Shh..ocial Media Librarian

 

Eric Qualman, brilliantly, displays socialnomics in the short video above. These social media statistics demonstrate just how valuable having a social media policy in place is.

Does your library have a social media policy yet?

From what the stats in the video suggests, anyone who doesn’t have a policy is missing a key component! An illustration from 4imprint tells you exactly what “to keep in mind” when constructing a policy:

 

 

The best part about this illustration is the very bottom where it says

• “Using social media in your personal life.”
• “Using social media as part of your job”
• “REMINDER: We want you to use social media.”

Right away you know this organization is all for promotion through social media and allowing the staff the opportunity to contribute!

A few reasons to embrace a social media policy in the library and give employees the opportunity  to participate are:

1. To demonstrate instruction to users in their own setting
2. To announce services and events in the library
3. To communicate with patrons and provide a place for feedback.

Some of my favorite, and in my opinion, most valuable tools for the library (in no particular order) are:

Facebook – This platform is widely used by just about anyone and everyone. It provides the library a place to post events, interesting news, and provide a place for easy feedback.

Twitter- This microblogging platform is the greatest tool to listen to users. It is also the place to share short snippets of what is going on in the library.

Instagram- Another great marketing tool, showcasing the library with pictures. Instagram attracts users with visual appeal and shows them what is at the library.

Pinterest- This tool is also visual and allows users to search by interest. The library can use this tool to create virtual pinboards with certain interests in each board. Whether it be summer reading lists, kids crafts, a collection of sic-fi novels, etc.

Those are my top tools to use for staying connected through social media. What platforms do you think are most valuable  for use in a social media policy?

Aggregation sites are extremely valuable when it comes to managing social media, and this is not shocking news. The development of these sites is actually just common sense. ¹According to The Social Skinny, in 2012, 62% of adults worldwide use social media. (source: http://thesocialskinny.com/99-new-social-media-stats-for-2012/). So, basically, 6 out of 10 adults who have access to the internet use social media site regularly.

Someone, somewhere observed that out of the people who do use social media, typically, manage more than one social media site, and therefore could benefit from managing them all in one place. I am one of those people who has several different platforms that I check into regularly. It was absolutely apparent after clicking back and forth and back and forth that posting the same things in different places was not very efficient. That is when I discovered HootSuite.

HootSuite is a productive way to manage different social media sites in a simple easy to use way. The sites that can be utilized on HootSuite are; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, FourSquare, Myspace, WordPress, Mixi, plus several apps. My favorite HootSuite feature is the timed posts. This allows me to be away from my computer all day and still keep my pages active!

 

I am an avid HootSuite user, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other options… Curious to see what else was out there I went on a search for what else was out there.

Flavors.Me is a new to me aggregator that allows you to create a social website to build upon your digital identity. It ultimately acts as a place where people can find all of you in one place online. This site offers Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Vimeo, LinkedIn and more. Personally, I like aggregators that are one-sided, keeping me in one place but dispersing my content for others to choose which platform to view it on. However, my views may change once I get more accustomed to the tool.

RebelMouse was highly suggested by classmates, so I didn’t want to leave this one out. I had never heard of RebelMouse before, and quickly signed up after reading all the hype. Rebel mouse includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr and Google+ on your “Social Front Page.” RebelMouse is set up in a Pin Board type fashion, yet I feel slightly less organized in this site. I will say that it showcases visual posts in a very modern fashion.

 

 

I am still on the hunt for the best aggregator, but for my purposes, the simple HootSuite interface is all I need.

1. Pring C. 99 New Social Media Stats for 2012 [Internet]. 2012 May. [Cited 2013 March 12] Available from: http://thesocialskinny.com/99-new-social-media-stats-for-2012/

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What is your favorite aggregation site? 

 

 

Evan Williams, co-founder at Twitter, gives a Ted Talk about “listening to Twitter users:

“When you give people easier ways to share information, more good things will happen.” -Evan Williams

It is not always about giving people more information, it is about giving them ways to share their information.  Information professional have the opportunity to take social media and use it to share information and engage users anytime, anywhere. It is the culture now to update status’ and give real time information.

 

Not only can sharing information take place through social media, but “listening” to individuals and what they are sharing promotes involvement which leads to collaboration. Listening and becoming aware of the information being shared and becoming apart of the conversation in real-time is where we are with social media.

So, as an information professional, these cultural changes through using social media should be encouraged throughout libraries. Using social media to share information and developing easier ways for users to share information should be added to the job description.

Some ways to effectively share information and promote collaboration using social media at an academic library:

1. Twitter

• Create a Twitter account and search for keywords to discover what student’s and professors are talking about.
• Share events and special programming happening at your library.
• Create a hashtag for events and tweet real time information so students can follow along.
• Ask questions for fast responses
• Watch for trends through hashtags being used.

2. Facebook

• Create a Facebook fan page and like other campus organizations.
• post events and photos to the Facebook page.
• Use Facebook as a way for students to get involved in any decisions to be made.
• Link to articles students and professors would be interested in.

These are just a few suggestions, but collaboration and participation can be achieved through a number of platforms. Libraries are still hubs for information, the way it is being shared is what is changing.

My digital identity is dispersed throughout several media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Pinterest, and Google+. I recently started my own personal lifestyle blog, Balancing on Honey, and have become engrossed with building up my digital identity. I want my online appearance to reflect who I am and what I strive for. As a job seeking individual, I figured I should also build up my online presence to enforce recruitment. I treat my digital self like a business and market what I have to offer through my online profiles. Especially since recruiters are going to look anyway…

Well, that got me thinking, if I am putting so much effort into creating a positive image of who I am online, then businesses and organizations would be out of their minds not to do the same. Most businesses, especially the bigger corporations, see the obvious importance of having an online presence and participating through social media. Businesses and organizations are creating their own influential, digital identity on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. They are using it to reach individuals and build repertoire through participatory conversation, engaging in their community, and maintaining accessibility.

Anyone with a product, service, cause or mission should make it known through their online presence. Information organizations should not count themselves out of this innovative trend.  Observing my local public library, I would say they are still somewhat under the radar with their social media presence. They have a website with weekly blog posts and a Facebook fan page. The activity is quiet and demonstrates little participation within the community. The library is posting, but are they listening? Having an active online identity sets up a platform for participation.

A model from Dean Giustini’s Module II, Participate, demonstrates that all social media should start with listening. This means looking for keywords and conversations going on in the community. Then, the next step is participation. This is the step where content and information is posted. Once participating, you next engage in conversation and reach out to individuals.

Dean Giustini’s Social Media Model

1. Listen
2. Participate
3. Engage

A lot of the time listening is forgotten and organizations dive straight into participation by posting their own information. I read an article the other day called The 1 Thing Every Business Executive Should Know About Social Media. In this Article the author describes a time when a hotel was listening on social media and led to at least $10,000 in revenue. All they did was listen and track keywords from their competitors.

“The secret to social media success isn’t in talking – it’s in listening.” – Dave Kerpen