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Tova Harris - Blog Post #7 - Promoting and Assessing ComicsPlus and TIkTok Social Media Promotion

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                                                (source from ComicPlus App)


As a librarian, I am always wondering about ways to connect patrons to accessible and inclusive services within our libraries. 

And as a librarian within Adult Services, I don't have access to ongoing interaction or community for teens and children. Still, I have seen, from my job's recent purchase of the digital comics and graphic novel platform (developed by LibraryPass), ComicsPlus. 

What is impressive is how much range and content this platform offers: it has age-appropriate collections for kids, teens, and adults, works on any device, and is FREE with a library card. Its filters (like age-level, genre, and format) make it user-friendly and get patrons familiar with the information-seeking behavior of databases. What I love the most is that it offers offline access! To me, this is a big win for accessibility and equity.

But how do I, as a librarian, (theoretically) help connect the children's/teens community to this outstanding resource? It would be connected to a strategic social media plan, followed by a formalized assessment with generated metrics. From what I've seen so far, ComicsPlus is underused since we purchased its licensing, and I am figuring out how to have it gain traction, such as pairing it with reading challenges, TikTok campaigns, or library events. 

How about this? In the spirit of using the language of our teens, I would generate TikTok videos to show visual previews of extremely popular manga, create a "Marvel or manga" rivalry post, and, if possible, even a teen testimonial.

Using the Reach, Frequency, Clickthroughs, Site Stickiness, and Conversions metric model, I think I would try to track it as follows:

Reach: How many teen patrons saw my TikTok posts? 

Frequency: Were followers coming back for more?

Clickthroughs: Did they tap the link in the teens department bio to check out the ComicsPlus link?

Site Stickiness: When using the platform, did they stay and explore multiple titles?

Conversions: Did they actually read something or start using the platform?

Now ComicsPlus thankfully offers the following metrics on their own platform: total logins, total titles viewed, unique users (individual patrons), pages read, most popular titles, and even device type. I think the importance of connecting tools that cross-reference social media and a platform's own devised metrics is warranted. I am not particularly sure what or how that comes together, so please feel free to reply below and let me know your thoughts!

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Comments

  1. Madeline Feehan LIS 56810/21/2025 09:35:00 AM

    Hi Tova, thanks for this insightful post! ComicsPlus sounds like it would be a perfect fit for my library. Graphic novels are probably the most popular section of my library, and I know the kids would appreciate this free resource. I love how it's so accessible and teaches kids navigation and filtering which will make them better searchers in the actual library. I also think TikTok would be a great place to promote this service because that is the most teen-friendly platform.

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