Hard to go wrong with anything that Mitch writes or records. At least that is how I feel about it. He has certainly been a great mentor and friend to me.

Glad to hear you are checking out Managing the Gray. Would love to hear what you think of it once you’ve gotten to listen to a couple of episodes.

Have a great day.

Mitch and CC and the others are GREAT examples of digital marketers and leaders in their field. Me? I’m a hack. Keep me around for entertainment value and disparate opinion. : )

Wow–I am extremely pleased that someone else has cottoned on to what these guys have to say. Chris Brogan is being modest; what he doesn’t tell you is that he is one of the best at looking at communities, community-building and social media. He is great at asking questions that get you looking at your own work.

Anyway, some great thoughts Greg.

Someone else to throw into the mix: Andrea Mercado. She is a dynamite librarian who is very much part of the tech scene in Boston and blogs at LibraryTechtonics. She believes in engaging with the communities she is serving rather than with other librarians, so you may or may not run into her (I had the pleasure of meeting her at Podcamp Boston last year). Definitely someone to add to the list! She doesn’t talk specifically about marketing, but I think she really “gets it” (whatever “it” is).

Cheers!
Connie

Emphasizing the importance of librarians has been a constant theme in my presentations and blog posts over the past couple of years. Here’s a post from last September that addresses some of those issues: http://tscott.typepad.com/tsp/2007/09/valuing-librari.html

A key thing that is missing is demographics. Who actually is listening to the podcast? I was kinda surprised when I found out that it was more management types who listened to LISTen instead of NexGen types as we originally assumed.

Marketing is okay, I suppose, if seen merely as a synonym for promotion. The biggest issue is that for it to be more effective it has to be data-driven. If you are getting the management types but not rank and file librarians then you have to change your tactics around instead of only hitting management. The same goes for geographic distribution as I know I am still baffled at why LISTen has more of an audience in the British Commonwealth than inside the United States of America.

I can only say that we have a good grasp on one aspect of marketing. We collect data quite well. The problem is we sometimes do not know what to do with that data.

It looks you’re doing everything right. Just take a read of the engaging comments and conversations over this one post alone.

I think it’s important to note that the real “trick” to all of this (hint: it’s not a trick at all) is to be yourself, and to connect to communities of like-minded individuals. Which is exactly what you’ve done here.

As for twitter - the comments above are true. I find it hard to follow people I do not know who are tweeting back and forth about topics that I don’t “get” with people I do not know. I used to follow everyone who was following me, but the net result was that it was a flow of content I knew nothing about from people I didn’t know.

If someone adds me on twitter and then sends me a DM or an email letting me know who they were, etc… odds are I’d probably add them.

@Greg & others,

Many librarians are already marketing themselves. If you write a blog or are active in social networking outside of your family members, you are marketing yourself. But the question By participating in this conversation we are marketing ourselves to each other and anyone else who happens to come along. I say go for it, but this still leaves me with a questions. To whom and why?

Other than gaining professional notoriety, why should librarians market themselves? Ego? My recent post was more about the lack of marketing by libraries and I would posit that this is of even greater importance than the marketing of individual librarians. You should ask yourself the question, “What is a librarian without a library?” We are not rock stars that have a highly portable skill, where we can sing on the street corner and potentially earn a living. We are generally tied to our libraries and the tools that they provide.

I would therefore argue that the marketing of our libraries is more important than marketing of individual librarians. But there does exist a great example in the real world that some libraries are already copying and many more should that seeks to strike a balance between marketing the library and marketing the librarian.

Many local and even national law enforcement agencies participate in “community policing” programs. These programs often involve increased community presences and interaction. You will also often find individual police offices having “cards” with their names and images on them that they hand out to children to help them overcome reluctance to communicate with the officers and to foster a sense of a more personal relationship. I think this is a great example that almost every library should emulate.

Carlton University has done this and I hope to see my library do this in the future.

Sorry for the poor writing, I am on lunch break!

Peace

Your welcome! Death to group think!

@Connie - Not seeing enough passion from librarians is something I would agree with 100%. I come from a sales and marketing background and consider librarians to be in a service industry (although well trained and professional). I smile, engage walk around and talk to people every day, even when I am not on the desk. I am amazed at the number of librarians that don’ ever leave the desk and spend their desk time basically hiding behind a computer terminal.

Nothing I said was against passion, quite to opposite in my view. What I am saying is that if we are not effectively marketing our libraries, then marketing a librarian does not do us much good. Also marketing librarians outside of the context of the library and its’ services does make much sense to me. Perhaps a balance approach is what is most needed.

As for social media, I am 100% behind it. I am sorry if you got the impression that I was not. I firmly believe that we need to actively engage our customers wherever they are!

I hope this clarifies my position some.

[...] Mitch had some interesting things to say about Twitter snobbery after reading the comments in my Stepping Into Marketing post. We’ll likely be talking more about that post and marketing in general on tonight’s [...]

[...] started because I Blogged where I should have Twittered. . .   Greg wrote a post called “Stepping into Marketing“ talking about Mitch Joel presentation.   And I wrote this: I actually had Mitch in my [...]

[...] Stepping into marketing (Open [...]

Greg & co., what a thought-provoking post and conversation, and I haven’t even followed up on the Mitch Joel links yet. Part of this must be having an actual curiosity about your community and being comfortable engaging them as an individual who is also a librarian–not always as “I’m a librarian, and I’m here to help you whether you want it or not.”

Also, Merlin Mann has forever ruined the phrase “thought leaders” and that might be a good thing.

I don’t have a good substitute for “thought leaders.” “High-profile?” “Compelling writers?” The wording might change depending on the situation.

Put “notion pilot” on your business card, and I’ll buy you a beer. “Image Escort” might give the wrong impression.

No beer for thesaurus.com. Maybe beer for an old Roget’s.