library Messages • Have fun playing the Summer Reading game! • Join the library’s community reading project. • Learn new computer skills by attending free classes at your library.

  24. Good message or bad? • With 63 online databases available to its customers (some of these can be accessed from a computer at home or at work, for others, the library user would need to visit a library location), the Smith library is ready to serve the information needs of the Bedford community…

  25. Newsletter E-mail lists Checkout receipts Displays Web site Events Signs Billboards Banners Advertising Publications Promotional Tools

  26. Brochures Flyers Bookmarks Graphics Stationery Pins Giveaways Web pages Project-Specific Materials

  27. Tools and How They Complement Each Other • Print publications • traditional format that can be distributed where the people are • Web pages • top choice of younger users • E-mails and listservs • easy to share the latest developments

  28. What Makes a Tool Successful? • Tells people what they need to know • Easy to figure out • Uses appropriately clear language • Visually pleasing • Consistent with messaging for the project and the library

  29. Examine Your Examples • What works about this promotional piece? • What doesn’t work? • How would you improve it?

  30. Community Partners • Multiply your ability to reach out throughout your community • Contribute expertise and tools that focus on specific audiences • Leverage support from other partners • Give credibility to library projects

  31. How Your Partners Can Help • Distribution of library materials • Web site links and articles • E-mail lists • Donated programming • Related materials • Donate: Supplies, food, graphics, exposure

  32. Engaging Community Partners • Include them in planning • Utilize their expertise • Keep them informed • Provide tools that work for their needs • Keep asking for their input • Encourage those who “catch the fire”

  33. What About Sponsors? • Offer a major cash, media or (major) in-kind contribution • Participate to meet their own promotional and marketing goals • Need to be acknowledged appropriate to their level of support

  34. Identifying Partners & Sponsors • Brainstorm to identify connections • Involve other staff, library supporters, existing partners • Clarify why their participation is a win/win • Create a timeline and work plan

  35. Implementing Your Plan • Keep listening to your audience, partners and staff • Use your tools wherever you can • Work effectively with the media • Stay on message • Evaluate

  36. The Rules of Engagement • Communicate frequently and emphasize success • Make course corrections if needed • Do what you say you’ll do • Move towards “the tipping point” • Acknowledge contributions!

  37. Working With the Media • It’s a reciprocal relationship • Libraries have an important story to tell • We need to understand their needs in order to get ours met

  38. The Reporter’s World • Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines • A glut of information about too many things • Constant shifts to new and unfamiliar topics

  39. Media Magnets: Examples • Positive • making a dent in big social problems • bringing the community together • an individual’s triumph over adversity • Negative • conflict • good guy vs. bad guy • disaster and destruction

  40. How to Engage a Reporter • Be accurate, succinct and clear • Focus on your key messages • State conclusion, then demonstrate it • Tailor your message to the recipient • Use stories, not statistics • Avoid library jargon

  41. Questions to Ask Yourself • Why should people care about this project? • What makes it interesting, unique or particularly timely? • Do the partnerships you’ve created make it more newsworthy?

  42. Tools for Media Outreach • News releases and media kits • Pitch letters or e-mails • Phone or personal contact

  43. Questions for the Group What’s been your most challenging experience working with the media in the effort to promote a library project?

  44. Evaluating Your Success • Document • usage • attendance • exposure • Analyze • what worked • what didn’t • Emphasize the positive in final report

  45. Find out who you are anddo it on purpose. - Dolly Parton

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