Social Intelligence

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.:

http://community2.business.gov/t5/Small-Business-Matters/Getting-Started-with-Social-Media-Marketing/ba-p/13949#A555

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!

Most of the reading I did this week made me think, but did not convert me to the Twittersphere. When I signed in and got reading I realized that it has some potential uses that I had not even thought of including job hunting alaTwitter. Go figure! I now need to figure out how to connect some of my various bits of software together so that I do not have a constantly revolving door of sites that I must enter and leave to keep up with my virtual life.

I like the idea of answering questions that are sent out into the Twittersphere. I would check tweets in the radius of the library I am working at to make sure that people are connecting to programs and resources that the library has to offer. Answering questions and redirecting people to existing programs works the same way in real life as it does in the virtual realm, except that you may not recognize each other when the people you have been communicating with come into your library.

I have enjoyed a link to a series of podcasts about a bookmobile librarian in Highlands of Scotland that I found on the Connecticut State Library FriendFeed as well as a series of quotes on the Twitter feed from Waubonsee Community College Library. I guess this means that I enjoy some people’s random tweets, but I am not certain how much time I will put into tweeting about my own life, personal or professional. I have found a new way to connect with the world outside my geographic area.

I am now connected to CBC on Twitter as well as listening to my favourite shows over the airwaves while I am cooking in the kitchen. I will connect to other media sources as well and share links from an online newsletter that I am already receiving. I may use Twitter in my professional life as a starting spot for answering some reference questions as well as promoting library events or resources. I think the idea of sharing music and other outside interests may allow for a more personal connection so that you can connect to other groups.

As a closing note for Twitter I will leave you with this little Twitter song: