Elisabeth Leonard on Libraries

Customer service

A friend recently was playing blackjack at the Wynn.  He was winning even!  Imagine his surprise when the pit boss came over and told him that he wasn't welcome at the Wynn anymore.  No reason was provided; he was simply asked to leave.  I mention this because I wrote last month that libraries could look for ideas by examining how services are provided in the hospitality industry.  Well, this is an example of what not to do!  My friend will never gamble again at the Wynn even if invited.  He wants to start a campaign against them now -- "Don't gamble at the Wynn."  And he's not the sort that gets easily bothered.  I have heard for years how important word of mouth is and how one bad experience can turn someone (and all their friends) against a company.  This is the first time I've seen someone so justifiably upset, so it is the first time I've ever really believed in the power of a negative experience.  While I would like to believe that every experience in a library is a good one, I know it isn't true.  Given how much we work at marketing our services, we must remember to deliver a positive experience to those patrons who turn to us.  I would hate to read a blog entry telling the world not to use libraries because our services are deplorable.  One bad experience really can change someone's mind.  we must not allow such experiences to occur in our libraries.

Reviews and word of mouth

So, I just posted about how I wish academic libraries would turn on the comment feature in their catalogs.  I was surfing the web and came across:

Link: WOM absent from communication strategy - Social Marketing - BizReport.

It has been projected that, during 2007, 66 million adults will share reviews and advice about products and services and 27 million will “exert influence” online.

And yet, according to new findings in the annual “Media, Myths and Realities” report from Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, less than a quarter (24 percent) of communicators have a word-of-mouth strategy in place.

Broadcasting to the masses is out, says the Ketchum-USC report, and suggests that communicators view their audience as a “public of one”, providing relevant, meaningful and entertaining content that they will feel inclined to share with others.

Pew Internet: Teens and Social Media

Wow!  I knew that social media and social networking was on the rise, but look below for some stats from Pew.  It strikes me that as these teens reach college, this number may be even higher.  How will libraries respond?  We are already moving to use of social networking sites, but is this the right way to reach these teens or is there another way we can leverage their interests?  For example, can we teach IL concepts using social networking as a framework for discussion?  It does seem like as more people are content creators, discussions of intellectual property may be more interesting to teens than before -- at least the discussions could be if guided the right way.  And if teens expect to be able to add their comments to what they read on the web, why aren't library websites already more interactive?  I rarely see academic library catalogs that allow reader comments, although it is technically possible to do so.

Link: Pew Internet: Teens and Social Media.

64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.

Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys, however, do dominate one area - posting of video content online. Online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19% vs. 10%) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could see it....

There is a subset of teens who are super-communicators -- teens who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email. They represent about 28% of the entire teen population and they are more likely to be older girls.

McDonald's is advertising on report cards?

Link: McD's Newest Ad Platform: Report Cards - Advertising Age - News.

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- McDonald's has found a nifty way to reach kids even as TV ad options toward the demographic shrink: Advertise on report cards. McDonald's Report Card This is not the first time the school district has run ads on report cards. Before McDonald's, the sponsor was Pizza Hut.

The Golden Arches picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, Fla., in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card's cover. With 27,000 elementary school kids taking their report-card jackets home to be signed three or four times a year, that's less than 2 cents per impression.