David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Check out the videos this library made!

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A couple of days ago, I saw a mention of the videos that Invercargill City Libraries & Archives, in New Zealand, has been making [saw the mention over at the Libraries and Social Media Group on Facebook. You should check em out!].

They are making some really fun videos! I have a couple of them embedded in this post – definitely watch them – they will make you smile.

Which, of course, is a great goal to have for video. With social media (they seem to be posting most of these videos on their Facebook Page, even though they also have a YouTube account that’s not linked on their website), making you smile most likely leads to making you click. Clicking Like, Sharing, adding a comment, etc.

And on Facebook, doing those types of actions means you will start seeing more of their Facebook posts. So – watching and liking a video could equal seeing something about a program at the library.

Also – what they have done with video isn’t hard to do – they have just done it really well. Short, to the point, a “story,” and they made me smile.

I especially love their Mean Tweets Videos – here’s one below.

Great job, Invercargill City Library!

Sign up for Library Journal’s Social Media Course – & Get a Discount!

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Library Journal is hosting a really cool 4-week online course on social media, called Social Media Made Simple: Reaching Your Library’s Community.

Here’s a description of the course:

Learn tools and tactics to help you use social media to build your outreach to current and future patrons. This 4-week online course mixes live keynote presentations and hands-on projects in an online workshop setting. You’ll receive one-on-one guidance from an experienced social media library luminary.

I’m one of the “real time guest speakers” – I’m giving a webinar next Wednesday for the course.

And on to the Discount! Library Journal gave me a discount code – DLK25 – if you use this code (or click the links in this post to the registration page – they have the code embedded into the link), you’ll get 25% off the normal price. Sorta cool!

So – sign up for the course, and learn a TON about reaching your community through social media.

Attend the Library Marketing Conference

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Update: Had someone ask, so – registration prices are being set now, and should be announced in a few days. Click through to the website to find more info!

Did you know there’s a Library Marketing & Communications conference? There is – and it’s being held in November!

It’s called the Library Marketing & Communications Conference, and it is being held November 16-17 in Addison, TX (Dallas suburb).

Here’s what the conference focuses on:

The Library Marketing and Communications Conference is designed for library employees of any level who are involved in marketing, communication, public relations, social media, and outreach in academic, public, and special libraries. Sessions explore issues that are important for this niche of library work, and the conference includes time for attendees to network and to discuss mutual challenges.

Honestly? Anymore, that means ALL OF US. It’s never a bad time to improve your communication, marketing, and PR skills.

Want to attend? Go here to find out more info!

Image – me talking at the conference, by the South Carolina State Library

One Big Social Media Prediction for 2017

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Here’s my one big social media prediction for libraries in 2017. Are you ready?

It’s this: Your social media won’t improve … if you don’t try to make it better.

If you are guilty of any of these things:

  • Saying “yes, we’re on Instagram/Snapchat/The Next New Thing” [now I can check it off my list].
  • You don’t “get” Twitter/Snapchat/Facebook/etc … and don’t make an attempt to figure it out.
  • You read bunches of books and blog posts, but don’t make any changes.
  • You over edit/over analyze to the point of not really posting much.
  • You don’t post much on your social media channels, then say “yeah, our patrons don’t really want to friend a library.”
  • Don’t have any goals for this year.
  • etc.

If you are guilty of the things above, then your social media channels probably won’t improve.

Thankfully, this is a really easy fix. Sit down with your team, department, boss, library director, favorite colleague – and do 30 minutes of planning. Look at your analytics (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Youtube all have useful analytics) and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Then, create some goals. They might even be simple ones, like growing your customer base or posting consistently. It might be slightly more ambitious, like setting a goal of more engagement for each post. Or maybe connecting what you do in social media with a library-wide goal.

But easy or more difficult, you will have goals. And you can easily work to meet those goals. And my prediction will be wrong.

Please – make my 2017 prediction NOT come true! Instead, set some goals, figure out how to measure them. And then do the hard work of making your library better – one social media post at a time.

Image by Claudia Dia, messed with by me.