the blurb

I have really enjoyed this course, particularly as it involves libraries and marketing .  This course also made me rethink my refusal to use certain tools such as Twitter.  While I admit I will not be using Twitter for personal reasons I can definitely see the benefits for institutions and businesses.  This course was also one of the best distance courses I have taken.  I had originally taken one in my undergrad with disastrous results, and then took another nearly a year ago but did not find the experience overly rewarding, granted better then the first but still not enjoyable.  I am pleased to say this online course was.

My only suggestion for improvement would be to have the weekly slide shows up earlier than Mondays.  The reason for this being that the weekends were usually when I would get readings/projects done, having to work during the week, and having a full week or at least an extra full day to digest readings/case studies/slide shows would have been useful.  This is however a minor suggestion

The social media tools that could best be utilized by libraries really depends on the library.  While I am fairly sure this question is more focused on public and academic libraries I am going to answer it in terms of corporate libraries.  The ‘low hanging fruit’ would have to be blogs (I’m including RSS feeds in this) and wikis.  I say this for blogs could be used both internally to employees and externally to the public, and wikis would be extremely useful in the corporate setting for collaborative projects and operation documentation.

On the flip side, the social media tool I see with the least potential for a corporate library is Facebook.  The reason for this being that the services offered by Facebook are better taken care of by other tools.  For instance photo sharing is better done by delicious or flickr, the ‘wall’ is not as effective as a blog or even a Twitter feed, and having a public profile would be better seen on LinkedIn.  Now of course this is just in general terms and Facebook may very well be suited to some corporate libraries.

Thank you to everyone for making my last course at FIMS enjoyable! It has been a great experience and I have already been applying what I’ve learned!

Also, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Social media is changing more than just the library world, it is changing the marketing and information management practices of small businesses.  Social media tools can allow small business owners to reach new clients, expand their business and have innovative records management practices.  The main barrier to achieving appropriate and successful social media tools is lack of time.  Owning your own business can be incredibly time consuming, and therefore having the time to understand and select the appropriate social media tools is basically non-existent.

Over the past couple months I reviewed various social media tools and determined which would be best suited to the needs of a local chiropractic office.  For privacy the business will be referred to as the Chiropractic & Massage Centre, and any employees will be given different names.  The owner, Dr. R. smith, wanted to enter the social media realm and so signed up for various tools such as Facebook, Twitter, a blog (with RSS feed), LinkedIn and was pondering WordPress.  There was no specific knowledge of what each tool could do and what would be attained by creating them.  I provided recommendations on which social media tools to use, which functions to utilize for each tool, and provided training for staff members.  My recommendations were based on the business goals of the clinic, time staff had to dedicate to upkeep and maintenance, staff knowledge and the amount of time to train staff members, and what type of information the business wanted to convey to current and potential patients.

Business Goals

The first step was to determine Chiropractic & Massage Centre’s business goals and the reasoning for wanting to utilize social media.  After an initial interview with Dr. Smith the two goals below became clear:

1. Desired target audience age group of 25-39
2. Find low-no cost advertising ventures

Current Situation

Audience: The average age of patients is 45, a decrease from two years ago when it was 55, however still not the desired target.

Staff knowledge: The clinic has three chiropractors (Dr. Smith and then two other part-time chiropractors), two registered massage therapists, and two administrative assistants.  While Dr. Smith will have control and access to the social media tools it will be the two administrative assistants who will be completing the upkeep and maintenance.  The other staff members will not have direct access to the social media tools.  One of the administrative assistants (from now on referred to as Administrative Assistant A) does not have any social media experience, while the other (from now on referred to as Administrative Assistant B) has knowledge of Facebook, specifically personal pages.

Selection & Recommendations

Based on the business assessment two social media tools were selected; LinkedIn and Facebook.  Again due to confidentiality only Amanda will be viewing the actual pages.

Why?

LinkedIn is a professional profile network with an estimated 2.3 million Canadian members (Everything you wanted to know about LinkedIn).  Canadians are also responsible for 2.8% of the traffic on LinkedIn, which ranks 5th in the world.

There are various applications available through LinkedIn that are ideal for a small business, assisting in marketing and the sharing of information; these include Events, Polls, Presentations, etc. There is a company directory for increased reach and LinkedIn also offers hiring tools for businesses looking to hire additional staff members.

What?

The below elements were the majority of my recommendations to Dr. Smith for her LinkedIn profile.

• change Professional Headline from “Doctor of Chiropractic” to read “Business Owner & Doctor of Chiropractic”
• change your picture to a personal one instead of the business logo
• update ‘Experience’, ‘Education’, ‘Honours & Awards’, ‘Current position’ sections
• create a ‘Summary’ (this is an introduction to your business, this should be friendly but informative) and complete the ‘Specialties’ section (this will detail your business services such as decompression, acupuncture, etc.)
• insert business address and phone numbers
• remove the Twitter link and put the Facebook page under websites
• add ‘Groups & Associations’ that you belong to
• accept pending invitations and search for other connections
• add your business to LinkedIn’s company’s directory
• the following applications could be utilized : Events to list both events Dr. Smith will be attending and events the clinic will be hosting;  Reading Lists to recommend articles and books; Company Buzz to see how different topics are discussed on Twitter such as chiropractics, marketing, and local news; and Polls for surveying and collecting feedback on the chiropractic industry, the clinic specifically, and general interest in different promotional events.
• for maintenance review LinkedIn profile once a week to update business information, connections, add an event or other application actions, visit LinkedIn more frequently when prompted by the email alerts

Who?

Administrative Assistant A was trained on how to use various features on LinkedIn such as how to connect with individuals, how to check the inbox and invitations, how to use the search feature, how to edit and update profile, and how to add applications.  After some initial hesitation from Administrative Assistant A about using a social media tool they began to take some initiative and now edit/add information and connections without direction.  There are currently over twenty connections and a recommendation has come from a patient of the clinic.

(business page)

Why?

There are over 400 million active Facebook users, Canada having just under 13.5 million users (Facebook: facts, figures & statistics for 2010), the majority of which are within Chiropractic & Massage Centre’s target audience.  Facebook offers a more relaxed profile and a way for businesses to interact with current and potential clients, the potential for huge audience engagement.

One administrative assistant already has knowledge of Facebook which decreases the time spent training and familiarizing them with the tool.  This also means connections have already been established on personal pages and therefore the ‘Share with a friend’ can be utilized.

Facebook already has an established format that allows for easy of use and minimum time.  It is easy to add pictures, links, and in general share information.  This is ideal for a busy small business.

What?

• add photographs, such as the physical clinic, some past events, friendly staff members, or even one of your own family.  These do  not need to be professionally done as Facebook is a relaxed setting where you are creating a friendly open connection with individuals.  Just be careful of photographs of people, be it staff or patients as you should have their permission to post them on Facebook.
• when posting on your wall posts should be 1-3 sentences of one topic.  Do not just make announcements, involve people by asking questions, mentioning individuals specifically, or link to videos or pictures.  People like to see themselves and people they know mentioned,or have their opinion asked as it creates a connection for them.
• post a welcome message on your wall. Posts need to be friendly and casual by using words like ‘I’ ‘me’ ‘you’ ‘us’ ‘we’ as Facebook is a way to be personal.  If you sound over professional and distant here it will not be overly successful.  You want people to comment on your wall and that means you have to use wordage that invites people in to a conversation.
• add a link to your LinkedIn page.
• under ‘Details’ for parking and services expand on current information by saying there are front parking spaces and the clinic is located close to a public transit bus stop.
• there is a ‘Suggest to friends’ option where you can send your page to any of your friends on your personal Facebook page.  Ask any staff members who have Facebook to also suggest the clinic’s Facebook page.
• under ‘Info’ list the services available, such as chiropractic care, decompression, massage therapy, etc.  With the permission of each practitioner create a little profile detailing their names and specialties.

Who?

Administrative Assistant B already had knowledge of Facebook and therefore no time was needed to explain how to use this tool.  A brief email was sent detailing the unique elements of having a business Facebook page as opposed to a personal page.  Some of these elements include the ‘Recommendations’ section, the ‘Like’ function, and the ‘Suggest to a friend’ capability.  The clinic’s Facebook page currently has at least ten ‘Like’s and also one recommendation from a current patient.

Social media perceptions

Dr. Smith

When I first met with Dr. Smith she was viewing social media tools as the way to the future, that having a presence on Twitter, Facebook, etc., would instantly increase the number of patients in the desired age group.  However, now there is a better understanding that each tool has a different purpose and can offer different opportunities when used correctly. Her perception that still needs to be worked on is that time and thought does need to go into the purpose behind each action taken with a social media tool.

Administrative Assistant A

Initial reactions to having to use social media tools in general was dislike.  Their opinion was telephone and face-to-face interaction was good enough, social media tools were not required.  However, after some explanation there was acceptance that the target audience desired by the clinic was using social media tools and to a much greater extend then face-to-face interactions.  As there was no experience with social media tools a couple hours were dedicated to getting Administrative Assistant A familiar with how to navigate LinkedIn.  There were many follow-up questions and I observed that the attitude changed to a sort of excitement when connections were made or when the recommendation from the patient appeared.

***

This experience has made me realize that individuals approach social media tools differently, and while we (this we is being used loosely to describe a generation) instantly grasp how to navigate these tools there others to whom finding the log out button in the top right corner is not intuitive.  This project was not about Facebook or LinkedIn but how to train others on social media use; to see the thought process of individuals who have not previously participated in such technology in order to learn on how best to teach first time users. There was definitely a learning curve for me and the staff members!

***

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Images

Social media mash up image:  5 December 2010

gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2007/07/social-media-ho.html

LinkedIn logo: 5 December 2010

blogs.sitepoint.com/2009/05/01/how-to-use-linkedin/

Facebook logo: 5 December 2010

thenextweb.com/us/2010/03/15/facebook-number-website-poor-google/

In marketing the number five is a very common number.  For example there are the 5M’s (curious? Google it or ask me ). So I shall keep my social media tool kit to five elements:

1. Pick the right tool for the right job.

You do not need to utilize every single social media tool, understand what each tool does and understand what audience you want to reach … that will determine which social media tool you select.

2. Don’t over or under think things.

Do not bog down your creativity but also give your social media actions some structure and direction.

3. Be willing to step outside the box.

Take risks, don’t just keep to the status quo, or as we learned from this week’s reading, you will be stuck on the wrong side of the “big frinkin’ wall”.

4. Be dedicated to the cause.

Social media tools need to be maintained through consistency, measuring, and monitoring.

5. Have fun with it!

This should be self-explanatory.

I actually found this weeks readings to be incredibly insightful.  I never considered that a company should have a social media policy before this week.  However it makes a lot of sense and I am going to investigate at work and see if we have one.

From Sharlyn Lauby’s article Should your company have a social media policy? I really liked the fact that she mentions that you need to consult and consider all employees and departments.  Policies are typically considered to be in the HR realm but as Lauby points out you need to consult legal, marketing, and have all employees understand what the social media policy actually means in terms of their behaviour on social media networks in their personal and work lives.  I think this last element is perhaps the most important as people are often bothered when their work life crosses over into their person ones and with social media that is what is happening.  Social media does not always bring the freedom of expression which people think it does.

How to measure your social media program by Jeremiah Owyang pointed out the importance of starting any social media project with a plan that can be measured.  I think this is rather a critical point as if you do not have quantitative benchmarks the qualitative data doesn’t have as much impact.  For instance if you just say ‘more people are reading the blog then from when we first launched it’ that does not say as much then if you say ’35 employees are now reading the blog, which is a 25% increase from when we first launched it’.

Like any other policy a social media policy needs to be given careful thought, perhaps even more so than other policies as there needs to be considerations for users, and employees in their professional and work lives.

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This episode greatly reminded me of my mother.  She calls Facebook ‘Spacebook’ and thought LinkedIn was Linkin’.

This week will be my second blog holiday.  Well sort of.  I do plan on blogging but unfortunately this week has been way too busy for me to do any of the readings.  Perhaps that means a half holiday?

As some of you may remember I have been looking after my company’s blog.  However recently, other departments have picked up on the idea of a blog and started some for various purposes.   Now, when you work in a company of maybe 60 people having multiple blogs, even if for different purposes, causes some issues.  The main issue being that employees only have so much time and interest to devote to blogging, particularly as this is not part of their job description.  So, the solution to this? A mashup of blogs!

Now on the intranet homepage there is a section that details the recent blog posts from all blogs.  People now are able to ‘visit’ all blogs in one location and simply select the post they are interested in.  This allows for increased access and contributes to department collaboration as opposed to separating and causing tension/competition.

When I first saw the phrase ‘cloud computing’ I really did not know what it meant.  Turns out I have been a part of it for years, using my hotmail account, Google docs, Facebook, etc.

The ‘What is cloud computing’ video from the Web 2.0 Expo has some very interesting interviews, I particularly liked the concept that we only have one non-physical computer and all our gadgets (phones, laptops, desktops, etc.) are simply access points.   While people have brought up the issue of security I feel I need to reiterate a point from one of my earlier blog posts… what happens when our machines/access points fail? Our information is only as good as our access to it.

Another question I would like to pose concerns our ‘cloud identity’.  All of the readings are concerned with how we use this ‘network of networks’ (Web 2.0 Expo video), how we access information from the cloud … but what is it saying about us on a personal level? Every action or account we open (Delicious, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is creating a digital identity, an extension of our self into the ‘cloud’ … our ‘cloud identity’.

When our machines/access points to the ‘cloud’ fail we are disconnected from our ‘cloud identity’.  I’ve watched people panic because their cell phone has died and no longer have instant access to texting and Facebook.  Some of my siblings sleep with their phone right beside them in case they get an email.  People want to be connected, people feel they need to be connected and a loss of connection is like losing a hand … but what does that say about us? Is this a good or bad thing?

What I learned from seeing the Social Network movie. 

Despite my mocking it the movie was actually very good and I do recommend it.  It was surprisingly funny and exemplified the power and popularity of social media tools perfectly.

From the readings I realized how far Facebook had actually come.  It went from being a student network to a global network for people of any age in an extremely short time. However, the basic principle has not changed, people want to know about other people – in particular their friends and people who share the same interests as them. 

In addition privacy is still a concern but it has evolved from a simple ‘your personal information is on the web’ to ‘what are companies doing with that information? Are pictures/videos of me being put up without my consent?’ etc. 

I also noticed that the readings refered to Facebook as ‘the Facebook’.  I had assumed that this was simply a mistake, that professors and other ‘adults’ had just added the ‘the’ in front for correct grammar.  Turns out I was wrong.

What the readings, the Social Network movie, and real examples of social media tools all state is that they build community through connecting people.  Humans have always wanted to connect to one another, this is not a new concept.  As mentioned in an earlier blog post pen and paper are social media tools.  They were the tools people used to write letters (people still do today) to connect and communicate with one another. 

Now I will ask what I’m sure many people thought before throughout the various eras of social media history … where do we go from here?

I was going to write abou the readings and how the users of Facebook have changed and therefore how libraries use Facebook and the audiences they are able to reach has changed.  However, that did not happen.

As I write this blog post I am struck by the limits of technology at certain times.  Why am I struck by this rather unprofound thought? Because I originally wrote this post out with pen and paper, using my laptop as a ‘desktop’.  My laptop has the unique skill of being able to turn on and off at will, whenever he pleases.  I say ‘he’ as I have named him Aristotle.  Anyway, Aristotle is tempermental and was in a ‘I’m not going to stay on so you can do homework’ mood.  So, no matter how fancy or snazzy the program or social media tool is … we are reliant on the hardware that supports it, and it is always wise to keep the old-fashioned social media tools on hand.

Real time/date stamp : 9:10pm Monday October 18th 2010