Social Media, the Bridge to the Living Library Out There and In Here!!!
What some business people and librarians are recognizing is that people like to be heard and to have an opportunity to participate in decisions, both big and small. This may mean an on-going blog about new ideas and challenges as well as everyday life. It may mean sharing books, websites, wikis, and blogs as well as experiences with the world and your colleagues. It may mean using collaborative virtual note pads, instant messaging, text messaging, email, and VOIP software to connect with people across the city, province, country and world. Being able to attend conferences either in person or remotely and or continue other forms of professional development is also important!
My Social Media Best Practices:
1. Keep up with new technology through reading and listening to as many sources as possible!
2. Use common sense and think about how you could apply this and whether it is right for your library or your personal use!
2. Discover the answers to these questions before starting a project:
What do you want to achieve?
Who do you want to include?
Who you want to connect with?
Which softwares are they familiar with and already using?
Which softwares you are familiar with and have a comfort in using?
Do you need technical support for the project you are planning?
Do you need expertise or ideas from other people?
Who do you have to get approval from or at least inform about you plan? What is their knowledge base? What do they need to know?
Do you have deadline?
How do you want to assess this project?
What stats do you need to prove its’ usefulness?
What sort of feedback system do you need to help with growth and problem solving?
4. Believe in yourself! Be willing to take risks, make mistakes and admit when you are wrong or need help!!!
Here is a blog post that will be of use for those thinking about marketing through social media. It gives a set of step by step suggestions and best practices for starting out. Thank you Sean Gallagher for this useful tutorial.:
My social media tool box will include some or all of the following:
A Twitter account for promotion and communication.
A Facebook page and or group for similar purposes as well as for personal communication.
An account on Skype for communicating over long distances and short ones, possibly to work on projects and attend workshops virtually.
An instant messaging software or site such as the connection through Meebo that lets me communicate with people using different IM providers.
I may also use online clipboards such as the one we used for our group project and the various Google applications from the feed reader to the search engines. And last but certainly not least I will have my bookmarks available on Delicious so that I can access them from anywhere whether I am updating my wiki or my blogs and or sending an e-communication to someone with research assistance or professional development information.
I look forward to hearing any other suggestions and input on this post!