# Short-Form Videos for Public Library Marketing: Performance Analytics of Douyin in China
## 2 Literature Review
### Research Gap  
Many studies on library marketing have investigated short-form videos, but they have mainly focused on Instagram [30; 31; 32] instead of Douyin. A few recent positional reports pointed out the feasibility of using TikTok for library marketing in the Western world [16; 22]. Libraries can benefit from using TikTok to market their services, facilities, and spaces [33]. TikTok can enhance library resource usage [21] and improve library reader advisory programs [34]. Librarians also use Douyin for library marketing, and some studies use empirical methods to examine the effectiveness and strategies from an operational or behavioral perspective. As Douyin is a short-form video platform with primarily user-generated content rather than professionally generated content, it is more inclusive of the creative style and video form [2]. Despite random shots or unedited cuts, a video with a popular topic and content can get massive likes. Thus, identifying what kind of video topics are more popular with patrons is crucial for libraries to develop Douyin marketing. Some studies believe that the topic of the short-form video is the key to influencing marketing and have used some criteria to classify topic categories, as shown in Table 1. As these classifications are summarized from a general scope, it is necessary to refine the classification further to provide a more practical reference.  
Some studies focused on short-form videos, arguing that the primary means of library marketing lies in videos. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [35] investigated the posting content, interaction effects, and characteristics of libraries' Douyin accounts regarding library operations. [PERSON] [36] used content analysis to study the content characteristics of the popular videos posted by library Douyin accounts. The research results show that videos with detailed titles, topic guides, and subtitles are more likely to become popular. Additionally, short videos featuring celebrities are popular, and short videos with strong emotions are easier to gain user recognition. However, these studies were published in Chinese, and few related studies are in English. As [PERSON] et al. [37] suggest that as libraries in different countries and regions have different social contexts and cultures, there is a need for more regionalized case studies. To fill the research gap, this study focuses on the Douyin platform to examine the correlation between the categories of short-form video topics and the marketing performance of public libraries with social media analytics.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline
**Reference** & **Topic Classification Criteria** \\ \hline
[38] & The content and dynamic information of the library’s Douyin posts are categorized into news and announcements, recommendations of library resources, and promotion of brand activities. \\ \hline
[39] & The content of short-form videos of university libraries can be divided into image promotion, activity promotion, quality education, social hotspots, resource recommendation, usage strategy, and service notices. \\ \hline
[40] & Social network services promote library collections, including knowledge sharing, information dissemination, communication, and knowledge gathering. \\ \hline
[41] & Public libraries use Douyin for marketing, involving four categories of content, sharing knowledge, reading promotion, functional promotion, and cultural activities. \\ \hline
[42] & The original content focusing on the marketing of knowledge services includes seven primary areas: subject services, reading promotion, promotion of knowledge services activities, knowledge services resources, literacy education, space services, and IT equipment services. \\ \hline
[43] & Provincial public library short-form video services can be divided into five categories, including library work, event promotion, book recommendations, hot topics, and others. \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Selected literature about video topic classification criteria.