PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
As Juliet says,
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”.
Does the same hold true for libraries?
My principal recently asked me what I’d like our school library called and I had the opportunity to rename both my own role and the name of my school library. I had to ask myself if I should I stick with the word ‘library’ or should I look for something else?
Marketing and branding can be such a powerful thing for our libraries. If you want to follow along with this post series as I explore creating a library marketing plan, check out all the posts here.
When I started to investigate creating a library marketing plan for our school library, I drew upon my marketing and branding knowledge from the business sector and started researching the topic. You’ll find some links to great articles, podcasts and further reading in my second post in this series.
I love library marketing and branding and think it can be such a powerful thing for our libraries. If you want to follow along with this post series as I explore creating a library marketing plan, check out all the posts here.
When I started to investigate creating a library marketing plan for our school library, I drew upon my marketing and branding knowledge from the business sector and started researching the topic.
I love library marketing. There are so many facets of this. It’s not just promotions or publicity, though they play a part. But it’s also the bigger picture. It’s about how your users view your library. It’s about how the library team work as a team to market the library in a certain way in everything they do, from creating a flyer to promoting an event to each interaction at the circulation desk. And yes, maybe it makes me weird, but the idea of creating a library marketing plan EXCITES me. Continue reading
The Non-Obvious Guide to Marketing and Branding (Without a Big Budget)
– Rohit Bhargava –
Ideapress Publishing
Published 11 May 2021
♥♥♥♥
I liked that this book is called the non-obvious guide to branding and marketing and that is actually what is delivers. So many books and articles I’ve read on branding and marketing cover the same ground. Helpful and effective, but very similar. This book looks at things from a different angle and included things I hadn’t read about in other branding books. For example, this book not only tells you why you should create customer personas and how to write them, but how to better meet your customers’ needs and use this information to guide your outreach and get customers to actually start marketing and advocating for you. Similarly, instead of just demonstrating what a tagline is or why you need one, it breaks down the steps on how to create one in a way that actually seems achievable, even for me.
I had the great privilege of talking genrefication again by presenting a webinar with EduWebinar all about genrefication.
It was great to revisit my genrefication process, especially as I am looking to start all over again at my new school. It was also fascinating to revisit the research in this area and see what the current trends are.
If you would like to view the webinar, you can register for the recording at EduWebinar.
You will find my slides from the presentation below.
Brand Yourself: A no-nonsense brand toolkit for small businesses
Lucy Werner and Hadrien Chatelet
Practical Inspiration Publishing
Published 7 September 2021
♥♥♥♥/♥
I love learning about marketing and branding. And we all know that the best way to learn something is to read a book about it. Brand Yourself is easy to read and approachable and I have finished feeling I have a strong brand outline and clear steps I can take to make my brand stronger.
I always read branding and marketing books through two lenses – my own personal perspective as well as the branding of my school library. Brand Yourself is obviously targeted for business models, but each of the steps it takes readers through to identify a brand, would work perfectly for a library or service.
Brand Yourself is based on the work behind Wern and a quick check of their website and social media feeds shows they practice what they preach. It’s also a good example of what they are trying to show readers.
If you follow my blog or know me at all, you’ll know that I quite enjoy talking about genrefication. I am by no means an expert, but I love experimenting and reflecting on the things I have tried across a few school libraries.
I am so excited to announce that I will be presenting a webinar with EduWebinar all about genrefication.
Join me on Wednesday, 15th of September 2021 at 7pm AEST as we talk all things genrefication. The webinar is free for EduWebinar members or $30 for non members.
Social media accounts for school libraries are something of which I am hugely supportive. Many school libraries have now joined in and have a social media account or two. I am in no way an expert, but I thought I would share my reasoning behind my thoughts and the steps I have been through to create my school libraries social media accounts and what I do to create content each week. In this series I'll also share some of my favourite school library social media accounts to follow and gain inspiration from, as well as some further reading and research.
Connection. Marketing. Communication. Promotion. Networking. Ensuring parents, students, staff and leadership know what's going on in the library.
So often, the role of the school librarian now includes that of marketing director and advocate. If we do not promote our libraries and our roles they will continue to go unnoticed. Social media is an easy way to spread the word about the amazing things happing in your library, as well as the everyday awesomeness.
It's also a great way to connect with your students, parents and fellow staff members.
Promoting the school library is so important. Even more so in today's climate of disappearing school libraries and the undervaluing of school library staff. Social media accounts allow an insight into the daily happenings of the school library. It creates excitement and engagement. It also meets students where they are. Most teens are on social media of some sort and connecting with them in that environment can allow modelling of good conduct and positive social media engagement.
Part 1 of the series is all about Getting Started. Maybe you need some ideas about where to start, want help around writing a social media policy document or are unsure about which social media channel to choose. I'll discuss how I approached these first steps. We'll also talk about creating a brand and I'll share some of my favourite resources for learning about branding for your school library.
In Part 2, we'll talk about creating content and making a way for this to be easy and manageable. I'll share my favourite scheduling resources and templates.
Part 3 will give you some inspiration for your own social media accounts. I'll share my top favourite social media influences, school libraries you can follow and lots of further reading.
Coming soon
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