websites

Posting and Traffic

by David Lee King on September 2, 2010

Chris Brogan posts this simple observation – “the more you post, the more traffic you get.” Then he qualifies that a bit (ie., reasonably good content). Simple, yet powerful point.

Now – what about your organization? Think about your blog, or your Twitter feed, or your Facebook Page. Getting traffic there? If not … are you posting regularly?

My library’s website is a blog-based site, and we post quite a bit. Individually, it’s not regular, but it ends up looking like we post a lot (cause lots of us post). And over the year, our traffic HAS gone up.

But we can improve our process (which will probably look a bit like strategic planning, goal-setting, and putting our blog posts on more of a regular schedule). More on that next year.

How can you improve your organization’s blog post/content/social media process? Cause I bet, if you sit down and think about it for 10 minutes or so, that you CAN.

pic by Chris Brogan

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Designing Digital Experiences for Library Websites

by David Lee King on June 29, 2010

On Sunday, I had the privilege of presenting about digital experiences with John Blyberg, Bobbi Newman, and Toby Greenwalt. The room was packed, there were great questions afterwards … and I think it went well!

Here are the slides for my portion of the talk (and here’s a link to Toby’s too).

Designing Digital Experiences for Library Websites

View more presentations from David King.

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Does your Website Look Professional?

by David Lee King on May 11, 2010

Would you buy a house from this business? I giggle every time I drive past this sign. It’s in the new construction part of my subdivision. Yes, you read it right – “Hack’s Quality Custom Homes.” Hack’s … as in hacked together. Definitely NOT a name that inspires trust OR quality, to me anyway!

But the sign made me think – how does your organization’s website look? Does it look professional, or does it look like “Hack’s Quality Websites” built it?

Here’s something fun to do – browse through a list of libraries in your state, and poke around on their websites for a bit. If your state is anything like mine, you’ll find some nicely-designed library websites, and many others that … well …  come up a bit lacking.

And I know why:

  • Some libraries, especially small ones, don’t hire web managers. They possibly can’t afford that position, so they have someone on staff do the web stuff as a small part of their many job duties, whether or not they actually have web skills.
  • Some web managers have more of an IT/Technical background rather than an online/web background. It’s really two different skill sets, though both are related to technology.
  • Some libraries simply haven’t yet prioritized their web services. Or it is a priority but there’s not much planning involved. Instead, they keep tacking new things onto an outdated website.

My point? I think this needs to change. If the front door of your physical building were broken, maybe creaky or even coming off its hinges, you’d fix it. No one wants the main entrance of their business/organization to not work right! It gives people a lasting impression … and not a good one, either.

Guess what? Your website is one of the front doors to your library. For many of us, it’s broken. We need to get it fixed! And not by Hack’s Quality Websites, either. Your website doesn’t have to be the most amazing thing they’ve ever seen on the web … but it DOES have to have all the basics, it should be attractive and balanced visually (or at least not be ugly), and shouldn’t cause anyone to stumble.

I think we can do better. I know my library can (which is why we’re redesigning again). I’m certain your library can do better, too. Even if you have little or no dedicated web staff. If you’re small, what can you do? Here are some ideas for starters:

  • Goals come first – figure out what you want your organization’s website to be/do, then work backwards from there
  • Can’t hire? Why not partner – with local ad agencies, with a local media organization, or even with a local school/college.
  • In a regional cooperative/consortium? It’s possible they can help.
  • Start learning! You probably have HTML and basic web-building books – it’s never too late to start learning a new skill.
  • Use a free design template, rather than designing from scratch. In fact, take this time to make your website blog-based, as well. Then it will be easy to update, as well.

What else? Anyone have other suggestions? Please share!

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CIL2010: Developing & Designing for Mobile

by David Lee King on April 15, 2010

Speaker – Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh

Notes from this session …

mobile will surpass desktop web access in the next couple years

if you can write html, css, and javascripting … you can write for the mobile web.

me – mobile apps are great …. but we even moreso need to be building for the mobile web.

context is important:

  • not interested in your lending policy
  • want to satisfy immediate info needs
  • usually we’re in busy places, doing multiple things when we are accessing mobile web

Mobile usability – oxymoron (not sure I agree …)

- minimize the need to input text when you can.

remember you’re designing fro a small screen and will have speed and latency issues.

Two important points to remember:

  • don’t make me think!
  • don’t make me type!

content – ask your users what they would find useful

Cake and icing:

cake – directions, hours, contact info, ask a question, etc.

icing – (do these if you can, later on, etc) – catalog search, article search…

be selective – everything is on a need to know basis

repurpose existing content – podcasts, video, alerts, rss type stuff

content we buy:

some have mobile friendly sites already, like EBSCO, PubMed, westlaw, etc.

Catalog: look for accessible version if possible – it will probably be mobile friendly

me – mobile – make sure our site and services work on a 3g network – m.tscpl.org

m.home – make a new mobile homepage:

single column

single lines

flattened hierarchy

short titles

simple standard html and css

include a mobile dtd type

ignore handheld css stylesheets. most new mobile browsers ignore handheld stylesheet statement

media query – the link media thing – tells browser to use this stylesheet if screen is smaller than a certain size

include action links like a href tel:phone# stuff – sms: – same thing – this allows people to click and call or click and text, rather than having to type

optimizing for mobile:

combine dependent files, minify your javascript and css, tell google  – register mobile site with them.

Google small business center – register library website with google local

use validation services

drupal has a mobile template

usability testing – do paper tests

analytics – google analytics has mobile tracking, or you can filter by user agents

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Check Your Signs!

by David Lee King on January 4, 2010

I was room 429 ...A couple months ago, I stayed at a hotel in Wisconsin with this sign … seems pretty useful, huh?

Except if you’re in room 429, like I was. I actually had to hunt a bit to find the room (it wasn’t obvious).

The point? Make sure to check your digital “signage” once in awhile. Make sure your labels and headings still make sense. Did you change the name of a room or a service? Make sure to change that name everywhere on your website, too.

Has your budget shrunk and you needed to drop a few databases? Make sure you removed those links on your database page (and any other page that mentions them, too).

Have you checked the driving directions to your library lately? At a previous job, I checked them out after starting, and discovered they were WRONG. So I actually hopped in my car, and drove around for awhile, taking notes of different ways to get to the library – and updated those directions.

Website maintenance never stops, huh?

Oh – and Happy New Year, too! I am looking forward to a fun, challenging 2010 – how about you?

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Inviting Comments

by David Lee King on December 17, 2009

Sometimes, a blog post or article on a library website doesn’t get any comments. And that’s fine – not every post is comment-worthy, right? But there are ways to prompt, or “invite” visitors to comment … even by using the website’s built-in comment functionality. Let me show you what I mean.

Here are two examples – the first from my library’s website, and the second one from Atchison Public Library. Both of these examples are screenshots taken from the main page of both websites – each a teaser for an article.

Mine first (screenshot below):

no prompting

We let the comment functionality simply announce that no one has left a comment on this post (and darn it – it’s MY post!). We do that via the text “0 Comments.” This works fine – it’s what that functionality is supposed to do.

But check this out – here’s what Atchison Public Library does (screenshot below):

prompting for comments

See the difference? Atchison uses their lack of comments to … invite people to comment. They do this by prompting their website visitors to “be the first to comment.”

I know – it’s one of those little detail-y things. But it’s that type of detail, that focus on inviting patrons to participate, that just might prompt them … to participate. It might just convert that lurker into a more active participant.

Nothing wrong with that – good job, Atchison!

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Widening your Nets, Decentralizing your Web Services

by David Lee King on December 9, 2009

Last summer while at ALA’s annual conference in the Chicago area, a couple friends and I were eating lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe and saw this ad on one of the tables.

facebook URL ad

The interesting thing about the ad wasn’t so much the content itself (though I’m sure it’s good stuff). We got all geeked out over the URL associated with the ad. Why? Because they didn’t point to their website.

Instead, they pointed directly to their Facebook Page.

Think about that for a sec, because there are some pretty large implications for library web services. I know that many of us have worked for years to centralize all our websites, tools, and services into one place – preferably at www.mylibrarysnamegoeshere.org …. some of us have worked hard to get federated search tools to work on that library website, and have even integrated some of our library catalog content into our websites, as well.

But people aren’t visiting our websites (well, not in droves, anyway). They are going to other places, like Facebook (and YouTube, and Google, and …). And of course we should be active in some of those social sites. But what about pointing directly to those social sites … in an ad? That’s taking it one step further, isn’t it? Pointing directly AWAY from our website … to some social tool like Facebook?

This could work for libraries. If you have a Facebook Page, check out your Page demographics (Facebook provides some basic stats on Facebook Page visitors). Who’s your main audience in Facebook? Doing anything for that group of patrons already?

If so, you might think of taking it one step further, and pointing them directly to the Facebook Page. Why?

  • This group already uses Facebook
  • Your Facebook Page comes ready-made for interaction – comments, discussions, and likes.
  • it can have an easy-to-remember URL (i.e., ours is facebook.com/topekalibrary)
  • For the customer, it’s a direct connection to the library. Once they “become a fan,” they get all your stuff… reminders, questions,comments, etc.

But even better – for us sneaky librarians, it’s also a direct connection to a segment of our customers. But not just any customers – these customers already use Facebook and actually LIKE to interact. If they have become a fan of your library, that means they like to interact … with the library.

So don’t be shy! Spread out your nets … decentralize those web services. Send out status updates. Ask questions. Start discussions. Get feedback about new services. And in the process, have fun interacting with a group that actually WANTS to interact.

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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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Rethinking the 3rd Place

by David Lee King on September 22, 2009

I had a conversation with my supervisor (Rob Banks, Deputy Director of Operations at the library) a couple days ago, and thought it was worth sharing with y’all.

We were talking about our impending website redesign (yes, we’re at it again). I had sent him a rough draft of my redesign plan, and we were talking through it. He had been reading my book on digital experiences, and that had fired off some really cool thoughts about the concept of 3rd place for him… here’s what he said that made us start thinking:

“It’s not 3rd place – it’s The Place:”

  • Typically, Rob has maybe 6 windows open on his computer while at work – email,   a couple of work documents he’s working on, TweetDeck (ok – does YOUR deputy director have TweetDeck open constantly? Just sayin), and a couple of websites – usually including Facebook.
  • He’s doing several things at the same time … but Facebook is always on, and he’s always connected to his Facebook friends.
  • When he’s not at work, Rob has a Blackberry with a Facebook app – so Facebook is always on there, too. He can connect to Facebook whenever he wants to, no matter where he is.
  • Rob can still be in his physical “3rd place” and (important point) STILL BE CONNECTED to Facebook and his friends.
  • And that’s the idea that needs to be translated over to our library’s digital branch.

Our library websites/digital branches will probably never be a real 3rd place to people – and that’s ok. Instead of working towards that, let’s work harder to make this now-old phrase, “be where the patrons are,” a bit more seamless.

good bookRob can be in his 3rd place – but he is also constantly connected to friends/colleagues/family in Facebook at the same time. Facebook, in a way, has transcended the 3rd place to be “The Place.” It’s always on, always available to him, when he wants to be there.

Our library websites/digital branches can be like this, too! So… still developing, but this is definitely going in the redesign plan.

Thoughts? How are you “always there, always on” when patrons want to reach you?

Photo by javaturtle

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Connecting the Physical to the Digital

by David Lee King on September 14, 2009

IMG_0516Recently, while on a family vacation, I noticed something in a couple of stores … and thought I’d share.

My kids wanted to venture into the Disney Store and Build-A-Bear, and I went along for the ride. While in both stores, I saw signs that directed customers to check out the stores’ websites. But not just for kicks – look at what the signs said:

Disney: “Visit DisneyStore.com for an Additional Selection of …”

Build-A-Bear: “have fun and give back at Buildabearville.com.”

This is cool. Why? In both cases, the stores didn’t just have a sign letting customers know they have websites. Nope. Instead, they directed customers to visit the store websites for specific reasons.

By providing those reasons, they helped extend the customer experience with the store onto the web (and into our homes), after the fact. This type of after-the-purchase experience is sometimes called a “post-show” experience. The actual “show” was buying the product or visiting the store.

We can go a bit further with this, too. Look at the specific instructions we are given: Disney directs us to “an additional selection” of stuff. Think about that for a sec – they’re saying the larger, more complete store isn’t the physical store – it’s the digital store – the website.

Build-A-Bear directs us to their virtual world, where we can “have fun and give back.” OK – I don’t get the “”give back” part. But the “have fun” part I do understand! They’re giving you a specific reason to visit their website, and are suggesting it will be a fun experience. I’m guessing they get a lot of first-time traffic with those signs!

When you leave our libraryGuess what? We can do this too!

Look at this pic of a sign in my library, for instance (bigger version here). For a while, we had this large banner sign up by the exit doors – everyone walking past saw this sign. Our goal was simply to remind people that although they were leaving our physical building, their library experience didn’t have to end there. They can visit our digital branch and still do lots of stuff!

We could also direct customers to our “larger store.” Think about this for a sec – which place gives you a larger selection of library materials: browsing the shelves at the physical library … or visiting the online library catalog and putting stuff on hold?

Your larger, more complete library is NOT the physical building. It’s the website – the digital branch.

I’m guessing there are other ways to connect customers to your digital branch, as well as other reasons to do so… what are they? I’d love to hear them!

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