collaboration :: cooperation :: coordination
Social Media, Marketing & Public Libraries
Darren Sharp, Senior Consultant
Twitter: @dasharp
23 October 2009 :: LibMark Digital Marketing Seminar :: Melbourne

Company Profile
• Collabforge was formed in 2007
• Web strategy and IT development for
collaborative engagement
• Collaboration process improvement: analysis and
integration of best practice tools and process
• Experience in delivering mission critical,
high-profile Web 2.0 initiatives

Whatʼs going on?
the read/write web
web 2.0
social media
self-organisation user-led innovation
social networking
collective intelligence
an architecture for participation

Social Media: Australian snapshot
Australians are early adopters of Social Media
Three-quarters of Australian online adults now
use social media, and one-quarter create their
own content (Forrester Research)
Source: Noble, Steven (2008). 'Australian Adult Social Technographics Revealed'. Forrester Research.
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,46786,00.html

Internet Use: Australian snapshot
35-44 year olds represent the largest demographic online at 2.3 million
Even the 45-55 age group outnumber the 18-24 age group
Source: Matthew Hodgson
http://magia3e.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/social-media-not-just-for-the-young/

How has marketing changed?
Traditional Social Media
Push Pull
One-to-many Many-to-many
On message Conversational
Command & Control Peer-to-peer
Static Generative

Social Media: Connection
People, data, events and issues
Mashups, Open Access, PSI, APIs
http://www.hcplc.org/hcplc/liblocales/

Social Media: Community
The power of group-forming networks
Self-organisation
Identity representation
Common purpose
Trust & reputation

Community
Community
the power of group-forming networks

Social Media: Context
Interpret, find, personalise and complement

#hashtags
User-generated filtering

Social Media: Co-creation
Co-creation
amplify the distributed production of resources

Coordinating new forms of value
In our media 2.0, web 2.0, post-media, post-scarcity, small-
is-the-new-big, open-source, gift-economy world of the
empowered and connected individual, the value is no longer
in maintaining an exclusive hold on things. The value is no
longer in owning content or distribution.
The value is in relationships. The value is in trust.
Jeff Jarvis (2005) ‘Who wants to own content?’

What are these new (and not so new)
forms of value?
sharing reputation
collaboration attention
transparency
trust authenticity
openness

The Public Library Challenge!
1) Connect with your community via Social Media

The Public Library Challenge!
1) Connect with your community via Social Media
2) Provide access to open data, tools and APIs

Open Access to PSI

The Public Library Challenge!
1) Connect with your community via Social Media
2) Provide access to open data, tools and APIs
3) Build engaging user communities

Build a tribe!

The Public Library Challenge!
1) Connect with your community via Social Media
2) Provide access to open data, tools and APIs
3) Build engaging user communities
4) Enable crowdsourcing

NLA: Australian Newspapers
Digitisation Program
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
‘Many Hands Make Light Work: Public Collaborative OCR Text Correction
in Australian Historic Newspapers’ by Rose Holley

The Public Library Challenge!
1) Connect with your community via Social Media
2) Provide access to open data, tools and APIs
3) Build engaging user communities
4) Enable crowdsourcing
5) Facilitate the acquisition of new literacies

Summary
• Social media has transformed traditional marketing
- pull-driven, many-to-many, conversational, p2p & generative
• Emergence of new social affordances
- connection, community, context & co-creation
• New value systems are emerging
- sharing, collaboration, openness, reputation & trust
• Libraries are rich in social objects
- you can provide the right conditions for “tribes” to flourish
• Libraries are only going to become more important
- our communities need your informational leadership!

Thank you!
Darren Sharp, Senior Consultant
Collabforge
+61 (0)419 314 655
Darren.Sharp@Collabforge.com
Twitter: @dasharp