David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Learning from the App Store

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img_9587Ever wondered what people are doing on their smartphones and tablets? Want to know what’s the newest trend is in mobile social media platforms?

Look no further than your phone’s app store.

Here are some things you can learn by looking at the Apple App Store:

  • What’s popular – what people are interested in, what’s captured their interest.
  • Most popular social media tools.
  • What people are doing – for example, sharing photos, playing games, etc.
  • Emerging trends – see what’s experimental and what’s taking off.
  • Maybe you’ll even find an easier way to do stuff

For example, when I take a peek at the app store, I see this:

  • Social media is huge. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are in the top 20 free apps.
  • The election just happened – CNN is #2 on the list of free apps. Fox news is #16 and CBS is #47.
  • Visual sharing is popular – hence Snapchat and Instagram.
  • Video – Youtube is #5 on the list, Instagram is #6.
  • There are apparently a LOT of guitar players in the world – Tabs & Chords is #15 on the list of Paid apps.
  • Top Grossing apps – games, video (i.e., Netflix), and music (Pandora and Spotify)

The most interesting thing about this sneaky little trend watching tool? The app lists will most likely be completely different in 6 months or so. Try it out as a trend watching tool, and see what you discover!

What is the Decentralized Web?

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The Syracuse iSchool passed this article along to me, and I think it’s pretty cool and useful.

They wanted to define the decentralized web. Here’s what they said: “To better understand this abstract idea and its potential implications, we posed these fundamental questions to the following 25 Web experts.”

The rest of the article includes 25 short definitions of the decentralized web. Included are:

  • Jason Griffey: “The term ‘Decentralized Web’ is being used to refer to a series of technologies that replace or augment current communication protocols, networks, and services and distribute them in a way that is robust against single-actor control or censorship.”
  • Jake Orlowitz: “A Decentralized Web belongs to all of us: Its power lies in our connections to each other. Its architecture encodes our values; its usage affirms our freedom to collaborate, share, and create.”

Read the article to see the rest of them. Good stuff!

Responding to Viral Trends

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Pokemon Go PlayersLast week, Pokémon Go went live at the app store. Within a few days, it had gone viral. And within a week, pretty much everyone with a smartphone is playing it!

I first heard about the game through some Vine videos I watch. Then Monday, I read some articles about it. When I left for the the day, I saw two groups of teens – one group inside the library, and one walking around outside the library – playing.

Then I started sending emails, some other staff did the same thing, and we figured out a couple of ways to respond to the phenomenon of Pokémon Go (my library has five Poké Stops!).

Pokémon Go is a fun, fast-spreading viral trend right now. Will it last? I’d guess Nintendo hopes so! It definitely won’t be the last viral trend to appear.

So – how should you respond to these viral trends? Here are six steps to responding to Viral Trends:

  1. Trend watch. Listen to the news, read trend-watching blogs, etc. They will help you keep up-to-date on what’s trending.
  2. Play with it. If it’s an app, download it and figure it out. I walked around the library, catching Pokémon, and discovering where all our Poké Stops were and what they did. If it’s a book, read it (think Harry Potter). You need to be familiar with it – familiar enough to tell the boss what’s going on.
  3. Alert staff. Figure out if you need to let other staff know what’s going on. For example, I sent an email to our managers (we share evening shift duty) explaining what the game was, and why they might see roving groups of teens with their smartphones out.
  4. Brainstorm responses. Get a group of staff together and quickly figure out some small next steps. You don’t want to spend a week (or two, or three) figuring out a nicely-crafted response. It’s viral, so you will miss the boat! At my library, we did some quick brainstorming.
  5. Actually do something. Out of our brainstorming came some social media posts sharing that the library has some Poké Stops, and we followed that with a blog post on our website. We also discovered Lures, which draw more people to Poké Stops.
  6. Figure out if there’s more to come. It’s possible that Pokémon Go will allow businesses to buy ads/sponsored locations. We’ll look into that when/if it happens.

I love what a church down the street did – check out the sign in the image below. Free water for Pokémon Go players! Those are my ideas on responding to viral trends. What are yours? Please share!

Pokemon Go sign at a church

When Voice Search Goes Mainstream … What’s the Library Look Like?

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Amazon EchoI recently read this article – The Voice UI has Gone Mainstream over at techopinions.com.

Interesting article! Right now, voice search is growing fast. Smartphones certainly do voice search (i.e., Siri, OK Google, etc). And it’s constantly improving. In fact, my daughter has a part time job listening to and evaluating OK Google voice searches (yes, you heard that right. Weird job, huh?).

I know I’ve certainly used voice search. Driving in my car, for example – sometimes I need to find something (like a phone number to a restaurant), and voice search is the best option. I’ll also admit, right now that voice search sometimes works great, and sometimes can leave me really frustrated.

Wifi-connected “voice first” search appliances are also starting to appear, like the Amazon Echo. Google Home is a competitor, and Apple has Apple HomeKit.

The article made me think … our libraries are all about searching. What happens when/if the primary search function of all our stuff switches to voice first search instead of typing? How will our interfaces/services/signage change because of that?

Even more important – what happens to patron confidentiality?

Just some things to ponder!

Amazon Echo pic by Rick Turoczy

Preparing for Emerging Trends

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I think about emerging trends a lot, and realized that sometimes that’s not good enough. I think about them, research them, share those ideas and projects out with other staff. Sometimes those ideas stick, and sometimes they don’t.

What’s missing? Having a plan for those emerging trends, BEFORE YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM.

How does that work? Watch my video to hear my ideas on that. I focus on these points:

  1. Being a Nimble Organization
  2. Have a Flexible Staff
  3. Budget for it!
  4. Assign Staff
  5. Use Listening Tools
  6. Attend Conferences out of your “Comfort Zone”
  7. Just Do It!

Those are my thoughts. What would you add?