Keeping Your Head...

Today George and I presented "Keeping Your Head While Serving the Community" at the Association for Small and Rural Libraries Conference in Gatlinburg, TN. Play our slides if you'd like, though they may lose some context without the audio.

Keeping Your Head...

View more presentations from Chrystie Hill.

This conference has been a big boost for my spirits. I've been serving on the ARSL board since February as an ex-officio member from WebJunction, and even that didn't prepare me for this wonderful conference. I learned that Kansas librarians arrived by bus, having driven the 16 hours to Gatlinburg from their home state (I'm sure some of them traveled longer). Further, I have to say, Kansas really represented the social networking scene by being the biggest contributors to the #ARSL2009 hash tag! I forgot to add the tag most of the time I was there, so, that was sort of lame of me, but Go Kansas!

It was also really good for me to have the opportunity to present with George; an honor. I think it's fair to say that I was a little bit slammed with work-related things before this conference and so I didn't have the time to collaborate as much as I would have liked before the presentation. But I thought our content went together very well and I really enjoyed doing the presentation overall. If you by chance saw us, please tell me what you thought of our talk (a dose of my own "evaluation" medicine, so to speak ... so that I too can iterate!).

My favorite presentation of the day introduced me to Give Em the Pickle a customer service slogan from Mr. Farrell (of Farrell's restaurants -- it may look totally cheesy, but this guy is hilarous and has great advice for serving our patrons well). My favorite interactive session of the day was from the State Library of North Carolina on "getting your community back to work". I have more to say about that, but it will have to wait for another day...

Finally, I had amazing conversations with colleagues all weekend either working in small and rural libraries, or working in state libraries to support small and rural libraries. It has been too long since I've been out and about. Cindi Hickey, thank you for giving me the encouragement I needed about the presentation! I tell ya, it really helps me to remember why we do the things we do back at the office.

Citizen Marketers recap

Ben McConnell of Church of the Customer, Creating Customer Evangelists and now Citizen Marketers fame came and spoke to OCLC staff and area marketers on Thursday, Feb. 22. I've been slow to post my notes from his talk--but here we are, finally:

There are 48 million content creators out on the Web. (That is like the population of all of South Korea.) Most of these are amateur content creators. Meaning--they are not being paid to create this content. So when this creative group of people connects with products, they become "Citizen Marketers." It's the idea that your brand reputation is in the hands of a customer, for good or ill. Anyone who interacts with you has the power to praise you or to vilify.

More stats:

• 55% of kids aged 12-17 use social networks.
• 84 million households have broadband.
• There are 1 million new broadband subscribers per week, worldwide.

The democratization of access to information is spreading like wildfire.

An example: my.Barackobama.com is the Barack Obama for President community. The tagline--"This campaign is about You." You can join in, find other supporters, create a blog, learn more about the senator's stance on issues and more. In the first week it was launched, it gained 700,000 members. Those members in turn created 40,000 blogs and 2,400 groups. (Alice editorial note: Who says youth don't want to be engaged in the political process? They just want it on their terms!)

The Control of the Message (previously the realm of marketers and strategists) is now totally Out of Control. And if you give people a voice, a vote and a vocation--they can influence your brand in today's culture.

What are the top 5 most influential media?
5. Articles
4. Newspaper inserts
3. coupons
2. TV
1. Word of Mouth

Ben and Jackie have separated the Citizen marketers into four broad categories: Firecrackers, Filters, Fanatics and Facilitators. They've got great examples for each type--and each type is someone to encourage, be ready for and respond to--immediately.

One ominous note: You are your Google results!! Ignore natural search engine rankings at your peril, because for many people that's the only way they see you.

Ben and Jackie also brought up something they call the 1% rule. And it's that a whole multitude of people may READ or WATCH stuff--but only 1% of people will be motivated enough to create something. So how do you work with those Citizen Marketer 1%ers?

• Enable co-creation: Ben's example is Shakira's fan-only "Hips Don't Lie" video--Shakira used all the home video segments on her real video. It was co-created by her and all her fans.
• Enable community: The Discovery channel formalized their evangelist network of 1%er educators to help train one another. (And sure enough, usage skyrocketed...)

In marketing traditionally there are 4 Ps: Product, Price, Placement and Promotion. Ben posits that in today's world, there is a 5th: Participation.

So how do we integrate the 5th P into our libraries?

1. Blogs
2. Reaching out to your 1%ers: your advisory boards/teen panels/Friends of the library groups and empowering them even more to take the message out
3. Lay the foundation for social networks. (Alice editorial: Alane and I are part of the last week next week of Five Weeks to a Social Library!)

The book has lots and lots of examples and stories. It's a quick read with lots of YouTube clips mentioned.
One parting question: How recommendable is your product?

Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message

For those avid readers of the Church of the Customer blog, you already know what's coming in this post. If you don't yet read Church of the Customer (or listen to the podcast), I would recommend it! Basically, author Ben McConnell is coming to OCLC to speak to staff about the idea contained within his and Jackie's new book, Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message.

Here's the write-up on why we think it's cool (thanks Carrie!):

Ordinary people (i.e. consumers) are banding together to form whole communities of online advocates. The power to publish is no longer held by gatekeepers. Anyone with an internet connection and some knowledge of social media can broadcast their opinions to many.

Businesses are quickly learning that these individuals can either boost their sales or plummet their revenues, sometimes overnight. Suddenly, anyone has the ability to influence consumer loyalty, product innovations and marketing campaigns.

A new participatory culture of business has emerged. Are you prepared?

Since 2000, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have been researching the effects of word of mouth on customer loyalty and how that can build into customer evangelism.

Their previous book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, was praised by The New York Times as “the new mantra for entrepreneurial success,” and Forbes dubbed it “the word of mouth gospel.”

McConnell and Huba have advised companies such as Starbucks, Microsoft, Ulta, General Mills, Discovery Education, Eli Lilly, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others. They are also advisory board members to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

Ben McConnell will speak at OCLC Online Computer Library Center in Dublin, Ohio February 22, 2007 from 2-3 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. (So we can plan for seating!)

Ben McConnell will also be available for signings after the presentation.

For directions to OCLC, click here.