strategy

Video, Youtube, and My Library

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

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Internet Librarian 2011, Day 3: Social Media Strategies & Goals

by David Lee King on October 19, 2011

This was my session – here are my slides – enjoy! Look at the slides, and read this person’s notes, and you will get a good feel for the discussion.

Social Media Strategy & Goals

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Thinking about Strategy

by David Lee King on June 4, 2010

The fine people at the WebDrivenChurch blog have been thinking about strategy – and I think their ideas for rethinking their tasks and projects is a great one, and can be adapted to also work for other organizations.

Here’s what they’re doing:

“We’re all so tied down to tasks that we can’t pick our heads up to dream again. So we’re doing something about it.

In every setting this might look different, but in ours it looks something like this:

  • Stop: There are things we have done for years that just don’t need to be done anymore. Identify and cut.
  • Combine: There are countless tasks that live independently of each other – but what if they could be combined? Identify and combine.
  • Move: There are thing we do that take HUGE amounts of time and energy. But it is only because of the process. If there were a simpler way to do it wouldn’t that be better? Identify and move.
  • Grow: There are things we are doing that are “old school.” We simply haven’t grown into the technology that is available in that area. Identify and grow.
  • Simplify: And in all things ask if there is a more simple way of presenting the content. Are our websites still too bloated? Have we let our media players get too full? Etc. Identify and simplify.”

What do you think – what can you stop, combine, move, grow, or simplify? I’m guessing a lot…

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UGame ULearn: Michael Edson

by David Lee King on April 5, 2010

Michael EdsonMichael Edson is the Smithsonian Institution’s Director of Web and New Media Strategy, and spoke about change and different cultures within organizations, and gave ideas of how to bridge the gap between the two. Here are my rather random notes from his talk:

Empowering citizen scholars – goal at the Smithsonian

What environments will we need to make new ideas happen?

Cultural institutions have millennials, and have older, more traditional staff – …

Chris Anderson – he’s received two strong reactions to his book “Free” – Huh? and Duh! Younger people had the Duh moment – of course that makes sense. Older people had almost a hostile reaction – they didn’t get it.

There’s tension there, and we need to move past it.

Issues:

  • complacency. We have existed for hundreds of years…
  • Urgency – we need to build a sense of urgency in these complacent institutions in order to grow a sense of change

We need to find a model that helps us drive change

the most interesting ecosystems are in border habitats between technology and content – we should not treat them separately

What is our work, and how should we do it? At those discussions should be things like mobile internet issues, 2.0 stuff, continually growing and adapting, etc.

Asked visitors to the Smithsonian if they have ever used the Smithsonian’s website – no, they haven’t.

Ex – Google search on oceans – wikipedia, ocean.com, discovery education (discovery channel), NASA of all things, etc all come up in the first page of search results. But the Smithsonian is more like result #66 – even though they do a ton of ocean research.

point – Smithsonian doesn’t have a big reach with something they think is important to them.

talked about brandtags.net – the Smithsonian is way down on the list

compared two pages about an aircraft in the air & space museum. Their page (spaceship one) vs wikipedia, flickr, youtube videos, etc – other sites win hands-down. hyperlinks, music, video, better pictures, etc. vs a curatorial explanation with one pic.

“We’re competing with … everybody!”

Their content is now only one chunk of the greater content on any one thing.

quote – “the Smithsonian is not an organization that understands me” – used to be the other way around.

So – they are being very transparent as they develop social media strategy – they’re using a wiki, allowing people to add stuff (I think)

new media strategy structure:

three themes -

  • update the Smithsonian digital experience – act as if the digital experience is just as important as the physical experiences
  • update the SI learning model
  • balance autonomy and control within SI

eight goals – things like mission, brand, etc.

Creating a digital commons is a goal they have.

A commons should be free, findable, vast, and shareable

showing a video prototype of what the commons should look like. Walked through how an amateur astronomer can use content from SI to share his own stuff – nice.

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Seth Godin’s Good Advice

by David Lee King on December 5, 2009

I recently read Is It Too Late to Catch Up? at Seth Godin’s blog. The post is great – it includes ideas on how to “catch up” if you haven’t really done much in the web & social media world for the last 14 years.

But the one point that interested me the most was this: “Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don’t outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you’re going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.”

His point? You don’t outsource your main stuff.

Now think about the web for a sec. I can name more than one library that hasn’t done a whole lot with their website, but has “woken up,” so to speak, and wants to create a strong, dynamic web presence. For that matter, I know of more than one library association that has done the same thing.

I think Seth’s point, and I’d agree pretty strongly with it, is this – you need to create your web presence yourself. Especially if you want that web presence to reflect your library’s values, be truly dynamic on an ongoing basis, and be one of your major service points.

“But David, we can’t do that – here’s why:”

  • “We don’t have any money” – most of the tools and services on the web are free, and training (especially if self-led) can be, too. It’s a start, anyway.
  • “We have a web dude, but he/she isn’t up to snuff” – train them (or re-hire).
  • “No one in our library knows much about building websites/interacting on the web” – set up a learning program.
  • “Our library director/administrators don’t understand the importance of the website” – Talk to other library directors that DO get it, and ask them how to convince your administrators. Also, show your own leaders strategy and goals – not shiny cool tools.
  • “Our IT staff won’t let us do this stuff” – who’s in charge again? Do some strategic planning for the library, then make sure your managers enact it.
  • “Our city/county attorney won’t let us” – lots of other city/county/university/etc libraries ARE doing this, so call them up and figure out a convincing strategy that will fly with your attorney.

Thoughts?

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