Coordinating a social media presence for the library

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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?

Facebook

- library news

- events

- parent-specific materials

Twitter

- 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: LibrarianInBlack@gmail.com

IM: LibrarianInBlack

Twitter: twitter.com/TheLiB

Skype: LibrairanInBlack

Facebook: facebook.com/librarianinblack