When Social Media Fails to InspireTransforming your library's social media presence
PART I: THE STORYKerri WilletteEmerging Technologies Librarian
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Initial goals• Use social media to broadcast announcements
• Promote the library and library related events
• Increase website SEO
• Keep it as low maintenance as possible
Early Twitter activity
Early Facebook activity
#cricketsBlog Analytics 2010
New goals• Listening
• Being where our users are and knowing what they’re talking about• Following blogs, hashtags and lists that relate to our community
• Actively participating in our community
• Establishing alternate service points
• Being likable
ListeningHootsuite Streams: http://hootsuite.com
Sharing interesting, relevant content
PART II: THE DETAILSAmy WainwrightAccess Services Assistant
Columbia College Chicago Library
At the height of our success• Core group of 3 people managed social media
• But what did that look like in reality?
Supportive and interested coworkers
9 contributors
3 contributors
1 contributor
3 contributors
10 contributors
Organization• Monthly meetings with the blog contributors
• Hootsuite to schedule and track posts
• Policies for “claiming” comments and tweets
• Content driven by what our users needed and wanted
Why is this all in past tense? • Lost one member of the core group
• Facebook posting is spotty, twitter coverage is skimpy, and blog posting has mostly withered away
• Need to have a dedicated Social Media position
PART III: TAKE-AWAYSMolly BeestrumLibrary Instruction Coordinator
Columbia College Chicago Library
Lessons Learned• Form a team
• Define your vision
• Pick a few tools
• Define success
• Learn from failure
• Prioritize social media
• Listen
Team ApproachIdentify staff with interest in specific tools
9 contributors
3 contributors
1 contributor
3 contributors
10 contributors
Define your Vision• Public services or Marketing?
social media as alternate service point …
or
… a way of promoting resources and services
• Communicate shared goals
• Agreed upon vision
Pick a few tools• Don’t try to do everything
• Pick a couple of tools that fit your audience• Patrons already using it• Solves a problem• Highlights collections• Works in tandem
with other tools
Define Success• Counting hits, reach, follows, pins
• Success can be fleeting
• Success can be bittersweet
• Improvement is success
• Success from failure
Learn from Failure• Try it and see what happens
• Don’t ask for permission
• Call it a “pilot” or keep it in beta
• Even if it didn’t work, you still learned something
Prioritize Social Media• Don’t treat social media as an afterthought
• Communicate successes to administrators
• Press for investment; dedicated position(s)
Listen• Put down the megaphone
• Become a member of the community
Questions?
Columbia College Chicago Library
http://www.lib.colum.edu
• Facebook: facebook.com/ColumbiaCollegeLibrary
• Twitter: twitter.com/LibraryTweet
• Tumblr: ccclibrary.tumblr.com
• Pinterest: pinterest.com/ccclibrary
