Promote your reference service!

In real estate its all about location, and the same is true with virtual reference.  There is an interesting thread in the Dig_Ref listserv regarding promotion of your virtual reference service.  Bill Pardue (Arlington Heights PL, IL) did an excellent presentation for us during ALA on this topic.  A link to his presentation is available here: http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2007/06/ala-2007-best-p.html

Bill advises that links to your virtual reference service should be:

1) Persistent on every page of your site
2) Clearly worded ("Get Live Help 24/7" is better than "KnowItAllNowMyState"--use the branding on the question form!)
3) ABOVE THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN! ("Above the fold"). This should ideally be true at 800x600, but definitely at 1024x768.
4) Available through your catalog and the branding links on your vendor databases
5) If possible, available through community partner sites

QuestionPoint also has some promotional materials that you are free to use, in a variety of languages:

http://questionpoint.org/support/promote/promote_qp.html

Every service needs promotion - please share your ideas too! 

Comments

[Peter Bromberg]

Hi Susan, Here was my response to Bill's post:
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Hey Bill,

FULL agreement on the placement of banner ads. In response to the survey question, "How'd you hear about us" our customers told us:

35%: Link on library webpage
27%: Word of Mouth (friends, family, teacher)
13%: Article in paper or magazine
13%: Search Engine
9%: Posters/Bookmarks
7%: Link on non-library webpage
2%: Television

Two words about link placement in NJ

1) GCLS.org does have a banner on the left side of the page, above the fold; it rotates with a few other banners that were all designed to be the same size (for just such a purpose.) If you're on the page for a few seconds you'll see it come up.

2) When QandANJ first started (nearly 6 years ago) the libraries were great about having the banner ad clearly present above the fold. Over the years some of the libraries have dropped the banner below the fold, and/or made it less persistent throughout the website. It's something we revisit regularly with the staffing libraries, encouraging them to keep the banner ad visible.

As you know, space on a library homepage is pretty valuable real estate, and libraries have umpteen things that they could be using that space to promote. That's one reason I'm so happy with the way GCLS maximizes their space to advertise a variety of wonderful services!

-Pete