We'd been doing the social media thing for a few years at Pima County (AZ) Public Library when Lisa Waite Bunker joined our Virtual Library team earlier this year. I kid you not, within a week, she had transformed our social media accounts from sort of lackluster to brag-about outstanding! So when I say I'm learning from a pro, I mean it. And now you can learn from Lisa, too.
Most of the following best practices have come out of Lisa's very own mouth or pen-at meetings, training sessions, and presentations and during conversations in the Virtual Library. So Lisa deserves all of the credit. You should definitely follow her on Twitter. I rely on Lisa to find all the nuggets of gold out there in the online world about libraries and beyond. She's especially connected to Tucson, which is another boon for those of us who live here.
To check out what we're doing, visit Pima County Public Library on Facebook and Twitter.
Best Practices for Social Media Management
If possible, dedicate staff to social media (this suggestion is mine). It's time consuming to be successful on social media. We've only got Lisa half time (we share her with the Tucson Museum of Art Library), and truly, we'd be lost without her. Social media on five minutes a day simply doesn't fly. It's also great having one person watch over everything. When we had a haphazard approach to posting, monitoring, and training, it just didn't work. Nothing was cohesive, and our accounts weren't engaging. You need someone with some serious social media sense to make people want to follow you.
Recruit other staff members. Lisa has a team of people from our library branches posting to Twitter, making our collective presence on social media vastly more interesting and far-reaching than if she was the only one posting. Her enthusiasm is infectious, which helps motivate others to get going (so maybe another point is to get someone with some passion to be your dedicated social media expert).
When you recruit others, give them guidance...but not too much. You have to give them freedom to find their voices. If you bog them down with procedures and rules, it's not only overwhelming, it sucks the joy out of the whole thing. You can tell people who are infused with joy when you read their posts–it comes out in their writing. Do everything you can to avoid squelching it!
Use Hootsuite or some other tool to manage your posts. We've created a team on Hootsuite that allows Lisa to give access to staff to post to our different accounts. Scheduling posts ahead of time is also a time-saver and allows Lisa to see what's coming up so that she can create complementary posts and post to different accounts as needed.
Take advantage of all sorts of tools to promote your library, not only online, but in print. Put your Facebook URL on flyers, your Twitter handle in ads. Stick a "Follow us on... " sign up in your libraries. If people don't know you're out there, they won't know to follow you.
It's easy to get discouraged if you don't get a response to your posts. Take heart! One of the things you must do is monitor your accounts. Do searches on Facebook for your organization's name. On Twitter, look at searches, mentions, re-tweets, and see if you've been added to any lists. Respond to re-tweets and mentions with a simple "Thanks" so others know you're listening to them! Respond to posts and tweets as appropriate. Definitely watch for direct messages. We get questions from patrons on a pretty regular basis.
Best Practices for Making Your Posts Sing
If you're new to Twitter, you might need to get your bearings in order to understand the appeal of it. Create a personal account before you create one for your organization. Start following civic leaders and area businesses to see how they're doing it. Also follow people who write well, maybe your favorite authors. Listen first, and you'll learn a lot about what makes a good post.
Once you get going, picture your audience as you write. Make the tone smart and friendly. If you've got the talent, make it fun, too (when appropriate).
Be human. Don't take a neutral tone. It's boring and off-putting.
Don't just make it about marketing your stuff (see following bullets). Sure, post about your programs and services, but do it in an interesting way, not in ad-speak, and be sure to post about other interesting events, observations, etc...
It might take some time, but start asking yourself, "Is this news?" about everything going on at work. That box of best-sellers that was just opened and has a humungous waiting list? That's news! Write something catchy, and see how people react. Post a picture with it to give it some visual context.
Start conversations. Think of social media as a conversation at a service desk with the public. Write open-ended posts that invite responses.
It's not all about you, it's about building community. You have to follow people that your audience is interested in and repost their stuff so that they, in turn, will repost your stuff and widen your circle. The social media world is one of generosity and community. No man is an island. Follow locals and partners. If you're associated in some way, your followers will probably be interested.
Listen to memes and look for common interests in others' posts and run weeklong or monthlong series. The best series Lisa pulled off was an impromptu rain cloud haiku on Facebook. When we were sweltering in the spring heat, watching the clouds and waiting for rain that never came and commenting about it on Facebook in droves, she invited people to post haikus about the weather. The responses were amazing and entertaining, and they pulled all of the locals together on our wall.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but my rule about not overwhelming people holds here too–so I'm going to stop now. Once you've soaked this in, take a minute to share your best practices, questions, or interesting musings in the comments section!
This article originally appeared in School Library Journal's enewsletter SLJTeen. Subscribe here.
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