Balancing Besties and Business

Run Time: 1-3 hours (depending on customization)
Description: Determining where to draw the line on friendship with those you manage – or those who manage you – seems more complicated than ever. Conventional wisdom says we should avoid building friendships across reporting lines, but today’s current leadership practices embrace connection and openness. In real life, the actual line between our personal and professional lives is very thin. This session will help you examine the benefits and challenges of friendship in the workplace. We will discuss common stumbling blocks like social media posts, as well how you can coach others to create healthy boundaries in your organization. It will encourage you to redefine what workplace friendship should look like for you, and how to set and maintain those lines going forward.

Recommended Readings: Balancing Besties & Business Pinterst board

Think Outside the Text Box

Run Time: 2 hour
Description: Libraries have been thinking about the evolution of communication and our role in the changing media landscape for decades. But often we cling to traditional styles in our own communications. We use writing as a default mechanism for relaying information. Our signs, our emails, our handouts, our website are still often solely text. How and when could we find other ways to communicate?
Recommended Readings: Think Outside the Text Box Pinterst board

Expanding Your Mentor Network

Run Time: 1 hour
Description: Mentors provide inspiration, motivation and development. They can play a key role at any point in your career, but how do you find one in the first place? And, where do you turn when you begin to “out-grow” the mentors you found early in your career? In this session, we’ll discuss different styles of mentors and show you how to go beyond the traditional mentor-protégé relationship to expand your mentor network.

Recommended Readings: Expanding Your Mentor Network Pinterst board

Internal Communications: Beyond the Coffee Pot

Run Time: 1-3 hours based on customization

Description: Internal communications is a constant struggle. People often complain that they don’t know what is going on inside their organization, but then they don’t pay attention to the information you try to give them. In this session, you’ll learn how to evaluate your internal communications needs, develop a communications plan based on the information you gather, and how to execute the process for your employees. Although your plan probably won’t ever be perfect, your employees will appreciate your efforts, and your company culture will most likely improve in the process!

Recommended Readings:

Patience, Poise & Panic: Managing Emotion in the Workplace

Run Time: 2.5 hours

Description: Emotions are a part of life, and they affect how we work and interact with others. This session will explore the range of emotions that impact our work and how we can manage ourselves and conflicts with professionalism and respect.

Recommended Readings:

Think Like a Writer

"Think Like a Writer" is one of my favorite session to present. I write. A lot. I write for the web, blogs, social media, I write news releases, newsletters, magazine articles, business letters, emails, proposals, fundraising solicitations, even a couple book chapters.

Luckily for me, I love writing. And, I consider myself a writer. That's probably why I notice how much all of us write: we write to communicate, we write to document, we write for ourselves, we write socially, and we write for work. Everyone who take this class is a writer. It's my hope that by the end of this session, even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you can at least, learn to think a bit, like a writer.

Run time: 2-4 hours based on customization

Description: A writing process trains us how to write, improves quality, and helps us avoid mistakes. In this session, participants will see an example writing process and learn techniques for dealing with blocks along the way. Then we will apply the process to improve different writing projects like reports, memos and emails. The application portion of the session can be customized to fit the group’s needs.

Recommended Resources: Think Like a Writer Pinterest board

Show & Smell Marketing: Part 2

5 pm, Friday, March 9, 2012
#SxSmell

Somehow this session was only an hour, but it's going to take me days to recap it. Up today: marketing to your sense of hearing.

Spectra: language translation tool
Spectra is an app that allows you translate written or typed passages into a number of other languages. As of now I could only find it in the iTunes store. No android version just yet.

The session was moving pretty quickly, so I honestly don't remember and didn't note the marketing value of a handheld translator, but you have to admit, it's pretty cool.

Responsive Digital Signage
If you've left the house in the last year, you probably come across some version of digital signage. I've seen them in malls, convention centers, doctors' offices, restaurants and even our very own OSU Student Union. Companies are now working to make the signs interactive. You can ask the interactive digital signs questions and they'll answer you.

It gets even cooler than that. In development they found the signs "got confused" about who was talking to it and when someone was still listening. So developers added a face recognition component. The digital sign scans for faces looking at it, only listens to questions from the person addressing it, and only answers if that person continues to look at it.

Audio Spotlight
We totally need this for our new audio visual displays going in at the library. In fact, libraries and museums were the example the presenter mentioned as ideal locations. This gadget works just like it sounds it might. Imagine a spotlight, one discrete target of light. But instead of being bathed in light, it's sound. When you are in the audio spotlight, it sounds like standing in front of a normal speaker. But two feet away, those not standing in the spotlight can't hear a thing.

Here's the audio spotlight marketing at work:


Turn Any Flat Surface into a Speaker
Huh? I'm not even sure where to start with this one. Our presenter had a tiny sticky pad, when he placed it on a large foam core poster, the poster became a speaker. The tiny stick-able speaker uses the flat surface to amplify the sound vibrations. Um, yeah. You kind of had to be there.

Show & Smell Marketing

5 pm, Friday, March 9, 2012
#SxSmell

This was an awesome SxSW session where our presenters demoed products that targeted each of the five senses. In marketing we tend to focus on sight and hearing, but our presenters managed to find a few new way to appeal to these senses.

Sight:

1 Tweet=1 Gumball
They put this device under sight, but it definitely had a sound component to it as well. At the front of the room was a gumball machine. Every time someone tweeted the session hashtag, a gumball dispensed. It was instant feedback for the presenters. Any time they brought out something really cool, the gumball machine went crazy.

One presenter said he had one at home. When he's away on business, he tweets candy to his daughter, so she knows dad is thinking about her. Awww, so sweet.

Color Change Straw
Color change anything for that matter. Why contain yourself to static images when you can incorporate items that change visually when your audience interacts with them. And, we can't forget, everyone loves fun straws.

Makerbot: 3D Printing
3D Printing, you ask, how could it be? It is, and it's being used for everything from children's make-your-own-jewelery parties to snap-together housing. The presenters proposed letting your audience upload plans for their own personally give-away trinket and printing them out for trade shows or events.
Lytro Camera
This funky-looking little handheld camera takes pictures that allow you to change the focus after the fact. Who's that blurry guy 10 feet behind the person you meant to photo? Just refocus the picture and you can see. Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space. Don't ask me any more than that. As far as I'm concerned it's magic.

Tomorrow, I tell you about the sound toys, until then if you could have one of these gadgets for yourself which one would be?

Effective SM Presence in Higher Ed

3:30 pm, Friday, March 9, 2012
#highedsoc

SxSW has several styles of presentations. This session was the first "Core Conversation" I attended. A core conversation is just what it sounds like. The moderators pick a topic, give some set up and lead a discussion with whomever shows up.

This session was a little short on set up and the questions were a bit basic for a really exciting discussion. The one question I thought had real potential, no one tackled. I was really cool to get in the same room with so many higher ed folks, though. I actually sat down and had some great talks with several of them afterward.

Questions posed:

• What are the unique challenges of creating an integrated social media presence in a higher education institution?
  The biggest challenge (in my opinion) for OSU seemed echoed by others there. Higher Ed is set up to work in silos. It's very departmentalized and it's easy to get tunnel vision.
  
• How do you get senior leadership as well as members of your department on board?
  I've had no problem getting my leadership on board. Maybe I'm lucky in that way. I think it helps that OSU puts such a focus on creativity and innovation. If I want to try a new way of doing things, it's pretty easy to get approval as long as I can justify why I want to try it. Being at a university, "It's an experiment and I want to learn X..." is often a valid justification.
  
• How do you get colleges and divisions and departments working together?
  It's funny, but those who answered this question (and it's true for OSU, too) said the best SM collaboration happens off line. Getting people in a room and talking out strategy, tactics and timelines is the best way to get it together.
  
• What are the best social media tactics to reach prospective students?
  No one touched this, and I think it is unanswerable on the scale we were discussing. I think the answer is, "It depends." It depends on who your prospective students are, where they are, how old they are (are they prospective at age 10? 15? 17?), and when it is (next year's answer will be different than last year's answer. It's a moving target.)
  
• What are the innovative things universities are doing with social media?
  This is where things could have gotten really interesting, but no one touched this question. In a way I feel like I'm too close to the issue to answer it. What I'm doing myself never seems all that innovative until someone points out I'm doing something no one else is doing yet. What do you think? What have you seen that innovative in higher ed social media?
  

Branding without Bullshit: Building Social Media Proof Brands

Part 1: Take Aways

SxSW: 2 pm, Friday, March 9, 2012
#authenticbrands

From the start I was skeptical. The moderator opened by claiming “Austin is the home of authentic.” I actually laughed out loud. Austin is certainly the home of bullshit, but it is without a doubt the most un-authentic place I’ve ever visited.

Then she proceeded to open the panel with the question: how do you define authentic? Not surprisingly the answers were pretty straightforward. I have a dictionary thanks.

Moderator aside, the session was actually really great. We heard from four panelists who represented Yeti Coolers, the Alamo Drafthouse, Shiner and more. The panelists discussed the brands they represented and how they work to both listen and respond to social feedback while remaining true to their brands and the brands’ stories.

Panelist Bobby Johns, made the excellent point: “Don’t talk about how cool you are. Just be cool. Once you talk about it, you’re not cool anymore.” (Take note, Austin.) That’s not to say of course, that you don’t want other people talking about how cool you are. That’s awesome, but leave that work to your fans.

But what about when they aren’t fans? Johns also advised, “Weed out the bullshit that comes at you through social media. Don’t pander to the customer if it is not true to your brand.” The group talked about acknowledging negative comments and off-brand suggestions, but knowing your brand and resisting a public push to be something you’re not. That’s one way brands lose their authenticity.

The session focused on maintaining your authenticity. It can be easy to lose it, especially in today’s social media world. The panel ended on this question: “Can you bring it back once a brand has lost authenticity?” What brands do you think are “unauthentic” and have you ever seen a brand come back from it?

Pig Personality Test

I've been going to a series of training for the Leadership Development Program at OSU. Sounds pretty fancy, but basically it is How to Be a Supervisor at OSU. I've learned all kinds of great stuff, mainly about how to not get sued by my employees.

I went to a session last semester on communication skills. Our presenter started out with a strange little personality test. I'd never taken this particular one before. So, I'm going to invite you to take it along with me, and I'll use my test as the example.

Start by taking out a blank piece of paper. Now, draw a pig. Yeah, weird, I know, but that is all the instructions you get. No peeking ahead! You go draw; I'll wait here.











Ready? Ok.

Here's my piggy.

1. Where is the pig in proportion to the page? Mine's in the top left corner.
   Toward the top of the paper, you are positive and optimistic. That's me!
   Toward the middle, you are a realist.
   Toward the bottom, you are pessimistic, and have a tendency to behave negatively.
2. Which direction does your pig face? Mine is facing straight ahead.
   Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.)
   Facing right, you are innovative and active, but don't have a strong sense of family, nor do you remember dates.
   Facing front (looking at you), you are direct, enjoy playing devil's advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions. Yeah, that sounds about right.
3. How detailed is your drawing? I guess mine is fairly detailed. He has a little house and a sun.
   With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful. Yea, probably so, although this one doesn't sound so nice.
   With few details, you are emotional and naive, you care little for details and are a risk-taker.
4. How many legs does your pig have? I tried really hard to draw my pig with just 3 legs, you know, perspective and all, but in the end it bothered me and I quickly added in the fourth leg. Because, pigs have four legs!
   With less than 4 legs showing, you are insecure or are living through a period of major change.
   With 4 legs showing, you are secure, stubborn, and stick to your ideals. Um, yeah, me again.
5. How big are the ears? Ugh, another relative question. I think my pig's ear are just the right size. Not big, not small, just average.
   The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are. The bigger the better. I guess that means I'm average.
6. How long is the pig's tail (if there even is one)? Seriously? it's long enough! Our presenter said if it has 3 or more curls, then it's a long tail. Ok, fine, my pig has a long tail.
   The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life. Again more is better. Um, no comment.
   

Little Things That Mean A Lot

Last night, I had the chance to speak to the OSU chapter of PRSSA It's probably my favorite group to speak to. They were an awesome audience with lots of questions when we finished.

I discussed making a good first impression, specifically during a job interview (since that is on the mind of most of the students). Here are some highlights.

Be prepared

• If you're job hunting, have a interview suit ready to go, and keep it dry cleaned.


• Research the organization, so you can give specific answers to questions. Everyone knows they should do this, but lots of people skip this step. Use it as an opportunity to set yourself apart.

You had me at hello...

• Know the interview starts the moment you talk to anyone from the organization (30 minutes before the interview or 30 days before the interview).
• Be nice to the front office staff, they can make or break it for you.

You can't predict the future... or can you?

Obviously, you won’t be able to guess every question they are going to ask you. But you can guess a few. Regardless of whether you script answers or basically wing it, there are a few standard questions you will want to moll over beforehand.

The standards include "What is your greatest strength?" "What’s your greatest weakness?" and "Why are you interested in this position?"

Time to turn the tables

You’re going to be given the opportunity to ask questions. If you want to impress the interview you need to prepare something more think-y than "Do you have a dental plan?"

Ask questions that will help you decide if this job is right for you. Just because they offer you a job doesn’t mean you have to take it. You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Ask questions about the culture, the job, and goals and strategy of the organization.

Put your best foot, and hand, Forward

The last thing we covered was how to give a good handshake, a key to making a good impression.

• DO stand up and move out from behind any desk, table or chair.
• DON'T be afraid to initiate the handshake.
• DO keep your drink in your left hand so your shake isn't cold and clammy.
• DO grasp thumb webbing to thumb webbing, DON'T shake with just your fingers or the front of your hand.
• DON'T give the "crusher." Press palm to back of hand instead of top to bottom to ensure your shake is firm, but not painful.
• DON'T give the two-handed shake to anyone you wouldn't hug. It's too intimate.
• DON'T give the palm-down handshake, it's domineering.

Need a Social Media Makeover?

Last week, Valerie and I presented to OSU-PRSSA about managing and maintaining your online reputation. I just love working with this group. The students are all so interested and interesting. It was a fun talk, and the best part was all the questions we got at the end.

Here are a few highlights from the presentation:

Who is watching your online reputation?
Future employers tend to be the focus when we worry about this, but it extends much further. After you have the job, you need to continue to be proactive about maintaining a positive online image.

In our office, we investigate someone’s online profile almost weekly. If you apply for a job with us, join another department in our organization, give a presentation we attended, submitted a media inquiry, or talk about us online, we’ve probably done at least a superficial search of your online presence.

Where do they look?
When someone is looking into your online reputation, anything is fair game. More often than not, people put too much stock in their privacy settings. You have to assume, that even if your accounts are locked down, people will find a way to see what you’ve posted.

The most common and basic searches are going to include Google, a sampling of the most popular social networks and your open records.

What are they looking for?
Regardless of how it might feel at times, most people are not out to dig up dirt on you. (not that they won’t discover the dirt if it’s there to find)

What they are doing is: fact-checking your resume, looking to see if you are talking about them, getting a sense of how you communicate, and feeling out your personality.

The Case Study
Our wonderful intern Marissa Chavez volunteered to be our case study. She made a great example because not only is she well established online for someone her age, her profiles are squeaky clean. Valerie took the students step-by-step through an audit of Marissa's online footprint.

The Take Aways

• Establish a reputation. Chris Brogan has an excellent post on how to get started.
• Monitor. Start by Googling yourself; search the web, news and blogs. Run a Twitter search for your handle, and any terms you might be strongly affiliated with. Once you’re satisfied with the structure of these searches, set up an RSS feed to alert you to updates in the results.
• Maintain your reputation. Keep it clean; be honest and thorough. Watch out for controversial topics. Be active and interactive; and, use profiles and links to point people to the stuff (your blog, twitter, etc) you want them to see.

My Notes from "Marketing Yourself" with OSU PRSSA

Last week I met with the OSU chapter of PRSSA for a discussion on how to market yourself. My colleague and good buddy, Becky Endicott joined me. These are a couple of the questions they asked.

How do you introduce yourself in networking and non-networking settings?
My answer, both sarcastic and serious, is I walk up, stick my hand out and say "Hi I'm Bonnie Ann Cain." What they were really getting at here, is how do you frame yourself. I think it's always best to frame yourself in a way that shows how you are similar to the person you are meeting. We like people who are like us, so try to find some common ground. Do you work in similar industries? Did you go to the same school? Are you members of the same organization?

How do you maintain relationships?
Social media really can make it easier to maintain relationships. The key is to use social media to actually make actual contacts, not just maintain a database of email addresses. There is a difference between friending someone and really using a network to interact with them.

What type of presence is best online? Strictly professional or personal and professional?
Unless you are willing to be completely and 100% diligent about not allowing any of your personal life online, there is no way to separate the two. There will always be a blend of the professional and the personal online persona. You just have to make sure both reflect well on you. Social media works best when you are a real person; it's OK (good, even) to be yourself. Just remember that anything you post online is posted in a public forum. You are not behind closed doors, whispering to your best friend. You are on stage with a megaphone.

Do you look at a job candidate's online presence?
Yes, I do. Not only do I look at candidates, I'll look up just about anyone I'll be interacting with. In our office, we regularly search new employees from other offices, reporters, editors, and people who comment about our organization in an open forum. And don't think just because your profiles are set to private that we can't get to stuff. Common friends are a great way to sneak looks at things someone didn't think strangers could see. I would advise everyone to do a thorough online search of themselves. You need to be aware of and actively manage your online reputation.

At the last minute Becky and I learned that our third panelist was out sick. So I tossed this out to Twitter: "We lost a panelist, so @ me your best self-marketing tip. Twitter just became our fill in panelist" Here's what Twitter had to say:

@ThirtySixthSpan: @BonnieAnn Passion is the most flexible of personal brands. No matter what you are doing, you can always draw from it.
@lisafrein: @BonnieAnn be genuine and know what you bring to the table that no one else can.
@vtrammell: @bonnieann we should have tape recorded my answers and i could have filled in!

6 Provisions of the PR Code of Ethics

A mathematician, an accountant & a PR officer applied for the same job. The interviewer called in the mathematician & asked, “What does two plus two equal?” The mathematician replied, “Four.” The interviewer asked, “Four, exactly?” The mathematician looked at the interviewer incredulously & said, “Yes, of course: four, exactly.” Then the interviewer called in the accountant & asked the same question. The accountant said, "On average, four - give or take 10%; but on average, four." Then the interviewer called in the PR officer & again posed the same question. The PR officer got up, locked the door, closed the shade, sat down next to the interviewer & whispered, "Well, what do you want it to equal?"

Ok, if this is still your idea of PR, shame on you, scroll down and read my intro to the PR Code of Ethics. The second half of the code is made up of 6 provisions. Here's the official version and the Bonnie translation.

Provision 1: Competition
PRSA says: Healthy & fair competition among professionals preserves an ethical climate while fostering a robust business environment.
Bonnie says: Play nicely with others.

Provision 2: Conflict of Interest
PRSA says: Avoiding real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest builds the trust of clients, employers & the publics.
Bonnie says: If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck...

Provision 3: Disclosure of Information
PRSA says: Open communication fosters informed decision making in a democratic society.
Bonnie says: No lying by omission.

Provision 4: Enhancing the Profession
PRSA says: PR professionals work constantly to strengthen the public's trust in the profession.
Bonnie says: If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.

Provision 5: Free Flow of Information
PRSA says: Protecting & advancing the free flow of accurate & truthful information is essential to serving the public interest & contributing to informed decision making in a democratic society.
Bonnie says: Your actions should do nothing to bias or alter the flow of open communications.

Provision 6: Safe Guarding Confidences
PRSA says: Client trust requires appropriate protection of confidential & private information.
Bonnie says: Know how and when to keep a secret

6 Core Values of PR

September may be PR Ethics month, but it's really too important of a topic to save discussion to one month a year. As an accredited public relations professional, I feel obligated to not only help my fellow PR practitioners embrace the PRSA Code of Ethics, but also to talk to people outside the practice about our code and what it means.

First off, yes we have a code of ethics! If you are working in PR and don't realize this key fact then get yourself to a PRSA meeting now. If you're not in PR and think we are all a bunch of hack Karl Rove wannabes, stop buying into the stereotype. It's not true. Like any profession (lawyers, mechanics, politicians, etc.) most of us work hard to do the right things. It just a few high-profile jerks who make us all look bad (which in itself is a violation of the code).

So here's a quick run down of the first half of the PRSA code of ethics, and the lay-person translation I created to help me keep it all straight.

Value 1: Honesty
PRSA says: We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy & truth in advancing the interests of those we represent & in communicating with the public.
Bonnie says: Don’t lie. Don’t lie to your client, don’t lie to your colleagues, don’t lie to the media. Just don’t, ever. Period.

Value 2: Independence
PRSA says: We provide objective counsel to those we represent. We are accountable for our actions.
Bonnie says: Don’t be a lapdog. You are hired to be a counselor, an adviser. You are not hired to blindly go along with what your client wants you to do.

Value 3: Loyalty
PRSA says: We are faithful to those we represent, while honoring our obligation to serve the public interest.
Bonnie says: Don't screw over your client. The best interests of your client are always a top priority. They are putting a lot of trust in you, and your commitment (of lack of) to them can have huge impacts.

Value 4: Expertise
PRSA says: We acquire & responsibly use specialized knowledge & experience. We advance the profession through continued professional development, research & education. We build mutual understanding, credibility & relationships among a wide array of institutions and audiences.
Bonnie says: Remain credible. You do this by applying the things you’ve learn, like the four-step process, by being able to articulate why we do research and evaluation, by continuing your professional development and by maintaining good relationships.

Value 5: Advocacy
PRSA says: We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts & viewpoints to aid informed public debate.
Bonnie says: The public is always your client. My favorite definition of public relations is “building mutual understanding between a client and their publics.” At its core PR is a public service.

Value 6: Fairness
PRSA says: We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media & the general public. We respect all opinions & support the right of free expression.
Bonnie says: Don’t be an asshole.

Next time, I'll look at the second half of the code: the 6 provisions.

Social Media & Service Delivery: Part 3

The final installment of my social media presentation...

"My second example I wanted to share is the Library's online pressroom. I developed this with the help of my Communications Intern, Maggie Kierl. Again, we started by researching online pressrooms, and we used the Library's delicious account to share our research as we went. We found examples of other pressrooms that we liked and we found several great articles on how to build a pressroom. All of those links are still there in our delicious account, so if an online pressroom is something you are interested in, you can go check out our research there.

First we have the media contact information front and center, then we added links to the documents we get the most media requests for: our mission statement, organizational chart, stats, directions, past releases. We included basic information we thought would be useful: hours, personal directory, policies. Under Background, we have items that help our beat reporters generate story ideas: a link back to our current headlines, events calendar, high res photo and logo to download, and links to our current publications. Then you can also choose how you want to receive news from us: you can be a fan of our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, get an RSS feed from our Twitter account or an RSS feed from anything we tag as news in our delicious account.

The real highlight of our online pressroom and the piece that I was really excited to get off the ground is our electronic press kits. Each one is a little different; some are more in depth than others. But we've been trying to do one for all major events (and we leave these posted for about a month post-event) and we have some on our special collections.

If you pop one open and take a look, you'll see we start with contact information and a standard media advisory. Then we have links for more information. We try to present electronically the kind of things you might include in a more traditional press kit. So, there are links to photos, online invitations, online ticket sales, a full press release on the topic, and we try to include in each press kit a purpose-built delicious page, which means that link will take you directly to the Library's delicious bookmarks and open a list of everything we have tagged for this topic.

The great thing about using delicious as opposed to including the list of external links in the press kit is that you can send it out and still continue updating. So I can email an electronic press kit at 5 pm, and then find 3 more great links. I tag those new links in delicious and I've just update a press kit I already sent out. And if you have a really big story or something that is going to play out over time, people can subscribe to an RSS feed of your delicious tag and get an update anytime you bookmark a new page.

Just like our Facebook page, there are several big things I'd really like to add the press room, but I got it to the point that I thought it was a valuable tool for our reporters, and I put it up there. I really think you can't obsess over the idea of being finished, because it's never finished. You have to think of it as a living document that will continue to evolve. You put out something that is quality and worthwhile even if you don't consider it done."

Social Media & Service Delivery: Part 2

If you missed part 1, just scroll down. The Social Media presentation continues...

"We're talking today about using these tools strategically. I think one of the keys to doing this is to go where your audience is. At the Library we have several key audiences; one of our largest constituents is undergraduate students. Any guesses what social network you might find undergrad students using?

Facebook.

I checked this week and there are over 24,000 OSU students on Facebook. That's a lot of students that are already part of a community we can join. Our foray into Facebook began a few years back. My boss and I were at presentation on Millennials. We came back and she told me to go figure out the Facebook thing the kids are using. I logged on, built my profile invited a couple friends and started looking for other people who were talking about the library.

For while, we really just lurked, and that a great way to learn about the culture before you invest too much. I was really excited to see how many people were already talking about the Library and were already building their own groups around a Library-theme. It gave me confidence that this would be a good place to try to connect with people.

We started by placing ads with Facebook. It's a great place to start experimenting with online ads, because they make it very easy. You can customize who see your ads and can choose between pay per click fee structure or a pay per impression fee structure. Facebook will track for you how many impressions and clicks you get each day.

Then Facebook started their business pages. Until that point an organization was not allowed to have a profile. So we started researching how we could make this work. My staff and I looked at every other Library business page out there and took notes on what we liked, what we didn't, how many fans the other libraries had. We used this information to brainstorm ideas of our own and we started putting together a page.

This is a good time to mention how helpful it is to identify existing expertise in your organization. Many of the new tools you're thinking about implementing for your organization are already being used by someone who works with you. It will be worth your while to spend the time to find those people and employ their help. I have a young staff in the communications office. Four people work for me and they are all in their 20s. Facebook is their world, so I really just handed this project over to them and encouraged them to be creative and experiment.

We have all the basic information on the page: hours, contact info. some photos. We post notes: there are couple right now about upcoming hours changes, there are links to our Chat & IM services, create event pages, and occasionally we send out notice to our fans. And we still have so many good ideas we'd like to implement. With social media it's an ongoing time commitment, you have to update and keep things fresh. It's never going to be done, that's something you have to get comfortable with.

For our office and what we do, the one feature that has been the most useful for us is the event pages. Any of the administrators can go in and create an event for the library. The event basically gets its own Facebook profile. You can upload photos, we usually post the invitation or a print ad we've already used, you can link press releases or external sites about the topic or speaker, and there's a wall where guests can talk about the event.

Then you invite people. The response I got from the first event I created for the Library blew me away. It was 3 days before the event when I posted the page and invited 24 friends. By noon the day of the event over 900 invitations had been distributed. Now, I'm not going to try to tell you 900 people showed up, in fact the vast majority declined. We had about 24 yeses and 50 maybes. But it was an amazing example of how quickly and how far our message went by using this network."

Stay tuned for the second case study...

Social Media and Service Delivery Part 1

Last month, I was very excited to be invited to serve on a panel for the YWCA Regional Conference in OKC. I was a bit of a last minute emergency fill in, but it was still an honor to be asked.

I can do this, I thought. It was a low-tech crowd with little marketing experience. Our job was to get ideas flowing. They wanted concepts, not technical how-to. With just 2 1/2 days to prep, I frantically scripted my 15-20 minute remarks. Now I have an 18 min talk on Social Media & Service Delivery. What to do with it? Ah-ha I'll put it on my blog.

I had a great co-presenter, Shane Kempton of Phase2 Interactive. He started us off with an overview of social media: what is it, how is it different, how did we get here. Then I gave some examples of how the library is employing social media in our service delivery.

This is what I told them: "In way of introducing myself and telling you a bit about my background, I put together a list of new media tools I use personally. Now, obviously this isn't everything I've ever tinkered with, but this are the ones I tried and liked and stuck with: Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, Oklahoma Social Media Club, LinkedIn, Flickr, MyRagan, AIM, a family Web site, personal blog, and MySpace.

I show you these also because long before I implemented any of these tools to promote the Library, I tried them out for myself. To use these tools strategically, we have to start by doing our research, and that in part means learning about the community you want to join. There are cultural norms within these communities. If you want to be effective, you need to understand what's appropriate there. My personal accounts often started as research for work projects.

When I was preparing this talk, I started by making a list of all the new media tools we use at the Library. I was actually kind of surprised at how many things kept occurring to me. If you sit down and think about it, you are probably already using some new media at work. So you might try thinking about ways to expand or improve what you are already doing.

I took what we do, and broke these up into internal and external tools. Internally, we publish a twice-a-week email newsletter for employees, we use personal text and IM accounts to facilitate our work flow, we use delicious to share research on joint projects, We have an intranet and our Reference Librarians have built a wiki to share information and build a collection of commonly asked reference questions.

But what are we doing externally to communicate with our audiences about Library services? We have a Facebook presence, and I'll talk in more detail about that in just a second; our librarians answer questions via chat and instant messenger; the communications office uses blogs. And I want to mention here that to utilize blogs, you don't necessarily have to have an organization blog. We have one department in our library that has an "official" blog, but we also
have several employees who blog and they will occasionally blog about our services. We've also had some luck pitching stories to external bloggers.

We use Google Alerts to monitor external conversations, the Library twitters, I mentioned that we use delicious internally, but we also use delicious externally in our electronic press kits, we send a monthly email newsletter to the University Faculty, and we are starting to develop video tutorials. Not all of these I would consider successes. And in Q/A I'd be happy to talk about what didn't work well and why I think that is, but now I'd like to focus on a couple success stories..."

Actually, this blog entry is just a teaser. I went over two examples-our Facebook presence and our online newsroom. I'll blog those in Part 2 and 3.