Some initial thoughts on library advertising in Facebook

Earlier this year Paul Pival’s library received a nice chunk of change from the Students Union to help promote a couple of services that they had sponsored in previous years; ebrary and Refworks. They were concerned that the general student body wasn’t as aware of these resources as they could be, so they wanted the library to have some funds to promote them. They went the mostly traditional route initially, creating posters, bookmarks, ads for campus media, and beer coasters for the campus bars. After the initial run they had some funds left and decided to try some ads on Facebook. Here’s What He Found

December 5, 2007 by Uncategorized 1

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1 Response

  1. effinglibrarian says:
    December 5, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    free labor
    I think it’s neat that websites offer new services but don’t provide help (“Those guidelines weren’t there when we started so I was flying blind”). Microsoft would always get criticized for releasing beta versions of software so early users could spot bugs. I think eBay did that by offering features for free then charging for the more useful features after users optimized them and made them desirable. FB seems to be using the same model: we provide a service, but you tell us the best way to use it, then we’ll take the credit.

    I’m all for libraries advertising services. I wish the results were better in this example. Maybe the ad needs better wording,
    “Hook up with better research.
    Why be alone tonight? Get what you need online. UofC Library has what you want.”

    Try that.

    Reply

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