Once the weather turns warmer, it's time to start thinking about summer reading! As the go-to virtual reading challenge platform for libraries across the U.S. and the world, we have gleaned some summer prep best practices. Follow the steps below to set your staff and community up for success!
- Attend or watch a Library Admin Essentials training session to (re)familiarize yourself with Beanstack, especially if you don't run year-round challenges.
- Build your summer challenge(s). Consult the best practices in our 2023 Summer Reading Report for tips on creating the most engaging challenges for your community and consider using one of our many summer challenge templates. And make sure to keep your challenges in draft or staff-only mode on your site as you work.
- Review your completed challenge(s) by using the Client Success Simulator in your Admin Dashboard. Be sure to correct all red warning messages and review all yellow warnings to ensure the best reader and staff experience.
- Test your summer challenge(s). Check out the Beanstack Basics Video on how to test a challenge on a live site. Consider creating and using testing accounts and readers with a standard naming convention that are not connected to your admin account for testing. That way, you can easily remove them from reporting later on.
- Prepare your staff. Staff knowledge is key to success, so make sure to provide your staff members with different entry points for training and learning. Consider using our fully customizable Library Staff Beanstack Quick Start Guide for an easy staff reference and providing in-person, virtual, on-demand training, or even smaller “roadshows” to visit branches. Or take advantage of our many scheduled and recorded staff training webinars!
- Update your landing page and promote your challenge(s). Once you have your summer reading details decided, it's time to start promoting your challenges. Make sure to update your landing page to showcase your upcoming challenges or to create a community goal and publicly track your readers' progress toward it. Spread the word early and often to stoke interest and engagement. Consider reaching out to local businesses, community organizations, camps, schools, and any other partners who are active near you. You can use our editable challenge-specific social media materials, print and post our flyers or bookmarks, or create your own campaigns!
- Set up scheduled reports. As your start date nears, consider scheduling reports of interest to be delivered to your inbox daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule. The Potential Duplicate Account Creators report can be helpful to identify families who accidentally create a new account instead of using an existing one. And we offer challenge, branch, and school-specific reports too.
- Set up any rewards or drawings. Assemble any rewards and make sure you and your staff have an inventory and redemption system in place before your reward window arrives. Get a jumpstart on creating any drawings so that you are ready to pick winners when the time comes.
- Start a conversation. During your challenge, share your community's progress on social media and ask readers to get involved in sharing their challenge progress, badges, streaks, leaderboard status, favorite reads, and more. Consider using a custom hashtag to track your community's engagement all summer long. You could also request patrons as friends in Beanstack to create a little friendly reading competition!