Delivering Your Messages in Today’s Online Environment

American Library Association, PR Forum

Kevin T. Kirkpatrick

Executive Vice President

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Agenda

• How is the Internet (and social media, specifically) changing the way we communicate with one another?

• How are libraries using the Internet and social media?

• Where do you start?

Credit: xkcd.com

Impact of Social Media

• Changing the way we communicate with each other, and how we connect with organizations we care about

– Social networking has surpassed email as the most popular activity online.

• It’s huge, and growing fast

– Facebook >200 Million monthly active users

– Twitter >6 million users, growing at 1382%

Pros/Cons of Social Media

Benefits Challenges

• Incredibly cost effective versus traditional means of communication

• Faster, more timely• Ability to customize audiences

and content• Easy to update, revise• Can be more environmentally

sustainable (e.g., reduced printing costs)

• Creating relationships!

• Can be overwhelming• Growing fast, but still not

dominant• Some audiences not yet

engaged (degree of disproportionality)

• Requires commitment (e.g., updating, responding)

• Sacrifices certain degree of control over content

Types of Social Media

• Communicate (blogs, podcasts, video, photo)

• Connect (social networks, texting, instant messaging, microblogs)

• Collaborate (Wikis, consumer-generated media, ratings, social news)

• Collect (tagging, social bookmarking, search)

• Customize (RSS, widgets, virtual worlds)

The Basic Idea

• Groups based on affinities and expertise

• Profiles serve as identities, share info about you

• Connections build the networks – friends, family, co-workers, partners

• Sharing via opinions, information, interests, stories, photos, videos

Your Website

Putting a “Face” on Your Library

Job postings

Schedule changes

Announcing events

Connecting to other resources

Promoting Holdings

Starting discussions

“Tweeting” Your Library

Wave of the Not-so-distant Future …

First Things First: Your Website

• Update the content (frequently!)• Refresh the look and feel of the site• Tell stories/communicate impact• Add photos, photo essays• Increase opportunities for interactivity

(take action, email list, tell-a-friend, etc.)• Add contact information

Tell-a-friend

Then, When You’re Ready…

• Join the conversation– Appropriately

– Carefully

– Transparently

• Try one thing right away– Update your website

– Add “tell-a-friend”

– Create a Twitter account

– Start a Facebook page

Ask Yourself

• What’s your unique value?• Why would people want to talk

about you?• Where are your audiences? Are they

already doing something? Saying something?

• What can you offer to the world? How can you be a resource?

Keep in Mind

• Social media works best as a two-way conversation

• Great for customer service; less so for PR• Need to stay on top of it