Jonya Pacey, IT Help Desk Manager

I'm at the Minnesota Library Association's Annual Conference – this is the Wed. 1 pm workshop I attended.

Using Social Networking Tools in Library Marketing, by LeAnn Suchy

Social Communities

“If people want to react with you in social networking tools, they will.” MySpace, Facebook. She reviews books on her Facebook. Encourages book promotion. Adds movie application to promote movies you have in your collections. Add the library catalog to your facebook via a ‘widget’ application. facebook and linking to university networks.

Use for getting people involved: Get everyone involved in selecting such as the library group name. Message everyone in the group with one email. Use the internal ‘wall’ to exchange messages. Post video tutorials.

Hennepin County Library’s profile and St. Paul PL’s profile demonstrated. Both fun and interactive.

 Social Reference Tools

Del.ici.ous – LeAnn highlighted a professor’s list and how to use it. Searching a saved item’s ‘also saved’ list is a great ways to find new sites.

Flickr profiles - LeAnn puts book photos in her Flickr account and then creates links and notes about that book to promote. The books usually are checked out. Clemens Reads is the profile. She does Readers Advisory work online. Takes about 60-90 minutes per item due to details she includes to each entry.

YouTube gives you fun ways to showcase your library as well. http://youtube.com/watch?v=vrtYdFV_Eak is a great example. Also http://youtube.com/watch?v=mi78YJ1CD4Y

Chat Widget on the library website....25-30% of reference work are now being done by chat at this academic library.

LibraryThing is adding a more useful catalog-linking tool in the future, maybe. LeAnn talked to the creator at ALA and got his enthusiasm for adding IP address links.

Last.FM is a personalized radio station finder. Can be used to highlight and promote your music collection.

Watch other advertising campaigns, such as Millsbury and as the Simpsons Movie. Promote this on the library due date slip. Make a plan, stick to the determination to stay fresh and uptodate. Have fun with it.