After doing brand monitoring research for the past few weeks, looking closely at Skokie Public Library (and not so closely at several other libraries), I decided to put together a list of “do’s and don’ts” for librarians on successfully utilizing social media.

This is what I learned from doing brand monitoring and what I personally would recommend to libraries that are getting started with social media.

Tip #1: Learn how to monitor your brand

Join the RIGHT conversations at the RIGHT time. In other words, stay on top of what people are saying about you and make sure to respond, to let people know that you are listening and willing to join the conversation.

Tools to utilize for brand monitoring include RSS feeds, Google Alerts, Technorati, and staying on top of your Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts. This is definitely the number 1 lesson I learned from this assignment.

Tip #2: Learn from your brand community

You’re already engaging in conversations, why not ask people for some feedback? There are plenty of quick and easy ways to get good information that will help you keep learning from what you’re doing and improving the process as you go along. Just make sure not to overdo it; remember to always engage in conversations as a person.

Tip #3: Have a game plan

Set goals, measure and iterate your social media efforts in order to continue to grow and improve your efforts. Make sure everyone who is involved in your social media strategy clearly understands the role and goals of this initiative. There’s nothing worse than joining a social network with no purpose, plan or a way to measure what you’re doing.

By using trackable links (like bit.ly or su.pr) to help track what your users are responding to, you will be able to measure your efforts and make improvements.

Tip #4: Promote, promote, promote

I noticed a lot of libraries who do wonderful things on Facebook, Twitter or Flickr yet they don’t include links to their social networks on their websites. Or libraries that use Twitter often but don’t follow anyone; that’s not a good way to start a conversation.

A library website should be an entry point to social media; you need to create awareness. People should not have to search for you on Facebook, or Twitter, you should reach out to every member of your community first.

Tip #5: Allow open, yet governed access for your employees

This is where a social media policy comes in. By making sure everyone who is involved in your efforts understands what to do (what they’re allowed to say, how they should respond in different situations, etc) you won’t have to monitor what each person does. Instead, you will be able to focus on making improvements.

One tip about your social media policy — make sure it’s succinct and to the point, otherwise no one will want to read it.

Tip #6: Stay relevant and be helpful

Use social media to build trust, credibility and awareness in your community. Instead of broadcasting information, try creating conversations. Remember, speaking doesn’t always result in being heard.

Be helpful, stay relevant and focus on your community’s needs. It’s also important to humanize your efforts; don’t hide behind your library’s logo, allow your users to get to know you as a person.

Tip #7: Give your community room to grow

Focus on small, consistent and ongoing change. Let your members decide how they want to use “their” online community. Listen to what they have to say and change your goals and objectives based on how your community wants to utilize social media.

Tip #8: Remember, you’re not alone

By building relationships with key people within your community who also utilize social media you can leverage your efforts and obtain better reach. People who are influencers, those who are natural communicators or leaders in your community can help your social media efforts immensely. Identify these people and ask for help. Word of mouth can be very powerful.

Tip #9: Go where your users are

Remember, you don’t have to be an early adopter. It is much better to wait for your community to start utilizing the technology before adding it to your social media arsenal. In short, go where your users are. It’s much easier for someone to join you on Facebook or Twitter if the person actually uses the technology.

Tip #10: Lead change

This is important, especially for libraries that can be very resistant to change at times: if you want to lead change, find one thing you said no to in the past and give it a try.

This is actually something I heard at a digital marketing conference I got a chance to attend last month, but I think it applies great to libraries and social media.

I first found out about the Poken at a digital marketing conference I got a chance to attend a couple of weeks ago. I immediately thought about the possibilities this small gadget holds for libraries and how libraries and users can benefit from this tool. I got even more excited about it when I realized that this little thing called Poken (that kind of looks like a toy) ties into my research paper for the class.

But first, let me explain what a Poken can do.

What’s a Poken?

A Poken is a small USB tool that allows you to exchange your social networking information with other people who have a Poken. So when you meet someone new, instead of exchanging business cards, email addresses, or other information, you simply touch your Pokens together to get connected. Once you “poken” you still have the option to accept and deny the new connection. The Poken also allows you to share only the information you choose in your “digital business card.”

To put it briefly, it’s the easiest and fastest way to share online social networking information with others. And that’s where libraries and library users can benefit from this simple, little tool.

Poken in the Library

By placing a Library Poken at a central place (maybe near circulation? the reference desk? maybe all librarians should carry them around?) users can easily get the library’s social networking details like the library’s Facebook page, Twitter account, Flickr account, etc. and vice versa; the library can get information about their users and see which social networking sites they’re using, which can be very useful for the library in terms of planning and implementing new social networking technologies.

Library users benefit from the ease, simplicity and speed of the device. Libraries also benefit by being able to easily connect with patrons, but they gain even more by being able to learn about users and their social networking preferences. We all know how difficult it can be to choose the right social networking technologies to implement at the library and then promote them to patrons. The Poken can play a key role in both of these areas.

The Problem with the Poken

At the moment, one problem with the Poken is that it’s not very popular. Yet. At only $20 a piece, I think it has the potential to become widespread.

Another problem is with the privacy of the device. When you add your social networks to your Poken account you’re asked to enter your password to verify that the account is really yours; the Poken website states that passwords are not stored and that they’re only used to confirm your accounts, but I still don’t think that’s very safe. On the other hand, many applications and websites ask for both usernames and passwords to your social networking accounts in order to verify that you own them.

I guess only time will tell if the Poken will be the next essential little gadget that everyone will one day have.

I did find one library that started using a Poken, and as you might have guessed the library is in the Netherlands.

Further Reading:

• Do You Poken? (or have business cards gone the way of the Dodo?)
• I wanna love the Poken (but I can’t)

There are a couple of topics I’m considering for my research paper.

heart & trust

The first is what intrigued me during our first weekend in class; the importance of positive human interaction in libraries.

How we can encourage kindness and trust through library 2.0 technologies.

How social networking can be the vehicle for creating closeness and connecting library users with each other and the library staff.

How an online community for library users can create excitement and passion for services, programs, library materials and the library itself.

This topic would also lead to an analysis of how libraries can create a positive presence on the web; and how the physical and virtual spaces can remain consistent and interconnected, one being the extension of the other.

I’m thinking this would be more of a list of best practices that libraries can use to evolve their online presence and start utilizing library 2.0 technologies with their users in mind.

decisions & change

The second idea that I’m considering was inspired by my recent readings of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point (two great reads, by the way).

There are a lot of ideas in the two books, but what I found particularly interesting, and what I think would be extremely useful to libraries, is understanding the process of finding out what people really want before deciding on making a change (Blink) and then how to make that change really happen (The Tipping Point).

In reading Blink I learned that in order to find out what people really want, asking them is not the way to go because usually people don’t know what they want. This seems counterintuitive at first, but the truth is that people are not always good at explaining what they want, and more often than not, they really, truly don’t know what they want. This is why it’s so difficult for libraries to find out what technologies or services their patrons would like see implemented; asking them simply doesn’t work.

The second part of this is change; in The Tipping Point, Gladwell shows why some ideas take off and become popular and others don’t. There are some really important and practical lessons that libraries can learn on how ideas spread. So that once you find out what your users really want you’re able to implement that change in the right way and ensure its success.

So the questions I would be dealing with are:

1. how can libraries identify which library 2.0 technologies should be implemented, or simply what’s the best way to find out what patrons really want
2. how can library 2.0 technologies be implemented with success; how will patrons find out about them and learn how to use them

Wow, I guess writing this out really helped me decide which topic I should go with; I could go on and on about each, but at the moment I’m leaning towards my second choice :)

One statement that stuck with me through the Library 2.0 readings was a sentence from Blyberg’s post “The frantic search to find our niche is only beginning.” Blyberg’s statement, which sounds unremarkable and obvious, is, in my opinion, a fundamental question and a starting point for any library determined to embrace change and Library 2.0 ideals. I’m not sure if the word “frantic” is entirely necessary, but I do think it’s important to evaluate not only the diverse needs of our communities but also what each library is able to offer to its users. By that I mean establishing what materials, services and programs you’re able to offer with the resources that you have that will support your community.

The whole idea behind a niche is worth examining. I struggle to understand libraries that throw a bunch of new services or tools together without any rhyme or reason, never taking the time to evaluate if they’re supporting the mission and goals of the library. Trying to be everything to everyone and at the same time not taking into consideration the needs of users and the capabilities and resources of staff is a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s important for libraries to experiment with different technologies and tools that are becoming available. But isn’t it also important for libraries to stay focused on their users?

I guess what my point is that Library 2.0 tools should be implemented with the consideration of the community’s needs, the library’s resources, and the library’s niche within its community. Which comes down to, what the library can offer that no one else can in the same way. And I’m not talking about being unique, just relevant and useful, as Sarah Houghton pointed out. Implementing changes as a reaction to technology is not the answer. Competing with Google is not the answer. We shouldn’t be motivated by fear of search engines taking over and providing our users with the information that we want to provide them; just as library 2.0 tools shouldn’t be implemented as a reaction to search engines or other emerging technologies. Instead, we should focus on the real needs of our users, on what we can offer them that Google can’t. Change within our libraries should be motivated by a deep understanding of our library users and their needs. The resulting niche will evolve from the carefully selected Library 2.0 services that cater specifically to our communities.

On second thought, maybe I’m taking this niche idea too seriously. Maybe it is better for libraries to be unfocused, experimental, maybe even a bit vague and undefined.

What do you think?

Hi everyone! I’m so happy to be taking this class with all of you; not only is the material super interesting but we get to learn how WE can make a difference in our libraries through library 2.0 concepts. How cool is that?

What I found interesting this weekend was the discussion of the importance of the human aspects of libraries — kindness, trust and heart (all the “I love my library!” examples). We often get so hung up on the new technologies, or as Michael called it “technolust,” that we forget what’s really important and that’s human contact. I’m guilty of this myself; it’s hard to remember that all these wonderful new technologies that I so easily fall in love with (and subsequently get addicted to) are just tools.

So what do I hope to get out of this class? Well, I’ve been using social networking technologies for the past 2 years that I have been working for Train Signal. I currently manage the content on our blogs, use Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr and a few others to connect with our customers and offer support. What I want to learn is how these technologies can be successfully implemented in libraries and how we can improve library services in innovative ways.

I look forward to learning and sharing information about library 2.0 with all of you. See you in class! (and on Twitter :)