This little piggy...

It's time to reflect on marketing. Actually, this is something I really enjoy (marketing that is...). I can get so involved in advertising all the great things that we do in the library to support the students that sometimes I've got no time to do the nitty-gritty that makes the 'great things' possible. Hmm, now that's a problem!

We currently have a mix of methods for getting our message across, from the face-to-face encounter, student reps on the Library Committee, our printed library guide and newsletter (Jerwood News) to electronic media: email, our website, the display screen in the Porters' Lodge and our Facebook page. Some of the above already have a social element, involving conversations and interaction. What can be more 'social' than a chat in person? We use email a lot to respond to student's queries and our web 2.0 Facebook page is great for presenting our informal image and engaging with the student community.

One surprisingly valuable marketing tool has turned out to be our annual library survey. It is primarily designed for gathering information so that we can improve our service but it has had the added benefit of marketing the library. Via the survey, students have a chance to give us important feedback (the other side of the 'conversation' in response to our questions). Once we have collated the responses to the survey, we report back on the changes we have made and the students feel we are really listening to them. Here are some of their comments: ‘Continue your great work for the student community!’, ‘I think it’s a fantastic resource!’, ‘It’s really good we’re lucky to have it’, ‘Continue to respond well to feedback!’, ‘The librarians are awesome people, always nice and smiling and ready to help’. 

Now Cam23 has given us a whole new tool-kit for getting the message out there via social media. We've got Twitter for advertising events, LinkedIn for building up a professional network, Delicious for creating library collections, Flickr for our photo collections, Slideshare for our presentations and Blogging for getting our thoughts out there and starting discussions. It's a bit early yet to say exactly which tools we'll adopt, but it's given us lots of ideas and plenty of tools to improve the applications we are using already.