I recently read Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. It’s a really useful book on how to build a platform – a way to amplify your voice in order to be seen and heard in today’s crowded online world. Go read it.

One idea I picked up while reading was about creating a “wall of fame.” Here’s what Michael says about a wall of fame (from pg 66):

“This is basically a “wall of fame.” Include your best product reviews, customer reviews, Twitter comments, Facebook comments, Google+ comments, and so on. The idea here is to share endorsements and enthusiasm from your fans to fuel even more enthusiasm.”

What a cool idea, and one that translates well into a library setting. For example – right now, my library has a section on our Press Room pages called “TSCPL Headlines” (yep – horrid title. I’ll need to get that changed). It’s a Delicious.com feed of mentions of my library in the news.

That’s a good start on building a wall of fame. To go further, we could collect positive and interesting Tweets, Facebook mentions, comments, and photos of our library from Instagram, and display those on a “wall of fame” page.

We could also use those quotes and content in marketing materials.

Why? A Wall of Fame is a great visual way to show your organization’s value to the community … from the community themselves. Instead of saying “we have the best kid’s area ever,” we can show tweets and images showing kids and their parents having fun in the kid’s area.

Do you gather and use this type of community conversation in your library’s marketing and promotion initiatives? I’d love to hear about it!

image from Michael Hyatt’s website