social media | emerging trends | libraries
Last week, I was in Melbourne, Australia at VALA 2018 – an awesome library conference. I was one of the keynote speakers, and participated in a panel discussion as well. Great time!
Here are my slides. Michelle McLean attended, and blogged my talk (thanks!). So either just click through my slides to get a feel for what I was talking about, or click through and read Michelle’s blog post to find out what I was talking about (and to see what else happened at the conference).
Thanks for reading!
I recently read Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. It’s a really useful book on how to build a platform – a way to amplify your voice in order to be seen and heard in today’s crowded online world. Go read it.
One idea I picked up while reading was about creating a “wall of fame.†Here’s what Michael says about a wall of fame (from pg 66):
“This is basically a “wall of fame.†Include your best product reviews, customer reviews, Twitter comments, Facebook comments, Google+ comments, and so on. The idea here is to share endorsements and enthusiasm from your fans to fuel even more enthusiasm.â€
What a cool idea, and one that translates well into a library setting. For example – right now, my library has a section on our Press Room pages called “TSCPL Headlines†(yep – horrid title. I’ll need to get that changed). It’s a Delicious.com feed of mentions of my library in the news.
That’s a good start on building a wall of fame. To go further, we could collect positive and interesting Tweets, Facebook mentions, comments, and photos of our library from Instagram, and display those on a “wall of fame†page.
We could also use those quotes and content in marketing materials.
Why? A Wall of Fame is a great visual way to show your organization’s value to the community … from the community themselves. Instead of saying “we have the best kid’s area ever,†we can show tweets and images showing kids and their parents having fun in the kid’s area.
Do you gather and use this type of community conversation in your library’s marketing and promotion initiatives? I’d love to hear about it!
image from Michael Hyatt’s website
Here’s a heads-up about a cool and useful book on how to improve your networking skills. The book is 21 Days to Success Through Networking: The Life and Times of Gnik Rowten (Amazon affiliate link), published by Information Today (yep, that’s my publisher).
They gave me an advance copy, and I LOVED it. Why? Well, for two reasons:
So – fun read, and I learned something, too!
Here’s a little more about the book, from the publisher:
21 Days to Success Through Networking: The Life and Times of Gnik Rowten presents a range of real-world situations, events, insights, and challenges through the eyes of a fictional character with whom almost anyone can relate. Gnik Rowten (that’s “networking†spelled backward) has made a fresh start in a new city where he has few, if any, friends, prospects, or business contacts.
Follow Gnik’s life over a 3-week period as, each day, he discovers and learns tools, techniques, and strategies for effective business networking. Through sharing his adventures and “Aha!†moments, you’ll learn to extend, deepen, and effectively utilize your own personal and business networks in just 21 days.
Here’s the Amazon link to buy the book (Amazon affiliate link). If you want to help out the authors, buy it today! Why? They have an interesting goal of being Amazon best sellers … today. So – help em out!
Have you heard about street pianos? Some cities have taken old upright pianos, refurbished them, had an artist paint them, and have “installed” them in public spaces.
The goal? Let anyone who wants to … play the piano, and share some music – good or bad – with their local community at the same time.
Cool idea!
My library heard about the idea, had a piano donated to us, painted it, and it’s now outside the library, ready for anyone to play. It’s been outside just a few days … I just saw two teens sitting at the piano, wailing away.
Want more info?
Has your library done a similar idea? I’d love to hear about it!
The photo in this post is from a gas station at a local grocery store. They put up a sign at the gas station showing how much money they saved a community via their fuel points program.
How cool would that be to use one of those library value calculators, add everything up for a year, and share how much money the library has saved the community – in books, videos, and events attended?
For some libraries, this could be a really BIG number!
Why do this? I can think of a few reasons, including:
Has anyone done something like this before? If so, did it work? I’d love to know – please share!