Engaging your library patrons with Facebook Posts

1. Engaging
Your library patrons with Facebook posts

2. Asking Questions
Talk with your patrons, not at them.

3. In this presentation, we’ll discuss how
to use Facebook to open a dialog with
your community and make them feel
important and included with the
library.

4. We want to hear what patrons have
to say.
Earn their trust and build
relationships by asking for their
opinion on Facebook.
The next slides will give you ideas on
how to make patron engaging posts
on the library’s Facebook page.

5. IMPORTANT TIP:
Try to ALWAYS post photos along with your
information.
Images grab attention a lot easier than plain text.

6. Guess the Book Cover
Post a small square of a book jacket and let patrons guess which
book this belongs to.

7. Book Spine Poetry
Arrange books so that their spines make a poem or story. Post
a photo on Facebook. Make this a program for patrons to
make photos for the Facebook page.

8. “Pick up the closest
book…”
Have you seen these before?
Posts that ask people to pick up the closest book to them,
turn to a specific page, and type a sentence from that book.
For example, “Pick up the closest book to you, turn to page
84, and tell us the second sentence.”

9. Book Challenges
Challenge patrons to check out a cookbook and post a photo
of the dish they’ve made.
This can be applied to anything DIY.

10. Books into movies
Make sure you know what movies are coming out this year
that are based on books. Find this by googling ‘movies based
on books 2015’. A month before the movie comes out, let
Facebook know.
“Do you like to read a book before you see the movie, or
after? The 3rd Hunger Games movie is coming out June 21st.
Don’t forget to reserve your copy at the library.”
(Maybe include a link to the book on our online card catalog)

11. Patron Suggestions
Ask your patrons about their favorite books, great books
they’ve read recently, or terrible books. Let them suggest
books to other patrons this way!

12. Staff Picks / Title
Spotlights
Let your staff make a list of their favorite books. Or highlight
special titles that you think deserve recognition. Post on
Facebook regularly with these suggestions.

13. Highlight your collection
Non-fiction isn’t used that often. During football season,
highlight your nonfiction collection that includes football
teams.
Or post Arkansas travel books right before summer vacation.
Make displays, take a photo, and post it on Facebook.

14. New Titles
Feature new titles on the Facebook page

15. Putting holds online
Teach patrons how to request holds and access their account
online via Facebook.

16. “Like” goals
If your page is close to 1,000 likes TELL YOUR PATRONS! Make
it a team effort to get 1,000 likes. Ask them to tell their friends
about the library’s Facebook page.
Make them a part of the team.

17. Articles
Post links to fun library-related articles like this one:
32 books guaranteed to make you laugh out loud
http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinchack/books-guaranteed-to-
make-you-laugh-out-loud#1733167

18. RESEARCH
Find more ideas. Search Library Facebook on
Pinterest, or just visit other library Facebook pages.
See what they’re doing, what they’re posting, and
how it works for them.