social media

One Library’s Twitter Strategy

by David Lee King on June 18, 2013

My library has been doing a few different things with our Twitter account the last couple of years, and have finally settled on a Twitter strategy to try for the next 6 months or so.

Who’s connecting with us? Our Twitter followers tend more towards marketers, advertisers, start-up business types, the “activist/we get stuff done” types in town, the 20-40 year old business up-and-comers, and a lot of media types (broadcast, newspaper, and some radio journalists). And a bunch of young geeks.

We are focusing on this type of content:

  • What’s interesting (to the library) right now and why?
  • Library “breaking news”
  • No big sell – share what the library finds interesting
  • Be yourself, be casual, but at the same time remember you represent the library
  • Friend our customers and local businesses
  • In general, try for friendly and helpful, but not pushy.

Posting schedule: We post multiple times a day, every day. We have seven staff members assigned, one on each day. I’m the floater/substitute for when people are sick, on vacation, etc. And I monitor activity, answer the harder questions, and make sure we’re on-target.

How will we know if we succeed? I will measure growth and engagement via the new-fangled Twitter analytics!

That’s our plan. What’s your organization’s Twitter strategy?

Pic by Jeff Turner

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Libraries and Tumblr – last one from #BEA2013

by David Lee King on June 11, 2013

I attended a session on Tumblr and libraries, mainly because I have to admit – I don’t get Tumblr. I use it personally as a blog, but it is HUGE as more of a discovery tool for content, especially visual content. And a bunch of librarians also use it as a discussion/sharing tool (check out http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tumblarian).

Looks like some libraries are using Tumblr very successfully!

The panel included:

  • Molly McArdle, library journal (moderator)
  • Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr
  • Angela Montefinise, NYPL
  • Erin Shea, Darien Library
  • Kate Tkacik, Bank of Montreal Library

Some library-related Tumblr sites:

Random things I heard during the presentation:

  • NYPL has over 100,000 followers on their tumblr account
  • NYPL posts light and fun stuff – they are trying to humanize the organization via Tumblr
  • They also use Tumblr posts as press releases, sending out the link instead of a traditional press release. Cool.
  • Easy to share stuff with followers via the reblog button
  • 108 million blogs on tumblr
  • Use hashtags – you can follow those – i.e., #tumblarian – librarian tag on tumblr
  • Tumblr skews very young. 20% teens
  • Gifs – show your emotion about how you feel about something
  • ROI – tumblr numbers don’t count non-tumblr users that look at a page. Only tumblr users views count…

Image by AJ Cann

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Goodreads Advanced Strategies – #BEA2013

by David Lee King on June 5, 2013

Patrick Brown, Director, Author Marketing at Goodreads gave a talk on Goodreads. Good stuff!

First, some info about Goodreads:

  • 18 million members. Doubled in size in 2012.
  • Acquired by Amazon in march. Still working things out.
  • What isn’t changing. Goodreads is for all readers, no matter how you read.
  • Working on new features. Discovery, discussion, and author program.
  • 250 books added to the to read shelves every minute.

And now for some tips for authors using the Goodreads Author profile (here’s a link to my Goodreads author profile):

Build your platform.

  • Metadata – make sure the book record is complete!
  • 75,000 authors. I’m one of those. That’s actually a pretty small number compared to the number of member accounts

Get people talking about your book.

Your goal is to get reviews, especially early in the life of your book.

  • Reviews help new readers discover your book:
  • They help readers decide to read your book.
  • Goodreads work harder for you. Reviews are shared via Facebook and twitter

Giveaways help kick start book discovery. They help with this…

  • Who knew?  You can actually do book giveaways via Goodreads.
  • They encourage people to add it to their to read shelves
  • They receive an email on the publication date

Some tips for giveaways:

  • Start early. 3-5 months before publication
  • Give it time. Run giveaway at least one month
  • Offer more books. More books = more reviews. Not everyone reviews the book
  • Do it again. Run multiple reviews for each title

Mobilize your existing fan base.

  • Talk about the giveaway in other places – twitter, etc.

Building anticipation and awareness.

  • A cover reveal – dole out information on the content over the months… To build buzz.

Bring it all together.
If you have a new book coming out, do these things on Goodreads:

  • 5 months before publication – first giveaway.
  • Second giveaway – ends at publication. Looking for awareness this time. Lots of people add the book on publication day.
  • Personal selection email – a paid advertising thing.
  • Sent to fans of the author’s backlist.
  • Then a sponsored poll – another ad unit. You vote.
  • Then a homepage roadblock – another ad unit. A hey, this book is out now ad. On the publication date. A awareness unit
  • Exclusive interviews. God reads interviews some people. top authors, popular stuff. Goes in their newsletters.

Trends and takeaways.

  • Social context. People add the book after they see their friends add it
  • Goodreads effort pays off. People will add the book to their lists…
  • The rise of mobile. Enormous mobile growth. 1/5th of goodreads users use the mobile app.

5 habits of highly successful publishers on goodreads

  1. Start early
  2. Involve your authors
  3. Pay attention to your stats
  4. Use content to build anticipation
  5. Keep the momentum up

Goodreads.com/author/how_to – helpful stuff for authors on using goodreads

pic by Jurgen Appelo

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My #ideadrop presentation During SXSWi

by David Lee King on March 19, 2013

Video streaming by Ustream

While I was at SXSW in Austin, TX last week, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation/interview/livestream at the #ideadrop house. The video is embedded in this post.

What’s the ideadrop house? From the livestream text:

“On 3/8, DLF brings you a live stream of the ER&L + ProQuest #ideadrop house in Austin, TX. The #ideadrop house is a space dedicated to library and information professionals to experience the diversity of SXSW speakers in the context of libraries and library-related technologies and topics.

Influencers, thought leaders, artists, hacktivists, academics and creators join the #ideadrop library house during March 8-12 at SXSW Interactive to discuss many topics including: SOPA/PIPA, free speech, privacy, open access, archives, values, humanity, civic start up efforts, civil liberty, liberty, network freedom, information access, open data, museums, community engagement, ux, social media, digitization and open source technologies.

Live streaming made possible by the Digital Library Federation (DLF)”

So – Lisa Carlucci and I talked about online conversations and community in the library world – fun talk! Make sure to watch and listen … then leave a comment here!

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Talking at the #ideadrop house @ SXSWi

by David Lee King on March 6, 2013

I’m headed out to SXSWi tomorrow (woo hoo!), and wanted to let y’all know about something I’m participating in on Friday. I’m heading up a discussion about being human online on Friday at the #ideadrop House.

What’s the #ideadrop House? It’s a fun event hosted by Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) and ProQuest. The goal is to “serve as a seriously fun place to drop ideas and a seriously great opportunity to dialogue about topics affecting libraries during SXSW when the creative juices are flowing and where the big ideas are percolating.”

For most talks at the #ideadrop House during SXSW, there’s a small space for people to actually attend (I think). And, the talk will also be livestreamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ideadrop - so you can still watch and participate, even if you’re not in Austin!

My talk is scheduled for 4pm Friday March 8 – I’ll be talking about how organizations can make real connections to customers using online tools.

Please come by, tune in, and discuss! Should be a blast! You can also follow along via Twitter using #ideadrop or @ERandL.

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