From Avatars to Advocay

From Avatars to Advocacy Michael Porter & Helene Blowers

OCLC reports – full of stats

What is our brand?
more than a logo
books
your community – this should be your focus all libs are different

old paradigm – control the look & feel of the brand, broadcast this to an audience

from mass marketing to niche marketing
no longer consumers multisumer, we don’t just consume we create and contribute

new paradigm – influence the character of portability of you the brand

chik-fil-a marketing has kids take pic with paper cow from the outside the bag, and send it in to

google different logos for holidays, also allow Fan Logos, pple can create a logo

cluetrain manifesto – book, markets are about conversations

Strategies :
engage – does this tactic engage our community, connect with us and each other in meaningful ways, think about the emotional connection
enrich – to provide our customers with a rich online experience that enhances their local branch experience & daily lives
empower – enable our customers to personalize their library experience allow our community to celebrate themselves
allow the community to tell you want value they have, stop pushing our message and allow our community to share their message

switched from calling online services digital branch to digital services

Ren Gen – patricia martin – “cultural customers thrive on information and ideas to fuel their creative self-expressions”

control or empower? control is an illusion, when makes a decision is it to control patron or enable them?

allen county public library
area artists database

santa clara county library
wikipedia page for library

palo alto city library
using pbwiki for reviews by kids for kids
reference & resources blog
kids blog
general blog

MP says this isn’t like going to vegas and betting on red in reference to library marketing

Steve Abrams – suggests Teen takes photos around town, then seniors tag them in flickr, and you share them online, have community bring in old photos to scan, create collections of pictures, people can see photos of the community

how do we get our stories out there?

Lester public library – pitch to board
explains social software
shows all lot of social software site, exploring learning but now gong to narrow focus to 3 sites, flickr, myspace and the blog
show stats – flickr, myspace views, blog comments views ect
show other local communities business ect with a myspace page
blog strategy, blog 5 days a week, stats for everyday
sh

libraries equal content plus community
transcend the library and enter the community realm

Its not about us
how libraries are engaging their community
stop thinking about sustainability start thinking about relevance – communities shift
Harry Potter release party – one campaign then over, then on to the next thing, no need to be sustainable
NJ public library – 3 reasons why you love your library

suggestions for campaigns
During the summer use a google map for where they went on summer vacation – ties into the bears we checked out last year
wanna escape the election – come to the library
during writers strike a campaign that says our library isn’t on strike
Heroes among us – your library card is still good while you’re over seas, you can down load audiobooks while overseas serving your country
If you have craft classes send cards to troops, include something from a local community vendor too
Ask community to submit their favorite recipe with photo or recipe, sell recipe book – blurb.com
viral is not related to a brand but to a community, it is passed along because it has value to the person

8 steps to unmarketing
-learn about social media
-experience it
-envision – what does your plan look like
-engage
-enable your content to travel
-expand
-explore
-experiment, experiment, experiment

remember the best way for you to market your brand is to find ways to allow customers to promote you