Tame The Web » Micro-Content: Twitter & More

Tweeting for Public Libraries: A TTW Guest Post by Emily Lloyd

Michael — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 01:43:33 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about public libraries/organizations and social media lately, especially on the differences between Twitter and Facebook. I wanted to jot down some notes about what I think works and what doesn’t, & figured I’d share them publicly so that folks can do anything from heartily disagreeing with them in the comments to potentially benefiting from them. I’ve had a personal Twitter account and followed libraries with it since fall of 2007, but have only recently started tweeting for a library system (about a month now). I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve also learned a lot. These notes take the form of advice, and it’s advice I stand behind, but I’m not claiming to be an expert (highly recommended, by the way: this Geek Girls Guide podcast episode on The Cult of Social Media, which covers, among other things, how often “social media expert”/guru/maven is invoked and why it is often a misapplied phrase).

With no further ado, some thoughts (gentle and otherwise) on tweeting for public libraries:

Don’t

*Don’t import your Facebook status updates into Twitter. A lot of library systems do this, so I want to take some time to explain why I think it’s not a good practice.

First off, here’s what it implies about why you’re on Twitter: “Why are we on Twitter? As an afterthought, to make sure you know what we’re doing on Facebook!” If I want to know what you’re doing on Facebook, I’ll like your Facebook page and look at it regularly. I won’t long follow your Twitter account if you clutter up my stream with badly-formed not-quite-tweets. People are on Twitter for tweets: 140-character or less bits of info (or things other than info, but still: tweets). Facebook statuses aren’t tweets (unless they’re 140 characters or less–some of those might work in both arenas).

Each tweet should be a whole thing in itself. You can and should link to longer descriptions of programs, etc., but make sure the tweet tells folks what they’ll find if they click the link:

We’re collaborating w/@____ to offer over two dozen free writing workshops. See adult, teen, & kid options: [link]

Importing a Facebook status, with no re-editing to make it work for Twitter, often results in ellipses followed by a link–and often what’s preceded the ellipses gives no real indication of what you’ll find by clicking the link (so why would you take time to do so?). Sometimes the ellipses come at a particularly awkward or embarrassing point, too, like the one I saw about an author visit that started out slowly describing the speaker: Name of Writer is from blah blah blah, where he was a son of a…[link] Sonofagun.

A half-formed, imported-from-Facebook, awkwardly-trailing-off tweet is also rendering itself unretweetable from the get-go. I know I would never retweet one. Retweets aren’t the end-all be-all, but they do help spread the word (inspiration flash just after watching Hunger Games a few weeks back: retweets are the mockingjays of social media).

If time and resources are the issue–you don’t have enough to manage both a Twitter and a Facebook account, and that’s why you import Facebook statuses into Twitter–choose one and drop the other. I honestly think it’s better to not be on Twitter, period, if you’re not going to write/tailor every tweet for it (read: if you’re not going to do a wholehearted job of it). If you tailor some tweets, but import others from Facebook, drop the importing and tailor them all. If you’re a public library and have to choose to stick with only Facebook or only Twitter, my reluctant advice is to choose Facebook over Twitter. I think Facebook is less interesting than Twitter, & offers less opportunities to be proactively of use to patrons–but more of your patrons are on Facebook. More of everyone’s users are on Facebook.

*Never, ever, tweet just a link with nothing else. This looks like spam. Actually, this kind of is spam.

*Don’t tweet immediately after signing into Twitter. Watch your stream roll by for a few minutes first, to catch the mood. Maybe check what’s trending, too–if there’s a natural disaster going on, or a shooting in your area, or the death of someone many of your followers are mourning in their tweets, it’s not the time to interrupt people’s streams with a tweet about your Hunger Games diorama contest. Just wait a few minutes.

*Don’t rapid-fire tweet a bunch of events in a row. After tweeting one event, wait at least ten minutes before tweeting another. Think of what it’s like on Facebook when your newsfeed contains several posts in a row from the same person…after a few, you just want to scroll down and see anything else by anyone else.

*Don’t address tweets to people that aren’t on Twitter. I’ve seen library systems tweet things like “Kids! Come to our” etc, when it’s pretty unlikely kids are following them on Twitter. Instead of using kids when tweeting about children’s events, usefamilies.

*If one of your followers asks a reference question to the ether–not directly to you, but to all of her followers–and you can quickly and confidently answer it, do. “What phone should I buy?” is not a reference question. “Does anyone know the name of that book about ghosts they talked about on NPR yesterday?” “Does anyone know which local stores sell [a particular product]?” “Can YouTube videos I upload be made private or are they public for everyone to see?” are all reference questions. Answer them and provide a link to your source.

I can imagine lots of folks disagreeing with this one, arguing that you shouldn’t answer unless you’re directly tweeted to. I’ve had only positive experience with the approach so far, but it’s true I’ve only had a month of experience. It just makes sense to me: if you can quickly and accurately help, do. I think of it kind of like roving reference. When you rove, you take a walk around the library, and sometimes you hear a patron saying something to her child like, “I wish I could remember the name of that series you liked last summer about the magic puppy,” and because you happen to hear it, you can answer it, even if they never would’ve thought to approach the desk for help. Situations like these are one reason I wrote above that I think Twitter offers a unique opportunity to be proactively of use to patrons. You can’t “overhear” questions like this as easily on Facebook. With Twitter, the stream is right there.

*Tag organizations and people you partner with for events when tweeting about that event. It’s courteous (you’re promoting them, too, not just your library), and chances are high they’ll retweet it, getting the eyes of more potential event attendees on it. Don’t know their Twitter handle, or if they even have a Twitter account? Take a moment to Google & find out.

*Weed the list of those you follow from time to time if you’re using autofollow (the option to automatically follow everyone who follows you). Autofollowing’s fine, but spammers and ad blitzing accounts will find you and follow you just to raise their number of followers (many will unfollow you soon after they do so). This leaves you with a feed full of bunk–which, if you don’t intend to pay much attention to what your patrons are doing on Twitter, but just to blast tweets out like a news bulletin, is fine. If you want to be able to glance at your stream from time to time and see what your patron followers are tweeting about and might be in the mood to hear about from you, weed out the bunk.

*Follow your patrons. I don’t think you need to follow every account that follows you, but follow your patrons. Don’t miss this easy way to get a feel for what interests them and how you might better serve them. You don’t have to watch your stream closely all the time, but you should look at it from time to time, and it should include your patrons.

One tip for being able to quickly scan what your patron followers are tweeting about is to organize them into private lists using Twitter’s list function. Click on the list (or lists, depending on how many patron followers you have; each list maxes out at 500. I’ve named lists “Individuals,” “Individuals 2,” etc, and added local individuals who follow the library–presumably patrons–to the lists) to see what folks are up to. For example, even though this follower didn’t tweet it to the library, I was able to catch his comment questioning why mythology is catalogued as nonfiction, and explain that seeming oddity [read bottom to top]. I retweeted him first so anyone else who was following the stream knew what we were discussing:

*Tweet when your followers are active. If you sign into Twitter and none of your patron followers (assuming you also follow other libraries, media accounts, etc)–the ones you want to deliver your tweet to–have tweeted anything for twenty minutes, save the tweet for a busier time.

*Tweet events when it’s timely. Twitter is not like your calendar on your home page, or your event flier. Tweeting about an event weeks in advance (unless you have some well-thought-out long term hype-building plan, in which case make sure you don’t overdo it & wear people out on the event before it even happens) isn’t an effective use of Twitter. If you’ve got a book sale at 2pm on Saturday, feel free to tweet about it at 9am on Saturday. On your web page, waiting that long to promote something would be ridiculous, but it isn’t on Twitter. People are signed into Twitter, maybe looking for something to do later that day. Tell ‘em about your book sale. (If an event requires registration, obviously, tweet about it further in advance, always along with a link to the registration form or the number to call to register. Make sure the event isn’t already full before tweeting about registering for it!)

*Look up the official Twitter hashtag if you’re tweeting about a national or international event–there usually is one. For example, it’s currently National Volunteer Week and a number of folks are tagging their posts #nationalvolunteerweek12. That’s 24 of 140 characters spent (not that you always need to tweet to 140, but). A quick Google search on “national volunteer week hashtag” calls up the official tag: #nvw12. I understand feeling a bit of reluctance to attach a hashtag whose meaning followers might not immediately recognize (as they would the longer #nationalvolunteerweek12). I’ve been feeling it about #npm12, too. But ultimately, I think going with the official hashtag is best: you’re providing context in the rest of the tweet; if not knowing what #nvw12 stands for bothers a follower, she can simply click on it–and doing so may lead her to more worthwhile tweets on the topic. She may be glad to have learned the correct hashtag.

Add Value

*One simple thing you can do to add value to your account for your followers is to create public lists of relevant local resources–the Twitter version of subject guides. Create a “Local News Media” list, for example, or “Local & State Government,” or “Local & Literary,” “Local Arts & Theatre,” etc. Then let your followers know that the lists are there to help them quickly find and follow local accounts relevant to their interests. A few will subscribe to the lists. Some will glance at them and find a few new accounts to follow. Will everyone use them? Of course not, just like the large percentage of patrons don’t subscribe to RSS feeds of new ebooks. But, as with the RSS feeds on your website, you have added value. You will have shown those who do use them that you (meaning your organization) are a source of discovery, know things worth knowing, can make their lives (or at least their Twitter experiences) richer.

I also advocate creating private lists for yourself (or the team working together on your Twitter account). One private list I’ve created is simply “Admired Library Accounts”–accounts I want to keep a special eye on because I can tell they have a lot to teach me about best practices for libraries on Twitter. Another is “Sources for Content”–orgs local and otherwise that tweet things I think will be valuable to our followers and that I might mine for retweet purposes.

*Share tips from time to time–on how to get the most out of your library’s resources, but also the sorts of things that come up at the physical reference desk (which your Twitter followers may never visit). As I look back over things I’ve tweeted for the library over the past month, some I feel indifferent towards, some I no longer like, but this is one I remain proud of, and it’s simple as pie. I tweeted it around 8pm:

For anyone who’s ever had a kid that needed a piece of graph paper at the last minute (usually around 8pm) :http://www.printablepaper.net/

When a kid comes up to the ref desk and asks if we have graph paper, I point her to this site. There are lots of little things like this we (and I’m betting you) use at the ref desk: online-convert.com , fillanypdf.com , etc. They’re the sorts of simple timesavers librarians know about. We can (and sometimes do) link to them on our website, but a lot of people don’t mine our website and will miss them. So tweet them from time to time. You’ll be giving tips to people where they already are, not asking them to come to your website to find them. Like public lists, many will overlook tips, but others will favorite them and come back to them to utilize them over and over. Again, you’ve been a source of discovery.

——————————–

All for now. I intend to do a second post on what voice and brand consistency might mean across wildly different social networks with wildly different audiences, but I’m not ready yet. What do you think? What ideas do you have about best practices (or plain old dos and don’ts) for public libraries on Twitter?

Originally published here:
http://shelfcheck.blogspot.com/2012/04/some-notes-on-tweeting-for-public.htmlEmily actually gave me permission to add the full text of her excellent post here at TTW – Thanks Emily!

Emily Lloyd is an Associate Librarian with Hennepin County Library and lives in Minneapolis. She writes a library webcomic/blog, Shelf Check, and tweets for the library @hclib

Web 2.0 & Libraries Parts 1 & 2 Available Free on Hyperlinked Library Site

Michael — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:21:10 +0000

I am happy to announce the full text of both of my ALA Library Technology Reports are available now at the new TTW companion site The Hyperlinked Library.

The rest of the site is currently under construction, but for now you’ll find:

Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software (2006) - http://thehyperlinkedlibrary.org/libtechreport1/

Web 2.0 & Libraries: Trends & Technologies (2007) - http://thehyperlinkedlibrary.org/libtechreport2/

Special thanks to my SJSU SLIS grad assistant Patrick Siebold who worked very hard the past few weeks inputting the content. I know the examples from ’06 and ’07 may seem out of date and quaint in some ways, but I’m very proud of the framework we used for the works back then. Conversations, Community, Connections, Collaborations – all those great C words Jenny Levine and I used throughout our early social software roadshows in 2005 & 2006 provide a useful context for looking at Web 2.0. I hope these works are still useful to some of you. Comments are open for adding more to the chapters and I plan on doing some types of updating as time permits.

The site will also serve my course Web sites and other items related to my teaching.

Tomorrow is Follow a Library Day!

Michael — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:20:12 +0000

http://www.followalibrary.blogspot.com/

Just like last year there will be a #followalibrary day on October First :-). This year we added a subject: #myfavoritebook. Libraries give access to many great books that people love to read and we want to know what your favorite one is.

What do I have to do on October first?
Make a tweet about your favorite book and add the hashtag #followalibrary.
For instance:

Share your greatest book inspirations with the rest of the world on October 1st 2011 on Twitter

How to write a paper in 140 characters or less: social media for professional development

Michael — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:21:01 +0000

How to write a paper in 140 characters or less: social media for professional development on Prezi

Disclaimer: Cooper and I appear in this presentation!

Stephen Abram: Follow a Library

Michael — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:35:53 +0000

Jan Holmquist: Follow a Library

Michael — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:33:36 +0000

Extreme Library Twitter Makeover :-)

Michael — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:57:26 +0000

Good stuff:

http://followalibrary.blogspot.com/2010/09/give-your-library-twitter-makeover-for.html

Erin Logsdon (@taxonomylady) wrote a blogpost with some great tips how to give your library a twitter makeover for follow a library day.

Having a complete profile (Location, Web, Bio) is important for two reasons. One, the text in these fields in keyword searchable, so it will help people find you if the information is complete and relevant. Two, people use the profile information as a contextual way of understanding who you are and the purpose of your Twitter account. Can they ask you a question via Twitter or do you only use the account to push news stories and other content?

Adding the name of the person responsible for tweeting in the Bio is a great way to add a human element to the account. It also lets people know who to contact if they need further assistance.

Read all the makeover tips from Erin on Beyond Sliced Bread

Erin’s post is one of the best I’ve seen for Twittering libraries:

Adding the name of the person responsible for tweeting in the Bio is a great way to add a human element to the account. It also lets people know who to contact if they need further assistance. You can change your Bio as often as you’d like. If you don’t want to include real names then simply let people know if the name of the department responsible for the tweets, for example, reference, public relations, etc. Check out these profiles for some great ideas!

Boston Public Library -@BPLBoston
New York Public Library – @nypl
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries – @UNL_Lib
Washington University in St. Louis Libraries – @WUSTLlibraries
Ohio State University Libraries – @OSULibrary
Pennsylvania State University Libraries – @psulibs
Tulane University Library – @howard_tilton
University of Houston Libraries – @DeweyUHLIB
University of Kansas Libraries – @kulibraries
University of Washington Libraries – @uwlibraries

Finally, if you cannot fit this information into your bio, you may want to consider changing your URL to a library page that explains how and when users can interact with you on Twitter. See this awesome example from the Grand Rapids Public Library – @grpl.

Take a look at your Twitter account – what can you enhance for #followalibrary?

Follow a Library Day at ALA TechSource

Michael — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:05:57 +0000

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/09/follow-a-library.html

Excerpt:

What I appreciate the most about this project is their main goal is educating people about the benefits of following a library on Twitter. The group is aiming beyond our little online world of librarians and library folk and I think we should help them. What better way to do your own promotion for YOUR library’s Twitter feed than to play up this internationally organized day.

Some off the cuff ideas whilst I continue to recuperate after that unfortunate dog-related injury:

Embed the overview video in your library’s blog or Web site and write a little blurb about your own library’s Twitter presence.
Make a companion video highlighting the project and the faces behind your library’s Twitter presence.
Add info about the project to your other sites for online presence: Facebook, etc. Share with your friends everywhere.
Print up some of those ever popular bookmarks, inserts, fliers, stickers, etc (and do it quick – we have about 2 weeks) and send them out the door with your patrons.
Put up some fliers, get some local press coverage, and be sure to share the idea with your own followers.

Follow a Library Day is October 1st

Michael — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:13:03 +0000

http://followalibrary.blogspot.com/p/about.html

Twitter in the Classroom Video

Michael — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:05:36 +0000

A most enjoyable case study of using Twitter in a larger class environment to foster conversation/discussion.

Open Conversation: Twitter & Libraries

Michael — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:49:17 +0000

Note: This is the second column I co-wrote with Jan Klerk for Digitale Bibliotek last year. I realized it was one of the first times I’ve discussed the backchannel in my classes in print.

Michael Stephens and Jan Klerk did their open conversation this time on microblog platform Twitter. The topic was of course…

Twitter and Libraries.

INTRODUCTION

MS Jan- I’ve been thinking about librarians using Twitter as medium 4 collaboration & as info space. Have u seen this?

JK I see a small but growing group Dutch librarians just over- came prejudices & are experimenting. How it’s in the USA?

3 CATEGORIES OF TWITTER USE IN LIBRARIES

MS I see librarians using Twitter in 3 ways: as a thriving commentary/community, as a useful tool & as a question space.

MS As commentary/community, we might look at the use of #ALAMW09 as a means to network, plan and state opini- ons.

MS As a useful tool to save time, my favorite example is UGL alerts and @askundergrad2

JK Yes, the UGL is a nice example of smart timesaving distribution.

MS 3rd area is monitoring Twittersphere 4 ?s to answer & using the space as info resource if ?s asked we need to be here.

JK I think your categorization is very enlightening I also see librarians use Twitter interconnecting different social networks.

JK In this way Twitter is a very smart & fast way to distribute the same information simultaneously on different platforms.

JK Aggregating reactions from different platforms in 1 email account makes it easy to communicate either with patrons or staff.

JK The way Twitter=used at #ALAMW09 2 share sad feelings about the tragic loss of colleagues is very touching & adds value.

MS Yes, the human factor comes through the medium strongly to convey the sadness & shock at losing colleagues.

TWITTER AS LEARNING TOOL AND TWITTER AS QUESTION PLACE

MS Also as LIS educator this fascinates me (Twitter as a Learning Tool)

JK The idea of using Twitter as a question space I think=challenging. Could this replace existing Q&A services?

MS Maybe not replace Q&A but become part of the channels where questions are asked & info is sought. I think it’s fluid.

HAVE TO BE WHERE PEOPLE ARE’ MENTIONING THE LIBRARY

JK We talked about channels yesterday & monitoring them. How can libraries take part in the fast growing amount of channels?

MS I suggest librarians do a scan of the multiple channels & find the spaces where folks might be mentioning the library.

JK I agree & finding spaces where folks mention the library=the job4 our marketeers. Instead of our usual shooting in the dark.

MS Using @briansolis’s conversation prism is a good start but it can also be overwhelming until you jump in and explore.

MS Checkout the prism here (http://www.briansolis.com/2009/03/conversation-prism-v20/)

USING A SOCIAL LIBRARY MAP TO RENEW LIBRARY SERVICES

JK I think I could use the prism as starting point to renew traditional services into build-in participatory services.

JK I mean that the conversational aspect is always build-in in every library service you want to develop.

MS I like that thinking. I wish more libs did that here. One barrier is a marketing/PR mindset not open to conversation.

MS Or open to allowing users to chime in, contribute, create & guide those new/rebooted services. We must listen/reply!

DISTRUST VS. RADICAL TRUST

JK Sounds challinging2useTwitter as backchannel during classes. Can u trust your pupils? Or is it a matter of radical trust.

MS Is indeed a matter of radical trust ? if I am doing my job well & trusting them to do theirs well 2 then we are fine.

JK I like this! It’s simple, it’s clear, it keeps you going. We libraries should make this our mission statement!

MS Look at what Pima County Lib in Arizona did: Users made vids!

JK In the Netherlands some schools have forbidden their pupils to use social networks during classes.

MS It concerns me that schools (& libs!) are blocking access 2 social networks when they could be used in the edu process.

JK I have the impression that relationship between school & libraries as institute&pupils as group=often based on distrust.

MS I agree. In many cases students are not trusted or must be protected from ‘the big bad world!’ in school.

MS In libraries distrust is probably contributing factor 4 unwelcoming youth spaces & adversarial attitudes of librarians.

CONCLUSION

MS This has been fun to play out this discussion using Twitter. I hope our readers will try it out.

Noten

1 ALA Midwinter Meeting 2009 www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/ upcoming/midwinter/home.cfm Helaas geeft Search.Twitter.com niet langer de conversatie weer die hoorde bij de ALA Midwinter Meeting en die onder de hashtag #alamw09 is gepubliceerd

2 Twitteraccount ‘Undergraduate Library’ van de University of Illinois

3 Undergraduate Library www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl

4 Pat Callagan:TwitterasaLearningTool www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2009/

Don’t Miss the Tech Set from LITA & Neal Schuman

Michael — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:14:07 +0000

The Librarian in Black writes:

I’m pleased to announce that my first book, Technology Training in Libraries, is set to be released in March of this year!

This book has been a labor of love for the last year. In it, I walk you through setting up a technology training program in your library, including basic technology training (both online and face-to-face) and general tech training principles and tips. I also address creating and training to a set of “technology skills” expectations for staff members. The bulk of the book walks you through the steps for setting up specific types of technology training: lunchtime brown-bags, 23-things style programs, technology petting zoos, peer training, and train-the-trainer programs. On the practical side, I cover how to come up with a dollar value for estimating the return on investment for training programs, how to market training, creating a culture of learning, dealing with difficult learning, and measuring success with individuals and the library as a whole. Finally, I offer a huge list of recommended resources at the end of the book. At 125 pages, it is a concise how-to manual for successfully setting up specific technology training initiatives in a library.

The book is the 6th in a 10-book series called The Tech Set, a joint LITA & Neal-Schuman project edited by Ellyssa Kroski. The entire series is meant to be a series of practical how-to guides on specific technology services in libraries. Other topics include next-gen catalogs, microblogging, mobile technology, gaming, unconferences, and more. The set boasts some great names: Cliff Landis, Connie Crosby, Jason Griffey, Robin Hastings, Steve Lawson, Sean Robinson, Lauren Pressley, Kelly Czarnecki, and Marshall Breeding.

For more information, you can see my book’s pre-pub website (which offers a peek inside the book) and for a complete list of the Tech Set titles, see the site for the entire Tech Set series.

Elyssa asked me to take a look at the set and consider an endorsement. I read multiple chapters from each work – and Sean Robinson’s excellent tome on video making for libraries in its entirety and was very pleased. Pleased enough to endorse the set. I was especially taken with Jason Griffey’s work on mobile library services and mobile technology and Sarah’s take on a subject near and dear to my heart tech training. Here’s what I submitted to Neal Schuman:

For those curious about next gen library catalogs or wondering if the library should be on Twitter, the Tech Set offers ten volumes of current thinking and best practice for a wide range of library-related tech trends. Editor Elyssa Kroski has assembled a who’s who of notable experts on these timely topics – including outstanding entries such as Jason Griffey on mobile technologies, Cliff Landis on utilizing social networking and Sarah Houghton-Jan on effective technology training. The titles are well-researched, clearly explained by a cadre of library technologists, offering tips and tricks for diving into blogging, gaming, video production, and more. This set will be a useful addition to any librarian’s toolkit for planning for emerging technologies.

These up-to-date volumes will surely find a welcome spot in my teaching and will probably serve as textbooks for many technology-related LIS courses. Congrats to all involved!

Takin’ It to the Streets

Michael — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:31:49 +0000

Don’t miss this post by Aaron Schmidt:

http://www.walkingpaper.org/2108

On Wednesday afternoons during the Summer outside of the MLK Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC you will find a table full of friendly librarians talking to the passersby. The librarians also bring out an assortment of library materials to illustrate what’s available in the library. It is a great program and I’d like to see it go even further.

Take a look at the images Aaron shares, highlighting some recent tweet conversations that are perfect examples of the possibilities of engaging with users via Twitter.

Ten Ways to Encourage the Tribe*

Michael — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:42:49 +0000

Download the Virginia Beach Version of the Slides here.

The good folks at Virginia Beach Public Libraries asked me back this year to talk about building community with social tools. This was perfect timing because I had just read Peter Block’s Community: The Structure of Belonging and I’ve been working on an article and interview about/with Seth Godin for Digital Bibliotek magazine. His book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us has figured prominently into my thinking and teaching so far this year.

I always appreciate this type of synchronicity. Jenny Levine introduced me to Peter Block’s book – a fascinating look at transforming communities. Based almost entirely on creating community in physical space, his definition speaks to what I see as an important building block of online community: “Communities are human systems given form by conversations that build relatedness.”

Compare that with Howard Rheingold’s 1993 definition of virtual community: “Social aggregators that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.”

Many important keywords here: human… conversations… relatedness..relationships…

Godin simply states: “Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong.”

Godin’s Tribes is full of insights and ahas for me – as is the crowd-sourced companion PDF at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/TribesQA2.pdf. Download this one and give it a look after you read Tribes. It offers roadmap style planning points and loads of questions/answers for convening your tribe.

Combine all the above with these points from A List Apart’s post “The Wisdom of Community” that posits the ideas contained in The Wisdom of Crowds are amplified by the social web: “where they can reach their full potential.”

To enable online crowds to be wise, Derek Pozowak notes you need these things:

Simplicity
Interface
Aggregation
Participation
Selfishness
Explicit vs. implicit feedback

So, from all of this inspiration and these authors’ brilliant thinking, allow me to submit for your approval:

Ten Ways to Encourage the Tribe*

Connect around a cause, a community or a concept

Create your online group around a current issue, a user population or what libraries have a lot of: ideas. Focus on materials: reading, viewing, discussion. Focus on community: what’s happening around town? Focus on the current climate: what programs, services and revamped services might you offer in light of the economic downturn? How can the library help?

Ravelry is a smoking hot example of a focused community that works. A librarian shared with the group I was with in California last week that her daughter was publishing video via Ravelry of spinning techniques for people all of over the world.

Consider also Puget Sound Off at http://www.pugetsoundoff.org/. The Digital Natives blog had this to say:

“The focus is to connect teens in the Puget Sound area that care about the same social issues so that they can create positive change in their communities.”

Take a look at Genre X from Oak Park Public Library at http://www.genre-x.com/ and read what Aaron Schmidt had to say about how they are building community here: http://www.walkingpaper.org/944

What cause, community or concept do you want to connect?

Use Stories

“Marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread.” Godin writes in Tribes.

Can we say enough about the power of stories in libraries? The stories people share about libraries and how they use them – in person and online – are priceless for understanding the role we can play in people’s lives. I’m knocked out by 14 Days to have Your Say as a way to get students involved and talking about library service. Public libraries could do this too – internally, with the community, as a strategic planning step.

Presenting the library’s story is another option. Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Annual Report at http://ourstory.columbuslibrary.org/ is a perfect example of sharing the library’s story in a human, playful way (driven by technology, but it’s not ABOUT the technology).

Be Transparent

Transparency leads to trust and buy-in. Secrets, deception, guarded details shared only as “need to know” demands hurts organizations. Give me an honest, open mechanism for sharing information and I’ll listen and react.

Michael Casey and I have been exploring these topics for over two years at Library Journal and I still see other folks like Godin urging business and organizations to embrace the concept. It’s foundational to building a healthy community.

Leverage the Social Tools

Use the tools to extend the library into realms where people are connecting and talking.

Godin notes in Tribes that “Internet companies have taken the original idea behind blogs and amplified it into a set of tools that anyone can use to tighten a tribe.” Facebook, Twitter and others allow interaction and information sharing – with replies built in.

“The biggest shift is going to be that organizations that could never have afforded a national campaign will suddenly have one,” Godin writes in a recent blog post.

Libraries – all shapes, sizes and types – can do this. We can take promotion online – make it viral. Recent online initiatives such as the New Jersey State Library’s campaign to share users’ video stories about the transformational qualities of libraries are ways to create low-cost, human, authentic marketing campaigns.

A perfect first step: set aside one meeting – not six months of meetings (or heaven forbid a year or more) – to craft your library’s social media policy and plan. Use this as a starting point:

http://www.hightechdad.com/2009/05/11/crafting-your-companys-social-media-policy/

The Social Media Do’s Explained [31]

Be Polite – Talk the way you would if you were doing a job interview. [72]
Be Courteous – Be sure to listen & ask questions. [52]
Be Helpful – Offering tips, tricks & how-to’s goes a long way. [65]
Be Conversational – Don’t just be a PR twit. Chat as you would with a stranger at a bar. Be funny yet interesting. [117]
Be Intelligent – Provide some value. Don’t talk down. Offer insight. [71]
Be Non-confrontational – Don’t start a flame war, it can & will come back to haunt you. [90]
Be Transparent – Disclose that you work for the company, be honest & truthful. [81]

Remember the Mission

Have you looked at your library’s mission lately through the lens of social tools and conversational communities online? Checkout Evanston PL’s mission:

The mission of the Evanston Public Library is to promote the development of independent, self-confident, and literate citizens through the provision of open access to cultural, intellectual, and informational resources.

Creating an online community like any of the Ning’s I’ve written about or similar certainly taps into what this sample mission states, just as enhancing the library catalog does.

Redwood City PL’s mission states:

The Redwood City Public Library’s mission is to be “the learning center of our community and the place people turn to for the discovery of ideas, the joy of reading and the power of information.”

Discovering ideas and sharing within catalogs such as the community-focused SOPAC is a perfect example of fulfilling a mission like this in the 21st Century.

The Little Things count…a lot

Last December when I bought the new Subaru and tweeted about passing on the $250 Subaru charity donation promotion money to the ASPCA yielding a reply from said organization with minutes is a perfect example of a little connection, a little interaction, meaning a lot.

DKPublishing’s gift to me of a tour guide to Vancouver because of my tweet about their books or recent discussions about Oak park Public Library’s collection are further examples of how a tiny little expression of kindness or bit of feedback can go a long way.

What little things can you do with your users online? What little kindness can you extend?

Listen & Talk (like a human)

The Cluetrain said it best:

“Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.”

If you are going to participate in the conversations going on around your library and within your community, do so in a human way – authentic, real, emotional. Every chance I get, I echo the Cluetrain in my talks, saying: “People can smell PR speak a mile away and they do not respond well to it.”

I spoke recently with librarian who discovered unpleasant reviews of his branch on Yelp. He realized the best move he could make would be to respond to the reviews with thanks and insights about the feedback. I like this thinking.

An interesting example comes from the discussion I lead in Phoenix and Virginia Beach about library databases. In this transparent world, what would happen if the library actively put out there what is spent on electronic resources and encouraged the public to weigh in on what’s purchased. Would there be an uproar? User involvement? I think it would be a very open, honest thing to do: “Hey, library patrons, we spent $125,000 of your tax dollars last year on ________. How should we spend it this year?” Has anyone out there done this?

How could you listen and talk with your tribe?

Create a Culture of Caring

Through reading Tribes, the Tribes Q&A and Block’s book, I was struck by the emphasis on making real connections with people via caring and support. This speaks to my personal emphasis on “encouraging the heart” in everything we do. A quote by Darien Library’s Kate Sheehan from Cindi Trainor’s recent TechSource post about Computers in Libraries 2009 sticks in my brain too:

In the time since I’ve been home from CIL, the moment that has bounced around in my head most often was a quote from fellow TechSource blogger Kate Sheehan. During her part of “Innovation, Services and Practices,” she remarked “The chief export of our libraries is kindness.” It seems so obvious, so nostalgic—and distinctly low-tech—for a librarian to announce that we are, above all, kind to our patrons. Yet many people in our service industry, well, aren’t. I once heard a reference librarian refer to her stone-cold demeanor as “business-like.” An otherwise merry librarian, she probably would have been horrified to know that students thought her “mean.” In this age of snark and snipe, anonymous and named, a little kindness goes a long way, and I’m taking this one to heart.

Amen. In our recent Cheers & Jeers column at LJ, Michael and I mentioned this as well:

Cheers to the folks using emerging tools to enhance conferences and learning opportunities, such as Skyping speaker, UStreaming a trends session, or tagging tweets, posts, pictures, and more with a common moniker.

Jeers, however, to some who criticize in the conference back channel. We’ve been disappointed with snarky chatter and lack of respect for speakers and conference attendees at some events.

Constructive feedback and disagreement fostering debate are wonderful things. But mean-spirited criticism does not have a place at conferences or inside your online community.

How can you encourage your tribe’s collective heart today? What little bit of kindness can you extend?

Trust them

“Faith is critical to all innovation.” Godin notes in Tribes on p. 80.

Faith and trust are building blocks for online social engagement. Until you get past worrying about how you’ll control your tribe and trust them, the results of your online community building might not fare the best. Open comments, ask for feedback, and trust the responses – the genuine ones will rise to the top, good and bad.

Trust your staff to post and interact with the public. And trust the public to do the same. A quick meeting of all of the minds involved will get everyone on the same page – mission, vision, guidelines for participating in the conversation — instead of having a year or two of meetings to hash out how it should all work with social media. See the policy above for inspiration. Hey libraries – post your social media policies so other libraries can adapt and use them.

What can you do right now to trust your community? What changes can you make?

Value EVERY Member

Every member of the tribe you want to create should be valued: for participating, for lurking, for shaking things up, for calming things down and for simply contributing. NO ONE should be denied access if they are a part of the group. This goes for public tribes and for your staff tribe.

Public tribes might include your young adults, your 20-30-somethings, etc. It might also include those folks you haven’t extended any services or outreach to as of yet. It certainly should include the groups you’ve marginalized for whatever reason.

Planning this talk, I checked in with John Blyberg from Darien Library. I’ve long used the “Front Desk” blog example in my talks as an example of involving and engaging all levels of staff. Via the new Darien Library site, all staff who want to can post to the fully-integrated Drupal-driven site, including folks from circulation:

“All staff are encouraged to post, no matter their position,” Blyberg told me. “We don’t moderate—posts just go up, but our User Experience team will work with staff on spelling and layout issues, etc if necessary. We never criticize them on content, because that would discourage them, though we would intervene if something was inappropriate. We have told our staff that their posts should not betray a political bias because the of the library’s non-profit status as well as our desire to be seen as an apolitical community resource. I would say that 90% of our full time staff posts and maybe 50% of our part time staff.”

I urged the good folks at VBPL (and members of the city government who also attended my talks and workshops) to consider Godin’s Tribes carefully and to look for ways to blend his vision with what libraries do. It strikes me that gathering folks around ideas and letting them communicate is very much in line with what our mission should be.

I was glad to finish out the Cheers & Jeers column with this:

Cheers to marketing guru Seth Godin and his book Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us (Portfolio)—a touchstone for us this year. We agree with Godin that the market will reward organizations and individuals who choose to lead while those stuck within archaic rules and outdated practice—or guided by fear—will not flourish.

Which will you be?

* at Your Library

Nancy Dowd: Guy Kawasaki on Twitter

Michael — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:28:32 +0000

Don’t miss Nancy Dowd’s reporting of Guy Kawasaki’s “Using Twitter for Marketing:”

http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-new-bff-guy-kawasaki_27.html

1. Forget the A List
2. Defocus- you never know who will carry the banner for you so be open to every possibility.
3. Get lots of followers.
3. Content
4. Monitor what people are saying about you.
5. Copy what people are doing/best practices