library2market

Ok, so I am reading Scott Stratten’s latest: The Book of Business Awesome.  Like Scott Stratten, the book is awesome.  If you have never seen, heard, or read him, you should check this out: it is a hilarious talk on marketing, taken from his book Unmarketing.  Scott is part strategist and marketing guru and part stand up comedian.  I dig him.

I am not finished with the book yet but so far my favorite line is, “Social Media isn’t about how many places you can be.  It’s about being amazing where you are.”  AMEN Brother!  Could not agree more.

So there I am yesterday, sitting in a day long retreat with our board trying to plan for the Library of the Future and dealing with a facilities plan that is somewhere between five and eight years out.  As a government employee, I get it–I get that we sometimes have to plan far in advance to ensure the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) is done well in advance to secure the funding but here is what I don’t get: how the heck are we supposed to envision the future when things are moving at the speed of light?  How are we to plan for the future when there are so many things we need to be MORE AMAZING at doing in the here and now?  I will admit, I have a great deal of trouble living in two temporal places.

So let’s put the Library of the Future and CIPs aside for a moment and deal with the present.  I want to focus on being amazing (and happy and nice) in the here and now.  I want to foster great customer service, great library experiences, great (and fun) promotion of library service and great social media in the couple of places we are already (Facebook and Twitter) and develop a solid following of loyal and content customers.  Doesn’t that sound nice?

Scott Stratten writes, in Chapter Four of The Book of Business Awesome that we should re-marry our current customers. He writes that, “This is how we create ecstatic customers.”  AMEN AGAIN BROTHER!  And given this social media world of recommendations and shared experiences, developing ecstatic customers is really the best thing to do to please them AND gain new customers.  I want our customers to leave the library so unbelievably happy that they tell all their friends, post (with glee) that the library provided great service, a great collection and has a great staff.

The Library of the Future is right now.  And Scott Stratten can help it be AMAZING.

Word.