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classes-online-outreach-social

Page history last edited by pollyalida 12 years, 1 month ago

Wiki Main Page > Digital Presence & Online Outreach for Libraries >Be Where Your Users Are

 

Digital Presence & Online Outreach :: Be Where Your Users Are

 

Be Where Your Users Are

 

"The social web ... represents a cultural shift towards expression, collaboration, and interaction. Increasingly, Internet users are not satisfied with simply reading web pages. They are beginning to expect the opportunity to interact online with their bank, retailer, and (why not?) their library." from Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library by Steve Campion

 

  • Be where your users are and connect on a human level
  • Provide tools to search the catalog, get assistance, access databases, etc.
  • Be their "question answering service"!
  • Interact with users - answer queries, ask for input, respond and thank them. 

 

Social Spaces

There are so many social spaces available today, something for everyone's interests. You don't need to maintain a fully committed presence in all of them, but your library should be present on the major networks. And if you don't have time to maintain a truly active presence on all of them (who does!) at least make sure you have something there that will lead people back to the spaces where you are active. 

 

To cover more ground, get your staff involved and interacting in a social space that interests them personally - creative ideas will come out of it! Your knitters may find a way to connect with patrons through the Ravelry web site. Online book clubs at sites like LibraryThing and GoodReads are a natural connection with library patrons. Photography fans will find ways to connect with other local photographers through flickr. The list goes on....

 

The biggies: Facebook & Twitter

 

  • Twitter
    • So easy to get started. Try it out with your own personal account - get a feel for how it works. Find colleagues, see who they follow, build your own Personal Learning Network. People who you can share with.
    • Establish a library account
      • Update with news & events, feed your blog posts to it, retweet interesting news from your community, post interesting new resources you find.
      • Post photos of things going on in your library.  Post trivia questions.  Ask for feedback. 
      • Keep up to date on mentions of your library and respond if you can help.
      • Promote it in your library, newsletters, web page.
    • Resources & Tips

 

  • Facebook - Use the Create a Page feature to set up a page for your library. People who LIKE your page will see your library's news in their own news feed.
    • Conversations - Start discussions by asking questions and encouraging people to leave answers. Once people comment, be sure to continue the conversation with them.  Use the Notes section of your page to have a lengthy conversation about a topic or host a chat event on a regular basis.  The Night Owls discussion from Cuyahoga County PL is great example of how to do this. 
    • Share the wealth - Find the Facebook pages of other organizations in your community. Add them to your library's FAVORITE PAGES listing. Scour their pages for interesting news and events. Use the sharing options to post their content on your page. And encourage them to post your content on theirs. Wider exposure and connections for everyone.
    • Post Good Stuff! - Add news, updates about services, ask for input from community, post photos of events, be human and have fun. 
    • Automatic posting - If your library has blogs, don't forget to post that info to Facebook also.  Use an application like (RSSGraffiti) to automatically pull in news from your libary blog.
    • Events - Add news about upcoming events to your library's Wall. For big events, consider using the Events option to really highlight that big event. Your followers will receive an invite to the event.
    • Promote your page - Let people know you have a Facebook page. Post it on your website, blog, etc. Add it to printed materials, promote it in your library. Use Social Plugins to include a Facebook widget on your web pages.
    • Fan of the Week - This app automatically picks a 'fan of the week' based on interaction with your FB page. 
    • More Tips
    • Library Examples

 

Productivity Tips: 

You'll save time by posting content to both Twitter & Facebook at the same time. 

    • Twitter --> Facebook (tutorial)
      • In Facebook, search for the applicatiom Selective Tweets. Add it and configure it.
      • Then from twitter,  simple put #fb on the end of your tweet to have it go directly to Facebook.
    • HootSuite - Web based application for managing twitter, facebook. linked in and other accounts.
    • Ping.fm - covers a few dozen social media tools. Lets you update them all or selected ones. You can create groups of servicesc too.

 

  • Google+  more soon..... 

 

 

 

And more...

  • Foursquare - Have you checked to see if you have people "checking in" at your library? 

 

  • LibraryThing - This is a wonderful community for people who love books. Join in the fun and share your favorite books and thoughts. 
    • Add your library's catalog to the list of "Book Links". Then let your community know they can find you there. When they find a book they're interested in, all they have to do is click on your catalog link to see if you have the book.
    • Add your events to the Library Thing Local service
    • Set up a group in LibraryThing for discussing and sharing with your community. (Example: luv2read - San Jose PL Teen book group)
    • Add books! Perhaps a staff picks approach like Allen County (IN) PL is doing. They add a link back to their catalog in the comments section.
    • Use TwitterFeed to feed your blog, events, new books, etc into your Twitter account - anything that has an RSS feed.
    • HootSuite helps you manage multiple Twitter accounts and share the maintenance of the accounts with other staff members. 

 

 

More Resources

 

Be Available

If we don't do it, others will - and hey, guess what? They have! 

  • kgb - text to 542542 and for 99 cents (+ your own carrier charges) kgb gets you an answer.
  • ChaCha - text to 242242, free except for your phone's regular texting charges.
  • Vark - Gets answers from your own social network.

 

You answer questions at the desk, you answer your phone, you answer email questions, why not use Instant Messaging services and texting services. I don't remember the advent of phone reference, but I do remember the beginning of email reference and I bet the objections I heard about email were the same with the phone and are the same you're hearing about IM and texting!  "if they can't be bothered to come into the library...., we'll be swamped with questions...., how will we make sure questions get answered....., who's going to do the extra work.... " Sound familiar?

 

With a bit of planning and training, most staff will be comfortable with the tools. That is key! Staff just need practice to see how easy it is to use the tools and understand who's going to be monitoring the service.

 

Need some talking points to convince the staff and/or administration? Read this terrific post by Aaron Schmidt: IM talking points and check out this list of libraries providing IM and text reference.

 

How to get started with IM services

  • Pick a user name for your IM service and open accounts on all the major services. AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, Jabber and any others your customers might use. Don't know what they use? Ask them! 
  • Use a handy tool like Meebo to funnel all your instant message services into one place.
  • Then include your IM name on your business cards, web pages, use it as a screensaver on your public computers, plaster it everywhere!
  • Think your customers won't use IM? Maybe they won't, but they'll probably use the chat box you can put on your web pages. They don't need their own IM account to get help when they need it. Demo for Class: Blog page with meebo widget on the side.
  • The meebo chat box is a widget that can be placed just about anywhere. Take a look at these examples
  • Try adding a chat box to your test wiki page here. In Meebo, it's listed under Preferences --> MeeboMe Widgets

 

SMS Texting

Can I make a public confession? I don't text well. The buttons on my phone are so small, just dialing a phone number is a challenge. I don't want to text on it. But that's just me!  Tons of other people do text and for them it's second nature. So why not make it easy for them to text you too.

 

There's a handy way to use your AOL IM account to receive texts.

  • Send text to: 265010
  • Send the message in this format, using your AIM user name
    • pollyalida: are you open tmrw?
  • If you're using meebo, that message will pop up in a window and you can reply right from there! 
  • For more info, check out the Online Reference page on the LibSuccess wiki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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