I love this book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in library marketing in general, using paid advertising, or using social media in library marketing.
One of its chief virtues are that it's short. It's an account of the work Ben Bizzle and his colleagues did at his library, Craigshead County Jonesboro Public Library in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It's written in such a way that it's easy to understand and easy for someone to imagine duplicating at their own library.
It's also an immensely practical book and I think that's just what is needed. It addresses tough questions like how to use Facebook in our current environment; how to convince decision makers; how to marshal the resources you can access to do this work. He talks about the ROI of advertising and what might be described as cost per impression.
I have long been looking for a thoughtful discussion of the use of social media in libraries and advice on how to get engagement on Facebook.
Bizzle's discussion of the importance of social media, how his library used Facebook, his strategy for buying ads on Facebook and how they helped his library successfully promote a new service, He talks about convincing decision makers who are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with social media. There are guest essays here, by Ned Potter and Josh Tate (a useful discussion of Pinterest). I also like that he talks about the importance of utilizing traditional media.
What I treasure about this book, besides its specific-to-libraries discussion of social media, is his discussion strategy for overcoming the drop in reach for Facebook fan/business pages, and how he overcame that with his advertising strategy. That chapter is quite detailed, and you can use this section like a recipe, following along and repeating his actions. I would have loved to have known about his work when I was struggling with my Facebook page, and I believe this can be very helpful to others.
He advocates that folks who are working on library Facebook pages follow his discussion closely.
I also love that his library used a billboard campaign, and he explains how you can, too. You perhaps have already heard of the most famous of the billboards: "Spoiler alert: Dumbledore dies on p. 596." (I hope you've already finished the Harry Potter books.)
And don't be put off by the title: Ben Bizzle isn't really advocating that you stop acting like a library. Instead, he's urging you to get serious about informing your public about how cool the groovy stuff at your library is, through both paid advertising, social media, and more conventional forms of publicity.
One of its chief virtues are that it's short. It's an account of the work Ben Bizzle and his colleagues did at his library, Craigshead County Jonesboro Public Library in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It's written in such a way that it's easy to understand and easy for someone to imagine duplicating at their own library.
It's also an immensely practical book and I think that's just what is needed. It addresses tough questions like how to use Facebook in our current environment; how to convince decision makers; how to marshal the resources you can access to do this work. He talks about the ROI of advertising and what might be described as cost per impression.
I have long been looking for a thoughtful discussion of the use of social media in libraries and advice on how to get engagement on Facebook.
Bizzle's discussion of the importance of social media, how his library used Facebook, his strategy for buying ads on Facebook and how they helped his library successfully promote a new service, He talks about convincing decision makers who are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with social media. There are guest essays here, by Ned Potter and Josh Tate (a useful discussion of Pinterest). I also like that he talks about the importance of utilizing traditional media.
What I treasure about this book, besides its specific-to-libraries discussion of social media, is his discussion strategy for overcoming the drop in reach for Facebook fan/business pages, and how he overcame that with his advertising strategy. That chapter is quite detailed, and you can use this section like a recipe, following along and repeating his actions. I would have loved to have known about his work when I was struggling with my Facebook page, and I believe this can be very helpful to others.
He advocates that folks who are working on library Facebook pages follow his discussion closely.
I also love that his library used a billboard campaign, and he explains how you can, too. You perhaps have already heard of the most famous of the billboards: "Spoiler alert: Dumbledore dies on p. 596." (I hope you've already finished the Harry Potter books.)
And don't be put off by the title: Ben Bizzle isn't really advocating that you stop acting like a library. Instead, he's urging you to get serious about informing your public about how cool the groovy stuff at your library is, through both paid advertising, social media, and more conventional forms of publicity.
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