County of Los Angeles Public Library Marketing Critique

For this assignment, I chose to review the social media strategy of the Los Angeles County Public Library.  Established in 1912, the Los Angeles County Public Library currently has about 84 libraries (including a branch in Catalina Island) as well as a number of mobile libraries.  With advancements in computers and access to online information and now having an generation entirely grown up in a digital world, I believe having a solid social media presence and good strategy to generate engagement is very important.  It is particularly important for the library this year, – its 100th year anniversary.  Exploring what the library currently does on social media platforms and comparing it to what it could do may help call more attention to this historic event.

The social media outlets currently being utilized frequently are Facebook with Instagram integration, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest and Vimeo.  Each social media platform will be reviewed and assessed. 

Facebook

The Library’s Facebook profile has a mixture of content.  The content seems very random and hard to break into groups.  Some content is library related.  For example, content from the last week included highlighting authors, upcoming library events and attaching visual imagery to a literary quote,  Other content has less connection to library culture.  Due to the presidential campaign there was a post reminding people to register to vote. Overall content was very diverse and overall engagement seemed low - only one post that had more than 5 responses.  Interestingly, visual imagery seemed to be more successful than content only posts. Most of these imagery are done via Instragram through it signature look and feel. This makes photos more appealing to younger demographics. Though there needs to be more understanding why use another tool for photos being uploaded to Facebook instead of doing it directly.

Twitter

Based on the style and content, I suspect Facebook and Twitter are being managed by separate individuals.  Compared to Facebook, Twitter had a more precise content strategy.  It offered more direct information (upcoming events, author mentions, info about the county library system).  The Twitter strategy seems to be effective, since there are twice as much followers than Facebook.  So far Twitter has a more succeful social media strategy that is gaining engagement.

Flickr and Pinterest

The library is managing visual content using Flickr and its younger rival Pinterest.  Both platforms have a unique stock of images that don’t overlap, though I find Pinterest content to be more current and more engaging.  Again, I question if each social media platform is being worked on by an individual and not by a team. Flickr has random images that are more about internal organization events that may not appeal to social media user. Also most images have no background story to give the user an idea of what he or she is viewing. It seems the Flickr profile is not being fully supported compared to Pinterest, which has a board dedicated to the history of the County of Los Angeles Public Library and current events. A good thought to utilizing both things are creating Flickr for more artistic user generated content that is associated to the library. There is nothing wrong allowing patrons to contribute to content. While Pinterest can be a platform to really bring right content to users. Only Pinterest is promoting the 100th anniversary.

Vimeo and YouTube

Vimeo and YouTube are the two sources of video social media.  Vimeo is a popular video sharing platform but lacks YouTube’s broad awareness.  Right away it appears that YouTube was dropped, since the latest update to content was in 2010, but Vimeo has incredible content that county created.   And the Vimeo content is great and engaging for all ages!  The videos have stories and have a call to action to specific events.  I was surprised why the videos were not shared on the other social media platforms. To me this content that is enjoyable is lost due to it only living in Vimeo’s world of users, we can bring more eyes to these videos if its placed in Twitter, Facebook and even Pinterest. The traffic that it will generate will create a stronger engagement and followers.

Overall Assessment

If offered the opportunity to consult for the County of Los Angeles Public Library, I would recommend building a social media strategy that is more cohesive and engaging.  To make the strategy more cohesive, I would try to determine how the social media platforms are being managed.  If I found that there was not strong alignment, I would explain the importance of preplanning content to determine if things flow together.  Specifically, I would recommend creating a week’s worth of social content up to a planned year ahead on what would be social media content worthy.   There should be still consideration of content that can come up last minute to post, but having a cohesive plan to start will help the user experience.

To increase engagement, the organization needs to create content that in two to three seconds conveys enough of an idea to entice the user to like, share or comment.  It should also feel welcoming to a digital user, so I would creatively make certain user experiences available in social media only. One example is creating Facebook applications that have an association to possibly current library events that can only be accessed via social media. This will enhance library events and online presence.

Since social media has become a means of customer support communication, the library should build this kind of support system. This is where the organization needs to create a script and determine best approaches for customer support. Unfortunately there will be cases of angry patrons who will vent on social media, and this must be dealt with promptly and achieve positive results.  The worst thing is to have negative posts that the County of Los Angeles Public Library is tagged in, since it damages the reputation and makes families less interested in using the library. 

Through these simple steps, the Library can develop a more successful social media strategy that can increase community engagement and build excitement for the historic Los Angeles County Public Library.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/LACountyLibrary?ref=ts&fref=ts

Twitter - https://twitter.com/lacountylibrary
Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/lacountylibrary
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/lacountylibrary/
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacountylibrary/
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/LACountyLibrary?feature=watch
County of Los Angeles Public Library- http://www.colapublib.org



Enjoy this fun Vimeo video I had a good laugh http://vimeo.com/42240608

Collaboration and Culture are Key

 In today's professional world we are facing employees of three different generations working together.  This can prove difficult in trying to have a collaborative group who are use to either, face-to-face, never-ending meetings or instant messenger. There are more collaborative tools coming out to help people break down those silos though it all depends on the culture. Also important to note that doesn't matter what technology is being utilized because it all comes to the culture that will allow it to foster. Will Kelly's article Corporate Culture, Not Technology, Drives Online Collaboration explains that to foster collaboration is through the organization's culture. 



Personally I have been tasked to foster collaboration at my new employment of three months. Not having solid grasp of everything yet I can implement baby steps that yield better return. One thing I noticed is there isn't any server to archive files for everyone to reference. So the organization is utilizing Google Documents to have access to share documents so I take it to another lever and built out calendars with necessary information for tight deadlines. My goal was not to change the collaboration already set but to make information more streamline and improve efficiencies.

I really enjoyed this week's reading as I am currently developing processes in improving collaboration at the workforce. One thing I feel is a universal theme and many organizations have this belief that collaboration and efficiencies are generated by the technology and tool being used but in reality its all stems to culture.

"If time is money, then attention is gold"

In this weeks reading by Brian Solis, 21 Rules of Engagement in Social Media really tells you spot on on engagement. In advertising it is known that 2011 was getting more followers and 2012 is about how to manage your community many organizations rushed in obtaining. I have attending webinars by Brian Solis and he breaks it down on how an organization can build engagement with their community.

Brian focused his article on already established community but for many libraries who are entering this new realm there are some good practice tips to follow.

1. Research.... research and do more research who are your demographics that will follow you on social media. Lets refer to  Laura Peowski Horn's article on her search on understanding her local teens who come to the library. She tried to find the core group of teens that she feels she can cater but also try to be inclusive to the less inclined to read a book.  Laura did what best first step... know who are you trying to cater and understand them. In the web development world before building a site its best practice to define the personas, a imaginary scenario of the type of people who would visit the website. 

2. Build content. You know have good understanding of who your community will but now its about building content. Any blogger can tell you that generating content frequently can be draining. That is why before creating your community, create a scenario of content for x amount of time depending each organization's situation. Also note you still need to be flexible for any current events that may occur and you will need to react like early closing due to weather.

 3. Tent poles, not the circus king but keep in mind the shape they appear. One thing everyone needs to understand about you cannot be in social media world and follow a strict timeline with things. I want to show that social media is like a large river it cannot be stopped by a single person. That is why the concept of tent poles which Brian has discussed in his seminars are ways to set themes in certain time periods.  Best example for libraries are summer reading programs are themselves a tent pole. Remember how I asked earlier to remember the shape, now when you start a tent pole you do slow and small since its starting the event. Mid way into the tent pole you are at its peak and you start dying down content as users got their fill with the event and are waiting for the next. 

For best technology for libraries to start building their community really depends on your personas defined. For youth librarians I would say Facebook because that's where your demographics is at. That is why Brian has great explanation on maintaining engagement in your community but starting was a missing key in his article. 

How I outsmart LinkedIn to get more view/visitors

All social media services have an algorithm to determine how it connects with friends you never seen, provide you with information of interest or establish professional opportunities. Of course these algorithms are top secret and they make each social media outlet unique.

I want to talk about LinkedIn as someone who is always looking for better opportunities and increase traffic to my profile. Through my trial and errors of figuring out how to make my LinkedIn profile appealing to recruiters and professionals. I learned little by little how LinkedIn works behind the scenes.  Below I will list some good tips to make your profile show up in people's searches and recommended connections, all in hopes to increase search pop ups.

1. Keep a word document resume, a given to everyone, but this should be your unabridged version. Don't limit your resume to just one page instead it should be several pages of different skills and strong points. Majority of us tend to deviate our professional route so its good to have everything you done instead of certain field skill sets. More is better since you can always cut down. The worse situation is trying to add to your resume for a job you did way back in the past.
2. For young professionals its best not to date yourself, I had cases where recruiters thought I was much older based on how I presented information and never lying my skill sets.
3. Now this area is where we begin playing with the algorithm of LinkedIn. Most professionals and recruiters tend to begin their search on Mondays and increases as the week goes on and dies out by Friday, so think as Wednesday the peak. Here is the secret about LinkedIn algorithm it shows users names in searches based on how active the account is after it determined you fit the searcher’s criteria. Make updates early in the week so ride the wave of the week.

LinkedIn is a good tool to build professional growth and knowing these tools it will help grow your opportunities in the future.

For me I try to keep professional and personal online connection separate. I had experience when my Facebook acted as LinkedIn at a former employment and it made it difficult to express myself with my close connections. Also its not healthy having work invade your personal space, there is always a clear division between work and life. I really recommend a professional Facebook account since we are seeing it become informal resume. With that future MLIS implementing these to their personal social media accounts will help them learn how to use these tools. As students when come into the workforce already having a foundation of best practice in social media to use for the library.

There is a need for libraries to have a social presence and learn not just getting followers, connections or friends but knowing how to build engagement. What are you doing to make people following you want to talk about with you or their own friends? This is key to building a successful social platform for libraries.

I never knew there were some good blogs for MLIS

My recent exploration on LIS blogs showed there is a rich community of bloggers in all-different backgrounds. I honestly thought blogs were written by out of touch professionals. I do feel part of the problem with librarians is the new blood coming into the professional world who have a digital background. 

1. In the Library With the Lead Pipe
2. 
Librarian's Commute

3. The Distant Librarian

4. Librarian by Day

5. David Lee King

Here are some blogs recently introduced to me that offered me what I call “slice of life” for LIS professionals. The environment each blog offered a sense of an individual who work in the industry and offer a down-to-earth reading. I have seen many blogs where its very professional oriented and the contents seem unrealistic to my professional growth. Best way to compare these blogs and those I was exposed my first semester of MLIS is like watching Good Day Live or Good Morning America to CSPAN or Weather Channel. Both offer same information but how it’s presented is what makes me relate more to one than other. 

Librarian by Day
 is actually best representation of library comedy I have ever found in a blog. I think blogs are there for professional growth but lets face it we need that sense of comical experiences we all have at our jobs. Also this blog offer universal information that are not totally married to MLIS professionals and offers great tips on using modern web tools for the work place.



Plus enjoyed the collection of comical visuals:

Some blogs I want to add into the pool:

1. Information Wants to be Free
• Blog about professors in MLIS, that made me interested in how things are seen from those point of view. Especially having students with different backgrounds how are professors making courses relevant to an ever-changing professional world.
2. iLibrarian
• Not much of fun read but more technology and how some libraries are utilizing them. This is great way of keeping up technology that is being used for library professionals.
3. ALATechSource
• Similar to iLibrarian but this is a blog that is established by a national organization. They offer blogs about monitoring Twitter to capture what is being said about library or an organization in question. Good source that offer technical information and professional networking.

Analyzing all these blogs I do see a pattern on what makes a successful website. Similar to what I posted earlier are transparency, knowing who is your demographic your trying to appeal and lastly making content easy reading but informative. We are all bombarded with life, work and school things that we need something that can cheer us up yet be informative and help us grow professionally.

What do blogs and libraries produce?

Do you think blogs have become old hat or old social technology for libraries or do you think they are still effective?  Why?

Blogs may come off as old web technology that seems irrelevant but that is not the case. In truth, blogs have just evolved to be in different forms; tumblr, twitter, and even Facebook can all be considered a form of blogs. 

The traditional form of blogging is still important today and has made the bloggers very powerful entities of trust and unbiased information. For example there is a strong community of what is called mommy-bloggers they have their own PR agency and strong following. Reason for their popularity is their transparency and creating trust to what they are talking about.They produce content unique and engaging such as couponing, remedies and helping your fellow mom.

This is why blogs are still a relevant technology that libraries can utilized. Though in researching powerful library blogs I have yet to find any good communities. Of course I can find blogs by libraries but most have very small engagement. I think libraries need to really analyze how will blogging experience be different than Facebook to encourage people to go outside of Facebook world to a www.

Exercise: Panera Bread Goodness!

Based on recent events I read on social media news, I selected Panera Bread. To me this company is a sleeping giant as its growing in business. As a restuarant they offer good services and health conscience meals. If you are unaware with the latest social explosion that involved Panera Bread, check out this news story. This isolated situation with the restuarant lead to a post that generated over one million likes.

1.     What are people saying about this organization online? What tools are they using to talk about the organization?

Panera bread is a place people will come to eat or get a delicious pastry and its known for its college demographic appeal. I researched what people saying and how its helping the brand of the company. I used several tools like Twitter, Socialseek.com, Socialmention.com and Facebook to better understand what is being discussed about this brand.

On Twitter I am noticing a pattern of people discussing when they are having a meal. Majority of the time its stating they are eating at Panera Bread with excitement.

@francessc4 haha my boyfriend too! It's like I should just live at panera bread haha

twitter.com/_badjujuu/statuses/247454842119938048

2 minutes ago - by @_badjujuu on twitter

In Facebook, we see a change of what users are talking about with Panera. They tend to offer their reviews of the meals they had or mention what is their favorite. This is where we start seeing some negative comments. Most being regional based such as a bad service at a certain chain.

Overall Panera's posts revolved around posting photography of their meals, so they lead their followers with visuals tasty goods. Great approach especially when they align their post to meal time and timing of snack.

2. Is the organization responding to these people through social media? If so, how effective do you think they are?

Facebook can provide a best scenario of how Panera is addressing to customer’s post.  Oddly I did not see any post where Panera themselves answered but the community itself helped each other. Lets look at the following post on Panera Bread about Gluten Free meals:

Tybois Uphold

I have a friend who is on a Gluten free diet (because her son who has Autism is also) and she really wants to come in, get some soup and a sandwich, but isn't sure if there is Gluten in the Panera menu. So, I am wondering, are any items on the menu Gluten free?

Like · · Yesterday at 12:44pm

    Lindsey Hill There are no baked goods that gluten free, due to cross-contamination issues, but, there are some gluten free items on the menu. You can go to paneranutrition.com to find all ingredients in the menu items. You can also ask an associate when ordering, and they can look it up in the nutrition guide.

    Yesterday at 5:03pm via mobile · Like

    Lindsey Hill That are*

    Yesterday at 5:03pm via mobile · Like

    Tybois Uphold @Lindsey: Thanks! :)

    Yesterday at 5:05pm · Like

    Write a comment...

This show Panera Bread may have set up their community to help each other in general business questions. What I am seeing though negative questions such as bad cleaning habits at certain chains are left unanswered for user to see. I do want to state that Panera Bread can be reaching these individuals privately instead of wall post.

3. What social media tools is the organization using to proactively communicate with their user base (rather than just responding)? How effective do you think they are in building relationships and engaging their customers online?

Surprised with lack of customer support on Facebook, I looked at Twitter account for Panera Bread this where I saw the company address to their customers questions. I did enjoy how they try to make customer's feel they are talking to an individual and not a robot. In an age where customers feel they are calling into a foreign country and dealing with language barriers.  Also to note the twitter account isn't just to address customer's questions but they even tell their followers when new meals are added to the menu:

Panera Bread ‏@panerabread

@AdamLewicki Hi Adam. The Roasted Turkey & Cranberry Panini was just introduced this week! We hope you'll stop by & try it out.

 This shows how the company is really on top of their followers and making sure they are being heard, I do feel based on the recent events at Panera Bread, makes me conclude they have loyal following. The company fosters that within their own organization to serve the best quality. In an age where it takes just one post to tarnish a company's brand, its important to have a strong social presence and good engagement.

 One interesting self-exploration on Panera Bread is how loyal their followers are. I am use to seeing other online communities but never seen one where user's would answer others questions. I do feel this is the work of a good company structure that is transparent when it comes to social media.

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.