Revamping Your Online Presence

1. Revamping Your Online Presence LACONI - Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois October 11th, 2013 Scott Fenstermaker

2. Agenda • Marketing Strategy Discussion • Content Marketing Discussion • Social Media Discussion • Discussion on What You Can Do Immediately

3. Marketing Strategy Discussion Creating Value for Your Community in the Age of Digital Media

4. Strategy comes first. Media choice comes last.

5. What is the value of a modern library? • What is the modern meaning of a library to its patrons? • In what value do libraries specialize? (e.g. family tree research) • What is the current brand identity, and what should it be? • Examples: • Community meeting space • Childhood reading program provider • Alternative professional work space • Etc.

6. Explicit Marketing Goals • What improvements would be a demonstrable success? • More physical patron traffic? Expanded membership? • Expanded use of research databases and online resources? • Community prominence?

7. Market Segments • Which are your current best segments, that you’d like to grow? • Mothers of small children? • Others? • Which segments would find you valuable if you could reach them? • What are the key demographics of your community? • Remember: Don’t forget about complete non-users! • They are still potential customers • They have key information on why you’re not valued as much as you should be

8. Finding New Patrons • How do we expect that new patrons will find out about the library? • Are they finding your website? • Did they stumble upon the publicizing of an event? • Did they hear about you by word of mouth? • Did they find you first through social media? • Etc.

9. Content (Inbound) Marketing Discussion

10. Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

11. Content Marketing vs Advertising Content Marketing Advertising Focused on leveraging large budgets by purchasing traffic Interruptive Examples: Direct mail Cold calling Google PPC • Focused on increasing traffic and conversions while minimizing cost. • Interactive and collaborative • Examples: • Blogs • Video • eNewsletters

12. Source: Andy Crestodina Orbit Media

13. Core Content: Website and eNewsletter • Conversion: Turning a casual visitor into a follower or patron • Your homepage must encourage conversion (it’s your “mousetrap”) • eNewsletter subscription • Follow on Facebook • These must be prominent • Your eNewsletter is the heartbeat of your content • Gets in front of patrons regularly • Contains blurbs – must click through to website to read full content

14. Website Usability • Site looks congruent with different browsers • Library address and contact information visible • Site is free of lingo • Multiple upcoming events are clearly visible • Site is easily searchable • Navigation is not overly complicated • Pages are generally uncluttered and make good use of space • Important info “above the fold”

15. More on eNewsletters • eNewsletters have a dual purpose • To convert subscribers into patrons • To increase traffic to your website (“blurbs”) • Use a professional eNewsletter vendor like ConstantContact • Your eNewsletter will help you establish community partnerships • Offer to profile influential people • Offer local businesses free publicity in exchange for services • Florist and caterers providing free displays/food for events • Consultants who could instruct useful classes • Community colleges to which you will conduct outreach

16. Survey! • Use a free utility like SurveyMonkey to survey your email database • At least once every 6 months • Well-crafted and well-tested survey • Focus on factors that will encourage visits and word-of-mouth • Think about using an incentive for completion • Ask one or two open-ended questions • Remember to ask demographic questions, to see who gives certain answers • This documentation will help you get buy-in from The Powers That Be. • Also remember, you must commit to valuing and incorporating feedback!

17. A Word About Search Engine Optimization • Are there search terms that make sense? • “[City Name] Summer Reading Programs” • “[City Name] Visiting Authors” • “[City Name] Resume Building Classes” • If you want to rank on search terms like these: • You must have web content that uses these terms • Authorities must link to your content • This takes a looooooooong time.

18. Should we blog??? • Yes, but start small(events only) • Blogs are you central repository for your “interesting content” • Crucial for search engine optimization • Tedious resource-hogs unless handled properly • You should use blog functionality to have a newsroll for events • Searchers in your target market will be looking mostly forprograms • Tied if possible to the main content area of the home page • If not on the homepage, then absolutely within the same domain • Front page features headline, one or two sentences, then “Read More” • Written using keyword research, with SEO in mind

19. Cardinal Rule: “Write like an 8thgrader.” Understood Not Understood Database Library catalog Ejournals Index Interlibrary loan Periodical or Serial Reference • Books • Articles Source: The Accidental Library Marketer (citing jkup.net/terms.html)

20. Cardinal Rule: Suggest Action “Meh” Headlines Better Headlines Find Your Research Faster Learn to Preserve Your Family’s Treasures This is the Month to Come Join Us! Come meet Scott Fenstermaker on October 13th! • Catalog Informational Program • Program on Preserving Family Documents • August is Sign-up Month • Scott Fenstermaker’s Book Release For Further Reading: Copyblogger.com

21. Testing with Google Analytics

22. Social Media Discussion

23. What does social media mean for you? • “Know you better, so they can like you better” – David Avrin • Instant, actionable dialog and feedback • Avenue to grow your constituency • If mismanaged, a complete and total waste of time • Committed to too many media – running out of time and resources • Content is uninteresting to audience • Advertising instead of conversing (speaking at me rather than to me)

24. Which social media should I care about? • I should definitely care about: • Yelp – reviews can destroy you • YouTube/Facebook – FB has heaviest penetration, and videos help us like you • I should probably care about: • Pinterest – some creative possibilities, if you have time • I shouldn’t care as much about: • Twitter – libraries don’t require constant trend analysis or instant feedback • LinkedIn – libraries aren’t directly linked to professional advancement • Flickr – unless you have tons of unbeatable photography

25. Using Social Media Effectively • Use a dashboard like Hootsuite to manage publication • Does not work without interaction! • The ultimate goal is sharing (or retweeting, etc.) • If people don’t like or comment, your content dies • Don’t try to game demographic splits with different SM networks • Biggest demo difference is the Male/Female split on LinkedIn vsPinterest • Everyone is on FB, watches YouTube, etc.

26. Where does the best content come from? • Start with events • Take a video camera to events and talk to people • Post an announcement, a last-chance, and then content from the event • Break-up video into very short snippets for FB, longer for YouTube • Give the impression of a welcoming, inviting group of friends • Gather content involving staff members, regular patrons, community, etc. • Also talk about current most popular items, new services, etc. • Fill with news, cartoons, fun stuff, etc, but don’t let that overwhelm! • “Atomize” your content to make it go a long way

27. Final Thoughts on Social Media • You have to be prepared to act on feedback • Your content must be valuable or interesting to your patrons • i.e. must be “remarkable” (as per Seth Godin) • Goal is to maximize user likes, comments and especially shares • Your content must be voiced with authenticity and be jargon-free

28. What You Can Do Immediately

29. The Two Best Metrics for Success • Email list growth • Web traffic growth

30. Immediate Digital Marketing Goals • Make it easy and obvious for a visitor to immediately: • Browse, find and sign-up for events • Sign up for your eNewsletter • Follow you on Facebook and preview other SM content • Bookmark your page as a research reference • Establish Regular Communication • Send an eNewsletter at least once a month • Survey at least once every 6 months • Test effectiveness with Google Analytics

31. Checklist • Deploy Google Analytics on your website • Clean up website and make it more usable • Make your homepage a mousetrap (sign-up, follow, events, etc.) • Begin creating content from events, staff ideas, profiles, regular patrons, etc. • Research more content ideas based on keywords, listening, and Q&A sites • Establish a vendor and an editorial calendar for your eNewsletter • Send an eNewsletter at least once /mo. through a vendor like ConstantContact • Begin gathering feedback, and surveying once every 6 months • Choose events based on segmentation and feedback • Start recording video from events / learn video editing • Form a mastermind group that meets at least every 6 months

32. Resources – Books and Blogs • Books: • Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina • The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey • Blogs: • “Walking Paper” - http://www.walkingpaper.org/ • “Librarian in Black” - http://librarianinblack.net • “Orbit Media” - http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/

33. Resources – Web Utilities • Domain Authority: Alexa Rankings – alexa.com • Web Usability: Nielsen Norman Group – nngroup.com/topic/web-usability/ • Headlines: "52 Headline Hacks” – boostblogtraffic.com/headlinehacks/ • Copywriting: Copyblogger – copyblogger.com • SM Publishing: HootSuite – hootsuite.com • Inbound Links: Moz Open Site Explorer – opensiteexplorer.com • Others’ Keywords: Spyfu – spyfu.com • Keyword Ideas: Google suggest • Keyword Ideas: Ubersuggest – ubersuggest.org • Site Optimization: Google Analytics webmaster link – google.com/webmasters/

34. Resources - Vendors • Vendors: • eNewsletter Marketing: ConstantContact • Online Surveys: Survey Monkey (free) • Web Analytics: Google Analytics (free) • Social Media Publication Management: Hootsuite Basic (free)

39. Questions? Thank you very much!