social media ringmaster

Not in the Show

•  We will not teach you how to use these

media.

•  By now most of us are using some social

media in our libraries, We assume you know

the basics.

Program

•  An introduction to the philosophy weÊve

developed at Rutherford Library for social

media management.

•  Tips, Tricks, Examples and Ideas.

•  Some more profound food-for-thought about a

social media work.

Context

•  Social media at the University of Alberta

Libraries developed organically.

•  The result has created distinct identities

between unit libraries.

•  We have one system-wide Twitter

account - but each unit uses has their

own accounts as well.

•  Examples will be from Rutherford

LibraryÊs Facebook, Twitter and

Pinterest accounts — and the system

wide Twitter account.

Broader Context •  What is the current state of the relationship between

libraries and social media? •  How are libraries using social media more meaningfully now than 5 or 7 years ago?

•  What are librariansÊ feelings and impulses about social media?

Polkinghorne & Hoffman 2006-2008 •  2 Studies using a critical discourse analysis framework. •  Used 2 data sources: published articles and

conversations among librarians on the ILI-L email listserv. •  Identified several main themes and trends about

how librarians were using social media.

Polkinghorne & Hoffman 2006-2008 Marketing

One of the main trends the study revealed was that

libraries and library staff primarily saw social media

as a marketing tool: to get users to using the library

collection and programs.

Polkinghorne & Hoffman 2006-2008 Control

The study also found that social media tested library workersÊ

inherent need for things to be organized, orderly and in control.

Our enthusiasm was curbed because using social media to its full

potential would require we give up some control over the

conversation.

As a result: early social media use by libraries was quite

superficial.

Social Media Today

•  Libraries have become more comfortable with social media.

•  Many, many, many, library users are now using social media

regularly, It has been integrated into our every day lives.

Libraries are now using SM to show the world who they are and

how much they contribute to their usersÊ lives and communities.

Libraries are encountering and engaging their users in social

media.

Clarify your Social Media Identity

What do you want to look like to your

followers? Informative? Academic?

Professional? Laid-back? Fun?

Approachable?

How do you decide?

Who are your followers? What are

they like? What do they share? What

do they „like‰ ?

Hint: Follow them!

Choose content to reflect your identity

Be genuine, inauthenticity is easily

detected, even on the internet.

Be mindful of the tone of your texts.

Does it seem like youÊre ÂtellingÊ or

sharing?

NOTE: each post is a permanent

impression of what your library isÂlikeÊ.

A Social Media Philosophy and Policy

1.  DO have a policy document that

frames what your library will or

will not do in social media .

2.  DO have a philosophy about what

your are trying to accomplish,

what your identity is and what

types of posts are appropriate.

3.  DONÊT let No.1 stifle No.2

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Decide what medium is right for you. What is the best way to express your

social media persona?

Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram are more visual mediums

Twitter is more of a text-based medium

Use Mediums to their fullest Potential. Mediums like Facebook, Pinterest are visual and require images or links to capture peopleÊs attention.

Source:  h*p://omnomedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/facebook-­‐photo-­‐size-­‐cheat-­‐sheet/  

Use relevant hash tags to spread your tweets out to a wider audience

www.hashtags.org trends, tracking and dictionary

Use Mediums to their fullest Potential. Mediums like Facebook, Pinterest are visual and require images or links to capture peopleÊs attention.

Source:  h*p://omnomedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/facebook-­‐photo-­‐size-­‐cheat-­‐sheet/  

Use relevant hash tags to spread your tweets out to a wider audience

Images bring out Facebook posts

Use Mediums to their fullest Potential. Mediums like Facebook, Pinterest are visual and require images or links to capture peopleÊs attention.

Source:  h*p://omnomedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/facebook-­‐photo-­‐size-­‐cheat-­‐sheet/  

Use relevant hash tags to spread your tweets out to a wider audience

Proper hash tags spread your message to a wider audience.

Tailor Your Message to the Medium Tools exist to link social media accounts •  This is handy in terms of saving time. •  Not always compatible across mediums —

ex. hash tags in Facebook

Resize image to appear properly in the Facebook Feed

Source:  h*p://omnomedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/facebook-­‐photo-­‐size-­‐cheat-­‐sheet/  

Facebook size cheat sheets are available all over the web — just Google

„Facebook Image Size Cheat Sheet‰

Resizing enables users to see your message without extra effort.

If using Pinterest for virtual book displays, ensure your book covers are engaging: Pinterest DOES judge a book

by its cover.

Let the mediums play off each other: Tweet and share Pinterest Boards via

Facebook and Twitter

Use link shorteners that allow you to measure how many clicks these posts

receive.

In the early days of the Rutherford Facebook page our posts did not get a lot of

engagement.

During a campus outage we attempted to take a humorous twist to the situation and discovered that memes and humour got our

users to be more engaging.

Viral Marketing Research Adam J. Mills "Virality in the Social Media: the SPIN framework‰ Analyzes viral marketing campaigns to dissect what makes them viral. (Old Spice: ‰The Man Your Man Could Smell Like") Suggests 4 factors to virality: Spreadability, Propagativity, Integration and "Nexus".

Leonardo Bruni, Chiara Francalancia, Paolo Giacomazzi "The Role of Multimedia Content in Determining the Virality of Social Media Information‰ •  Analyzed 2 million tweets from July 2011 about particular

cities from a tourism perspective and clustered tweets with multimedia content and with out it to see if there were trends in how frequently and how quickly either were retweeted.

•  Findings supported the hypotheses that multimedia plays an important role in determining the volume and speed of retweeting.

Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman "What Makes Online Content Viral?‰ •  Took a look at virality in social media from a psychological

perspective: "emotional valence and social transmission": Does the emotion aroused by a story or digital artifact influence whether it is "shared".

•  Analyzed 7000 articles from the New York Times, clustered them by their topic matter and then investigated their virality.

Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman "What Makes Online Content Viral?‰

•  Conducted additional studies with participants who were asked to read articles about the same news stories, but written in a different tone (to arouse different emotions). They then asked participants whether they would share the story.

•  Findings showed that positive content is more viral. Also content that evokes anger is more viral than content that evokes sadness.

•  Amusement scored high in terms of virality.

Applying what we learned from our own interactions and what we read in the research we continued to produce memes and

humourous posts — to find that students engaged with us more.

Community relevant humour and social causes seem to be what our users enjoyed and wanted to share.

Making Memes The Tools: someecards.com, Frabz, or just Google „meme generator‰ Do some research first. Search „memes‰ on Google. There are thousands!

1.  Memes need to be genuinely funny. Irony, satire, exaggeration and even sarcasm is required. Don't be afraid to make fun of yourself!

2 . Know your audience. Let your users and community be central in the humour, find inspiration from your users.

3. Be in good taste and good grammar There is a fine line between what is funny and offensive. Be careful and ask others whether they find it funny. Keep the spelling and grammar clean, unless it is central to the humor of your meme or be prepared to be corrected!

4. Memes wonÊt work in every medium. Not everything that works on Facebook will work on Twitter and vice versa.

5. Participate - share appropriate content made by others you follow. This makes them likely to share your content.

Negative Feedback

It happens!

•  Acknowledge it.

•  Diffuse it by offering

a venue for further

discussion —off stage.

Awe the crowd with

answers and work-

arounds!

Some examples of negative feedback and how we handled it.

And there typically are more positive comments as well

Social media is always changing so make sure to keep up to date. Follow the main feeds for Twitter, Facebook etc. and be prepared for what is coming down the pipe. Read about what otherÊs are

doing — keep the show fresh and vibrant!

Social Media is a difficult job for

just one person to manage.

Discussing content prior to posting

is helpful.

Social Media requires regular

supervision and everyone needs a

vacation!

Social media management can seem like a lot of work but remember there are rewards!

It is about getting to know your users in a place they are comfortable, and breathing life into the LibraryÊs

image.

ENJOY THE APPLAUSE!

The Ringmaster IS in charge of

the show but cannot control every

detail. The Ringmaster CANÊT control:

•  Every single comment or

engagement.

•  The tone of comments or

engagements.

•  PatronÊs independent posts

(which they would make

whether the library is on

social media or not).

The Ringmaster IS in charge of

the show but cannot control every

detail.

The Ringmaster can control:

•  Persona, identity and style.

•  The level of service.

•  The focus of the content.

•  How negative situations are

handled.

•  How social media engagement

is measured.

The Ringmaster canÊt control:

•  Every sing comment or

engagement.

•  The tone of comments or

engagements.

•  PatronÊs independent posts

(which they would make

whether the library is on

social media or not)

Credits

The Rutherford Social Media Team: Sarah Polkinghorne

Jorden Smith Nicole LaPointe

Photo credits Photos  Obtained  Under  CreaCve  Commons  License  from  Flickr  

www.flickr.com:  Applauding  Hand:  Irene2727  

Applause:  Neekoh.fi  Fire  Eater:  Scriblenz  

Tent  Upward  View:  PJVanf  Lego  Juggler:  Helico  

Lego  Clowns:  WiredforLego  Roaring  Lion:  Tambako  the  Jaguar  

Sleeping  Lion:  KaC  Koae  Upside  Down  Trapeze:  Paco  CT  Dangling  Trapeze:  hbp_pix  Ringmaster:  Ant  Smith  

Bearded  Lady  Poster:  A  Jimenez  via  “LaCn  American  Ilustraćion”  Memes  obtained  and  created  at  someecards.com.  frabz.com  and  

h*p://imgflip.com/memegenerator  All  other  illustraCons  created  by  Hanne  Pearce  

Bibliography Berger,  Jonah,  and  Katherine  L  Milkman.  "What  Makes  Online  Content  Viral??."  Journal  Of  MarkeCng  Research  (JMR)  49,  no.  2  (April  2012):  192-­‐205.  Business  Source  Complete,  University  of  Alberta  Libraries  (accessed  April  10,  2013)    Bruni,  Leonardo,  Chiara  Francalanci,  and  Paolo  Giacomazzi.  "The  Role  of  MulCmedia  Content  in  Determining  the  Virality  of  Social  Media  InformaCon."  InformaCon  (2078-­‐2489)  3,  no.  3  (September  2012):  278.  University  of  Alberta  Libraries.    (accessed  April  10,  2013).    Mills,  Adam  J.  "Virality  in  social  media:  the  SPIN  Framework."  Journal  Of  Public  Affairs  (14723891)  12,  no.  2  (May  2012):  162-­‐169.  Business  Source  Complete,  University  of  Alberta  Libraries  (accessed  April  3,  2013)  

Bibliography Hoffman,  C.,  &  Polkinghorne,  S.  (2010,  June).  Discourse,  idenCty,  pracCce:  Analyzing  instrucCon  librarians’  conversaCons  about  informaCon  literacy  and  the  social  Web.  Canadian  AssociaCon  for  InformaCon  Science,  Montreal,  QC.  Extended  abstract:  h*p://www.cais-­‐acsi.ca/conf_proceedings_2010.htm      Polkinghorne,  S.,  &  Hoffman,  C.  (2009,  April).  InformaCon  literacy  and  librarianship  in  the  age  of  the  social  Web:  A  criCcal  discourse  analysis  of  ILI-­‐L  posCngs.  LOEX  Annual  Conference,  Albuquerque,  NM.    Polkinghorne,  S.,  &  Hoffman,  C.  (2009).  “Crown  jewel”  or  “pure  evil”?  Wikipedia  through  an  informaCon  literacy  lens.  Feliciter  55(3),  101-­‐103.  Hoffman,  C.,  &  Polkinghorne,  S.  (2008).  Sparking  Flickrs  of  insight.  In  P.  Godwin  &  J.  Parker  (Eds.),  Informa.on  literacy  meets  Web  2.0.  London:  Facet  Publishing.    Hoffman,  C.,  &  Polkinghorne,  S.  (2007,  May).  Launching  ‘InfoLit  2.0’?  Considering  Web  2.0’s  potenCal  to  support  criCcal  thinking  and  higher-­‐level  learning  in  informaCon  literacy  pracCce.  Workshop  on  InstrucCon  in  Library  Use,  York  University,  Toronto,  ON.