David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

My Presentations from Internet Librarian 2015

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I just got back from a whirlwind 4 days of Internet Librarian 2015. As usual, it was a really useful conference for me – lots of solid tips, learning, and networking with cool techie librarians.

Here are the slide deck versions of my presentations:

Tech Trends for Libraries in 2016

Aligning Digital & Print Content: Editorial Content Calendars

Analytics for Social Media

Writing for the Web

I also lead a panel discussion on Innovation in Libraries. It went really well … but no slides for that one.

Easy Analytics for Instagram

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I recently discovered a cool tool for tracking Instagram analytics. It’s called StatShot.

Signing up for StatShot is easy – just connect your Instagram account to it, and you’re done. It’s a freemium tool based on the number of Instgram followers you have. It’s free for up to 5000 followers. After that, it’s $5 a month for up to 10,000 followers, etc. If only we had that problem!

What does StatShot do? Here’s what they say: “StatShot was created with one goal in mind: to deliver simple and clear Instagram stats to individuals and brands who want to better understand their audience growth.”

They do this by sending regular emails with your Instagram stats. You can choose to get daily, weekly, or monthly emails. I set up the library and my personal Instagram accounts with daily emails.

What’s that get me? Every morning, I receive these stats:

  • Followers
  • Potential Reach
  • Engagement
  • Likes
  • Comments
  • Following
  • Media Posted
  • Track #hashtag’s usage

Each of those stats provides yesterday’s numbers, compares it to the day before, and then shows an up/down percentage for each statistic.

It’s pretty basic, but then again, it’s simple and it’s free (until we hit 5000 followers).

Try it out and let me know what you think!

How Often Should You Post to Social Media?

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I’m often asked “how often should we post to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.?” I pretty much always say the same thing (I’ll give my response in a sec).

First, read these two articles. The have really different takes on the question “how often should I post?”:

I’d agree with the second article. The first article is based on average posting frequency research. For example, one study they mentioned looked at thousands of tweets from brands, and found that 2-3 tweets per day gained the highest engagement levels. Fine research, but the article then says “ok, so do 3 posts a day in Twitter.”

I’m not certain that’s the best conclusion. It’s like doing research on how tall people are. You might find out that the average height of a male is 5’9″. Then, based on that average height, you’d tell clothing companies to make pants to fit a 5’9″ man in order to sell the most pants.

You see the problem, right (I certainly do, since I’d be wearing high water pants!)?

Second, here’s how I answer the question “How often should I post?”:

  1. Post more than you’re currently posting. For most libraries, this advice works great. Why? They don’t have a dedicated posting schedule, or posting goals. Or they post sporadically. Maybe no one posted last month. Sometimes I say post enough to look alive in that social media tool, so at least once per day.
  2. Figure out your organization’s optimal posting frequency. Start experimenting with posting more, then look at engagement rates, daily unlikes (on Facebook), etc. and adjust accordingly. Or, just ask your social media followers if they want more or less from you, then go with the flow.

The real answer? It varies by organization and by social media tool. How often do you post? Is it enough? Please share!

Cool numbers image by Denise Krebs

Presentations at Computers in Libraries 2015

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I just got back from a full week of learning and sharing at Computers in Libraries. Great conference, as usual!

Here are links to the presentations I gave:

Enjoy!

Managing your Library’s Social Media Channels

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Just an FYI – my new Library Technology Report is out! It’s titled Managing your Library’s Social Media Channels. What’s it about? From the introduction:

“The process of implementing, managing, and measuring social media channels in a library setting will be discussed. Tips include:

  • creating strategy and goals for social media channels
  • creating teams to run the library’s social media channels
  • connecting and communicating with customers using social media
  • tracking usage and engagement levels using analytics and insights”

Here’s a brief summary of each chapter:

  • Chapter 1 – why use social media. Yes, you still need to explain this to people.
  • Chapter 2 – the “landscape” of social media in libraries. It outlines what social media tools are being used and why, with some examples of stellar social media use in libraries.
  • Chapter 3 – How to connect & communicate with customers. I wrote a whole book on that, if you’re interested 🙂
  • Chapter 4 – Social media teams. How to manage the work of a social media team. What they should post, how they should post, and how to deal with problems.
  • Chapter 5 – Analytics, Goals, and Strategy for Social Media. What to track and why, and how to connect social media to those large, multi-year library strategic plans.
  • Chapter 6 – What to do from start to finish. Pretend there’s a new, hot social media tool that appears next week. This chapter provides an organizational approach to incorporating that new tool into your library’s workflow.

There you have it! Get it at the ALA Store.