Staying on cue in social community

 Starting out in social media for a library can seem out of character but at the end it’s very rewarding as long certain rules are followed. It’s important to plan and understand how they will introduce themselves to the online community, as the saying goes measure twice and cut once. This very much applies to how a library should establish rules and guidelines on how they will interact with their community. Every organization before establishing a social presence needs to find their tone of voice. Everyone will think most libraries will have the same voice and discussion aside for geo-base information but it’s more of the same language but different dialect that will make them unique.

There are universal rules that all libraries must follow to establish a positive community of trust. It can be considered the netiquette most social entities follow.

1.     Always show transparency. Don't lie or hide information that is public. The internet is filled with detectives who will love to reveal something good.
2.     Don't overdo it in maintaining the conversation in your social community. Yes many of us would love to post 584,454,235 in a day but like having face to face conversation, individuals have limits. For Facebook it is considered one to two post a day is sufficient to get your message across, anything more the users will start seeing your social presences as spam and will begin disconnecting. Also this can lead to negative comments. There is consideration for breaking news content.  Make sure what is really breaking news and what be discussed later on or else you fall into every post becoming breaking news. Basically I would make news that affect the lives of my followers as breaking news, anything more above them as a regular post.
3.     Plan ahead what you want to say, this will help have a constant flow of discussion with your community and a sense of engagement that is not based on a day to day post but a conversation. This is how you build a solid community with your library. Aim for 30 days worth of topics/themes to discuss just to know what is planned for the future. Of course like #2 says sometimes breaking news can change things. That is the fun of social media, things can constantly be changing.

Having these foundation points can help a library establish itself in the social community. Of course no matter what there will be negative comments. It’s important for libraries to address this and take it to a one on one resolution approach. You need to make sure the user's issues are addressed but don't need to show the world how it’s resolved. Also to avoid future negative reviews, it’s crucial to have feedback opportunity so the library can make adjustments on how its evolving itself in social media.