18. our blog policy be accountable own your content write relevant content be respectful be confidential respect copyright obey the law remember the handbook
19. Twitter policy: Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can’t control it once you hit “update.”
listening, planning, responding, opening up Guidelines & policies Timesavers & tools Q & A in each section!
For starters - 4 things your library must do when using social media tools. Especially a new tool. listen, plan, respond, and open up. Let’s dive in to each of these...
You need to listen first. listening is probably the most important thing you can do when starting to use a new service. When going to a social event - most of us don’t burst in, say “I’m here!” etc. We enter the room, look around to see who’s there, start listening to conversations, find one that works for us, and only then join in. Same way in social networks. sign up for account, enter profile info, find people you know & subscribe/friend, start listening to conversations.
are they talking about you? cause they’re talking about their favorite stuff. Not their fav stuff? That’s not a social media problem, is it? who’s the audience? probably not who you’d assume - ie., my mom. topics close to your heart what they say in general about where you live, issues of the day how they say it - lingo, slang, etc - & how they say it via text, pics, videos, likes, etc this helps you figure out the lay of the land in that social network - how you can fit in, how to add your own stuff
another thing to notice - If so, then you need to be there too. If they’re not there? Seriously, move on! Or - figure it out & be there already for when your patrons catch up.
Seen in the HyVee meat department! easy way to see if your patrons are there or not - seen any twitter and FB signs in your community? If so - they’re probably already there. Library, Blue Planet coffeeshop, PT’s coffee, Jones Huyett advertising, WIBW, Topeka Bible Church, Topeka Subway sandwiches, supersonic music, and 785 magazine - just a small sampling of Topeka businesses on Twitter, Facebook, etc. also - look over their shoulders, listen to conversations (even out), etc...
This part’s easy. set up google alerts, youtube searches set up twitter searches Watch the activity feed in whatever social network you’re interested in (twitter, facebook, blip.fm, etc all have this)
google alerts - email or RSS - for a blog search.
Twitter search for my library. Yay - not just us!
zipcode search with library as search term #1 - me #2 - is not good! #3 - another library #5 - sorta funny (not my library) #6 - gold! This one’s us. It should be shared with admin, other staff, etc.
planning = setting goals - who does the work - what will you post - what’s success look like? - #s, interactions, conversations had? General awareness? then formalize it - so it’s not extra work...
getting people to participate ask. be human. think business casual say it like you speak it. Use conversational language - some of us learned to write in a formal tone ... you’ll need to dump a lot of that for the web. reply in twitter, comment and like in facebook leave comments on your patron’s blogs don’t be a corporate schnozz. Instead, be a real person goal here? - answer questions, correct info, generally be helpful - make the library seem real, friendly ... - and a service I can’t live without!
simply put, people connect with people. - transparency. anonymous, first name - what message does that send? - open staff participation - I might chat with them first - empowers staff to do their jobs. we do this physically - no one’s editing your answers at the ref desk, right? - open comments - not really a problem
It’s imperative that you know your patrons & community. - check out what they do on your PCs - realize that the people who use your physical library might not be your primary audience (TSCPL as example) - largest growth potential is outside the city in the county. Those people don’t use their library.
for us, goal is to let staff do their jobs. plan for system goals and current best practices then deal with exceptions as needed
adapted from michaelhyatt.com
from http://www.gruntledemployees.com/gruntled_employees/2009/03/a-tweetable-twitter-policy.html Even shorter policy.
We have this posted beside our comment boxes on our website. Not on social media sites (yet): we encourage comments! - stay on topic, be polite Some don’ts - don’t spam, don’t post copyrighted material, don’t be obscene, libelous, defamatory, or hateful, don’t post your address or phone number what will we do? - we’ll respond to comments. sometimes we’ll join in to get people talking. if you break our rules, we will ask you to stop publicly, and we will delete your comments and block you from posting if it continues. we’ll remove any comments that are obviously commercial or spammy, or comments that are mean.
that’s great. They’re learning a new tool, and eventually they’ll be able to use it for the library. They can actually already use it for the library - if they post cool stuff the library’s doing to their friends. Don’t focus on should they or shouldn’t they - instead, focus on if they’re getting work done. Otherwise, it’s a performance issue that really has nothing to do with Facebook.
hootsuite & tweetdeck. Columns of groups, searches, and some functional stuff like mentions and DMs. Easy way to follow lots of people without being overwhelmed. Hootsuite costs if you want to use its full functionality in a team setting.
Postling - one place to follow facebook, twitter, flickr, linkedin, wordpress comments. I get a daily email from them.
also has some analytics - posts to comment ratio.
socialmention is interesting, too - shows mentions of you on the web, in social networks, etc. Also shows sentiment, keywords used, etc. also seems a bit spammy at times. I haven’t figured that out yet.
library search - topeka library local area search - with zipcodes search for issues, books, reading, movies, etc
weekly emails from twitter and facebook youtube, facebook insights
new stats from Facebook - shows right with the status update on a facebook page if you’re logged in. Impressions - shows reach (your own followers, plus whoever re=sent the message, I think). And feedback - shows a percentage for likes and comments.
Facebook Insights - gender and age is useful and interesting Mostly adult women - we either already have content they want, or we have a huge untapped market there.
i get this in my email every week
flickr and youtube have stats, too. Twitter does via 3rd party services. Youtube shows basic demographics, views, etc.
