A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries

The five (5) pieces of advice listed below are taken from Brown's (2010) post A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries (22 January, 2010) on the Social Networking for Libraries blog, and exemplify for me the bare essentials that underpin a successful social networking program and embody the Library 2.0 ethos from the perspective of implementation in an academic library.


“A-active, in order for your library patrons to view you as being serious about your social networking and for it to work for you and your library, you need to use it on a regular basis."

• Allocating dedicated staff time for engaging in social media for moderating user contributions and adding new relevant content is critical to continued engagement, and building the libraries profile and authority across various disciplinary areas. 
• Providing opportunities for professional development for library staff to build skills and capability in a Web 2.0 environment, particularly social media platforms and tools. 

“C-Content- just like businesses have to offer valuable content in order to market their businesses, your library needs to offer valuable content that your patrons will read and appreciate.”

• Bill Gates (in Bailey, 2010) coined the phrase, “Content is king”. Although argued by some as not quite correct, content still remains one of the important factors in maintaining interest and participation.
• A major component of a librarian’s work is to add value to information; content without such value will very promptly turn collaborators and participants off.

“D-Direction- What are you planning to accomplish for your library with social networking?”

• Not knowing the aims and objectives for introducing social networking leaves library staff purposeless, and signals failure from the outset.
• For social media to work a holistic strategy needs to be implemented.

“S-Slideshare, this heavy traffic and awesome social networking site lets you share power point presentations. Use this site to embed your presentations and promote them on other sites as well.”

• Agreed, great resource and channel for contributing content. Training, instructional and educational presentations developed by the library can gain amazing exposure via an upload to Slideshare, enabling the embedding and linking to presentations from library websites and blogs.
• Keeping all presentations in one place, i.e. Slideshare, makes for easy retrieval (assigning user tags) and sharing.
• Aids serendipitous discovery of other presentations on similar topics/themes.

“Z-zeal, are your library staff excited about the possibilities that social networking can offer your library? If not, you will struggle to make it work for you.”

• Little or no buy-in from library staff will without doubt lead to failure.
• Enthusiasm is catchy and improves motivation for engagement and contributions.

Bailey, C. (2010, May 31). Content is King by Bill Gates [Web log post]. Craig
      Baileynet RSS. Retrieved January 9, 2013, from http://www.craigbailey.net/
      content-is-king-by-bill-gates/   

Brown, A. (2010, January 22). A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries [Web log
      post]. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-
      of-social-networking-for-libraries/