If you work at a library, consider for a moment who is in charge of marketing. Is it someone who was hired with marketing in their job description? A dedicated marketing manager? Or is it someone who sort of fell into the marketing position? They just happened to be able to help out and it turned into a whole "thing"?
That's the premise of the book The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey.
According to Dempsey, the majority of library marketing staff are in that position by accident. They were not hired for marketing purposes, they simply started and could not stop. Maybe they just happened to be a younger staff member, familiar enough with Facebook and Instagram that their director asked them to start posting to socials occasionally. Or maybe someone with some free time offered to make some TikTok posts once or twice, and now they have to make content twice a week while their actual duties continue to pile up. This could even be the case outside of libraries. Restaurants, small businesses, growing home businesses and more could all encounter this same thing.
So, why does this happen? Dempsey posits that it likely started as a small favor, and ended up becoming a permanent "other duty as assigned". Managers don't always realize the time and effort put into marketing and don't know the toll it is taking on the employee.
Why does this matter? Marketing can be a tough job, especially for growing organizations. Maintaining social media, putting together graphic designs, determining what's working and what isn't--it's a lot of work. Even personal social media accounts can be taxing, but being the public "face" of an organization adds a lot of pressure.
This is why hiring a dedicated marketing team member from the jump is important. No one wants to become the accidental library marketer. Learning on the job is difficult as it is, and even more so when your real tasks are suffering for it. By hiring a social media manager or a marketing team, libraries and other organizations and businesses will have someone with experience, knowledge, and most importantly, preparation time to do the job well.
Hi Olivia, this is a great post that I definitely relate to as the youngest/one of the most tech savvy employees! I think sometimes the "accidental marketer" works out. Maybe your library really isn't in a place to hire new people, and the accidental marketer is really glad they ended up with the job and is super enthusiastic. However, when the "accidental marketer" is reluctant and not 100% on board, it's a problem. It's especially an issue if the marketer doesn't know what they're doing. I think if a job has someone doing the marketing and it's not an established position they were specifically hired for, it's the job's responsibility to train that person. Either you hire someone with the knowledge intentionally or train an existing staff member- you can't expect good results if you push someone who lacks the confidence and proficiency into the role.
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