The team faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge — gather pictures, video, documents and all the information for every location under construction from all the artists, architects, employees and others. Then, organize and use it to positively inform as many residents as possible — all while continuing to meet the every day marketing and web needs of the library (we are staying open throughout construction). The innovative solution? Build a custom web portal that allows all of those people to generate and post their own content online for syndication across a wide variety of channels (Social Media, Broadcast, Print, etc.).

With the "Building Your Library" campaign, Richland Library focused their efforts on two widely used for-profit inbound marketing techniques: UGC (User Generated Content) and POSSE (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere). The team built a custom stand-alone platform where employees and stakeholders could author and publish their own content (for future syndication by the Marketing and Community Relations teams). This innovative approach reinforces employee investment, streamlines the content curation process and personalizes the projects and progress.

Thus far, the campaign has successfully elevated employee involvement while externally generating buzz, online traffic and customer confidence in how bond funds are being used.

Notable statistics include:

• Targeted Email Marketing: 31,780 emails with 64% open rate (average is 28%) and click through rate of 8%! (our average is 3%)
• Facebook : 1,025,322 impressions and engagement rate of 5.1% (far above average)
• Twitter: 29,514 impressions with 900% increased engagement
• Stand alone website averages 1,450 unique sessions per month. 60% of traffic from referrals (like others blogs and pages).
• Broadcast Media: 131 Earned Media Hits with 1,122,800 impressions