Promotion of a Digital Program

Bet you are saying, "Now, I am to become a PR person, too?"  No. What follows are some easy tips that you may even enjoy.  First, a few words about promotion:  If nobody knows you have something, does it exist?  This is not the old tree falling in the woods question.  If you create something whose purpose is public use, then the more it is used, the more it is.  Also, if you create something of which you are proud, then you should get credit for it.  So, how do you let people know what you’ve done?

There are the three methods of promoting something: networking, publishing, and branding.  Let's see how they can be applied to a digital collection

Networking the Net

Tell People

Networking involves hanging out where your target market is or where those who influence your target market are.   A great place to introduce yourself and your "product."  is the Internet.  It is free and, as the myth goes, you can do it in your bunny slippers.  So, how do you introduce yourself and your product on the Web?  First, you have to find the sites where your target people are hanging out.  This might be a site whose topics are related to your “product.” These sites will probably have areas for members or visitors to communicate such as forums or listservs.  Who knows you may also find a great resource to add to your own web links.  (Swapping links with related sites is a standard web promotion technique.)  It is not always very successful, but if the site has good information, go for it.  Once you find sites or list serves that discuss related topics, post a comment about your great resource, and request feedback.    You have all seen such postings:  “My organization has just launched a web site covering our collection of ……., please check it out and tell us what you think.”  Later you might post an answer to a question: “You can find more information about this topic at our site…..” Always remember to give them your business card, which in this case is your e-mail signature with your digital collection site listed.  The nice thing about promoting on the Internet is that you are networking and publishing at the same time.  Remember that you are not just writing to one person or addressing only one site.  In fact, many of these discussion areas are open to search engines.   This means that the next time someone enters a query in Google; they may find your response and web address.

Publishing

Tell more people

As I just noted above, publishing can be as simple as using a sample from your collection to answer someone’s question at another site..  More formally, it may be sending a press release announcing your new digital collection to the local news and to interested parties who publish newsletters.  You can also submit an article about issues covered on your site to potentially interested parties.  Web sites are always looking for content.  Or simply post a notice about the collection in your library.  The more references to your material that people see, the more likely they are to value and use it.  It is the way of people.  One way to ensure that people recognize your material in any reference is by branding the material.

Branding

Consistency is good

Branding is a major buzzword in the marketing world.  It means that people instantly recognize something as your work.   Branding usually involves graphic design.  Its major rule, which is good design as well as solid marketing, is consistency in presentation. In other words, reinforce the "look" and make it your identity when people see it.  For practical application that means using the same graphics, color scheme and fonts consistently. An example is the IBM logo and color scheme.  Before you read anything, you know when something is from IBM.  While it is of course helpful to have a strong graphic, it is also important that the graphic be consistently applied and include all the graphic elements such as fonts, color, space etc.  This called a Graphic Standard.  Theimportance of having a graphic standard is that all published material, be it a news release, memo, banner, poster or web site, should reflect this standard.  NO INDIVIDUALITY ALLOWED!

Once people have learned that your collection exists, visited it and found it valuable, it is should be time to pat yourself on the back.  But first, you have to document your success.

Document your success

Crucial!

The first thing to document is how many visitors have come to use your digital collection. One way to do this is with the web logs from your site.  Web logs show how many visitors come to a site, what pages they view, and how many pages they view. Most web hosts will provide web logs. These are good for noting trends and showing the infamous 404 – broken link. 

You should also note other results from having a digital collection.  Quite often, there is an increased interest in the physical collection, as more people become aware of it through its digital "publication" on the Web.  In addition, you might experience the phenomenon of requests for reprints of your original images.  One university placed its archive of lanternslides from the biology department's field trips on its site, and began to get requests for images of an old riverboat that was in the background of one shot.  It turned out to be the only extant image of that boat. You never know what you have.  To document this kind of activity you must establish a baseline before providing digital access to your collection.  You may then survey people coming to the physical collection to see how they heard of it.   Be sure to document these and other indications of the success and effect your site is having.  Not only will this information add to you and your staff's glory, but also, proving success of a site can only help get further funding.  It is all about building on a strong foundation, which you have built.  Congratulations.