Fallen between the cracks reengaging the lost patron

Fallen Between the Cracks: Reengaging the

Lost Patron

Presented by Amy MatherMay 20, 2011

Agenda

• Who are our lost patrons?• Vibrant communities• Library as linchpin• Marketing• Programming for your community• Future

The Patron Exodus

• Don’t Forget About Us

“we are failing to engage people who are a huge portion of our tax base and potential advocates: adults between the

age of 20 and 40.”

They continue to frequent…

New community work spaces

Intellectual entertainment

Intellectual entertainment

Intellectual entertainment

Vibrant Communities

What makes a vibrant community? Oftentimes community development is

reduced to the development of physical space or capital, but a vibrant community is made up of much more,

including…

Six components of a vibrant community

• Physical Capital• Social Capital• Cultural Capital• Financial Capital• Environmental Capital• Human Capital

Physical Capital

Neighborhood Associations

Social Capital

• Your Neighborhood Association• Your Local Faith Community

Cultural Capital

Financial Capital

Environmental Capital

Human Capital

What was missing?

Library as linchpin & long tail(Nexus and long reach)

• Business Intelligence - what is your ROI?– Outcome measurements – measure impact

• Adaptive – More proactive, less reactive• Patrons versus communities – pulse• Strategic alliances versus partners

Market Segmentation

• Helps organizations find new customers, gain insights, improve service delivery, and become customer-centric

• Tapestry segmentation classifies neighborhoods into one of 65 segments– Douglas County has 42 of the 65 segments– The top eight segments account for just over half of the population

(266,352 people) while the top 12 segments account for two-thirds of the population(336,671 people)

Tapestry market segmentation

• Families with kids (organized by lifestage)

– Rustbelt Traditions (51.1)– Boomburbs (42.5)– Milk and Cookies (27.8)– Up and Coming Families (22.3)

A closer look

Reengaging your community

• Entertainment - Board Silly, Craft events • Connections – Book Clubs, Speed Dating • Community outreach – Farmer’s market, Buy the Big

O, Young Professional Summit, Bar Camp• Business outreach• Issuing library cards• Facebook & Twitter

The Future of the Library

• Seth Godin was right:

“Want to watch a movie? Netflix is a better librarian, with a better library, than any library in the country.

The Netflix librarian knows about every movie, knows what you've seen and what you're likely to want to see. If the goal is to connect viewers with movies,

Netflix wins.”

The Future of the Library

• Seth goes on to say…

“The library is no longer a warehouse for dead books. Just in time for the information economy, the library ought to be the local nerve center for information.”

The Future of the Library

• And Seth brings it home with

“The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and

invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge

and access to information to bear.”

People will create their own space

Big Picture• Environmental Scan• Get involved!• Outreach• Gary Vaynerchuk

– A glut of user-generated content has changed the game. Any more, context is more important than content, because there's so much of the latter. "There's so much content that comes through," Vaynerchuk says, "that there’s only so much you can consume."

Questions?