Getting The Word Out!
Isn’t it funny how even if you line up the hottest author for a reading, or meticulously plan your annual benefit gala, or use data to predict the best dates and times for children’s story hour — events are only considered a success if enough people show up?
You could have Aerosmith opening for Oprah to interview the cast of GOT in your garage — but if you don’t get the word out, the event would still be a bust. That’s how important it is to do some marketing.
The Easy Way To Promote Your Events.
Springshare knows that it’s not enough to make creating events in LibCal as effortless as possible. We made marketing those events, including via social media, something you can do near simultaneously. In creating your library event, besides descriptions, you can
- Add featured images to the event — perhaps of a poster you designed, or a headshot, or a picture of board games, etc.
- Create a friendly URL for the event, making it easier to share.
- Select appropriate audiences and category to help people find your new moms book club or your graduate student lecture series or your photography exhibit.
- Elect (right from the creation page) to send a new event announcement via social media.
All of these features are incorporated right into the event creation page to make it easier to advertise the makerspace orientation, or summer lunch program, etc. that your team has worked so hard to bring to your patrons.
Build A LibGuide To Supplement Your Event Page.
When you create your event in LibCal, you will see the option to include a link to a related LibGuide. It’s a great idea to build LibGuides for special events because they allow you to provide more information. If you were hosting a poetry reading,
- you could include a photo of the poet,
- books s/he’s published,
- links to upcoming events where people can catch the poet again,
- excerpts of popular or new work,
- a bio,
- a relevant video or podcast,
- and a link to the registration for the event at your library.
Plus, if it’s a recurring event like toddlerobics, or a used textbook sale, or a storytellers open-mic night, you can take photos during the events and add them to the LibGuide. Don’t forget to put a LibCal widget that shows the upcoming dates in the series. Also, make sure the guide is updated regularly with fresh information.
Quality programming is something every library strives toward. It’s exciting work and, librarians are really coming through as you endeavor to have variety, while applying data-driven tailoring to your events — in order to connect with your particular patrons. To help you learn more, don’t miss the opportunity to write in the anticipated attendance. Plus, LibCal lets you go in after the event and note the actual number of attendees so you can check the stats later.
Learn More About Boosting Your Outreach
From reading to dogs to DJing classes for teens to human library night, you’re doing a great job being creative and helpful. But the work doesn’t stop there. We’ve all learned that marketing the events is something libraries must prioritize because the purpose of it all is to serve your community.
To that end, we’ve added some upcoming webinars that cover ways you can boost outreach and improve audience targeting. Register for one of these session today:
- Tuesday, July 23: 12pm – 12:30pm US ET
- Thursday, July 25: 4:00am – 4:30am US ET (EU-Optimized Time)
- 9.00am WEST, 10.00 CEST, 11.00 EEST
- Monday, July 29: 3:30pm – 4:00pm US ET
The whole point is to bring people together. LibCal and LibGuides make that easier to do. Plus, if you build those LibGuides, you can have an archive of all your stellar programming.