by David Lee King on November 28, 2012
Thinking a bit more about my last post on using Facebook ads to actively seek out new fans … Why try to get more fans in the first place?
Another way to ask that – What exactly do you want from a Facebook Page?
Here’s a list of 5 things libraries might want out of a Facebook Page. These five things are a happy convergence of stuff Facebook is good at, and stuff that libraries (and other organizations) might find useful, too. See what you think, and add to my list!
Five things a Facebook Page is good for:
- Visibility – the more we interact, the more we are “seen” in Facebook. Which means that more people see our posts about library stuff.
- Listening – we share, but we also listen to our customers. They say stuff about us on Facebook! Some good stuff, some bad stuff. It’s a place to answer questions, to field complaints, and to actively ask for input. For free.
- Advocacy – this one’s huge, and should be a constant. Share good stuff about the library, and point out when we see customers saying good stuff about us.
- Purposeful Engagement – why gather a crowd if you don’t ask them to do anything? We should be including Calls to Action in our Facebook Posts, on specific things we want our customers to actually do. That might mean Liking the page, or it might mean attending a movie at the library. We need to start asking … and then measuring results.
- Conversions – Doing that Purposeful Engagement thing in #4 can lead to “conversions.” What’s a conversion? Simply stated, a conversion in social media is when your ask turns into their action. For example, if you ask Facebook Page visitors to register for an event at the library (and supply a link to the registration form), and 20 people actually click the link and fill out the form, that equals 20 conversions. Conversions can be measured and improved upon. But the important point here – you WANT conversions. You want to drive your Facebook Page visitors and fans to actually DO something – to interact with and engage your library. Conversions provides a way to measure that interaction.
Those are my five things … What are yours?
Photo by Flood
Tagged as:
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by David Lee King on April 23, 2012
Gina Millsap and I gave this presentation last week at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference (this year in Houston, TX). Great conference, fun people!
Especially check out the final part of this presentation – it will give you a little insight into how my library decides on strategy – through data-mapping and GIS market segmentation data. Really handy stuff.
Enjoy!
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Web Design,
Web Management,
website design,
websites
by David Lee King on November 15, 2011
I’m still thinking about Youtube and videos, which I started with my post Poking Around in Youtube Insights. So my next couple of posts will talk as bit about YouTube and how to tweak your videos to make them more watchable.
For starters, here’s how many subscribers and video views my library’s Youtube account has received so far (since March 6, 2007):
- 191 subscribers
- 191,000+ video views total
What types of video do we generally create?
- occasional video series (focusing on technology or special collections)
- one-off videos for upcoming programs
- videos for the annual report
- interviews with authors and artists
- an occasional book review
Looks like we are creating videos for marketing stuff, videos highlighting a collection or service, interviews with speakers … and an occasional book review. Makes sense – sounds like a library to me!
Current direction
Our current strategy for creating video is a pretty simple one. It’s “please make video, dump it to Youtube, and share on our website.” Can’t get simpler than that! And that has worked ok so far – some staff have really embraced that and make a lot of videos. Others use it when it makes sense. What’s this gotten us? We have a lot of videos up on Youtube that shows off our library, services, and staff. Not a a bad thing at all.
Our videos are generally watched, too:
- most popular video 23,300+ views
- third most pop video – patron created content!
- our 15 most popular videos are parody, interviews, interesting stuff about our collections, and kids and teens-related content
Our current video-making tools:
- video cameras – Three Flip cameras (too bad they stopped making these), a Canon GL2, a Sanyo Xacti, and a couple other video cameras.
- Software – iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Windows Movie Maker.
- Staff also use their own cameras/software…
Here’s what we plan to do in 2011:
- We have two new video series in the works (one that I’ll be directly involved with)
- I have started adding tags, contact info and urls to every post/video in youtube. I’m also making sure comments are answered.
- Working on a fledgling video room for staff. Currently, we have a room, we have a Mac and a PC, and we have a green wall.
- Starting in January, I’m buying some dedicated video mics, lights, and backdrops.
- And, we have a goal to be more multimedia-focused…
That’s what we’re doing, anyway. What are your library’s plans for video in 2011?
man with video camera from Bigstock
Tagged as:
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by David Lee King on October 19, 2011
by David Lee King on February 10, 2011
I recently read What do You Want People to See over on the Social Rabbit blog. Good read … and it made me think a bit.
The article discusses setting some goals for your social media sites by answering some questions – questions like this:
- What are you using social media in your business for?
- what impression about your business do you want to leave people with?
Not bad questions to answer at all. For example, think about your organization’s Facebook Page (assuming you have one). What are you using that for? Have any idea?
How about the second question – what impression do you want to leave people with who visit your organization’s Facebook Page? Answering this question might change the way you post status updates, or what types of pictures you add to the page, for example.
Pondering those questions made me think about our organization websites. Shouldn’t we answer those types of questions in relation to our websites too? I think so.
Take a peek at a page on your website – any page will do. Then answer these questions:
- what should your audience be looking at while on this page?
- where are you pointing your audience? What actions should they take here?
- What should they do next?
Answering these questions will start you down the path of setting some goals for major sections of your website. Not a bad thing to have at all 
Pic by Alexander Henning Drachmann
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