Find out how blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube offer tremendous opportunities for libraries to grow their public presence and engage their communities.
13. Your Blog: “The Open House”
• Blog (short for “weblog”) =
online journal
• Text, images, audio, or video
• Subscribers have new posts
delivered via email
• Expand your reach through
guest blogging
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
14. Your Blog: “The Open House”
Benefits
• Open template
• Can feature text,
images, audio, video, or
a combination
• If self-hosted, you own
the blog and all its
content
Challenges
• “Pull” tactic—need to
attract readers to it
• May require some
HTML “tweaking”
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
15. Your Blog: “The Open House”
Opportunities for Libraries
• Gives you a longer format for communicating
with your audience
• Open format — share images and video as
well as text
• Readers can subscribe and have updates
delivered via email
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
18. Facebook: “The Coffee Shop”
• World’s largest social
networking site
• 1.06 billion users worldwide
• Average user spends more
than 7 hours a month on the
site
• 1 billion pieces of content
shared each day
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
19. Facebook: “The Coffee Shop”
Benefits
• World’s largest
networking site
• Content types include
text, links, image, video
• Apps allow creation of
content-rich Fan Pages
Challenges
• Cultural mixed in with
personal … and the
inane
• Poor search engine
• You don’t actually own
your Facebook content
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
20. Facebook: “The Coffee Shop”
Opportunities for Libraries
• Share content daily to stay “front of mind”
with community members.
• Interact with complementary organizations to
leverage their audiences.
• Create a Group for your patrons.
• Promote your blog posts.
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
24. Twitter: “The Speed Date”
• 140-character posts
• Over 200 million active
users
• 400 million tweets per day
• 1.6 billion search queries a
day
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
25. Twitter: “The Speed Date”
Benefits
• Easy to use
• Excellent listening
mechanism
• Auto-schedule tools
• Initiate and follow
conversations around
hashtags
Challenges
• 140-character limit
• Content limited to text
and links (can attach
photos or videos)
• Average life span of a
tweet is less than an
hour
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
26. Twitter: “The Speed Date”
Opportunities for Libraries
• Establish authority by sharing relevant
content.
• “Live tweet” from events.
• Create conversations around current topics.
• Embed Twitter feed into your website and
Facebook page.
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
30. YouTube: “The Public Access Cable
Channel”
• Video sharing social
network
• The Web’s #2 search engine
• More than 1 billion unique
users each month
• More than 1 trillion views in
2011
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
31. YouTube: “The Public Access Cable
Channel”
Benefits
• Most personal form of
social communication
• Highly visible in search
• Perfect for instructional
content (e.g., using
online resources)
Challenges
• Content limited to video
• Video creation requires
some technical skill
• Search engines don’t
recognize video content
#TXLA13
@resonancecont
32. YouTube: “The Public Access Cable
Channel”
Opportunities for Libraries
• Engage with people on a highly personal level.
• Create an online video library that’s highly
search-visible.
• Post video tours of your facilities.
• Create guided tutorials on how to use online
resources.
• Record and share lectures and other live
events.
#TXLA13
@resonancecont