Upon reaching Facebook week in a recent Learning 2.0 class, one of my students was perplexed by the idea that somebody would want to connect with their library on a platform they use to socialize with friends and family. I tried to point to my own experience on Facebook as I explained why users would become a fan of a library page.
I am an avid Facebook user who has not only fanned every library Facebook page in Southeastern Massachusetts, but has also fanned pages to show my support for various musicians, sports teams, organizations and even Snuffleupagus. There are plenty of people who choose not to become fans of Facebook pages, but there are also those who love to support businesses and organizations on Facebook. It never seemed like a big leap to assume that library users would want to connect with their library on Facebook. And once they became fans, their Facebook friends will be notified and may become fans too.
However, I started rethinking this idea around the same time I saw an advertisement encouraging Facebook users to become a fan of the laundry detergent, Tide. Sure, I have used Tide in my life, but I cannot fathom why anyone could be so excited by their laundry detergent that they would become a Facebook fan. It just seemed like an opportunity to open yourself up to more advertising.
I'm not saying libraries are the same as laundry detergent, but if we don't give some thought to why a person should fan our Facebook page or become a Twitter follower, we're in danger of only reaching those users who are already actively engaged with the library. If our only reason for maintaining a social networking presence is to push out news about our library events, then Facebook users may just see it as another form of advertising. Why would a person want to open themselves up to more advertising?
However, if we use our presence on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. to ask questions of our users, to give them a place to share recommendations and interact with each other, we can successfully use these sites as a way to extend the community we have built in our physical spaces. But for every library that limits opportunities for conversation on their social networking spaces, I also know of libraries that have tried to engage users in conversation only to be met with silence.
So how can we create these conversations online? Below are some recommendations from successes I have seen. Although most of the examples are from Facebook, they can also be replicated on Twitter, MySpace or other social networking spaces.
Friend Your Community
David Lee King wrote a series of blog posts on organization-based friending in social networks. He offers great tips for building up your networks on social networking sites. The series starts with Don't Friend Me, and links to the other blogs posts are listed at the end of the article. Follow these tips. Build your network. Interact with your users; don't just push information out to them.
Quick Response Time
Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't alert you if somebody responds to your post on a Facebook page. You need to make sure you watch you page for comments so that you can respond quickly to your users.
Take a look at this example from the Falmouth Public Library. Staff asked that fans share their picks for science and nature titles, but instead received a complaint that libraries are boring.
Notice how Falmouth responded about a half-hour after the initial user post? If they had waited a week before returning to their Facebook page, they would have missed an opportunity to have a conversation with this user.
Invite Quick Recommendations, Not Reviews
Many librarians have left my blogging class with the idea of using blogs to get people to share book recommendations and reviews. However, most libraries I work with have not been successful with this type of blog. Why? Some people thought it was because they did not publicize it well enough, and others thought users were not comfortable with the blogging format. However, I suspect the problem is it just takes too much work to write a book review. Talking about a book through informal conversation at a circ desk is an entirely different matter than writing a review.
However, there are fun ways to encourage your users to share recommendations through social networking sites. I am a Facebook Fan of TiVo, and they often ask for fans' opinions of their favorite romance flicks or their favorite TV show of the year. The first time I noticed their posts, I thought, "these are the types of questions libraries should be asking!" The questions give users some direction and are also easy to answer in 30 second or less. And people really enjoy sharing their opinions!
There are other ways to get users interacting on your page. I have a Facebook friend who posted quotes from banned books during the most recent Banned Books Week. Her friends then guessed from which books she was quoting. What a wonderful idea for a library Facebook Page, Twitter account or MySpace page! In our own region, the Lakeville Public Library has started focusing on engaging users on their page. The library is on a set schedule to update users about library events, share interesting tidbits, and, on Saturdays, to post book-related trivia questions. The trivia questions get the most response from users.
Once your audience is interacting in these social networking spaces, you can then start asking larger questions, such as how you can provide relevant services for this audience.
Create Space on Your Wall
One of my favorite Facebook pages is for the Massachusetts Outdoors. Many of the Wall posts are from fans who want to share a great outdoor location they just visited or post an interesting photo. Encourage your fans to share your Wall space.
There are a couple of technical considerations to address first. When you set up your Page, make sure you allow fans to post. Don't restrict posting just because you are afraid of what people will say. Develop social networking policies to set guidelines for acceptable posts and remove posts that do not follow these guidelines.
Also, the default for a Facebook page is to show just the posts from your library when a person views your Wall. A separate click is required to see posts from fans. Change this setting so that posts from the fans are intermingled with posts from the library on the Wall.
Beyond the technical considerations, fans are not just going to start posting without some encouragement from the library. Think of what kind of information you want your fans to post and then let them know. Post it to your Wall, tell them in face-to-face conversations, write an article in your newsletter. Maybe you'll need to hold a contest to get people started. Once users start to see the posts from other fans, they will then feel comfortable to do their own posts.
Go To Them, Don't Make Them Come To You
This last recommendation won't work well with a Facebook Page, where you have limited contact with your fans, but is a "must do" for those who have a MySpace page or Twitter account or who friend users through a personal Facebook account. I have seen so many libraries with a Twitter account that do not follow the people who are following them. By tracking your users' status updates and Twitter posts, you have an opportunity to be a librarian for them when they don't even know they need a librarian.
Lichen from the Remaining Relevant blog posts about Being Friends with people in the community, not just those who are existing library users. She then looks for opportunities to answer their questions. She says, "To me, this is a way to begin to get embedded in the fabric of your community and isn’t that the ultimate goal?"
What Are Your Ideas?
These are just some suggestions for getting started on promoting interaction in your social networking spaces. Is there anything you've had success with? Or have you seen examples from other library or non-library sites that you would like to replicate in your own library? Let me know!
