Marketing Critique of Online Presence: Berkeley Public Library

Berkeley Public Library (BPL) is a five-branch library system serving Berkeley, California and it’s surrounding communities. Like many public libraries of similar size, BPL maintains an interactive website that covers user interests such as location and hours, an online catalog, account access for library card holders, an events calendar, teen and children’s resources, and local Berkeley history. In addition to its very useful website, BPL expands its online presence using Web 2.0 and social tools such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. By doing so, BPL is acknowledging the increasing popularity of these sites and tapping into their tools in order to market the library’s services online.

One of Berkeley Public Library’s more active online presences is their Facebook page. The page currently has 1,213 people who “like” BPL’s Facebook page and can receive updates in their newsfeed. Event announcements and links to related articles are sent at a varying rate, sometimes daily and sometimes once a week. Since Facebook is currently the most visited website in the world, having an online presence there in the form of a library page is a must. BPL seems to be doing an adequate job of marketing their library events without “over-posting” every link or idea that comes their way. They are also punctual in responding to questions that come in the form of comments to their announcement postings.

Another online technology that could potentially incite one to start habitually “over-posting” is Twitter. While Berkeley Public Library is not using its presence in Twitter to tweet every instance of “what are you doing?” as some Twitter users are wont to do, they again do an adequate job of getting the word out about their events. In fact, their tweets are nearly identical to their Facebook posts, only abbreviated and with a shortened link to the actual Facebook posting. They likely have an application set up that automatically tweets an abbreviated version of every Facebook post that is sent. If so, this is an effective way of using one tool to market their events simultaneously to two different sets of followers. My only criticism of this technique is that the tweet version tends to cut off mid-sentence, which could be off-putting to their followers. However, they can always go to the Facebook link to read the full post.

Alongside the Facebook and Twitter logos on their home page is a link to Berkeley Public Library’s YouTube channel. According to their profile, BPL joined YouTube in 2007. This doesn’t appear to be a frequently used online tool since they have only uploaded 14 videos since they joined. 13 of the videos are digital stories from a series called Berkeley Public School Desegregation that were posted in March 2010. The 14^th video was posted in 2007 and presents mini-profiles of several BPL library users. YouTube is one tool that works best in tandem with another online device, such as uploading a video to YouTube and then posting the link on Facebook or embedding it into a blog. Unfortunately, judging by the low number of videos uploaded in just over three years, BPL does not appear to be using this free online presence to its fullest extent.

Another area where Berkeley Public Library’s presence is noticeably lacking is in its blog usage. BPL has two blogs that I could find: a weblog that is an additional page on its main website, and a Wordpress designed BPL Teen blog. Neither blog is updated all that frequently. The weblog’s last posting was from December 2010. BPL Teen’s most recent post was in January. Blogs are definitely an online tool that can require more time from library staff, and in this current era of budget cuts and staff shortages it is possible that staff simply don’t have the extra time to post messages to the blogs. One positive aspect is that users can subscribe to the weblog via RSS feed, though there didn’t appear to be a way to subscribe to an RSS feed from the teen blog.

If Berkeley Public Library were to consult me about their social media marketing, I would recommend bringing the activity up on all of their social media websites. More frequent posting on the blogs, Facebook, and Twitter would display to their followers an enthusiasm, pride, and commitment to the services they provide. If it is not feasible to assign just one staff member to be responsible for their online presence, I would suggest having two or three (or a team of) staff members take turns posting to the different sites. Having different “voices” and different perspectives keeps things interesting for the reader as well as for the contributors. Another suggestion would be to have weekly themes to the blog posts that return at the same time each week, such as DVD Reviews on Fridays or something to that effect. Linking their Facebook and Twitter posts is a great idea, and they could take it to the next level by posting links on to their blog posts on Facebook/Twitter, thereby achieving a trifecta in their online marketing presence. It also wouldn’t hurt to post an announcement about an event more than once, perhaps a few days in advance of the event and then a follow-up post on the day of the event. I would certainly refrain from posting the same announcement more than two or three times as it could become tiresome for the follower to read the same announcement over and over.

Additionally, Berkeley Public Library could use video more effectively in their online marketing. They could create videos that are uploaded to their YouTube channel and then linked to Facebook/Twitter or embedded into their blogs. Or, they could link to other non-BPL-created videos that have some relevance to the posts they send. Since web users and websites are visually-oriented, the use of video to get one’s message across, whether it’s playful, instructional, or educational, can serve to enhance the message.

Overall, I was pleased to find Berkeley Public Library embracing the current social media techologies that are “sweeping the nation”. But as with any marketing strategy, it always helps to look at how others are doing it to see if one’s implementation of those strategies is as effective as it could be.