Month: February 2013

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