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Strategies for Social Media Success
Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy . . . get on the train.
—KYLE LACY, AUTHOR OF TWITTER MARKETING FOR DUMMIES
Warren Sukernek, a social media strategist, tells the story of how he made a reservation at a hotel for a family vacation to Disneyland. He later discovered that the hotel had a Twitter account and even offered a better rate for Twitter users. Sukernek quickly changed his reservation and got the better rate. He sent a tweet to the hotel to inform them of his arrival and thank them for the great discount. To his surprise, he got no response. Once at the hotel, he received excellent service and had very nice accommodations. He even tweeted this. Still no response.
What Sukernek’s story demonstrates is a common failure in social media: the misconception that it’s merely a way to broadcast messages or promotions. Despite his overall favorable experience at the hotel, Sukernek no doubt felt let down that the hotel didn’t want (or care) to actually converse with him via Twitter. Considering that the hotel actually had a Twitter account and Sukernek was advocating for its brand via that medium, it’s surprising that the hotel did not have a follow-up plan for engaging with customers. Whether by benign neglect or deliberate omission, when communication is only one way, it demonstrates that the party initiating the message doesn’t want or really care about a response. Perhaps that wasn’t the intent of the hotel in Sukernek’s anecdote, but the effect was the same: the hotel lost a prime opportunity to build a one-to-one relationship with one of its new customers simply by its apparent ignorance of customer expectations in social media.
There are a good number of social media best practices, some of which I discuss below. Become familiar with them and implement them at your library.
Social Media Profiles
One common element of all social media sites is the ability for participants to include some personal information about themselves. The amount and type may vary but nearly all allow for at least a name, a location, a website URL, and an avatar (image). Some have additional fields, such as a short bio, interests, and contact information. Regardless of what options are available, make sure that your library fills out all the information and in as much detail as it possibly can. Potential friends and followers will look at profiles in order to determine whether they want your library in their network.
Always remember why your library is in this space—to connect with others. How many people will want to connect with something that they cannot readily identify as authentic or relevant?
Your library’s profile is, in many cases, the main opportunity it will have in a particular network to establish trust. The burden of credibility is on you, so being as complete as possible is key. All too often libraries fail to include simple things such as their logo. (Don’t use a photo of your building; library buildings are almost never the same as a brand, and many avatars will be displayed at too small a size to show any real identifying details.)
Once you have your library’s profiles set up, move on to the following “next steps.”
Get a Vanity URL
On Facebook, once your library’s page has twenty-five or more fans, you can convert the long, unwieldy default URL into something easy to remember, such as www.facebook.com/examplelibrary. This makes it infinitely easier for interested patrons to find your library. Add this URL to your library’s print promotional materials and business cards. Also add a direct link using the Facebook logo on your library’s blogs and websites.
Link Your Profiles
Some (not all) social media sites allow you to connect your accounts. For example, you can synchronize your Twitter updates to your Facebook posts (using third-party applications), so you only have to post in one place and it shows up in two. LinkedIn has various applications to import your status updates from other sites as well. This strategy not only simplifies your library’s social media work, but it can also help cross-promote the library’s various social media presences. Your focus should still be on customizing content for the audience, however, because using this kind of shortcut may undermine your efforts with people who choose to follow the library in more than one way online.
Install Applications
Some sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, allow you to customize a profile with various types of add-ons, or apps. Some are useful, and some are just for fun. You will likely find some apps that are useful for making your profile more interesting or more interactive. Apps that highlight PowerPoint applications or videos from your library can provide additional content for fans. Visual content (images and videos) also tend to have a better chance of being seen in social network feeds.
Customize Your Profile Pages
Sites such as Twitter and MySpace allow users to create custom backgrounds for their profile pages. Be sure to take full advantage of this feature by using your library’s logo clearly in the background image.
BOTTOM LINE As library staff, we know that people do judge books by their covers. Your library’s social media profiles are “covers” that people will use to judge the library. Put effort into making them interesting, authentic, and inviting.
Lurk before You Leap: Learning the Community
When attending an event, it is the rare individual who can simply rush in and start chatting with the first person he or she encounters. Most people are likely to survey the crowd for a bit first in order to get a feel for any group dynamics that might be in play. This instinct is a particularly good one when it comes to social media. Once your library has set up its account on a given service, take some time to get the “lay of the land.” Even if you have some experience with other social media networks, you may be surprised to learn that the customs of one are not necessarily the same as another. For example, what your library does on Twitter will likely be significantly different from what it does on Facebook. Twitter is excellent for sharing breaking news, while Facebook is significantly better for longer posts and for publicizing upcoming events and anecdotes that may interest others.
One way to illustrate this is to do a comparison of popular social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Many people use both, because each serves a different purpose and has different customs. Looking at table 4.1, it might be simple to guess where it would be best to promote a program that is happening in the next several weeks, as compared with announcing an Internet service outage. There is certainly overlap in users between the two services, but people will tailor their posts to the medium. A researcher at Microsoft Research New England, danah boyd (she legally changed her name to all lowercase letters), ponders the differences on her blog:
Different social media spaces have different norms. You may not be able to describe them, but you sure can feel them. Finding the space that clicks with you is often tricky, just as finding a voice in a new setting can be. This is not to say that one space is better than the other. I don’t believe that at all. But I do believe that Facebook and Twitter are actually quite culturally distinct and that trying to create features to bridge them won’t actually resolve the cultural differences.1
As tempting as it might be to jump right in, it may be better to first observe the conversational syntaxes happening around you on these sites (see table 4.1). This may well save your library from committing an egregious faux pas.
Table 4.1 Comparison of Facebook and Twitter
| • Best for connecting with people you already know | • Best for connecting with people you don’t know |
| • Better for posts that are not time sensitive | • Better for time-sensitive posts |
| • Better for local news/events | • Better for content that is not localized |
| • Conversations happen less in real time | • Conversations happen more in real time |
| • Can post updates that are fairly wordy | • Limited to 140-character updates |
| • More emphasis on deep connections | • More emphasis on follower counts |
| • Complex functionality; somewhat more difficult to use | • Simple functionality; easier to use |
| • Has replaced e-mail and IM for many | • Has replaced RSS for many |
BOTTOM LINE If your library chooses to participate in more than one social network, be sure it understands the different cultures and uses of each. Social media communities have different expectations of communication.
Trust: Being Transparent
At its core, building relationships is all about building trust. Trust can only come when both parties are open about what they are doing and what they are feeling. This means participating in social media truly necessitates being transparent. People who connect with your library often will want to know more about what’s going on behind the scenes—they’re looking for a more personal experience. The more you can give them that experience, the deeper the sense of connection there may be.
Continuous, open communications are an important part of developing a relationship. But how can a library do this? Here are a few suggestions.
Find Your Library’s Voice
Remember that people are viewing your library as yet another node in their social network. This means it’s essentially the equivalent of any other person in that network. So talk like a person! Be human. Ditch the institutional jargon. Get rid of the formal tone. Social media is much more casual than most other forms of communication. Ideally, your library will have one person doing its social media work, so that the library’s voice will be consistent. However, if more than one person contributes, be sure that all of the participants understand the kind of language that will constitute online communications.
Talk About the Challenges of Your Library
It’s often easier to put on a good face and only give people the upbeat or inspiring news. But we live in a world filled with difficult news as well. Show both sides of your library’s “personality” by sharing issues that may be challenging. Let people know the library is worried that the upcoming levy may not pass. Tell them you’re just as annoyed by the self-check machines being down as they are. Show that there are human beings behind the profile who have feelings and frustrations. Be careful, though, not to let this avenue turn into a steady stream of complaints or seem overly solicitous.
Explain Changes
Did your library have to stop buying some materials due to budget cuts? Were new self-check machines installed? Whatever the situation, use social media not only to inform but also to explain and clarify. One business owner I know will spend whatever time is needed to explain the reasoning behind even minor decisions to his employees. Over time, he has found that it helps them to empathize with the store’s position if customers complain and helps them feel a part of the business. Take the time to give as much information as is reasonably possible and let your patrons feel that they are a part of the discussion.
Own Up to Your Mistakes
One of the most important parts of being transparent is being honest. If you give out incorrect information, make a public correction and apologize clearly for the error. If your library does something that garners negative feedback, don’t try to hide from it. Address it directly and publicly. Organizations make mistakes, just as people do. Stand out from the crowd by coming clean about them.
Talk About Individual Staff
“Did you know that Susan, the storytime lady, is a competitive salsa dancer? We didn’t know either until last week!” Or, “Thank goodness for Jim, who knows how to do a mail merge in OpenOffice.” (Of course, be sure that you have permission from the staff members you want to post about.) Let people see behind the scenes and connect to individuals in your library.
BOTTOM LINE Be human and talk like a human in your social media interactions. Be authentic and honest, and connections and conversations will follow.
Make an Effort to Understand Your Online Patrons
Just like any other form of patron interaction, understanding the audience is crucial. Regardless of what social media network your library chooses, some characteristics of its users will remain generally the same. Keeping these things in mind will help your library be more effective in the social media space.
People Are Busy—REALLY Busy
This is part of the appeal of social media: People can stay connected to those they know without having to sacrifice large blocks of time. Be sure whatever you post is worth the time of the people who will read it. This comes back to the idea of adding value when you participate in social media.
In addition, be aware that constant status updates can be interpreted as spam behavior. I have seen libraries put out a stream of five or more consecutive tweets in the morning, all promoting programs, and then nothing―no interaction and nothing later in the day. Not only was there no value to these tweets for me or even the average follower, but there also were so many so close together that I began to tune them out. With some of these libraries, I felt forced to “unfollow” them, as they simply filled up my Twitter stream with useless messages.
Time is a valuable commodity these days for everyone. Just because a library is a not-for-profit organization with loyal patrons is no excuse for overwhelming fans and followers. Show people you value their time, and they will be more likely to value your library in return.
People Want to Look Good
When people can share something unique and interesting with their network of friends, it helps them to accumulate social capital. Every time that your library’s posts can help someone look like they are smart, have special status, or are “in the know,” it’s a win-win situation. That person looks good to friends, and your library gets social capital as the result of having done a favor. In addition, the library has helped start a conversation.
If the library reposts something someone else on the network has said (e.g., retweeting), that makes people look good, too. It is a direct affirmation of the worth of the content’s originator.
BOTTOM LINE No matter what social network your library chooses to participate in, always remember that people appreciate the value of content. Don’t waste people’s time with posts or status updates that are just worthless fillers.
Response Time Matters More Than You May Think
In April 2009, Amazon.com apologized to Twitter users after the sales rankings and some search results for gay and lesbian literature quietly disappeared from the merchant’s site. The apology came after a tremendous online uproar with much negative criticism of Amazon and unfriendly commentary about Amazon’s new label of “adult” for the genre. The social media backlash was obviously unexpected by the online retailer. What was more surprising, however, was the further and extensive criticism leveled at Amazon for its slow response time to the concerns of its customers. When Amazon failed to respond to commentary within a day, the social media world emphatically labeled the company as uncommunicative.
Companies and organizations are learning, much to their chagrin, that communication is now 24/7. It used to be, with traditional offline media, that if a crisis happened on a Friday, you likely had the weekend to think about a response and then could implement that response the following Monday. In the social media world, twenty-four hours is a very long time. Amazon.com could have avoided at least some of the backlash simply by communicating more quickly; it failed to consider that the accelerated time frame within which social media operates can turn a relatively routine incident into a marketing crisis.
Social media happens in real or almost-real time. Participating in conversations as they happen is an absolute must for the successful organization today. Preventing a marketing crisis is not the only reason to monitor social media constantly, however. For a library, timeliness is more likely to come into play when responding to simple questions or comments. Don’t let even positive posts wait! Just as your fans and followers want your content, they also want your attention. When they don’t get it in what they perceive to be a timely manner, chances are good they’ll feel rejected and may even cease connecting at all (e.g., unfriending or unfollowing).
BOTTOM LINE Social media, in many cases, is happening in close to real time. Failure to respond promptly to a conversation, either positive or negative, can result in a great deal of harm to your library’s reputation.
Forming a Library “Friending” Policy
In earlier days of social media, it was not uncommon to see libraries with social media accounts where the library had only allowed other libraries, librarians, or perhaps authors to be “friends” of the account. Often, this was a misguided attempt to somehow gain control in a medium that is inherently very open. Sometimes, it was a lack of understanding on the part of a library’s board or administrators about what social media really is.
Unfortunately, misperceptions still persist. Once, I was contacted by a frustrated librarian whose library had a MySpace account. The librarian friended anyone who wanted to be MySpace friends, believing that the library should be accessible to all. It later turned out that some of the friends had questionable content on their profiles. The administration reacted by severely criticizing the librarian and shutting down the entire account.
This particular reaction raises several important issues:
• Part of the administration’s overreaction was likely due to a misconception about how to approach social media. Traditional marketing and reputation management resolutions are not applicable. Libraries need to understand that successful social media has a human tone. Being human means having human friends, not necessarily paragons of what we may expect our patrons to be.
• Another likely reason for this response may have resulted from a misunderstanding of what the term friend means in social media. The word does not have the same connotations as it does offline, and rarely does it refer to an actual close, personal bond.
• Whatever is on a person’s profile reflects on that person and not necessarily on the connecting friends. Unless the profile is somehow directly harming the library’s reputation, there is no reason to believe the library is somehow responsible for this content. After all, we are not personally responsible for every silly picture or off-the-wall comment that our friends post online.
• A library is a public space and thus open to everyone. Why would the library screen patrons at its virtual door who would be free to enter its physical one? Why would the library’s presence online only be open to some people and not to all?
Stories like this one serve to emphasize there is a great deal of confusion in libraries about how to handle actual connections (friends, followers, fans, etc.) in social media. Who should a library connect to? Who should it avoid? Should it be a completely open online forum? There are no truly hard-and-fast rules to follow in this regard. Table 4.2 shows some important criteria libraries can use to guide them in forming their own friending policies.
Table 4.2 Friending guidelines
| Keep | Ignore/Block |
|---|---|
| • Business or organization in your library’s service area | • Business or organization that is not in your library’s service area or has nothing to do with libraries |
| • People, even if they are not in your service area | • People, regardless of location, who use highly sexualized avatars (these are almost always spambots, not real people) |
| • People who mention the library online | • People or organizations that are overly self-promotional or constantly trying to sell something |
What about the idea of only connecting to other libraries or librarians? As mentioned previously, this is an outdated approach. There are three main problems with this: (1) it discriminates against anyone who’s not in a “library” category; (2) it will be immediately apparent when potential friends/followers look at your library’s profile that it is a closed forum; and (3) perhaps most significant, it totally ignores the whole precept of social media—to connect to a community at large.
Another common problem I’ve encountered (especially on Twitter) is the library that follows no one back. These are likely libraries that believe social media is just another way to broadcast their message, and it indicates a tremendous failure to understand the potential of the medium. Not making any connections also shows the library has no interest in listening to its patrons—not a message any institution would want to send, even inadvertently. Make sure your follower ratio is somewhat even, that your library follows back roughly the same number of people following it.
BOTTOM LINE Connect to people who want to connect to you, unless you have a very good reason not to. Your library cannot be judged by the actions of an individual who is not an actual employee of the library.
Don’t Abandon Your Fans
Social media takes time, work, and a sense of commitment. It’s something that must be tended to daily, and with care. Once your library starts acquiring friends and followers, there is an unspoken obligation to communicate regularly with them. People friend/follow with the assumption that your library will be imparting content of some interest to them.
Eventually, some of these followers will fall off to pursue other interests. However, if your library fails to post regularly, it will lose followers much more quickly, in much the same way that an apparently abandoned blog will lose readership. Use both status updates and varied conversations with followers to maintain a constant stream of communication.
BOTTOM LINE Failing to use existing social media accounts is a direct failure of communication with your library’s friends and followers.
Empowering Library Staff
This is something that can be especially difficult for library administrators to grasp. They are not alone; many for-profit workplaces restrict access to social media by employees, mistakenly believing this will somehow allow the company to control what employees do and say during work hours. Inevitably, these employees find ways around such restrictions and may end up saying more negative things about their place of employment than they might have otherwise.
Smart organizations have come to realize empowered employees make for powerful and effective social media channels. Zappos.com is often cited as a company that gets social media right; it not only uses Twitter effectively to build its customer base but also actively encourages its employees to tweet. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, says this of his company’s Twitter policy: “I think it’s important for employees to be able to express their individuality. We want our customers to feel like they are interacting with real people, not a faceless corporation.”2 Undoubtedly, this will make some people leery. Won’t staff waste inordinate amounts of time on social media? Kyle Lacy, the author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies, says:
It is time to stop being afraid of the massive force of online communication. It is time to stop putting firewalls up because you’re afraid your employees are not being productive. They are not being productive for a reason . . . and it’s not Facebook. If they love what they do . . . maybe it is time to allow them to communicate that fact . . . and if they don’t . . . you probably have more problems than communication.3
If your library would like to follow in the footsteps of Tony Hsieh, you can encourage staff to share specific types of content. Some of these might include:
• Events. Suggest that staff help promote major (not minor) events. Employees should also indicate if they are attending.
• Awards. If your library receives a community award or is ranked highly by such surveys as Hennepin or Library Journal’s 5-Star Libraries, ask employees to help spread the word. They can help make your local community proud of its library.
• Extraordinary promotions. If your library does something like “Food for Fines,” staff could help get the news out. Think of this kind of post as something done maybe three or four times a year, or the novelty will wear off quickly.
• New blog post. This isn’t to suggest that you ask your staff to promote every new post on the library blog. Rather, ask them to point to blog posts that might be very unusual (e.g., penned by the director) or to those written by third-party individuals that might mention some aspect of the library.
• New services. If your library starts doing something both new and on a large scale (e.g., switching to self-check machines), this is a prime opportunity for staff to talk about it and reassure their followers about any concerns.
• Videos. Videos can have very powerful click-through rates (especially if they’re funny). If your library makes videos for either instruction or entertainment, staff could assist in getting them seen.
BOTTOM LINE Your library’s employees can be a powerful set of connections. Use them to make your library more human, but use them sparingly.
Deciding Who’s in Charge
There is much debate about exactly who should control an organization’s social media presence. Even in the corporate world, there is not a clearly defined answer. In many cases, companies have decided that their public relations staff should manage social media: not only does their title include the word public, but they likely possess expertise in speaking to the public without jargon and in clear, concise language. However, this argument doesn’t necessarily work for libraries, where the majority of the staff probably works with the public on a daily basis. In fact, one of the most common complaints I hear from librarians is that their library’s social media is controlled by the PR department—and the kinds of communication that appear in the library’s social media are self-serving, stiff, or even arrogant.
Who’s right? And what about the teen librarian? How about the IT department? Some even consider their human resources staff for the job. Obviously, there is not a cut-and-dried answer to this question.
Mary Deming Barber, communications consultant at the Barber Group, says: “Social media is about engagement and conversation, neither of which are strengths of IT or HR. Beyond that, the decision to place ‘control’ in PR, marketing, communications or other seems to be based on an individual company and its structure.”4
Barber nails the main issue: social media is about engagement and conversation. The person responsible for the library’s social media needs to excel at this. This will not automatically mean the PR person, teen librarian, or any particular position in the library. It’s not about title or position. Your library may have a reference librarian handling social media for several months, only to have that person leave. Rather than automatically giving it to the reference librarian’s replacement, the successful library will evaluate the staff as a whole to see who is best suited for the job. Does this mean that the maintenance guy could be doing the tweeting? Possibly! The answer to the question of who’s in charge of a library’s social media is truly situational.
BOTTOM LINE Don’t assign social media work to someone based on title or how some other library has delegated the job. Make sure the person you choose is the right fit for the job.
Is a Social Media “Expert” the Answer?
Recently, there have been some comparisons between the appearance of self-proclaimed social media experts, or “gurus,” and the advent of the dot-boom era. During the early part of the first decade of the twenty-first-century, many companies believed that a fancy website or putting “.com” after their name was an automatic ticket to success. Many such organizations learned, too late, that neither strategy was a surefire way to gain customer business or loyalty. A good number of such businesses failed. In more recent times, we are seeing organizations latch onto so-called social media professionals, rather than using web designers. Instead of banking on fancy websites, this time organizations are relying on people who claim expertise in a field that has only existed in its current form for less than a decade.
Peter Shankman, social media entrepreneur and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique social media, marketing, and PR strategy firm located in New York City, describes this phenomenon:
We got thirsty again, and are drinking the same damn ten-year-old Kool-Aid without so much as asking for ice. Rather than embracing this new technology and merging it with what we’ve learned already, we’re throwing off our clothes and running naked in the rain, waving our hands in the air, sure that this time it’ll be different, because this time it’s better!!5
Shankman is known for his unique and frank posts on social media as an industry. In his blog post “I Will Never Hire a ‘Social Media Expert,’ and Neither Should You,” he points out the fallacy of this kind of thinking. Social media’s bottom line is about generating revenue and providing excellent customer service: that’s what any interaction, online or off, has been about since the beginning of time. If the person your library hires or appoints to do its social media work cannot accomplish these kinds of goals, it’s not going to matter how cute or funny his or her posts are. In the end, social media is about meeting goals using a certain type of tool. It’s not about how cool your library thinks social media is.
Ideally, your library is likely going to want to have someone on staff handling its social media efforts. An outside professional can still be of use to your library, if you’re looking for further guidance on setting goals, figuring ROI, or strategies for specific campaigns. The most recent trend is for organizations to use someone inside the organization to do most or all of the social media work. Internal employees often know the library best, and may know how best to handle certain inquiries and individuals, or how to avoid particular political minefields in their community. This kind of knowledge is invaluable, and usually cannot be replicated by an outside consultant.
BOTTOM LINE Outside social media consultants may be useful to gain direction, but are usually not a good fit as replacements for a library staff member who has internal knowledge of the library and its relationships with its community.
What Qualities Should a Social Media Coordinator Have?
Remember, the qualities a social media coordinator needs may or may not be found in a particular job position. Keep an open mind and consider the following as desired characteristics:
• Passion. Enthusiasm is a must, since real social media work can quickly become tedious. Whoever does this work for your library should want to do it.
• Organizational knowledge. The selected person should be someone who has been at the library for a significant amount of time. He or she should have a strong sensitivity to the library’s politics and a strong sense of its history. This will prove invaluable when dealing with customer service issues and for knowing what is and is not appropriate to post.
• A grounded personality. While enthusiasm is crucial, it won’t compensate for a lack of understanding concerning the realities of the work. The library staff member who evangelizes about social media is not necessarily going to prioritize ROI over “cool.” In the end, it will be results that matter. This person may not possess a true understanding of how time-consuming the work is, or how important it is for the library’s social media presence to be consistent.
• Brevity. Social media is probably not the best job for the staff member who writes novels in his or her spare time. As a means of communication, social media requires that as few words as possible are used to create messages, not only because of site-imposed limits (e.g., Twitter’s 140-character limit) but also because of the incredibly limited amount of attention any one posted item is likely to receive.
• Good writing skills. It’s not just about keeping posts short; they also have to be clear and free of spelling and grammatical errors. Yes, social media is more casual, but do you really want your library represented by someone who doesn’t know the difference between lose and loose?
• Familiarity with the library’s patrons—or willingness to get to know them. Knowing the kinds of people who frequent or contact the library can help immensely. Even if the person doesn’t know patrons well, he or she needs to be willing to learn. Shankman says:
Do you know your audience? Have you reached out to them? I’m not talking about “tweeting at them,” I’m talking about actually reaching out. Asking them what you can do better? Asking those who haven’t been around in a while what you can do to get them back? It’s not about 10% off coupons or “contests for the next follower.” For God’s sake, be smarter than that.6
True social media work is about forging relationships with your library’s patrons. This person has to be willing to do what’s needed to get to that goal, even if it’s uncomfortable.
• Customer advocacy. The person the library chooses to represent it online should clearly show an understanding that one of their main responsibilities is to help patrons. In this sense, the work is not much different from assisting patrons in the physical library. Superior service is one of the ways that libraries can use social media to their advantage. It’s important that social media coordinators take this to heart and prioritize the needs of patrons over their own sensitivities.
BOTTOM LINE The person your library selects to be its online voice needs not only enthusiasm but also an informed perspective about what the work actually entails.
Status Update Makeovers
Up until now, we’ve discussed many ways that libraries can make their use of social media more effective. However, we haven’t really looked at concrete examples of both good and bad uses of social media. In this section, we’ll look at some examples of social status updates and why they are problematic. I’ll also show some ways that these same updates can be remade to be more appealing and more effective.
EXAMPLE ONE
The Internet computers are not available due to maintenance.
This update sounds like it came from a robot. It’s highly impersonal and is likely to be ignored, turn people off, or both. “Maintenance” is not descriptive and doesn’t really say what’s going on. In this example, it constitutes generic language.
How Could It Be Better?
People want to know there is a human being behind the account. The only way to do that is to use language that demonstrates a real person is making the post. Remember, part of the reason people will connect to your library is to get more behind-the-scenes information. Give some detail. Transparency is important.
REMADE EXAMPLE ONE
Argh! Power surge took down a server—no Internet here this morning, sorry!
Why Is This Better?
It’s easy to tell with the addition of expressive language (i.e., “Argh!”) that a real person, with real emotions, is making the post. Additional information is provided that really explains why there is no Internet access at the library today. The simple addition of the word sorry at the end of the post shows that the library is sympathetic to those who may have wanted to come in to use the Internet.
EXAMPLE TWO
Helped a patron find a turnip cookbook today.
Whenever the library makes a status update, it has to consider how it will be received. One question to continually ask is, What’s in this post for someone else? Another question to ask would be, Why should someone else care? The cookbook in question may have been unique or fascinating, but there’s no sense of that in the post. For all the end user knows, requests for turnip cookbooks could be routine in a library. There’s nothing to indicate this is an unusual request.
How Could It Be Better?
More detail is required to really make this post stand out and possibly spark a conversation. Including a few extra words to help put the comment into context will help.
REMADE EXAMPLE TWO
Helped patron find turnip cookbook. Didn’t know there was such a thing!
Why Is This Better?
The main thing that makes this different from the original is the addition of the second sentence. It lets the reader know the cookbook was unique enough to pique the interest of the librarian. It also shows a sense of transparency and openness; the librarian is showing he or she doesn’t know everything. Lastly, it adds a very human touch to an otherwise unremarkable post.
EXAMPLE THREE
Cool sailboat craft program at 10 am today!
This status update is fairly typical of most libraries currently using Twitter purely as a broadcast mechanism. The update does nothing beyond promote a program. It gives no reason why anyone would want to attend other than because the library has declared it to be “cool.” There is no clue as to the payoff for the reader.
How Could It Be Better?
The subject matter of the craft session (i.e., sailboats) isn’t really what the reader will get out of the program. In fact, the reader in this case is not the potential participant but rather the parent. Gear the message accordingly. What will parents get out of it? Why should they bring their kids?
REMADE EXAMPLE THREE
It’s noisy, messy, and chaotic, & your kids will love it! Crafts @ 10 am today.
Why Is This Better?
The payoff is much more readily apparent; it’s a program with qualities that will be fun for kids, and if parents bring their children, the kids will love the program. Note that the subject of the crafts needn’t even be included in such a brief announcement; people will be primarily interested in what they will get out of it. There’s also a possibility the lack of craft subject may inspire fans or followers to respond with additional questions, initiating further conversation around the topic and potentially garnering interest from others.
EXAMPLE FOUR
New science fiction and fantasy books at your library [LINK].
Much like the previous example, this status update is primarily self-promotional. Aside from that, it’s pretty blasé as a status update. It lacks any interesting framework to catch the attention of busy followers. Even a hard-core genre fan may overlook this particular announcement.
How Could It Be Better?
Always remember that your library’s fans may be extremely busy, so compose status updates to make it worth their while to read them. Connect the announcement in some way to something that gives it more context.
REMADE EXAMPLE FOUR
New Nebula Award winners just announced! Request copies at [link].
Why Is This Better?
This status update serves two functions: it gives breaking news (“Nebula Award winners just announced!”), and it informs interested followers that items in a particular genre are available. It provides additional context for the post that is more likely to gain attention. This strategy has been extended by explaining to readers that the link in the posting will take them directly to the new science fiction and fantasy selections where they can browse and request these titles.
EXAMPLE FIVE
Next week at the library: HOMEWORK HELP CENTER [LINK].
This particular status post is, overall, very uninformative. It makes an assumption that the reader will bother to click through the link in order to get any real information about the program. Keep in mind readers will only click a link if you have caught their interest first. Just because a post is from their local library isn’t reason enough to assume fans are tempted by anything it has to say. All-caps usage is also troubling. It is a well-known convention on the Web that all-caps indicate shouting; no fan wants to be yelled at.
How Could It Be Better?
Once again, it’s important to give the readers something they want. Readers might want a homework help center, but it would be difficult to know for sure without specifics. Also, because the post originates with a library’s social media account, there’s not likely to be a need to announce the location of the help center.
REMADE EXAMPLE FIVE
Kids getting worried about report cards? Homework Help Center begins on Monday @ 4:00 pm [link].
Why Is This Better?
The remade version provides additional context that will help a potential reader decide if he or she is interested in the update. The hook is clear (kids + report cards = worry) and implies the nature of the payoff: kids will get help that may result in better grades. Including a specific date and time is also beneficial, as it gives more information up front without making the reader do more work to get it.
Magazines as Role Models
One of the best examples for how to do status updates well may come from near the checkout at your local grocery store. The next time you visit, take a careful look at some of the headlines that beckon from the covers of many of the magazines displayed in the racks:
• “Walk Off 10 Pounds in 10 Days”
• “What to Wear Now”
• “Get Back Your Shape”
• “15 Tips for a Bigger Tax Refund”
• “Smart Clothes for Tough Times”
• “How to Look 10 Years Younger”
• “Simple Ways to Declutter Every Room”
Why do magazines use these kinds of headlines? In a word: economy. Not only do they have a limited amount of space on the cover, they also know they have a very brief time in which to capture a potential buyer’s attention. In order to tempt someone to buy their publication, magazine editors know that headlines need to be short and sweet and the payoff very clear.
Libraries are actually dealing with a very similar situation, where limited amount of space is available for most status updates and the attention span of potential readers is often very short by necessity. Yet most libraries fail to capture the attention of their audience because they tend to mistake a status update with a call for action. It’s vital for successful long-term use of social media to remember that a call to action draws on social capital. Therefore, nearly every time your library specifically asks followers to exert an effort, especially toward a particular goal of the library (by doing, being, having, checking, joining, seeing, hearing, or coming), that is a withdrawal, not a deposit. Most calls to action don’t have anything of inherent value to followers. Remember: calls to action represent the need to ask a favor. Your followers primarily want to know what the library can do for them, not the reverse.
BOTTOM LINE Make status updates human. Always remember what will be first and foremost in the readers’ minds: the payoff. What will they get from your post? If you can’t easily answer that question, rewrite the update.
Thinking About YouTube?
YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing social network, can be a difficult arena for libraries. Few libraries have the resources to create professional-looking productions, and fewer still can achieve the viral success sought after by so many. The Harold B. Lee Library, the main library at Brigham Young University, has surely been the envy of many libraries after its successful and viral video, Study Like a Scholar, Scholar, which was a parody of a popular video campaign by Old Spice. It has been viewed nearly three million times. The Lee Library is fortunate in having in-house expertise that allows it to create polished products. This may not be the case with the majority of other libraries, who may not have internal or skilled specialists.
The Worthington Libraries in Ohio provide an example that may help other libraries consider how best to approach using YouTube. This public library system has had mixed results with their YouTube content, with the number of views ranging from 200 to over 300,000. Kara Reuter, the library’s digital library manager, learned lot of what she needed to know on the job and has some useful information from her experiences to share.
• Guessing what’s going to be popular can be difficult. Reuter notes that they have not found an audience for many of their videos. In one instance, the library produced a three-part video about Star Wars collectibles, believing that it would have no trouble getting viewers. The series received less than 1,000 total views, while, surprisingly, their flannel board storytime series has averaged close to 40,000 views apiece, with one featuring Old MacDonald getting more than 335,000 views. One lesson Reuter learned from this experience is to question whether or not a video idea will have wide appeal. Reuter herself has watched the flannel board storytimes on her phone with her own baby and suspects that many parents may do the same. The storytimes are great entertainment for very young children and can be watched on mobile devices, which likely contributed to their popularity. Be sure to ask, “Who is this video serving?”
• Some programs are better for videos than others. Worthington Libraries found that not only storytimes but also author visits provide better material and venues for video production. Reuter’s advice for library videos is, “If you can’t do it on a tripod, don’t do it!” If a program requires camera movement, it will usually be beyond the skills of the amateur. Programs where someone is talking at the front of a room are ideal, as the camera can be set in one location and not moved. Candid footage, where one attempts to film people in motion or to scan the audience for reactions, is very difficult and can more likely result in poor-quality video. “It’s much easier to make a bad video than a good one,” says Reuter.
• Don’t underestimate the problem of people not wanting to be filmed. Some people, both staff and the public, really don’t want to appear on camera. Some speakers from outside of the library may also have reservations. Be sure to get approval (in writing if required) from anyone who could end up in your final video.
• Be aware of some of the “gotchas” on YouTube. Reuter describes the comments that can be made on YouTube videos as the “Wild West of the Internet.” Some comments Worthington Libraries has received have been obscene or wildly inappropriate. The library does allow for comments, but approves them before allowing them to appear. Reuter points out that her library does allow negative comments, so long as they are centered on, say, the performance rather than on the performer personally. Another issue her library became aware of was that of related videos. YouTube automatically shows links to videos it thinks may be related to the one you have posted. In one case, a storytime that the library had tagged with the word diapers caused YouTube to recommend some diaper-fetish videos that the library didn’t want to be associated with. Worthington Libraries is now careful about what words they use to tag their videos.
• There is often a very large skill, time, and money investment involved. To edit the videos the library produced, it purchased Adobe Premiere—a professional-level video editing software package that was fairly expensive. For Reuter, the learning curve for the software was very steep and required a great deal of time. Even once comfortable with using the software, it takes a great deal of time to actually edit a video. Allow for this when estimating production timelines and budgets.
BOTTOM LINE YouTube can be a much more challenging social media arena than many others. Be sure that your library can make all of the needed commitments before deciding whether YouTube is the right choice.
What About LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is perhaps much more specialized than any of the previously mentioned social networks, and is definitely more “professional” in nature. Not only are real names required, but also the goal is to connect to others in the real-world work environment. LinkedIn is primarily about building employment-related connections; as a result, the types of networking from socializing on LinkedIn are much less casual than most other social media sites. LinkedIn’s stated goal is clear, “Get the most from your professional network.” Considering the nature of LinkedIn, is there a place in libraries for its use?
Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) in Ohio has found a unique niche for LinkedIn. The library maintains a career counseling center and several job clubs at various branches. In 2008, a patron member of one of the job clubs suggested using LinkedIn to help connect all of the club members to keep them abreast of other information related to job hunting. Four years later, the job club members-only group has more than 300 members, and the LinkedIn group is one of the first steps promoted to new clients of the career counseling center and job club members.
Jim Hansen, MS, PCC-S, is a career counselor for CCPL. Hansen points out that more and more employers are turning first to LinkedIn for potential employees, making it important for his job-seeking clients to have a presence there. He says that at least two members of the job club have been hired via LinkedIn alone (and were approached first by companies, not the other way around). Both Hansen and CCPL have found it to be a very effective tool for communicating relevant information to job club members; shared items include current job openings, job and career fair listings, and articles related to job hunting. Members also use the group to communicate similar information with each other. Even job club alumni who are now employed continue to share job openings with current members. LinkedIn is also a great way to do research on potential employers, says Hansen, and he encourages group members to use it for that purpose. It can also be a good tool for finding someone local who works for a particular company.
The career counselors, including Hansen, consistently monitor the group’s postings for inappropriate items, such as ads from people attempting to sell things to the group’s members. The group is also invite-only, making it more difficult for inappropriate items to be posted.
BOTTOM LINE LinkedIn is a much more specialized network than many others. Be sure your library has a real use for it before it jumps on board.
Case Study: Doing Social Media Right
Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) in Columbus, Ohio, was named Library Journal’s Library of the Year for 2010. While the reasons for this award were many, surely one factor had to be the savvy use of social media. With knowledgeable planning and execution, CML was able to increase the number of people who “like” the library on Facebook from 3,000 to more than 15,000 in less than six months,7 and as of this writing now has more than 18,000. Its Twitter account boasts a healthy following of over 5,000 followers and is listed more than 450 times. While the number of friends or followers does not necessarily indicate success, in CML’s case it certainly demonstrates that it is doing something right. What is it that CML is doing well?
• It rarely blows its own horn. This library recognizes that simply promoting itself is a poor use of social media. CML uses a ratio of 70/20/10: 70 percent of its online interaction is original content of value; 20 percent involves interactions with individuals; and 10 percent is pure self-promotion.
• It is always looking for ways to interact and collaborate. When the Columbus Zoo had a new polar bear exhibit, the library promoted the zoo’s exhibit and included a link to polar bear–related items in its online catalog.
• It’s choosy about which events get a shout-out. When its posts are self-promotional, the library is very selective about which events it promotes. It rarely posts storytimes: instead, the events are ones of much more general interest or larger in scale.
• Posts are consistent. CML tweets regularly, approximately one to five times per day. Its followers are assured of regular contact and content.
• It has a consistent voice. Regardless of where the library is posting or responding in social media, whatever it says has a consistent tone (and this is part of their social media policy!). They’ve taken this one step further: they do not have separate pages for their many branches. They present a unified front to the world with a single voice. This is far more effective than allowing each branch to maintain a presence, which almost always results in an inconsistent “feel” across a library system’s pages. Having one “home” also gives people an easier way to connect, as they do not have to associate themselves with just one branch.
• It follows back. A common error many libraries make in Twitter is not following back where appropriate. For a public library, that means following almost everyone. Columbus Metro has also shown some marketing savvy here, which has resulted in good publicity. The library makes sure it follows the accounts of local media (radio, TV, etc.), which usually means those accounts will follow back. In one instance, CML tweeted about the large increase of people using its Homework Help centers, and a local television station contacted the library to do a news story about it.
• It recognizes that social media monitoring is critical. In one instance, CML was able to respond directly to an upset blogger, telling her what the library was doing to improve the situation she was angrily blogging about. If CML hadn’t been listening appropriately in the social media sphere, it is unlikely that it would have ever known this person was upset with the library. Because of the monitoring, the library was able to avert a potentially bigger issue. That blogger was not only appeased, she’s also now an active volunteer for the library’s levy campaign.
The Columbus Metropolitan Library has also spent a significant amount of time creating and implementing a comprehensive social media strategy (see figure 4.1). This includes not only an overall planning document but also schedules of what and when they will be posting via their social media channels (see figures 4.2 and 4.3). The library’s goals are clearly defined, and the staff is never stuck wondering what content they’ll promote on a particular day.
Notes
1. danah boyd, “Some Thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook Status Updates,” October 25, 2009, www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/10/25/some_thoughts_o-3.html.
2. Shannon Nelson, “Improving Brand Value through Social Media: Zappos Gets It Right,” May 15, 2008, www.piercemattiepublicrelations.com/social_networks.
3. Kyle Lacy, “Empower Your Employees to Win with Social Media,” January 20, 2010, http://kylelacy.com/empower-your-employees-to-win-with-social-media.
4. Rick Alcantara, “Who Should ‘Control’ Social Media within a Company?” Social Media Today, March 22, 2010, www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/183509.
5. Peter Shankman, “I Will Never Hire a ‘Social Media Expert,’ and Neither Should You.” May 20, 2011. http://shankman.com/i-will-never-hire-a-social-media-expert-and-neither-should-you/.
6. Ibid.
7. Julie Theado, phone interview, August 31, 2010.
Figure 4.1 Social media plan for Columbus Metropolitan Library.Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio.
Figure 4.2 Twitter content calendar for Columbus Metropolitan Library. Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio.
Figure 4.3 Facebook content calendar for Columbus Metropolitan Library. Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio.