Web 2.0 for Patrons

One of my presentations from Internet Librarian 2009 with Jennifer Koerber, Sean Robinson, Rebecca Ranallo

I’ll be posting an update to this when I hear from Liz.

Web 2.0 for Library Patrons

View more presentations from Bobbi Newman.

Tags: <Conferences, il2009, patron raining, patrons, Presentations, social networks, Web 2.0>

Market yourself market your library – Lori Reed

October 9, 2009 · Posted in Conferences · View Comments

Notes from the 2009 COMO conference in Columbus GA

Market yourself market your library – Lori Reed

PTA group has a facebook page that is very successful

Traditional marketing vs 2.0 marketing – 2 way exchange, ppl are talking about your library, whether you’re listening or not

Traditional market 4 Ps – Product pricing placement promotion

Marketing 2.0 4 Cs – consumer collaboration

Mistake ppl make is they jump right in & start producing – stop doing this, you’re putting the cart in front of the horse.

Build a marketing plan
1. Identify a need
2. Research – find out what other ppl or libs are doing to meet that need.
3. Identify the audience
4. Identify objectives
5. Identify message, what you do want to say?
6. find the right tools
7. implement
8. Evaluate – how will you know it worked?

Focus on number 6 the tools
Can your users find you?
Are you on google? Add your info if you’re not
List your library on free wifi hotspots sites Wifihotspotlist.com
You can list your programs and storytimes on Craigslist
Blogs can be used in a number of different ways, book reviews, video of children’s storytimes, tie community events to library books & other resources
Myspace
Facebook page – problem with admins
Flickr – announce that you are taking pics that they can do look at later, discussion on legality of images on flickr without a photo release
Youtube – training videos, patrons created, events etc
Eventful
Wikipedia

Need a team, its too much for a one person, it would be a full time job!

You need to monitor your brand

Gotoweb20.net

Keep your content up to date, if not get rid of it. Better to not have a precense at all than to have an outdated one

Don’t under estimate the staff time it takes, one person can not do it.

Stick to your message

Duplicate content
Talk to the users in their space

resources
davidleeking
librarianinblack

Keep up with Lori at her blog.

Tags: <como, comoga09, Libraries, library, market, Marketing, online, social networks>

How social media can hurt your library

August 26, 2009 · Posted in Best Practices, Facebook, Libraries, Social Media, Social Networking Sites, Twitter, Worst Practices · View Comments

photo by DCvision2006 on Flicrk

We’ve all seen warnings and stories about people getting fired from their jobs because of status updates or photos on social medial sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

CNN is has a new one with some social networking don’ts

1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs

2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer

3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed

First I think number 2 should include – “or coworkers”, really nothing good can come of that either. But the point I want to add for librarians (library workers) everywhere is

4. Don’t badmouth your customers.

We all get frustrated, we all have bad days, I understand that, but venting on social media sites isn’t the solution and it could cause real problems for your library. Your customers may read what you wrote, they are more tech savvy than you give them credit for. In addition to some old fashioned hurt feelings this can lead to some real problems for your library. They could complain to someone at the library, which means staff will need to spend time dealing with this issue. They could email it all their friends or maybe the newspaper, this is bad PR no library needs. Or they could just never come back, which is contradictory to the mission of libraries, and loosing patrons is never good for libraries. Libraries don’t need bad PR, especially not now when so many are facing funding cuts.

If you don’t care about how it will affect your library keep in mind your boss may read what you wrote, there are endless ways this could happen. I can’t imagine a library manager anywhere being happy that an employee is publicly badmouthing patrons. There are a wide range of outcomes depending on what was said, how the library handles custom service issues, but being fired is a possibility.

Think being anonymous will protect you? think again. Think having a private account will protect you? It might, unless there is a glitch & its made public, even briefly, or until you *friend* the wrong person.

Your best plan is not to put anything online you aren’t prepared for the whole world to see. Just don’t do it. Think twice before you post that next Facebook or Twitter update or write that next blog post.

Additional Reading