Becky Denes grew up on the shores of Lake Erie and spent her formative years in the main branch of the Lorain Public Library System. She recalls hunting for new books, playing Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on the PCs, researching local legends, and scrolling through microfilm for fun.
“As a twelve-year-old, I was even lucky enough to attend the dedication of the Toni Morrison Room at the branch,” remembers Becky. “I met Ms. Morrison, and she signed my mom’s copy of Beloved. For those who don’t know, she was born and raised in Lorain.”
Becky is now a reference specialist at the Amherst Public Library in Northern Ohio. And like many of you, her job includes library promotion.
“I am a one-person PR department,” explains Becky. “I oversee our community engagement, social media, most publications, and other marketing and public relations duties.”
“I post to Facebook and Instagram, typically 5 – 10 posts per week just depending on what we have going on, usually no more than 1 or 2 posts per day. I look at our social media accounts as an avenue for advertising, so most of our posts are program and event promotion and photos, and promotion of our eMedia and materials.”
I met Becky at the Library Marketing and Communications Conference in 2023. She went to the microphone at the end of a session and revealed the secret way she ensures her social media posts are seen by more people in her community.
She uses email.🤯
Becky got the idea to share Amherst Public Library’s social media post by email during the pandemic.
“When we closed at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in mid-March of 2020, like many other library marketers, our social media accounts became my main focus and were our primary form of communication with the public,” recalls Becky. “I did send out email updates as well, but day-to-day, I was posting multiple things on social media on a morning/afternoon/evening schedule.”
“Within the first week or two of this, one of our staff members reached out to me and asked how people who don’t have social media accounts would be able to follow along. This gave me the idea for the Weekly Roundup.”
I’ll be honest: I was flabbergasted by this idea. It never occurred to me to send an email of social media posts to library community members. But it turned out to be a highly effective marketing method for Becky.
“I sent out the first issue of the Weekly Roundup on April 4, 2020,” explains Becky. “It’s going on for almost four years now. It’s scheduled to send every Saturday morning at 8 am, with a two-week hiatus during the winter holidays.”
“The email includes anything that was posted on our social accounts for the week ahead that isn’t time-sensitive like program reminders the day before or the day of a program, for example.”
Becky says the emails are an effective way to reach people in her community of 33,000 residents.
“One of our former board members mentioned to me that several people have told her that they look forward to receiving them,” shares Becky. “Recently, one of my regular patrons asked me if I was the one who sent the emails and told me how much she likes the Weekly Roundup because she doesn’t use Facebook and it’s an easy way to keep up with what we’re doing.”
In addition to the ongoing social media email, this year Becky is considering a rebrand, including a style guide for her small library. She draws on other library marketers for inspiration.
“One of my favorite ideas came from Instagram, where a library that was closed for construction used the phrase, ‘Pardon our progress’”, says Becky. “I used the tagline for our expansion and renovation project that started a few months later in the summer of 2021. I really liked it because, as I told staff and colleagues, our expansion and renovation were something to celebrate, not something to apologize for.”
“While there are some best practices for library marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution! What works for my community might not work for another, and vice versa. The best advice that I can give to anyone is to just try things to see what works.”
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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 
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