Overview: This project aims to raise awareness about a library among my city residents who were previously unaware of its existence. The library’s name is ‘E-Library’. The primary goal is to showcase the extensive collection of books provided by the library to the people, encouraging them to visit and utilize this valuable resource. Through social media marketing and local listing, I aspire to transform the E-Library into an amazing asset for my city, bridging the gap between the library’s offerings and the residents who can benefit from them. While working on this project, one of my friend- “Abhijeet Bansal” and the librarian also assisted me.
Research on Book Preferences: Firstly, I wanted to see the number of people who are truly passionate about going to the library to read books. To accomplish this, I conducted a survey on my own Instagram account and asked a simple question to my followers: Which one do you prefer the most? A physical book or an e-book.
Out of 35 followers, 25 of them indicated a preference for reading a physical book over an e-book.
This insight was quite interesting to me, leading me to the conclusion that people are genuinely interested in reading physical books. Therefore, promoting the library is indeed a good idea.
Goals for Social Media Marketing:
- Connect with new people on social media to increase awareness.
- Showcase various categories of books by creating engaging content.
- Effectively interact with the audience to build trust and encourage them to visit the library.
Online Presence Building:
A) Local listings: If anyone wants to search for something or obtain information about anything, they go to Google and conduct a search. Therefore, my first priority for establishing an online presence was through local listings, specifically ‘Google Business Profile’. I created a profile for the library using the name ‘e-library’ and included all the essential information, such as a phone number, working hours, a map displaying the location and eye-catching images of the library. Additionally, I encouraged my friends to leave reviews on the profile to enhance its value. After completing these steps, it became much easier for anyone to find the library on Google.
B) Social media platforms: As we are well aware, people nowadays spend a significant portion of their time browsing the internet, primarily on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Therefore, my second choice for establishing an online presence was to create social media pages, including an Instagram page and a Facebook page. Another reason for choosing these platforms was that the majority of my friends also use them, making it easy for me to reach a wider audience. Additionally, these platforms are low-cost mediums.
a) An Instagram page: I created a profile with the username @elibrarydabwali on Instagram and included all the essential information in a clear and simple manner, ensuring that people could easily access details such as our location, services, email address, phone number, and our Facebook page. Additionally, I added an eye-catching profile picture to it.
b) A Facebook page: A profile page named ‘E Library Dabwali’ was created on Facebook with all the essential information. I added a ‘Call Now’ button to make it easy for people to contact us directly. A lovely picture of books was used as the cover photo. To ensure that people could easily recognize our both pages, I used the same profile picture for both of them. An important element, a mission statement, was included on both pages: “A Best Place to Explore New Dimensions…🖋.
Additionally, I included all the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of the library on both pages to enhance its brand value. These USPs are:
- Free of Charge Reading Room.
- Best Literature and Competitive books 📖
- Peaceful Environment
Content Creation and Engagement:
A) Content Creation: My friend and I created visually appealing posts featuring different categories of books available in the library. For example, in one post, there were self-help books, while in another post, there were competitive books. We continue to experiment with the content to gain more likes, comments, and shares from our audience.
a) Instagram Posts:
b) Facebook Posts:
B) Posting Schedule: We maintained a consistent posting schedule on both our Instagram and Facebook pages. This regularity helped followers stay engaged with our content. Our posting schedule included a mix of book showcases, library feature highlights, short reels, and stories about the books. This variety kept the content fresh and engaging.
C) Audience Engagement: I regularly checked what people said in the comments, messages, and interactions on social media pages. When people asked questions or talked to us, I replied as quickly as I could. This made people feel like they were part of a community and could trust us. I made sure to be polite and friendly when talking to people so they could feel comfortable connecting with me. Additionally, I encouraged them to visit the library and explore our collection of books.
D) Facebook Group for Book Lovers: I established a dedicated Facebook group for book lovers, using the same name as the library’s page. This group served as a space for like-minded individuals to connect, discuss books, and share their love for reading. I regularly shared engaging content from the library’s Instagram and Facebook pages within the group, encouraging discussions and interactions among members.
Insights and Data Collection: This phase involved the collection and analysis of data over a 15-day period to assess the impact and effectiveness of the social media marketing efforts. We obtained impressive insights from both of our social media pages.
A) Instagram Insights:
- Impressions- 6,449
- Accounts reached- 3,274
- Total profile visits- 458
- Number of followers- 92
- Number of likes on all posts- 452
B) Facebook Insights:
- Accounts reached- 803
- Number of followers- 75
- Number of likes on page- 68
- Number of group members- 156
Analyzing Results: When I looked at our results, I found that both our Facebook and Instagram pages gained a large following and performed really well in just 15 days. Our hard work led to impressive numbers, all obtained organically without paid ads. Our Facebook page reached over 800 people, and our Instagram page reached more than 3,200 people. We also gained 75 followers on Facebook and 92 followers on Instagram. Additionally, our Facebook group acquired 156 members, which was a delightful achievement for my project.
Conclusion: In conclusion, my project to promote the local E-library through social media was a big success! I started by finding out what kinds of books people enjoy reading. Then, I used Instagram and Facebook to let everyone know about our library. I shared pictures of our books with my friend and explained why our library is the best. People really liked it! I also made a group for book lovers on Facebook. I talked with our audience and answered their questions. I checked how many people liked our posts and interacted with our content. After working hard for 15 days, we got really good results on both our pages. After analyzing the results, I can confidently say that this was a fun and successful project.