Online Marketing Blog from metrocafe311

This was the question posed by Deanna Lee of The New York Public Library (NYPL) at Blogtalk 2010 last week. The NYPL has recently been acclaimed for its effective use of social media. As the Vice-President for Communications and Marketing Deanna Lee came to Blogtalk 2010 to show how a traditional institution such as a public library utilised social media to spread awareness as well as run campaigns.

Deanna Lee knew they would have to go beyond a Facebook page to get the library’s message across. So they embarked on an online communications strategy than spanned across numerous platforms. The library wrote not only their own blog but also wrote posts for the well known blog the Huffington Post. They wrote about hard news but also maximised the appeal of soft news through their blog and micro-blogs on Twitter.

Deanna’s strategy went further than just blogging, everyone knows the appeal of viral video the problem is coming up with the concept that makes the video popular enough to go viral. While many institutions can afford to pay for celebrity endorsed videos these often don’t provide enough ‘bang for your buck’. Instead the NYPL invited the well know improve group Improv Everywhere to come and perform in their library. I am sure you have seen the video which has received almost three million hits on YouTube, and shows the ghostbusters chasing down ghosts in the NYPL. The video was fun and interesting and took the library out of the ‘normal’ perception that people have about libraries.

The real value of social media kicked in for the New York Public library when budget cuts of $37 million of funding were looming. The New York Public Library pushed their social media up a gear with the ‘Don’t Close the Book’ campaign. A supporters micro-site was set up where people were able to send a letter protesting at the budgets cuts on behalf of their local branch. The map on the site signified all of the branches by dots which grew as the number of letters grew also.

The library needed more traffic to the site so another viral video was concocted. This time it was the turn of Tillman the skateboarding dog. Tillman also happened to be looking for a long corridor to attempt to break the world record for fastest skateboarding dog so it was a win-win for all involved. People of course went wild for the video and the campaign got some great exposure. The campaign over all was a huge success, with over 130,000 letters sent and $144,000 worth of funding was raised. In the end an incredible $27 of $37 million of proposed cuts was recouped.

So what did the library get right? Well it all comes down to Deanna’s first question, are you being interesting? Is the content you are creating worthwhile? Content must be meaningful to people on some level for it to be successful online. Another element of the NYPL’s campaign was that it was a people’s campaign, libraries are a public service and people did not want to see their local branch close. Individuals became personally involved because the message meant something to them. They uploaded videos, there was an independent Facebook page set up and many schools created artwork to show their support.

All of this boils down to ‘engagement’, one of the founding principles for social media and the reason many companies don’t get it right. It does not matter what tools you use to connect with people but without engagement your campaign will never get off the ground.