Does your library have a social media strategy, or are you, like us, flying by the seat of your pants?
There’s something to be said for experimentation, but eventually your organization will reach a point where you’ll have to decide whether to commit to social media as part of your public service mandate, or to drop it like so many other “emerging technologies” that have gone before (social bookmarking, anyone?). MPOW has decided to bank on social media, and I’ve been given the responsibility of coming up with a guiding policy. Here are a few questions I’ve asked myself along the way that may help you create your own policies:
- Who are you? There’s a concept in the business world called the “elevator pitch” in which you have to pitch your idea or brand in the time it takes to go from one floor to another in an elevator. When thinking of social media, you’ll need to be able to give your pitch in 140 characters or less.
- What’s your point? Are you trying to build awareness of the library’s services and collections? Are you trying to build loyalty or improve the public perception of the library? This next suggestion will be hard but I’m going to make it anyway — choose one, and stick with it for awhile. Don’t spread your message too thin, and focus your efforts. Targeted messaging is easier to measure.
- What does your audience think of you? What kind of relationship do you have with them? Do you practice customer-centered service, or do you still make decisions without talking to the people? Find out what your audience thinks of you by holding focus groups, conducting surveys via social media (twtpoll is a great tool), and asking people to tell you about their experience with the library.
- What face will you present to the public? Will you be authoritative and aloof? Professional but personable? Human or robot? Or perhaps you’ll strive for a balance between these choices? Either way, be consistent. If your library has a website style guide, include a section on social media messaging that covers tone of voice, language use, and authority. If you don’t have a website style guide, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this and go write one!
- How will you measure success? This may be the most important question of all, because unless and until you know what sort of return you’re getting from these efforts, you might as well be shouting in the dark. Up until now, we’ve mostly relied on page views and follower counts to tell us how well we’re doing, but going forward I think we’ll be rolling out targeted metrics that are aligned with specific library publicity and fundraising campaigns. We’ll also be poring over analytics data to help us measure patron success and failure rates on our website, and will be trying to tease out the story of how well our engagement methods are working for us. Exactly what we’ll measure and how we’ll measure it is still rolling around in my brain. Watch this space for more details.
You may notice that I haven’t mentioned tools at all. There’s a good reason for this — remember MySpace? Mm-hmm, exactly. Audiences shift. Web users adopt and abandon tools regularly, and as such, information organizations should focus on strategy, not tactics. We often get so hung up on a particular tool that we’re reluctant to abandon it when it’s no longer working for us. Stop the madness. Be willing to follow your audience when they leave Facebook or Twitter for The Next Big Thing. Read sites like Mashable and Guacira Naves’ The Online Strategy House, and keep abreast of the changing landscape so your organization won’t be caught by surprise when the shift happens. With your goal in sight, the plan of action will take care of itself. Answering these questions can help shape your goal.
So, am I off the mark with this? What other areas should I consider when developing a strategic plan for social media? Leave feedback in the comments.
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