Social Networking & Libraries: Best Practices & Challenges

Social Networking & Libraries
Best Practices & Challenges
EllyssaKroski
http://www.ellyssakroski.com

Agenda
What is Social Networking?
Why Should We Care?
How are Libraries Using Social Networking?
Challenges & Pitfalls
Best Practices

What is Social Networking?
Social software that enables libraries to interact with and build community with their patrons.
A new way to provide information & offer services to library patrons “where they live”.
Another access point to the library & its website.

Why Social Networking?
Facebook has more than 300 million active users
Hundreds of millions of videos are viewed every day on YouTube
Twitter has over 3.5 million users
There are over 133 million blogs
Wikipedia has over 10 million articles written in over 200 languages
Facebook has more than 700 million photos uploaded to the site each month
Americans spend an average of 14 hours per week on the Web

How are Libraries Using Social Networking?
Social Networking Communities
Blogs
Microblogs
Lifestreams
Media Sharing
Interactive Subject Guides
Incorporating Social Features into Library Websites & Catalogs

Goals of Social Networking?
Build Community
Promote Library Services
Promote Library Holdings
Promote Library Events
Provide Recommended Resources
Communicate with Patrons
Gather & Track Valuable Feedback

Challenges & Pitfalls

The Barren Profile

The Busy

The Unidentified???

The un“Friend”ly

The Forgotten

The “wish they’d forgotten”

9 Tweets over 6 days about the same topic

6 posts in one day, nothing for 6 days.

Best Practices

Creating engaging experiences on Social Networks

Library Events

Integrated Blog

Ask-A-Librarian

Catalog & Database Apps

Blogs for Providing News & Resources

News Vehicles

Subject Resources

Reader’s Advisory

Patron Conversations

Reading Programs

Book Clubs

Communicating with Patronson Twitter

Library News

Promotion

Updates
Twitter

Library Blog

New Acquisitions

Library Photos

Aggregating Content with Lifestreams

National University of Singapore Libraries

The Libraries of UT HSC SA

NE Library Commission

Creating Media Resources

Special Collections

Oral Histories & Interviews

Library Events

Library Tours

Research Recommendations

Instruction

Creating interactive guides to research

Boston College University Libraries

Dalhousie University Libraries

Allegheny College Library

University of Michigan Library

Incorporating Social Networking in the Website

Library of Congress

Yarra Plenty Regional Library

Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

TSCPLIM in the Catalog

Nashville Public Library

Social Networking in the Catalog

Darien Library

Yale University Library

Ann Arbor District Library

Hennepin County Library

WorldCat

Best Practices - Planning
Develop a social media policy
Provide training
Start with a Need
Know Your Users
What are other Libraries doing?
Develop a strategy
Determine Success Metrics
Allocate time & resources appropriately

Best Practices - Implementation
Integrate with library website
Cross-platform promotion
Consistent logo/signage everywhere
Adopt tools to duplicate content
Adopt tools to organize info consumption
Keep content updated
Engage with your community
Widgets & Mobile versions
Market it!

Ping.fm

TweetDeck

Widgetbox

Mofuse

Winksite

Best Practices- Facebook
Register Library Name
FBML
Social RSS
Integrate blog & Facebook
Integrate Ask a Librarian
Catalog Search Applications
Create & List Events
Post interesting content

Facebook - FBML

Facebook - Social RSS

Best Practices- Twitter
Co-Tweet to Schedule Tweets
Know Your Lingo
Re-Tweet - @
Hash tags - #
TwitterFeed to Feed in Blog Posts, New Acquisitions and more.

Twitter - Co-Tweet

Twitter - TwitterFeed

Best Practices - Media Sharing
A Library Profile is a Must!
Put content on iTunes as well as YouTube

Best Practices – Subject Guides
Librarian Photos
IM client
Custom Search Engines
Organize content with tabs
Include interactive content!

Pitfalls
Using tech for tech’s sake
Spamming the News Feed
Marketing Crap
Inane tweets (eating a sandwich)
Outdated info
Library info not visible
No dialogue
Not friending

Assessment
Blogs
Analytics software
News reader subscribers
Comments & email feedback
Technorati & Google Blog Search discussions
Delicious bookmarks
Facebook
Friends
Comments & email feedback
‘Ask a Librarian’ reference stats increase
Twitter
Followers
Retweets & @Replies
TwitterSearch discussions
TwitterCounter, TweetStats
Flickr/YouTube Stats
LibGuides Stats

SiteMeter Stats

Google Reader Subscribers

Delicious Stats

TwitterCounter Stats

TweetStats

Flickr Stats

YouTube Stats

LibGuides Stats

Questions?
EllyssaKroski
ellyssakroski@yahoo.com
http://www.ellyssakroski.com
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian

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Social Networking & Libraries: Best Practices & Challenges

by Ellyssa Kroski

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