March Madness Month – Wed., March 30

by | Mar 30, 2011 | March Madness Month, Marketing, News, WOMM

** Note: If you didn’t receive this in its more attractive email format earlier today, please email Traci at avett@tblc.org .

 

March Madness Month

 

A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services!

When Ask a Librarian Day (February 22) was over this year, we didn’t want your enthusiasm and focus to stop there – we wanted to continue the increased promotion with our second annual March Madness Month. Like last year, we used the month of March to promote awareness of Ask a Librarian through interesting tidbits, tips on customer service in virtual reference, marketing suggestions, and fun service-oriented challenges to heighten enthusiasm & interest and encourage active participation among all member libraries.

The primary aim of this month’s campaign was to encourage you who staff Ask a Librarian to think about Ask a Librarian in different ways. We wanted to bring you out of the box a bit to reenergize your support of the incredible service available to all Florida residents. We know that increased motivation means increased Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) to your own colleagues and library users, and we were thrilled to see some of those ideas put to creative use! Thinking more about the benefits of Ask a Librarian makes it so much easier for you to share those observations and experiences with others.

And we must say… you did a fantastic job. We enjoyed spotlighting your own experiences and ideas for everyone statewide to see – in your own words – not only as a real marketing success story, but also because your own words reach out to your peers in a way that germinates enthusiasm like wildfire.

Thank you for sharing your observations and experiences with us, and please keep spreading the word! 

To view blog posts, visit the Ask a Librarian blog at http://www.askalibrarian.org/blog. To view photos of Ask a Librarian Day and March Madness Month, visit the Ask a Librarian Flickr page at http://www.flickr.org/askalibrarian.   

Ask a Librarian Day 2011, Alachua County Library District poster display

   

“For Ask a Librarian Day, Jenny Diaz and Sylvia Ashwell put together a display using Ask a Librarian promotional materials including posters, Ask a Librarian business cards, and lanyards. We used a three panel blue feltboard for the display.  We wanted this to be a display that people could use in that they could take the Ask a Librarian items from the display. We placed this feltboard in the main lobby at Alachua County Library District Headquarters so that patrons could see it as they walked in. Extra promotional materials were placed in the lobby on the circulation desk and throughout the main floor of the library for people to use. This display received many positive comments from patrons and staff alike.  Lesly Galiana and Jennifer Kinser in the Youth Services department also created a bulletin board and promoted the service to our younger patrons and their parents.  Many patrons were excited to learn that they could chat with a librarian online or communicate with them via text, even when the library was closed.”

 

 

Lisa Finch, Alachua County Library District

 

Hey, don’t stop now!

 

You’ve done far too incredible a job not to keep on going.

Keep sharing the following talking points with everyone you meet:

  • If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
  •  Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
  •  Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
  •  You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
  •  If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.