Socially Challenged? Not Us! Using Social Media to Advance Your Library
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Presented by Jaime K. Barrilleaux, LOUIS Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, is a powerful, viable (and free!) tool for academic libraries. Networking sites can be used to market your services, provide real-time updates, and promote library events. Learn how to get started making your presence known, ways you can use social media to benefit your library (and why you should), and ways you can manage it so that it doesn’t consume your life.
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Socially Challenged? Not Us! Using Social Media to Advance Your Library
- 1. Socially Challenged? Not Us! Using Social Media to Advance Your Library Jaime K. Barrilleaux, LOUIS LLA 2015 Annual Conference Thursday, March 26, 2015 11:00 – 11:45 AM Shreveport Convention Center Room 206
- 2. Talking Points • Why it Matters • Establish your Presence • Make your Presence Known • Manage your Presence • Other Tips & Tricks
- 3. Social media - why does it matter? • Levels the playing field • Engages the community • Opportunity to shape your public image and your message • Gather real-time analytics • Large return on a small investment (Dryden 1, Mercadal, Munger 8)
- 4. I’m in! How do I get started? Don’t let this scare you! Getting Started: • Start small • Gather connections • Join groups • Make it a habit (Johnson 18 )
- 5. Like Us! Follow Us! • Use icons and links • Create & publish advertisements • Use link shorteners • Use QR codes • Run campaigns and contests
- 6. Facebook Cover Photo Friday Ellender Memorial Library, Nicholls State University
- 7. Use it or lose them! • Make it a habit! • New content • Cohesive message • Be present • Stimulate responses (Dryden 18, 2; Johnson
- 12. Share Yourself!
- 13. Don’t fear the h8trs! • Don’t fear the negative • Don’t let it stop you • Few and far between • Be a customer service hero, not a zero! (Evans 67; Johnson; Munger 8)
- 14. Other Tips & Tricks • Use tagging as much as possible • Don’t hate the hashtag • Don’t go overboard with the hashtag • Use link shorteners when posting links • Visual content is popular and stimulating
- 15. I need some help… • Few can afford dedicated teams • Our time is valuable • Our days are busy • Social media management tools • Buffer – www.bufferapp.com
- 16. Questions? Ooh! Look at the time... Email me – jaimeb@lsu.edu
- 17. References • Evans, L. (2010). Social media marketing: strategies for engaging in Facebook, Twitter, & other social media. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing. • Johnson, G. (2013). Why social media matters. Money Management, 27(12), 18. • Mercadal, T. (2014). Social media marketing. Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx ?direct=true&db=ers&AN=90558461&site=eds- live&scope=site&profile=eds-main • Munger, M. (2012). Why social media suddenly matters. Hudson Valley Business Journal, 23(8), 8. • Thomsett-Scott, B. C. (Eds). (2014). Marketing with social media: a LITA guide. Chicago: American Library Association.
- 18. Additional Resources • Koontz, C. & Mon, L. (2014). Marketing and social media: a guide for libraries, archives, and museums. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield. • Shulman, J., Yep, J. & Tome, D. (2015). Leveraging the power of a Twitter network for library promotion. Journal of Academic Librarianship 41, 178-185. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.12.004 (Found on Twitter!) • Marketing with Social Media: a LITA Guide has suggested reading lists.
- 19. Web Resources • Bit.ly – link shortener (https://bitly.com/) • Hootsuite – management platform (https://hootsuite.com) • Buffer – management platform (https://bufferapp.com/) • QR Code Generator – generate free QR codes (www.qrstuff.com)
Editor's Notes
- Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but we’re getting there. And we’d like to help you get there too. Before I get started, let me tell you a bit about myself. I earned my MLIS in December 2012 from the University of Southern Mississippi I have experience working in public libraries, academic departments, and in and with academic libraries. I have worked for LOUIS just shy of two years. At every level of my experience, I have been involved in community outreach – whether that community was the general public, students and faculty, or other librarians.
- Levels the playing field: more level playing field where organizations of all types and sizes and levels of funding have the opportunity to launch marketing campaigns to large, diverse audiences Engages the community: social media allows you to create your own community by connecting with other individuals, groups, and organizations that share your passions and interests. Allows you the possibility to engage with thousands of users – library users and beyond. Allows you to micro-target audiences without cost and effort of mailouts and email lists. Shape image & message: marketing is all about reaching customers – in our case library users – and creating connections that resonate with them. Social media is a platform that allows you to make these connections and get your brand and message out there. Neglecting to engage via social media could mean you are missing out on vital opportunities to shape your public image and message, instead putting this power in the hands of others who may not fully understand your vision, mission, or message, or have a message in direct opposition to your own Gather real-time analytics: we librarians are all about the stats and impact measures. Most, if not all, social media platforms have advanced analytics systems built in that allow you to view and assess the impact of your message in real-time
- Start small: begin with one, maybe two social media accounts. You can research and test to see which might work best for you. Or you can start with the two most popular – Facebook and/or Twitter. Get your toes wet before you dive in the deep in the pool. Gather connections: begin by liking or following library organizations and groups, such as ALA, ALATech, LITA; like or follow library vendors, such as EBSCO, ProQuest, Springshare, particularly if you subscribe to their content, products, or services. Most importantly, follow your fellow libraries and librarians. Often they will like or follow you back. Join groups: interact with the connections you’ve made. If some of these have closed groups you are eligible to join for a deeper level of interaction, do so. Don’t be shy! Make it a habit: social media does require commitment and action. The level of involvement is up to you and your library and should be decided at the onset. Make it a habit to browse through your social media feeds at least once a day. Posting should also become a habit and I’ll discuss ways to manage that effectively later in the presentation.
- Encourage users to like and follow you by letting them know where to find you. It also doesn’t hurt to provide them with easy ways to get there. Use icons and/or links on your website, your subject guides, in your emails signatures. Create and publish ads using the same icons found on your website. I often use PowerPoint to create quick ads. There is open source software that functions much like Photoshop, for more advanced desktop publishing. Put shortened links and/or QR codes on your published ads so users can easily find you Run campaigns and contests. Play the long game - a favorite is the “like” campaign for Facebook. You set a threshold of likes you want to reach and the person who hits that threshold is specially featured and/or given a prize Play the short game – run frequent, standard campaigns
- Ellender Library currently runs this campaign twice a week – on Tuesday and Friday. They have students stop in the library and have their picture taken for a chance to be featured in their Facebook cover photo.
- Provide a steady stream of new content. Maintain a consistent voice or tone in your postings to convey a cohesive message about the library and its mission Embrace conversation. Interact with your users and encourage them to interact with each other. Ask questions. Seek feedback.
- This is a simple way to promote discovery on your social media accounts. If your OPAC generates permalinks to resources, you can post links directly to resources in your library catalog.
- Share your work – show your users what you do for them. More importantly, share yourself having fun with what you do. Share your passion. They will in turn share theirs with you.
- Social media is the movement of the spoken word of mouth into the written word of mouth. The conversation hasn’t changed, the medium has. People are going to talk about you with or without you – so it makes more sense to get involved and turn some negatives into positives. Respond to negative comments and take a stand politely. Respond to legitimate user complaints regarding services, etc. by acknowledging the user, the legitimacy of their complaint, and offer a solution.
- We use Buffer to manage our social media. You can use this in a browser, through an app on your phone, or on the social media sites linked to your management account. These accounts allow you to schedule posts in advance. They also offer great analytic tools to determine reach and impact. You can also link your preferred link shortening account so that URLs are consistent and recognizable.