Category Archives: Social Media

Buzzwords

Posted on March 18, 2013 | 5 comments

I was in Halifax visiting some friends last week and one of them showed me this video by the Onion. It then popped up on the class discussion board. I took this as a sign.

The video instantly reminded me of the following lines from 30 Rock episode, “Winter Madness”:

Liz: Cross-promotional … deal mechanics … revenue streams … jargon … synergy.
Jack: That’s the best presentation I’ve ever heard.

Both the video by the Onion and Liz Lemon’s use of buzzwords sum up my feelings about social media and ‘2.0’ right now. Throw in terms like “social media economy” and suddenly you are an expert. Slap 2.0 after anything (see Fundraising 2.0 below) and you are a new internet economy maven (that’s a double-whammy, right there).

Social media eliminates the need to provide value to anyone


The more we look into social media and how libraries and other information organizations are using these tools, I am even more convinced that we do in fact need librarians and information professionals who are trained to use these tools. The skills to participate and create online do not come naturally to everyone. There is a big difference between using Facebook to stay in touch with high school friends or check in with adorable nieces and using Facebook to connect with your patrons.

It is not just a matter of setting up a Facebook page and waiting for patrons to ‘Like’ your page with no incentive. The value-added is so important. The use of social media should supplement their in-library experience. While I do enjoy reading the NYPL Twitter feed, at the end of the day I find greater value in reading my local public library’s feed.

In the new social media economy you just have to keep looking like you are doing work and people will pay you for it


In my last post, I talked about creating a social media strategy in relation to using social media as part of a comprehensive fundraising campaign. I’d like to add that I think establishing a social media strategy is crucial for libraries and other information organizations using social media to engage with their patrons in any way shape or form.

I think part of these slightly negative feelings come as a result of poking around the web for libraries using social media only to find half empty Pinterest cover boards, stagnant Twitter feeds, untouched Facebook pages, and countless other neglected social media tools. Does anyone else feel the same?

Further reading:

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Fundraising for Academic Libraries (a social media approach)

Posted on March 1, 2013 | 1 comment

Last semester, I wrote a white paper about fundraising for academic libraries for LIBR 504: Management of Information Organizations taught by Guy Robertson. If you are interested you can read the document here: White Paper on Fundraising for Academic Libraries by Alyssa Feir (PDF). As we have been moving through this course I have seen multiple uses of social media that would naturally blend with a comprehensive fundraising campaign. Fundraising 2.0 is not a new concept, there is lots of literature out there about how and why non-profits should be using social media. As Wedgeworth (2000) notes:

For all potential donors, the process of creating and maintaining a relationship is at the heart of any successful fund-raising campaign (p. 536).

This idea—the importance of cultivating relationships—is often the crux of the argument for non-profits to be using social media. Social media is all about interaction. Fundraisers have the ability to connect with potential volunteers and donors through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Flickr … the list goes on!

Libraries are in a unique position within the university setting. Students don’t really graduate from the Koerner Library. They graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts. Students aren’t the only ones to use the library either. The library has a wide base from which to draw potential donors and using social media can help the identification process.

I created a PowerPoint slide to introduce the idea of using social media in the library as a fundraising tool. In many ways these approaches are similar to general promotion of library services, but if framed the right way they can generate gifts.

Note: The links to the social media strategy documents do not work on the slides, but they are included below.

Further reading:

Wedgeworth, R. (2000). Donor Relations As Public Relations: Toward a Philosophy of Fundraising. Library Trends, 48(3): 530-539.

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Gamification

Posted on February 15, 2013 | 5 comments

I casually mentioned to my husband tonight that I needed a quest log for my course work. I play a couple of video games (mostly Skyrim and World of Warcraft) and I love completing tasks and earning achievements—I thrive on it. Just one more quest… I can’t say I have the same enthusiasm for the numerous readings, assignments, and various other components of my classes (did I really just admit that on my blog for one of these said classes?).

He told me that I should look up gamification of homework. Apparently, gamification is a real thing and has been since 2002 when the term was coined by Nick Pelling.

Gamification is the use of game-thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems. Gamification is used in applications and processes to improve user engagement, ROI, data quality, timeliness, and learning (Gamification, 2013).

Seth Priebatsch, head of SCVNGR, gave an interesting TED Talk about the game layer back in 2010. He suggests that the last decade was all about the social. There is still a lot to explore, but the basic framework is there. The social layer is about connections. This next decade is about the game layer. The game layer is about influence.

He also talked about four elements of gaming:

  1. The appointment: having to do something at a predefined time, in a predefined place to get a reward(example: happy hour)
  2. Influence and status (example: badges)
  3. Progression dynamic (being only 75% of a full person in LinkedIn)
  4. Communal discoveries: everyone works together to discover something (Digg)

This is something I want to come back to and explore with more of a library professional perspective. I think there are merits to gamifying the library and other organizations and it is worth exploring. For now, excuse me while I go gamify my homework.

Read more on Gamification:

Gamification (2013). In Wikipedia Retrieved February 16, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

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