coordinating a social media presence for the library
DESCRIPTION
webinar for Trendy Topics seriesTRANSCRIPT
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Coordinating a Social Media Presence for the Library
Sarah Houghton-JanDigital Futures Manager, San Jose Public LibraryAuthor of LibrarianInBlack.net
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Why do you want to be present in social
media?
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Before you even start...ask yourself:
why?who?what?when?where?
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Only then move onto the how.
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“Understanding local patron culture is essential
to creating used and useful technology
services.” - Char Booth
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Community Research
What social networks does your community use? ASK!
How does use break down by demographic groups?
What is trending upward?
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What to post?
- library news
- events
- parent-specific materials
- library news
- general book/tech news
- snippets of local materials
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Are you pushing information out?
Or having a discussion?
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Institutional & Policy Limits
What policies exist & are they still relevant?
- Customer and staff posting policies
- Distinguishing work vs. non-work use of social media
- Existing policies about at-work tech use, photo use, etc.
- Who is allowed/encouraged to post?
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Social Media Guidelines
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Creating Social Media Guidelines
Taskforce of expert users to do project planning and research
Project manager + a few key champions
Solicit staff input and use it
Develop a launch plan
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Elements of Social Media Guidelines
General Social Media Best Practices (Overview, Personal Social Media Participation, Site
Set-Up, Site Management, Profile Standards, Online Posting Guidelines for User-Generated Content, Additional Guidelines for Staff-Generated Content, General Social Media Best Practices, Notifications and Comments, Statistics, Publicity, Additional New Tech)
Practices for Specific Sites(Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Yelp, wikis, blogs, social
bookmarking, photo sharing, podcasting, videocasting)
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Site Set-Up
- Procedure for new sites
- Planning: goals, target audience, success metrics, plan for maintenance)
- Log-Ins: sharing/standards
- Linking from current site
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Profile Standards
- Profile images
- Profile name standards (e.g. Almaden Branch-SJPL)
- Account email, log-ins, & passwords
- Location, contact info, website
- Biography template
- Disclaimer and/or posting policy links
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Guidelines for Posting
Customer Guidelines need to be clear
Staff Guidelines = the above + existing policies (e.g. Email & Internet Use Policy, E-Government Policy, Information Security Policy, Code of Ethics, Public Records Policies)
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General Best Practices
Be clear. Make it clear what you will be posting so that you will get users who are most interested in that type of information.
Be there. Any social media page must be maintained frequently.
Be personal. Speak as “I,” not “the library.” Speak as a person and be friendly, just as you would in a physical library setting.
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Notifications & Comments
Site coordinator should subscribe to notifications for comments/messages.
Staff should post-moderate daily.
Staff should reply to all comments within 24 hours.
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Handling New Technologies
Who decides when to jump on a new social media site?
What standards will be used in deciding to participate?
How can someone make a suggestion?
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Twitter-Specific Tips
What to post
Frequency
Hash tags
Following your followers
@ replies
URL shortening
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Facebook-Specific Tips
Profile vs. Page vs. Group
What to post
Setting up administrators
Frequency
Friending
Applications/Games/Causes
Events
Privacy Setting
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Tools to Use for Twitter
Statistics: Twitter Counter (http://twittercounter.com/)
Tools: Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/) – library mentions. TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/) – photos. Flickr2Twitter (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11212) & SnapTweet (http://snaptweet.com) – Flickr auto-posts. Twtpoll (http://twtpoll.com/) – polls. Screenr (http://screenr.com/) – screencasts. FutureTweets (http://futuretweets.com/) – pre-schedule Tweets. Management tools such as Seesmic, Touiter, TweetDeck, etc.
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Tools to Use for FacebookStatistics: Facebook’s internal Fan Page statistics (page
views, fans, new fans, removed fans, wall posts, photo views, etc.). Plus weekly email update w/ usage.
Tools: Flickr Tab & My Flickr (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2352557895) - Flickr auto-posts to FB. Visual Bookshelf (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2481647302) - virtual book displays. Other Facebook Apps can be used to create individualized and content-rich tabs
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General Tips for Social Media
Develop an social media plan with a budget and staff needs.
Start with the easy one-time things.
Move on to the harder, more time-consuming stuff.
Duplicate content to save time.
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General Social Media Tools
CheckUsernames.com: check username availability
Ping.fm, Hellotxt, AtomKeep: sync up posting to multiple sites
HootSuite, Seesmic, TweetDeck: manage multiple sites
Filtrbox, MyBUZZmonitor: impact/stats
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Successful Launches
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Planning a Launch
Develop a list of existing pages/profiles
Meet with key stakeholders first
Hold team/branch trainings and talks
Encourage and acknowledge participation
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Getting Staff Buy-In
Educate, educate, educate.
Inform early and constantly.
Ask for & use input.
Demand consistent managerial support.
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Staff Training
Part of training is information.
Provide staff exposure at least 1 month before soft launch
Offer staff formal training in that time
- Play with it, touch it, and learn it.
- Fun. Rewards. Food.
- Types and numbers of trainings
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Soft Launches
Beta test everything!1. Launch for a small group of staff first (to find
big bugs).
2. Launch for entire staff (and ask for feedback, problems, suggestions).
3. Launch for users (without “hard” promotion and ask for feedback).
4. Do a hard launch and promote.
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Assess projects thoughtfully
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Evaluating New ServicesSurvey users and staff 6 months in
Would you recommend this service to a friend? Why or why not?
Evaluate the library's follow-through
Has adequate marketing and training been done?
Evaluate statistics
service use vs. staff time ROI
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Project Evaluation Plan
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Results of EvaluationContinue service
or
Discontinue service
or
Extend pilot
and - change aspects of the service - do more promotion or training
Discontinuing a service is not failing.
Persisting in a failed effort is failing.
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Marketing ≠ Bookmarks
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F2F World Marketing Ideas Intentional communication & discussion Outreach to partners & community
groups Dynamic physical marketing
LCD screens in-library or in the community
really nice flyers, posters geocaching in the community
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Online Marketing Ideas Library website promotions Have a good service URL (sjpl.org/social) Promote one network through another Short promotions on receipt printers, email
alerts, newsletters, catalog Ensure search engine findability Events websites (Eventful, Going, Upcoming) Get links from partners
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Rejoice in failures...for failing indicates that you
have encountered a boundary that needs testing.
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Questions?
Sarah Houghton-Janweb: LibrarianInBlack.net
email: [email protected]
IM: LibrarianInBlack
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLiB
Skype: LibrairanInBlack
Facebook: facebook.com/librarianinblack