November 2010

Facebook, Personal Profiles, and Business Accounts

by David Lee King on November 26, 2010

facebook headquartersThis came up recently in the comments on my Social Media Policies for Staff post, so thought I’d discuss it further. Please add your thoughts!

Here’s the issue: some people and organizations want very much to keep their personal profiles very separate from work stuff – that’s understandable. But to do that, they have created multiple accounts. Individuals create their normal personal profile, and then they also create a separate “worker dude” profile that they only use for official work-related business. Sorta like most of us have separate work and personal email accounts.

I know of at least one library that takes this a bit further, and creates “work-only” profiles for staff to use to administer their organization’s Facebook Page. Their thinking is that the organization owns the profiles, since the organization created them … so they’re not connected to an individual, and therefore ok.

Here’s the problem with that – Facebook really only acknowledges two types of accounts – personal profiles and organizational Pages. Period.

Facebook does allow something they call a “Business account.” What’s that? Here’s what Facebook says about them:

What is the difference between a business account and a user profile?
Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

So a “business account” is really no more than a very limited-access personal profile for individuals that only want to use it to manage a Page. And even those have to be set up by individuals (not organizations).

Facebook spells that out even further here:

If I already have a user profile, can I create a business account?
Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.

Where am I going with this? Just this – I know lots of organizations either already have or are wanting to create a Facebook presence. And I know some organizations and some individuals who are very leery of “showing themselves” on Facebook – using their personal profiles for work AND for personal stuff.

But here’s the rub – Facebook’s Terms of Service really only gives you two options – use your personal account for work, or don’t use Facebook. That third option – creating a fake “work-only” profile? Works great … until you get caught. Then your profile, and potentially your organization’s Page, might get deleted.

Thoughts?

pic by researchgirl

13 comments

This Week in Libraries: Video Killed the Blog Star

by David Lee King on November 22, 2010

TWIL #27: Video Killed the Blog Star from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

During Internet Librarian 2010, Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer did a live recording of their This Week in Libraries video show as a panel … that I was part of.

So – check out the video above. It’s a double whammy – it’s the TWIL show, and it’s also the panel session I was part of about making video for libraries.

Enjoy!

Tagged as: , ,

Be the first to comment

Social Media Policies for Staff

by David Lee King on November 19, 2010

We don’t really have a social media policy for staff (and I hope we never have one). We generally encourage staff to experiment with social media on-the-job, use their personal accounts to share what the library is doing (when appropriate), and “be the library” when they’re out and about – be that physically or digitally.

Other libraries do create social media policies. I get that – every library has different needs. But sometimes, weird things pop up in them, usually because the policy was written without thinking through how the technology actually works.

For example, take Tulsa City-County Library’s Social media Technology policy for staff (seen via an email):

“Social media technology is another mechanism to transact business and provide information/services within the library. The use of social media technology and similar tools (such as, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, instant messaging and wikis) and the posting of electronic content on behalf of the library shall be professional and reflect the appropriate behavior as expected of a library employee.

All proposals for library service use of social media technology must be submitted through the library’s New Technology Committee and must be pre-approved by the requestor’s supervisor.

Employees must be authorized to create or post content on library social media accounts.

Employees may not use their personal social network accounts for library use. Institutional accounts must be created to provide information/services for the organization.

Employees may choose to express themselves by posting personal information on Web sites, blogs, other social networking sites or chat rooms on the employee’s own time. The library values creativity and honors personal expression. However, an employee should demonstrate care if personal postings include the library’s name or other identifying information that leads others to conclude that the poster is associated with the library. Employees should not represent their statements in an online social networking community as reflective of official library policy or position. Any posting that violates the library’s rights or the rights of other employees (inappropriate, offensive, harmful or threatening) may cause both disciplinary action in the workplace as well as legal action.”

Generally speaking, it’s a pretty normal policy. But check out the part I put in bold again. Then think about how Facebook works.

See the problem?

The library is telling employees that “Institutional accounts must be created to provide information/services for the organization.” OK. What’s the problem, David?

Guess what Facebook says about that? From their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities – “You will not create more than one personal profile.”

Basically (and I’m guessing the library really doesn’t know they’re asking this), the library is requiring their employees to break Facebook’s Terms of Service (assuming those library employees already have a personal Facebook account).

Oops.

I’m not really picking on Tulsa – I’ll bet they swiped that language from any number of other “social media policies” for employees. But if we really, truly want to look professional … at the least, I’m guessing we shouldn’t ask our employees to do something that will technically get their personal accounts deleted. Right?

What about your library? Do you have social media policies for staff? If so, how does it read? What are you asking your staff to do?

Tagged as: , ,

14 comments

Your slides aren’t the presentation

by David Lee King on November 15, 2010

I sometimes see/hear a presenter who, though they probably don’t realize this, ends up talking in outline form. They’re looking at their outline that’s up on the screen, and they don’t even read the whole screen – instead, they summarize the words of their outlined slide … and end up sounding like a rough-draft outline of their presentation.

Remember this – your presentation is not the slides. And believe me – I spend a lot of time on my slides, to make them as attractive as possible, sometimes to make them funny, and always to have them relate to what I want to say. I DO think slides are important – they work great at conveying information visually.

But I have also realized that the actual presentation is me – it’s the words I say. Even if I’m summarizing something on the screen – I still need to speak clearly, in complete sentences, with a good explanation. A story that summarizes what’s on the screen is even better.

Just something to think about if you present.

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

9 comments

FYI – Interesting Sounding Grant

by David Lee King on November 11, 2010

Someone from the Knight Foundation emailed me, and I thought it sounded relevant enough to pass on to you – here’s the gist of it:

If you have an innovative media technology idea, you might be able to get funding from the Knight News Challenge contest.
Run by the Knight Foundation, the grant competition awards up to $5 million annually for innovative projects that use digital technology to transform the way communities send, receive and make use of news and information.
More info can be found here: http://newschallenge.org. The site includes application information, as well as details about past winners.
This year’s application deadline is December 1. The News Challenge is looking for applications in four categories: mobile, authenticity, sustainability and community.  All projects must make use of digital technology to distribute news in the public interest.
The contest is open to anyone in the world.
A simple description of the project is all you need to apply. Submit a brief pitch to http://newschallenge.org. If the reviewers like it, you’ll be asked to submit a full proposal later.
If you have questions you can a) reference the FAQ: http://www.newschallenge.org/frequently-asked-questions, or; b) check the archived chat transcript here: http://www.newschallenge.org/1026-live (another live chat will be held on November 18 at 1:30 EST).
You can follow Knight Foundation at http://twitter.com/knightfdn. The News Challenge Twitter hashtag is #knc

Tagged as:

1 comment

Coming soon – Using Social Software in Library Marketing: Facebook, Twitter and More (ALA TechSource Workshop)

by David Lee King on November 10, 2010

Some of you might be interested in attending this webinar coming up on December 1 and Decomber 8 (two part series) that Robin Hastings and I are leading.

Here’s the details (and here’s where you can register):

The popularity of social networking software—tools like Twitter, Facebook and blogs—continues to skyrocket, particular among younger populations. For libraries in the 21st century, a presence on these social networking sites is an essential part of library outreach and patron services. In this exclusive event, librarians and social software experts David Lee King and Robin Hastings will teach you about what tools you can use to engage with your patrons and the best practices for using them.

You’ll learn about:

  • Collaboration with libraries and patrons using YouTube, Flickr and Dropbox
  • Marketing your library with Facebook and Twitter
  • 4 things your library must do when signing up for any social media tool (listen, plan, respond, and opening up)
  • Time-savers and tools to use for maximizing your library’s social media reach
About the Instructors

Robin Hastings is the Information Technology Manager for the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City, Missouri. She manages the library’s network, websites and training classes, as well as social networking projects for the library. Recently, Robin went to England, Jamaica, California, Chicago (twice), St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri, giving presentations on Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, Library Mashups, RSS, OpenID and Web 3.0. When she’s not traveling, she spends most of her free time in front of a computer blogging at http://www.rhastings.net or writing articles, a book chapter on mashups in the library and a chapter on using Google Apps in the library, an issue of Library Technology Reports on Collaboration and a book on lifestreaming and microblogging.

David Lee King is the Digital Branch and Services Manager at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans for, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He speaks internationally about emerging trends, website usability and management, digital experience planning, and managing techie staff and has been published in many library-related journals. David was named a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker” for 2008 and recently published his first book, Designing the Digital Experience. David writes the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries magazine with Michael Porter and maintains a blog at www.davidleeking.com.

Interested? Go register today!

2 comments

That library smell – it’s the smell of death

by David Lee King on November 9, 2010

Stephen Abram recently posted Are Books Smelly? Fun read – learn all about why old books smell!

And I have to admit – I’ve been thinking about “that old book smell” that some libraries have for awhile now. Here’s why – it seems to me that the smell some of us relish in a library is:

  • the smell of books that haven’t moved off the shelves in a very long time
  • which equals =
  • the smell of a library NOT BEING USED
  • which equals =
  • the smell of death

Have that lovely smell of rotting glue and mold in your library? It means that your stuff isn’t relevant, and it’s been sitting for too long. You have two choices:

  1. pay people to move your stuff around
  2. get better stuff

OK – probably more than two choices – you could also learn to market and promote better, actually weed your collections more often (ie, we still have Windows 98 for Dummies – both copies are available!), etc.

Yep – another way to look at change, with a sorta-kinda-measurable tool (ie, the smell-o-meter). Get people using your stuff, get rid of the stuff that’s no longer moving. Left with nothing? Maybe you’re buying the wrong stuff.

Quoting Seth Godin – “change is a bear, but it’s better than death.”

pic by antmoose

Tagged as: , , , , ,

13 comments

Podcamp Topeka – Social Media ROI

by David Lee King on November 8, 2010

Social Media ROI – presented by Eric Melin at Spiral16

Who owns social media?

public relations – crisis management
marketing – brand reputation management
sales/bizDev – lead generation
customer service – engagement/retention
product development – competitive intelligence
IT – deployment/integrating new solutions

IE – everyone owns social media

Social Media isn’t free – it takes valuable time
You need human resources for planning, creative insight, content creation, product management, measurement, etc

What does ROI mean?
It’s challenging to define gains and costs with social media efforts

There is no way to calculate social media ROI with a one size fits all equation. People who claim that really just made a tool for their business and goals – not everyone.

Needs to be specific to your business.

ROI is difficult because it’s a financial metric. Hard to define that with social media, because it’s not based on financial gains inherently

Make sure you have clearly defined business objectives first. Then make sure your social media initiatives support your business goals.

Common metrics (like twitter follower number) – ask yourselves which ones matter to your business

2 ways to implement:
- figure out how SM can support existing company initiatives
- create new sum initiatives that help

Online data that matters:
- semantic results
- sentiment
- volume/frequency
- where does it live

Developing strategy – set up timelines and expectations – help measure if you reached your goals or not

He likes correlating traditional metrics with online metrics
Ex – actual sales = positive/negative sentiment
Retail traffic = message reach
etc

Can you see spikes in sales in correlation to your social media efforts

Tagged as: , , , , ,

Be the first to comment

Podcamp Topeka – Patrick O’Keefe

by David Lee King on November 8, 2010

We just held our second podcamp at the library – Podcamp Topeka 2010. It went well! Here are notes from our keynote presentation:

Patrick O’Keefe gave the keynote presentation

talking about the Social Technographics Ladded

people who contribute to online forums are influential with purchases – 79.2%

participating in communities and forums as a marketer

- find the right community first – figure out who your audience is and go where they go

- every participant is a marketer

Actually want to be there

- if you don’t really want to be there, it will show

Observe first, act second

- view the community’s social norms

Read the guidelines

- follow them and do NOT violate them – it makes you look bad

In Doubt? As the staff for the forum

- never take chances or assume

Fill out your profile, especially your signature

- in the manner allowed by the guidelines

Don’t Mention Your Stuff
- don’t talk about your company, your articles, etc
- your signature gets you traffic
- your signature is how they find you

Giving example of traditional media who claimed her 1 link in a post was more valuable than 95% pof the posts on the forum … but – the forum had 80,000 posts, had been online for 8 years.

She was wrong.

They asked her to stop, and she refused. So Patrick reached out to her editor/boss.

Building your community on twitter
- brand your profile consistent with your business
- looking for good content to share and sharing, RTing, etc shows that. It builds your credibility.
- interact with people.
- Reply and start conversations with twitter.

Telling the story of flying first class on Delta – because of flight screwups. Delta answered his questions and replies on twitter.

Patrick is showing a search for the hashtag #podcamptopeka.
- explaining that the hashtag search was part of his life for the last month and a half.
- he interacted with people talking about and attending the event
- trying to help people see value in the event, answering questions, etc

- it really helped build up the event! (DLK here)

No one ever asked “what’s the ROI of talking? Which is what twitter is” – scott straiten, @unmarketing

Gary Vaynerchuk – telling the story of how his following started.
- big part of how Gary did that was social media.
- took 2-3 years for his daily wine videos to take off
- he kept at it
- he went to wine forums – he just talked to people. Never mentioned his stuff in threads and posts.
- did the same thing with twitter. He did searches for chardonnay, then simply answered the questions.

Made an app – Ask Gary. That’s all it does – sends a question to Gary, and he answers it.

Yay – he’s looking at Topeka Library’s Facebook page – said we’re doing a good job of monitoring it.
- people don’t friend buildings.
- they friend people.

Explaining how he interacted with people in the area before the event. Started with the people he knew, then spread it out to influencers, traditional media, etc.

Showed how it wasn’t any one person that helped bring people to the event – it was everyone tweeting, helping, volunteering and sponsoring.

Tagged as: , , ,

2 comments

5 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Patrons on the Web

by David Lee King on November 3, 2010

I have been working on a video series for WebJunction, and the first video is up! I have it embedded in this post – so you can watch it here.

This video focuses on dealing with difficult online patrons. I give 5 tips that I’ve used and seen in action that seem to work. And I’d love for you to chime in and add your own observations, too.

But it’d be more fun to click through to the WebJunction site, and comment there. I think you have to log in at WebJunction to comment, which is cool – they have a lot of great content there. For example, the managers at my library are taking a WebJunction-hosted course on change management right now – good stuff.

So – do you have a tip for dealing with difficult patrons on the web? Please – go share it over at WebJunction, and enjoy the video too – there will be more.

PS – looks like I made the WebJunction Crossroads newsletter, too – go check it out as well, if you’re not already familiar with it.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

3 comments

← Previous Entries