Marketing with social media

Marketing in Libraryland...

I looked at how the Orkney Library & Archive have embraced social networking such as Twitter and Facebook, and have also created a blog so that their users can keep up to date with services. And with users based on different islands, this must be very useful.

This quote from the Illinois libraries blog made me think:

"Social media serves as a place to enhance our relationships. Since we’ve already established trust-worthy relationships with our patrons inside the library, it’s only natural that we use social media enhance our relationships with patrons virtually."

It also mentioned how Library staff were given their own social media card to hand out to readers, which included their name, job title, e-mail, plus Twitter, Facebook and other social networking accounts they had. We use CamTools as a platform to back up what we say at inductions and online research skills sessions, as well as outline in detail the nitty gritty of being a member of the Library service. This also extends the Library from a physical collection to an electronic resource which can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

We have to market the Library service in different ways to different groups because of the diverse range of students we serve. For example, distance and part-time students do not attend regular sessions in the Faculty (& PGCEs are away on Placements during Lent & Easter terms) compared to full-time undergraduates and MPhils, therefore we promote the online resources to these students over the physical collection.

Social networking does offer new ways of learning and this is an area we are starting to explore through Twitter, and maybe Facebook...

Slideshare

Kirsty has asked us to think about several things whilst exploring Slideshare - here are my thoughts so far...

I started off by searching for 23 Things Cambridge and found the following presentation from lettylib:

23 things Cambridge (cam23)

And just by searching for '23 Things' I came across Implementing a 23 Things Type Program at Your Library.

I also searched 'library inductions' to see what other libraries do to promote their services (see simoneokolo & sshlibrary), as well as more specific resources such as WOS & Scopus (see Gali Halevi for a comparison of both databases) which we promote to Education students.

I'll keep Slideshare in mind when we come to writing our presentations for new students this Michaelmas Term as I'm sure we will find some inspiration over the summer!

Google Calendar

A new Thing for me

I hadn't come across Google Calendar until I was researching it for my blog post for Thing 6. It's been very interesting to see how other libraries are using it to advertise opening hours (especially if they have several branch libraries) and publicise events, and it started me wondering whether the Education Library would find it useful or not. You're able to embed the Calendar into web pages so it could be an alternative display for our opening hours. I'm also curious to see if it can be embedded within our CamTools sites - more investigation is needed...

My Google Calendar is looking like this at the moment:

I've added some of my meetings to the Calendar, with a reminder to be sent to me by e-mail. For fun, I have the weather icons displayed at the top of the columns & I have added the World Cup 2010 calendar!

Useful for the Library?

I had thought Google Calendar could be an alternative to the Weekly Sheet which we have available on the Library staff CamTools - it details staff hours, the lunch rota, events & meetings. But I think all this information would make the Calendar a little over-crowded and difficult to read. However, I will continue to use Google Calendar for meetings and events that I'm involved in. I might look into creating a general Library Calendar to add details of all the inductions we run in the Michaelmas Term as Library staff may find it an easier way to check when we will be busy with new registrations.