Binh Tran
Marketing Critique – San Jose Public
Library
For the survival and success of an
organization, marketing is an integral component, regardless of its
mission statement. The ability to advertise its existence, promote
its agenda, and increase its value in regards to cultural currency
can often prove to be key to the organization increasing its access
to actual monetary currency as well. This can be achieved as a result
of acquiring new sponsors, fund raising supporters, or even simply
increased foot traffic as a result of an extensive marketing outreach
campaign. In the non-profit world of public libraries, marketing is
equally important, as doing so can increase patronage and thus not
only achieve organizational goals, but also highlight specific
operational needs and provide to city government officials a tangible
need for additional funding.
In this sense, the San Jose Public
Library system accomplishes this task with varying degrees of
effectiveness. Beyond the use of name brand recognition, newspaper,
and television, SJPL, based upon initial survey of its efforts,
proves to be fairly effective in the use of the internet to promote
its existence and agenda. SJPL's staff has clearly made significant
progress in its efforts to use a wide variety of social media
technologies to market itself as a community learning organization,
with an emphasis on patron services and public participation.
In order to reach its patrons and the
general populace of the City of San Jose, the San Jose Public Library
has embarked on a fairly extensive online marketing campaign
utilizing RSS Feeds, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and online video
sites such as Blip. The library has devoted the largest amount of
time and resources to marketing via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS Feeds.
Both facebook and twitter have been used extensively to promote
awareness of public events at SJPL's various library branches, as
well as bring specific, but related issues to the attention of the
SJPL's online followers. A number of these issues range from possible
legislation potentially affecting libraries, to information on city
hall meeting dates for budget hearings regarding the library. RSS
Feeds have been used to not only bring information to patrons
regarding any news about the library, but also information on any and
all updates to the specific collections that are of interest. These
collection specific RSS Feeds make it possible for patrons to stay
abreast of the latest additions to the library's children's or
non-fiction collections, for example. Virtually all major library
functions have regularly updated RSS feeds to inform the public of
anything going on at the library.
In addition to the largely informative
marketing provided through the aforementioned Facebook, Twitter, and
RSS Feeds, the library also engages in producing content for patron
consumption as well. This content largely consists of pictures of
events through Flickr, videos on Blip, and also podcasts. The
production values of these efforts are largely amateur level, but
they do possess a certain degree of personal charm, and are effective
in highlighting specific activities and events at the library. The
downside of this however is the fact that each of these efforts,
largely driven by individual branches, feels a bit too personalized.
The content reflects more of an individual library's interests than
an overall content policy developed by the library system as a whole.
It is difficult to note this as necessarily a negative, however.
Despite the overly personal tone of each individual work, it is clear
that these pieces of content do reflect the specific communities each
library branch serves. While it may seem unprofessional and
disjointed, it does also significant value in each branch's mission
to serve their community.
Overall, the content and efforts
produced by the San Jose Public Library System's online marketing
campaign is effective in reaching the communities that are already
aware of its existence and participate in its activities, but it may
be seen in a more negative light to those that do not. The materials
are largely aimed at those who are already active patrons, but do
little to reach out to those who do not often go to the library, but
may have a reason to want to do so. The overall tone of the library
system's marketing makes it come off as friendly, but also somewhat
idiosyncratic and even a bit cheesy. Due to the wide variety of
content, there is a general lack of a strong brand identity, despite
its name recognition.
As a general online brand, its
identity is very weak as well; few are aware of the the San Jose
Public Library System beyond the confines of the city itself. While
this may seem outwardly unimportant, this is critical in the grant
writing process. No outside organization is going to give money to a
group that is largely unknown outside of its own small corner of the
world, so to speak. Certainly at this point, the San Jose Public
Library System does not get nearly as much online recognition as the
New York Metropolitan System, or the Library of Congress. While those
may seem unfair to compare to, it certainly does not mean that the
SJPL should not at least try to strive for that kind of notoriety.
In order to achieve a stronger brand,
greater efforts must first be made to make the San Jose Public
Library's online image stronger and much more professional. An
extensive overarching policy regarding content, including media
formatting, resolution, and watermarks should be created. While all
content should be unique from each other, the “window dressing”
as it were should have similar traits, much like a company's
standardized letterhead for official materials. In addition, it is
recommended that the SJPL should hire a professional graphic designer
and web master to reconstruct the system's various online pages
(Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Proper graphic design adhering to a
standardized aesthetic design is important to convey a strong,
professional image that inspires confidence in the brand. Choosing a
standardized color scheme, mascot, and logo is also very important in
the construction of the library's identity, not only online, but
offline.
Works Cited
San Jose Public Library Blip.tv Page - http://blip.tv/san-jose-public-library
San Jose Public Library Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/sanjoselibrary
San Jose Public Library's Podcasts - http://sanjoselibrary.libsyn.com/
San Jose Public Library RSS Updates Page - http://www.sjpl.org/updates
San Jose Public Library Twitter Page - https://twitter.com/#!/sanjoselibrary
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