Ah, programming. They’re one of the aspects of librarianship I enjoy most (okay, I’m not technically a librarian yet, but let me have this moment). It’s always rewarding to come away from a program feeling like you’ve given its attendees something to enjoy, whether it be a new craft project or an enlivening book discussion. The latter can be particularly rewarding–if, of course, you can get attendees.
It’s one thing to get people interested in reading a book, and another one entirely to get them to actually show up at your book program–something I’ve learned over these past few months in trying to promote my own. It can be quite disheartening to select a book, read it, meticulously craft discussion questions, and prepare snacks and drinks…only for no one to show up. Of course, some of this can’t be helped. People are busy, and simply don’t have an hour or two to spare. Still, I can’t help but daydream about a tweak to our social media posts–a glorious sample of hypothetical analytics I might use to determine who, if anyone, is seeing my program posts.
I say “social media”, but I don’t actually oversee our branch’s social media page, and therefore have no access. Though we supply program flyers to the person in charge of platform management, we largely use our Events page to showcase upcoming programming. It’s not social media in the conventional sense, but rather a kind of giant billboard that lets viewers tweak searches to their liking. The problem, of course, is making people aware it exists. It’s definitely easier to find NYPL on TikTok or Instagram–I’m not actually certain how many people know we have our own page dedicated to events!
The metrics (no pun intended) of that aside–and I’ll get to how we might change this issue later–I find myself wondering what analytics might best serve me in determining viewership. We publish our events through Drupal–which I seems, based on the link, is used by a whoooole lot of other public libraries. While Drupal is decent enough (if a bit…outdated), I’ve not seen any features that might allow me to determine audience engagement. Imagine if there was a function that let me see how many times my program’s page was visited (by people other than me), and at what time. That could help me determine both viewership and cross-collaboration with other platforms–if people most often checked this page at 11AM, I could ask my colleague in charge of social media platforms to post my programs at that time. Who knows–perhaps this function could even display the average time spent on my program page!
The issue extends further than simple viewership, of course. In light of our readings, I’d love to have a tool that analyzes the kind of things social media users are saying about programming across our platforms. There’s a lot of places to start here: perhaps something that analyzes the comment content of book discussion program posts could determine patterns in the kinds of books that our patrons enjoy, and what specific aspects most draw them in. A “word cloud” displaying key terms could certainly go a long way in making this possible.
The “Conversions” section near the bottom of this article on how to analyze your library’s social media efforts makes me consider the feasibility of adding registration for my book programs. It’s possible that many patrons who otherwise would have forgotten about the program could be reminded through an email sent out to all registered participants. (And of course, a registration list itself could be perfect raw data.)
I’ve only scratched the surface of potential avenues to go here. For those of you who work in library settings, have you used analytics to determine programming visibility? Or how do you think you’d go about doing so?
Hi Kristen, thanks for this great post! Programming is also my favorite part of being a librarian and I find the turnout can often be unpredictable. I ran a writing program that had two sessions and during the first one, the room was filled and the next time, two kids showed up. I was confused as to what went wrong, but I think the issue can often be miscommunication. Sometimes, parents will see a flyer and not realize the program is part of a series. I think that's where social media can come in and remind people. I agree that analyzing the analytics can help, and I always think it's a good idea to advertise programs at least a week before. I think your suggestion of a word cloud that analyzes patron behaviors and what gets people's attention is a great idea and I wonder if it's a real possibility (and hope it is!). I also think visibility in the physical library helps- posting flyers on the website and having them all around the library and in an event schedule/calendar are all good ways to make sure people are seeing your programming, wherever they are or however they prefer to get their information.
ReplyDeleteTurnout really can be fickle! I've had programs with 20 people, and others with 1 (though programs with low turnout can still be very engaging, and sometimes make for more in-depth conversations). Your comments about visibility do make me think about potential avenues I could pursue. I've tried reaching out to local book stores regarding flyer advertisement, and I've made some headway there, so I'll have to keep at it!
DeleteOne potential benefit of a word cloud system could be identifying "language" differences: as in, certain terms that draw patrons to a program versus the terms I'm used to using. It's very possible that changing the language I use in my advertisements might draw in people who'd otherwise overlook them. Conversely, programs with higher turnout might have achieved such because they're familiar with the language that draws their patron in. Who knows--we've recently begun rolling AI assistant features at NYPL, and I might have to swallow my old bias against it and see if there's some sort of technology that could amass a word cloud...
Hi Kristen! Great food for thought! Don’t be so hard on yourself. No matter the amount of social media posts, website updates, email blasts and newsletters, sometimes a library fails to pull in program attendees. I’ve found that we might get 10 registrants and then only 3 show up. Or we get only 4 registrants but then 20 people show up. Rainy weather doesn’t help with attendance either!
ReplyDeleteThe metrics are super important but for most libraries that is like putting the cart before the horse. Does your library even have social media objectives? I know that mine does not, or at least they are not shared with us. We are expected to post on Facebook on Instagram but after taking this course I am no longer comfortable doing that since we do not even have a policy in place.
Do you have access to your library’s social media accounts? I was able to see some statistics on Facebook and Instagram’s Insights and it was very interesting. I found that most liked and shared posts were for adult programming, especially if it was for a class one would normally pay for such as yoga. People just love anything free! I would prefer that my library invested in software, such as SocialBee, that an assimilate and display gathered social media data into one dashboard.
I definitely get that attendance can be hard to pull in, especially for adult programming (since adults are busy with various life obligations). The weather is a huge factor--I once had to "redo" a book discussion with an external organization several months later because the first meeting happened to take place during a bitterly cold winter day!
DeleteI don't have internal access to my library's social media accounts, since only a limited amount of staff are permitted to oversee them. I can certainly ask them for information on our objectives and statistics! A publicly viewable dashboard such as the one you mention could be super helpful, giving us all a sense of the programs most likely to draw people in.