UNS — Retno Wulandari, S.H., M.Si., General Manager (GM) The Sunan Hotel Solo shares various strategies to improve library reputation in a National Workshop in Public Relations Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta Library. On this occasion, Retno stresses the importance of public relations staffing, starting from research and SWOT analysis. After the two aspects were completed, various plans and recommendations can be established following the designed objectives. Periodical evaluations are needed to assess the achieved improvement and further areas for improvement.
Retno who was once a Director of Marketing Communications states that each company or organizations have their different SWOT. Thus the strategy design for each organization cannot be similar to each other. “What needs to be considered is the implementation in different place or organization is different due to different problems. However, in general, the grand design has a similar pattern, but it is implemented differently depends on the library,” she explains on Thursday (22/4/2021).
The first strategy mentioned by Retno is a modern building to improve library reputation. Library reputation is inseparable from the stigma of most people towards the library as a structurally unpleasant place. Therefore, the library is not a fun place (for millennials), especially because now most people prefer an instagramable place. However, Retno states that such a condition depends on different library indicators.
The second strategy is to increase librarian reputation. Librarian success, according to Retno, does not depend on the building size, collections, or budget, but more related to the human resource quality or staff as the representation of the library. The public relations and library staff must be trained to attract visitors. Favorable public relations personality and comprehensive understanding of the library services and product become the main key.
“When visitors meet the public relation staff, they expect to know information related to the new collections added, what kind of collection the library has, and the library specialty. They also pay attention to the service provided, how the program is developed, how they establish a favorable situation, and the synergy between the service and product,” Retno added. Another aspect that needs special attention as a promotional method is how visitor shares their experience to the public. This experience sharing is related to social media engagement, considering that the current strategy must be innovative and adaptive. Therefore, social media must be adopted to build visitor’s care, massive and structured campaigns, and a positive library reputation.
Yet, the social media chosen must be in line with the library characteristics, public target, and library needs. Different types of the library will need different promotional techniques.
Build Reader Interest from Home
In regards to the campaign, there is one interesting point mentioned by Retno, namely the campaign to increase reading interest from home, especially from a mother. According to her, the low interest in the library is because of the low reading interest. “This problem needs to be solved before further actions. We need to start from the most basic problem, how to increase reading interest and what will be the most effective measures to increase it,” Retno said.
Retno admits that she is interested in various reading material types and has a high reading interest because of a habit from her home. Reflecting on her experience, the most effective measure to build a reading culture must be started from home. Therefore, the best influencers for this objective is a mother. Hence, library campaigns should be started by housewives.
“This condition can be used as the basis to prepare the grand design of a library in developing a campaign. Only afterward, the technical aspects related to public relations shall be developed. All this aspect is highly related,” Retno explains. Humas UNS
Reporter: Kaffa Hidayati
Editor: Dwi Hastuti
