If you’re one of the billion people who already have a Facebook account, you’re probably familiar with the basics of the site. You know what it means to “Like” something; you’ve written on walls without getting in trouble for graffiti; you have “Friended” and “Un-friended” your fair share of acquaintances from high school.

Similarly, many OverDrive partners already have a Facebook page for their library. For those who don’t, I recommend checking out the recorded version of our Community Outreach training to see how to set up a Facebook business account.

It is easy to promote your digital collection on your Facebook page. As we’ve written about here in the past and shared in our Best Practices Handbook, you can post messages promoting that your eBooks are always available, even when your library is closed for the holidays or during construction. Some libraries like to post staff recommendations and eBooks of the day. You could start a Digital Book Club or invest in Facebook ads.

Here’s another simple, free and extremely effective way to connect your patrons with your digital collection: place a permanent link on your Facebook page pointing to your digital collection, putting your eBooks just one click away from all of your friends and fans.

OverDrive's Facebook page utilizes "Custom Tabs."

On OverDrive for Libraries Facebook page, you’ll notice that we have highly visible graphics anchored under our cover photo, providing links to OverDrive Search, Help, and this blog. Facebook calls these “Custom Tabs,” and it’s easy to add them to any Facebook page.

In order to add “Custom Tab” links to your Facebook page, you can use a free app such as WooBox CustomTab. We’ve created a Prezi presentation to walk you through the steps and to provide some helpful suggestions for how to easily take advantage of this feature. (For best viewing, click the “full screen” icon before playing Prezi presentation.) You can add as many “Custom Tab” links as you want, directing users to your digital collection, to your library’s website, or to OverDrive Help.

Follow the steps in our Prezi presentation to add "Custom Tabs" to your library's Facebook page.

If you’d like more tips on using social media to market your digital collection, don’t hesitate to email our team of friendly Marketing Specialists.

Melissa Marin is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.