Hello Librarians!  Thanks for joining me. 

Tell me, how effective is your library advocacy?  Do you struggle with getting your key decision makers or your legislators to support your library?  If so, this episode is for you.

You and I both know that libraries make a difference in the world. You share that message as often as possible with your stakeholders, with your users, with your communities. 

And yet, I’m willing to bet that for many of you,  the critical decision makers are still cutting your budget, reducing your staff, and maybe even taking your space.

After all, everything’s on the Internet now, right? Who needs librarians and libraries?  Can’t people just get books from Amazon and information from Google?

So here’s the thing.  It’s not enough just to get your decision-makers to listen. You have to get them to agree with you. And how are you going to do that?

In fact, I can hear some of you now saying “I’ve been trying for years to get them to agree!  That’s the whole point of my advocacy!”

In his book This is Marketing, Seth Godin says the biggest mistake is to 

“Assume that everyone is like you, knows what you know, wants what you want”.

They aren’t and they don’t. 

Advocacy is marketing. Every library and every librarian needs to learn how to market honestly and effectively. 

Godin goes on to say that “marketing is the act of making change happen”, and “You haven’t made an impact until you’ve changed someone”. 

He further states that you have to connect with your audience and gain trust.  This requires understanding their worldview and their desires. 

So how do you get key people to both listen and agree?  

By learning the language of your listener. By gaining understanding of their worldview and desires and showing directly how funding and supporting your library will help them achieve their goals.

For complete show notes and resources, go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep-11