Librarian Like a Rockstar:Using your personal brand to promote your services and reach distant users

Dan Gall

University of IowaAlso known as Dan the Librarian

Outline

• Personal Branding for Librarians• Relationship Marketing for Librarians• Mindfulness• Needs of Distance Students• Make a Plan

Disclaimer

• I’m not really a Rock Star.

Disclaimer

• I’m not going to tell you anything that you don’t already know.

What we’re talking about• Marketing is determining who you

serve and with what products. – Judith Seiss in The Visible Librarian

What we’re talking about• Publicity is getting the word out that

you can help people do their jobs better-faster-cheaper. – Judith Seiss in The Visible Librarian

What we’re talking about• Public Relations is talking to people

about their needs and your strengths. – Judith Seiss in The Visible Librarian

Personal Branding

• “Everyone has a personal brand, but most people are not aware of this and do not manage it strategically, consistently, and effectively.” – H. K. Ramparsad

Personal Branding

• Not a new concept• Reputation• Tom Peters coined term in 1997• Adopted by celebrities and bloggers• Emphasize your strengths and your

target audience’s needs.

Personal Branding

Personal Branding• Rather than focus on self-improvement …

personal branding seems to suggest that the road to success is found instead in explicit self-packaging…– (Lair, et. al, 2005, p. 308)

Personal Branding• Managing your image• In the good old days we called this...

Reputation• Intentionally thinking about how you

present yourself• Dan the Librarian

How to Present Yourself

Basset, Brian Adam@Home June 10, 2008http://www.gocomics.com/adamathome/2008/06/10

Relationship Marketing

• A style of marketing [which] … makes it possible for marketers to build trusting long term relationships with each party in the selling chain and to be able to count on excellent service and cooperation. (Cross, 1995, p. 306)

Relationship Marketing

• Marketing isn't our issue. Relationships are. Marketing is misunderstood and misplaced if it isn't seen as a natural consequence of everything else we do.– (de Stricker, 2000)

Relationship Marketing

• Why have libraries not jumped on the RM bandwagon as they have jumped through the hoops of other business fads…? (Besant and Sharp, 2000, p 18.)

Relationship Marketing• We are on this bandwagon

– Liaison Librarians– Partnerships– Quality service– Return customers

Mindfulness

• So really what we’re talking about is being intentional about what we’re already doing…and doing well

Target Audience

• You all know what distant/off-campus/remote students are like

Make a Plan

• Time for the interactive part of today’s program…

Works Cited• Besant, L. X., & Sharp, D. (2000). Upsize This! Libraries Need Relationship

Marketing. Information Outlook, 4(3), 17-22. • Caminiti, S., & Reese, J. (1992). The payoff from a good reputation.

Fortune, 125(3), 74. Retrieved from Business Source Complete• de Stricker, U. (2000). Relationships R Us: Climbing up the Value Chain.

Information Outlook, 4(11), December 12, 2009. • Lair, D. J., Sullivan, K., & Cheney, G. (2005). Marketization and the

recasting of the professional self: the rhetoric and ethics of personal branding. Management Communication Quarterly : McQ, 18(3), 307-343.

• Ramparsad, H. K. (2008). A new blueprint for authentic and successful personal branding. Performance Improvement, 47(6), 34. doi:10.1002/pfi20007

• Siess, J. A. (2003). The visible librarian: asserting your value with marketing and advocacy. Chicago: Chicago : American Library Association.

Adams, Scott Dilbert, March 2, 2009

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-03-02/

Dan the Librariandaniel-gall@uiowa.edu