Identifying Brand Advocates for Libraries

Here are highlights from the June Panel presentation by Silicon Valley American Marketing Association chapters.  The event was titled:   “The Next Step in Social: Beyond Listening and Engagement”.  I'll try to relate this marketing discussion to library advocacy.

Moderator: Chris Arens [Catalyst s+f], influencer, author and marketing/ad agency veteran

•         Chris is revising his textbook on advertising 101, Contemporary Advertising.
•        His company, Mindtime, is focused on understanding the drivers of consumer behavior.
•        He says now is the Age of Enlightenment II, with major institutional changes in several big industries: Music, Photography, Publishing, Personal computing, Advertising & Marketing. Librarians are well-aware of these shifts, especially in publishing and personal computing.
•        There is a fundamental shift in our world, thanks to 3 revolutions: technology revolution, data revolution, and transparency revolution.
•        Companies now need to think of individual people, not market segments or groups.  People have brand relationships, so businesses need to learn about individuals, especially brand advocates.
•        Brand advocates self-identify themselves, go out of their way to recommend products (like book recommendations) or businesses, and they move business!  Learn how know who the advocates are because 90% people buy based on recommendations from people they know; 70% buy based on consumer opinions posted online.  It is about building lasting relationships.
•        Give your advocate a platform from which to address people.  [CSLA Bestsellers, CCfSSL supporters, FRIENDS of the LIBRARY members need to be given a platform so they can passionately advocate for libraries.]
•        Tenets of good relationships: RESPECT, trust, honesty, accountability, and support.

Panelists: 

Maria Poveromo, Director of Social Media, Adobe: Her goal is to identify the most passionate Adobe advocates.  In PR, she used to identify gatekeepers and journalists, but now she brings in the voice of the customer.  Adobe has a CS Ambassadors group on LINKEDIN.  CS=creative suite, the name for its suite of design products including Illustrator, In Design and Photoshop.

Laura Messerschmitt, Senior Marketing Manager, Intuit: Brand advocates are in the company’s “Intuit Inner Circle”.  They identify brand advocates via their Net Promoter Surver, where the key question is “On a scale of 0-10, how do you feel about the product (QuickBooks)?” Anyone who scores 9 or 10 gets followed up and asked to post a recommendation to Amazon Reviews.  This is a popular and easy way to identify top advocates and give them a specific way to advocate for the product.  Survey membership each year, invite members to use your advocacy tools.

Recently, Intuit pre-briefed their brand advocates before an ad campaign so they could help defend the company if needed.  In the old days, the company used to only pre-brief journalists. Library associations could pre-brief members about upcoming news releases; Public libraries could pre-brief FRIENDs or Donors, give sneak previews of upcoming events or news.

Rob Fuggetta, Founder and CEO, Zuberance:  - Apparently his company is very well respected as a company that studies and tracts social media.  Uses R.O.A – return on advocacy (media value) rather than ROI.

Susan Etlinger, Consultant, Altimeter Group: – Her paper on how to measure softer metrics, like relationships (social analytics) is about to be published.  It will be on the Altimeter website and available via Creative Commons.    She says a lot is measurable:

1. Brand health
2. Marketing optimization – cmo person
3. Top line revenue – are we getting benefit from Facebook, Twitter
4. Bottom line operating efficiency – people “sell” to one another via social networking
5. Customer experience – was customer happy?
6.  IDH – innovation, crowd sourcing ideas 

__________

Other/Observations:

           Do not “brand” your advocacy program and urge people to “JOIN”.  Better to say something like “If you like libraries and librarians, let us know” or “If you like libraries and librarians, here are tools for you to help share our message."  or "Say "YES" to libraries!  Read how you can add your voice...."

·      

      Give brand advocates tools so they can better advocate for you.  A tool could be an online forum, a way to submit comments.  It could be key messages and research findings.  How are you helping your library brand advocates?

·      Brand Advocates go out of their way to recommend.

·      Don’t just focus on ROI (return on investment).

Questions:

·      How to identify brand advocates for strong school libraries, the Campaign LIBRARY STORE, or any library?  Survey?  Put you thinking caps on.

·      CSLA and CCfSSL site and FACEBOOK pages – what do visitors get in terms of an experience when they visit the page?  Is it rewarding, interesting, engaging? How to turn Facebook “likes” into something more.  "Like" is not necessarily a recommendation, let alone an indication of a brand advocate.

Stimulus Dollars 4 Libraries - Capstone Press Webcast

On on Thursday, April 30, Capstone Press hosted a 1/2 hour webcast on "5 Steps to Advocate for Stimulus Dollars for Your Library". Webcast program material and links are on their website and other websites including the ALA "Know Your Stimulus" site.
Thanks go to Capstone Press for offering the webcast and supporting material.

5-Step Program:
1- Become informed. Become informed about the stimulus package and what funding and visibility opportunities are available. Think BIG. Money is going to school superintendents. You need a LOUD VOICE. Here are some pots of money:

• $53.5 BILLION in state stabilization funding. This can be used for school libraries, such as materials budget and positions. NOTE: The state of Illinois chose to use 100% of their share for education.
• $13 BILLION for Title I schools. Over two years.
  
• $650 Million for NCLB EETT (Education Technology) grants for Fall 2009. This is primarily for middle schools.

2- Determine your target. You must show positive impact on student achievement. Identify your school's top priorities or "hot spots" and describe how the school library addresses the priorities.

• Title I -- learn the estimated allocation for your district. Learn how much is for schoolwide vs specific students. focus on library resources to support these students, implement research-based programs, and include parent involvement.
• IDEA programs. Identify decision makers (principals, district library and curriculum directors) and influencers (superintendents, school board members). Be proactive -- how can your library goals meet the goals of decision makers?

3- Gather Your Facts. PROVE that strong school libraries increase student achievement by citing data-driven facts. For example about 20 state studies show that more reading, more access, more books increases student achievement. Also use your STATE and LOCAL INFORMATION. Back up a statement like "Every dollar invested in the school library pays off in higher student achievement."

4- Make a Plan. Your plan must specifically state/demonstrate value and have no reoccurring costs. (Caution: funding staff is a reoccurring cost, so focus on other costs.)

• Set a goal. Be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely). Use budget estimates such as $20/book average. Reinforce the statement that your proposal has a positive impact on student achievement.
  
• Make your Pitch. Practice. Set up a specific appointment with your principal. Consider leave-behinds. Be positive. Follow-up.
  

5- Be LOUD.

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NOW is the time to ACT. Act LOCALLY. Read up on the stimulus dollars and the guidelines from ALA, Capstone Press, and others. Create a proposal for your specific library program. No one else will do this for you (unless you have or create a library or Friends of the Library team).

Go for it!