Social Media Strategy

THE TECH SETEllyssa Kroski, Series Editor

Sarah K. Steiner

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries

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LIBRARY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION


Steiner

American Library Association50 E. Huron StreetChicago, IL 60611

1 (866) SHOPALA (866) 746-7252

This is the series to acquire and share in any institution over the next year. I think of it as a cost-effective way to attend the equivalent of ten excellent technology management courses ledby a dream faculty! TECH SET® #11–20 will help librarians stay relevant, thrive, and survive. It isa must-read for all library leaders and planners.

— Stephen Abram, MLS, Vice President, Strategic Relations and Markets, Cengage Learning

“”

Find out more about each topic in THE TECH SET® VOLUMES 11–20and preview the Tables of Contents online at www.alatechsource.org/techset/.

Each multimedia title features a book, a companion website, and a podcast to fully cover the topic and then keep you up-to-date.

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries is part of THE TECH SET® VOLUMES 11–20, a series of conciseguides edited by Ellyssa Kroski and offering practical instructionfrom the field’s hottest tech gurus. Each title in the series is aone-stop passport to an emerging technology. If you’re readyto start creating, collaborating, connecting, and communicatingthrough cutting-edge tools and techniques, you’ll want to getprimed by all the books in THE TECH SET®.

New tech skills for you spell new services for your patrons:

• Learn the latest, cutting-edge technologies.

• Plan new library services for these popular applications.

• Navigate the social mechanics involved with gaining buy-in for these forward-thinking initiatives.

• Utilize the social marketing techniques used by info pros.

• Assess the benefits of these new technologies to maintain your success.

• Follow best practices already established by innovators and libraries using these technologies.

11. Cloud Computing for Libraries, by Marshall Breeding

12. Building Mobile Library Applications, by Jason A. Clark

13. Location-Aware Services and QR Codes for Libraries, by Joe Murphy

14. Drupal in Libraries, by Kenneth J. Varnum

15. Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries, by Sarah K. Steiner

16. Next-Gen Library Redesign, by Michael Lascarides

17. Screencasting for Libraries, by Greg R. Notess

18. User Experience (UX) Design for Libraries, by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches

19. IM and SMS Reference Services for Libraries, by Amanda Bielskas and Kathleen M. Dreyer

20. Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians, by Robin M. Fay and Michael P. Sauers

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Sarah K. Steiner



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ALA TechSourceAn imprint of the American Library Association

Chicago 2012

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© 2012 by the American Library Association. Any claim of copyright is subjectto applicable limitations and exceptions, such as rights of fair use and librarycopying pursuant to Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Nocopyright is claimed for content in the public domain, such as works of theU.S. government.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataSteiner, Sarah K.

Strategic planning for social media in libraries / Sarah K. Steiner.p. cm. — (The tech set ; #15)

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-55570-779-8 (alk. paper)1. Online social networks—Library applications. 2. Social media. 3. Libraries

and community. I. Title.

Z674.75.S63S74 2012302.30285—dc23

2012007202

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Perma-nence of Paper).

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CONTENTS

Foreword by Ellyssa Kroski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. Types of Solutions Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3. Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4. Social Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5. Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6. Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

7. Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

8. Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

9. Developing Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Don’t miss this book’s companion website!

Turn the page for details.

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THE TECH SET® Volumes 11–20 is more than just the book you’re holding!

These 10 titles, along with the 10 titles that preceded them, in THE TECHSET® series feature three components:

1. This book2. Companion web content that provides more details on the topic

and keeps you current 3. Author podcasts that will extend your knowledge and give you

insight into the author’s experience

The companion webpages and podcasts can be found at:

www.alatechsource.org/techset/

On the website, you’ll go far beyond the printed pages you’re holdingand:

! Access author updates that are packed with new advice and recommended resources

! Use the website comments section to interact, ask questions,and share advice with the authors and your LIS peers

! Hear these pros in screencasts, podcasts, and other videos providing great instruction on getting the most out of the latestlibrary technologies

For more information on THE TECH SET® series and the individual titles,visit www.neal-schuman.com/techset-11-to-20.

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PREFACE

Since the beginning of social media’s rapid rise in popular culture,hundreds of articles and studies have been published on its vitalimportance to corporations and institutions. Profit and nonprofitorganizations alike have come to recognize the value of social medianetworks and communications to their target audiences and havetaken steps to leverage it to create customer awareness and loyalty.Social media use is on the rise almost everywhere, with almost everygroup. In this new world where people tune out advertising automati-cally, they turn to social media to get information from friends, col-leagues, and strangers. Strategic Planning for Social Media in Librarieswill show you how a little bit of time and a good plan can make thebest use of this smorgasbord of resources.

Librarians have been trailblazers in the field of social media services,and many library employees believe that a library presence in thesenew platforms is integral to libraries’ continued relevance in the ageof social media. According to a study published in 2011 (pp. 3–4) byCurtis R. Rogers at the State Library of South Carolina, 78.6 percentof libraries are using social networks to communicate with patrons.Close to 52 percent use blogs, 40.2 percent use photo-sharing tools,and 29.1 percent use video sharing.

While we’ve clearly made strides in entering the world of socialmedia, we often neglect the planning phase that is so common in ourother services and in the business world. We’re excited to participatein these new forums, so we leap in, but we make few or no plans totarget, maximize, maintain, or assess our efforts. The library scienceliterature has recently revealed disappointing returns on investmentfrom many of these unplanned social media services, and those returnshave led to increased interest in assessment and planning. Many librarysocial media advocates previously felt planning was cumbersome and

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irrelevant in the ever-shifting landscape of social media. But now, for-profit and nonprofit businesses alike have found that strategic planningcan help them change from a culture of confusion and last-minutereactivity to a culture of agility and proactivity.

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries emphasizes informaland formal internal communication as a means to create buy-in andinterest in the planning phase. Communication is fundamental to thesuccess of any plan, and often the most meaningful communicationsdo not take place in formal meetings.

Library employees may feel nervous or even threatened by theprocess of planning, especially for social media, so let’s review somebasics of strategic plans. A strategic plan:

! guides you to the most plausible and noteworthy platforms/services and helps you maintain them sensibly and well.

! is broad enough to set direction without limiting your explo-ration of new service opportunities or inhibiting creative test-ing/piloting. There is always a place for new services to beexplored, even if they are not detailed in the plan.

! is not an exhaustive list of all the things you can or should do,but a guide to help focus your efforts. The point of a strategicplan is not to reduce options or limit choices, but to assist indecision making.

! is not a replacement for administrative guidance and leadership.

! ORGANIZATION AND AUDIENCE

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries offers a practical guide to allphases of social media planning in your library. It provides a practical,scalable, step-by-step plan for creating and maintaining a successfullibrary social media strategic plan. It includes detailed tips and adviceon how to strategize for social media services in a way that will:

! guide library employee decisions, ! minimize time spent while maximizing return on investment, ! maximize positive patron outcomes, ! protect libraries from legal repercussions, and! leave opportunities for flexibility, change, and testing of new

social media platforms.

All instructions are based on a platform of identification and assess-ment of a target audience and honest assessment of your library’sabilities to meet the plan you set.

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The chapters are organized to be of use to anyone, regardless ofpast experiences with strategic planning or social media. I have builtsuggestions for scalability into the text for employees of very smalllibraries, but many of the scenarios provide information for librarieswith many employees. If you are in a smaller library, strategic planningfor social media is still often a great idea; if you’re in a very smalllibrary, you can probably just skip over the sections that deal at lengthwith team formation, though you may want to come up with a differ-ent model for getting feedback if you don’t have many or any librarycoworkers.

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries most closely details thetraditionally structured model of strategic planning but includes sug-gestions for libraries where a more organic planning style is pre-ferred. It addresses the initiator or leaders of the strategic planningprocess in your library. Strategic planning jargon has been intention-ally minimized. The focus lies on the process of planning itself andhow planning relates specifically to social media. Each library isunique and will have different goals; therefore, I will refer to varioussocial media platforms or goals as examples, but I will not delve intomany specific details of their use.

Chapter 1 provides definitions of social media and of strategic plan-ning, and it offers an argument as to why libraries should use strategicplanning more frequently. Chapter 2 provides an exploration of thelevels and types of strategic plans available. A distinct and separateplan for social media may be the best option for some libraries, whileothers may want to build goals for social media into their library-widestrategic plan or even take a less formal route. Chapter 3 and Chapter4 offer details on preparing to write your plan and of the socialmechanics involved in forming a team and creating buy-in. Chapter 5,the most in-depth, guides the reader through the process of gatheringdata to inform the plan and then drafting the plan itself. It alsocovers the integral and often misunderstood area of relevant policycreation. Chapter 6 offers advice on marketing the plan, primarily tointernal stakeholders, who will care more about the plan itself thanpatrons. Chapter 7 includes best practices for the care and feedingof your new plan. Chapter 8 offers some metrics and assessment tipsfor the plan itself. Chapter 9 covers emerging trends in the area ofstrategic planning, and finally Recommended Reading and Referencesprovide annotated lists of additional readings and resources. If all ofthese steps seem like an overwhelmingly large time commitment forjust one little plan, keep in mind that the impact of all your work will

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stretch out for years to come. The assessment portions of your socialmedia plan will probably be of unexpected or parallel use in manydifferent areas throughout the library, and the plan items themselveswill go on to be the basis for many projects. So, while the plan is theforemost purpose of these steps, the impact of your efforts will be farbroader.

In a world where we constantly compete for funding and will prob-ably continue to do so indefinitely, Strategic Planning for Social Media inLibraries will help you consider how all avenues can best be used toreach patrons, meet their needs, and ensure continued relevance asinstitutions. If you take the time to assess and plan accordingly, you cancarefully and critically use the world of social media to more effectivelydeliver and market library services. The planning phase may requiremore effort and time on the front end, but it can save just as muchtime and frustration during later stages of service management andcan dramatically increase your success in social media endeavors.

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!1INTRODUCTION

! What Is Social Media?! What Is Strategic Planning?! Social Media + Strategic Planning

This chapter will provide an overview of social media and of thebasics of strategic planning. After these basic tenets of the book aredefined, I will offer a rationale for using strategic planning in relationto social media–based services in libraries.

! WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

The term “social media” is multifaceted and complex, and it has beendefined in many different ways. For the purposes of this book, “socialmedia” will refer to any online platform that allows users to link toeach other and contribute and share content and/or commentary.On the whole, social media is intended to facilitate sharing, collabo-ration, transparency, and conversation. The aim of social media is toform a large, internally communicative collective that works togetherto create meaning and content. So, instead of a few gatekeepers pars-ing out information to the masses, in the world of social media themasses produce, evaluate, and share the information themselves. Theultimate output of social media is a huge body of content createddirectly and often collaboratively by the web’s users. These creationsare known as user-generated or user-created content. Suzanne Vara(2010) notes that “social media is not a new conversation, but a newway of conversing.”

A recent article on the types of social media found that six primarytypes exist: “collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, socialnetworking sites,” and two types of virtual worlds: “virtual gameworlds, which ask users to follow the rules of the game, and virtual

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social worlds, wherein users can behave without rules in almost anyway they like” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010: 59). These categories areuseful in understanding the huge scope of social media, and they cor-respond to the 2007 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development) statement that in order for content to be genuinelyuser-generated, it must meet three criteria:

1. it must include “content made publicly available over theInternet,”

2. it must “[reflect] a certain amount of creative effort,” and3. it must be “created outside of professional routines and practices”

(OECD, 2007).

As Kaplan and Haenlein (2010: 61) point out, “The first conditionexcludes content exchanged in e-mails or instant messages; thesecond, mere replications of already existing content (e.g., posting acopy of an existing newspaper article on a personal blog without anymodifications or commenting); and the third, all content that hasbeen created with a commercial market context in mind.”

A Shift in LeadershipStrategic planning has traditionally been seen as the duty of top administrators.However, some professional strategic planners do find a “planning from the ranks”approach to be useful, and I like it the best. In the spirit of social media, we maydo well to continue this second, more inclusive, model, where administrators andnonadministrators alike are included in setting the direction for social media.

This list is by no means comprehensive (and will, surely, soon bedated), but some concrete examples of social media include:

! Social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Meetup, andLinkedIn

! Social news sites, such as Digg and Reddit! Location-based social networking services, such as Foursquare

and Facebook Places! Website and group creation software, such as Ning! Wikis, such as Wikipedia! Video- and photo-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Flickr! Social bookmarking tools, such as CiteULike! Blogging and vlogging sites, such as LiveJournal! Microblogging sites, such as Twitter and Tumblr! Book-sharing sites, such as LibraryThing and Goodreads

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! Community question-and-answer sites, such as Yahoo! Answers,Quora, and WikiAnswers

! Virtual worlds, such as Second Life (an example of a virtualsocial world) and EverQuest and World of Warcraft (examples ofvirtual game worlds)

This brief list and escalating usage statistics among users of all ages,ethnicities, and socioeconomic groups show how pervasive socialmedia has become. While social networking services have emerged atpresent as the most frequently used of these groups, many of theothers command significant time and attention from the populationsin our library service areas and can be used by libraries to delivervaluable content and services.

! WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING?

Strategic planning is the process of defining strategy for future direc-tions for an organization or, in this case, suite of services. A strategicplan will help you:

! identify the needs of your target audiences, ! identify the ways in which you can meet those needs, and! identify ways to respond confidently and proactively to changes

in those needs.

By planning, you set a rough guide for your library to follow. Thatguide will be a largely common sense–based quantification of ideasand initiatives that are already present and even obvious in your mindand the minds of your patrons.

Different planning gurus each lay out different steps and varia-tions on the process, but I like Carter McNamara’s description best;he says, simply, that a strategic planning team will consider threepoints:

1. Where the organization is2. Where the organization should go 3. How the organization can get there (McNamara, 2011)

A solid strategic planning team will have to consider a fair amount ofdata in conjunction with each of these points, some formal and someinformal. Those data will relate primarily to the patrons being targetedbut also to the library employees’ abilities to achieve the goals theyidentify. The process usually takes between three and six months butcan be done more quickly.

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You can also choose to implement a rolling cycle of planning inorder to stay even more flexible. Many libraries use this approach toplan for social media and find it best meets their needs. You may evenfind that you want to do some planning but don’t want to have astrategic plan with initiatives, goals, and action items. This book isdesigned so that you can skip around and sample the differentplanning projects that suit you and your library in order to produce aplan that is feasible and truly attainable.

Strategic plans are, in most cases, generated using the direction setby formal vision, mission, and even values documents for the institutionor the service. Vision and mission statements will be discussed atlength in Chapter 5, but, on the whole, they are brief statements thatprovide the library’s purpose, ambitions, goals, guiding principles,and philosophy. You will have to decide if you want to generate avision and mission specific to social media or if you would rather useexisting larger scale documents. The formal strategic plan itself has atiered organizational structure that lays out broad goals. Each goalwill be more closely directed by strategic initiatives, which will inturn be directed to action items. In your final product, all of thesecomponents come together to form a flexible and useful guide thatcan help facilitate informed and meaningful decision making.

Columbus Metropolitan Library’s strategic plan offers a great visualillustration of the process of general strategic planning (ColumbusMetropolitan Library, 2011: 2). In Figure 1.1, the role of mission,vision, and strategy are clearly aligned with definitions and timeframe guides.

! SOCIAL MEDIA + STRATEGIC PLANNING

Countless studies show that, for a number of psychosocial reasons,social media has become a point of congregation for individuals fromall age groups and walks of life. Furthermore, they don’t want tointeract with just each other but also with us, as representatives ofnonprofit businesses. A large body of research on social networkingplatforms has shown that marketing conducted in social media canbe far more effective than marketing done in any other type ofmedium, including dedicated websites. Most compellingly, UniversalMcCann’s 2010 study Wave.5: The Socialization of Brands has docu-mented some striking findings about what social media usage meansfor nonprofit organizations. Overwhelmingly, the study found thatsocial media users are interested in engaging nonprofit companies


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through their social media activities. It notes that close to half of the“[a]ctive Internet Universe has already joined a brand community”and that today’s Internet users create a “huge demand for more socialand interactive relationships with brands.” They also note that theselinks do a lot to generate “brand loyalty, endorsement and sales”(Universal McCann, 2010: 5). Clearly libraries aren’t interested insales, but perhaps we could substitute “circulation numbers” or “ref-erence questions.” Perhaps the most heartening findings of the studyare the most often-cited motivations of those who join the brandedgroups. They express a desire “to learn” (78.6 percent) and to “getaccess to advance news of products” (76.1 percent) (UniversalMcCann, 2010: 56).

There are hundreds of other studies that I could cite about the psy-chological bases for marketing success in social media platforms, butthis volume is largely based on the assertion that all the evidence infavor of social media ubiquity and usefulness in marketing make it aworthwhile avenue for libraries to pursue. Now we must ask whichsocial media platforms we will choose to focus on, and why. How willwe measure the impact of our efforts in order to make useful changes

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! Figure 1.1: Core Components of the Columbus (OH) Metropolitan Library’sLong-Term Plan

Source: Figure provided courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

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and spend our time wisely? While it is by no means the only answer,or a magical fixer of all problems, strategic planning can be anintensely useful framework for addressing these questions, savingtime and frustration, and giving employees a truer sense of whatpatrons want from the library.

Where social media is a fairly new phenomenon, strategic planninghas long been tied to better success rates in a variety of organizations.It has been used in the business world to help bring in revenue,reduce time waste, increase employee motivation and inspiration,decrease costs, and secure and keep customers (Miller and Cardinal,1994; Schwenk and Shrader, 1993). Those successes have also beenfound in libraries. A quick literature search for “strategic plan” and“library” reveals hundreds of relevant case studies and advisoryarticles. Library employees have been planning for technology foryears, but the new kid, social media, has spurred very little strategicplanning. Perhaps it is still too new, or perhaps we assume that strategicplanning is too time-consuming and limiting for social media, becausesocial media services change so frequently. Planning can seem cumber-some, but, in the long run, it can help save time and focus creativity.As a profession, we help others to sort out information overload, buteven librarians often feel overwhelmed by the informational hydra ofsocial media. A strategic plan can also help employees to realize thatthey don’t need to be everywhere at once, nor can they be. By settinga specific direction and set of initiatives based on patron needs andwishes, we can direct our precious time more effectively. Short-termor general goals can be used in conjunction with more specificaction plans in order to create a meaningful and flexible plan that cangenerate user engagement and loyalty and focus librarian inspirationand efforts. Additionally, the creation of a strategic plan will notrequire you to start from scratch, and it will not necessarily addinitiatives without subtracting others. The assessment phase mayreveal that some of your efforts can be abandoned or repurposed tomake time for more useful initiatives, but it may instead show that theservices you’re already offering are right on target and help you tomake the decision to spend more time in those areas instead ofbranching into new ones.

If you or your library has already engaged in strategic planning,then the lessons you have learned will be relevant in creating yourstrategic plan for social media. Strategic planning for social media isnot fundamentally different from strategic planning for your libraryon the whole. As with any other plan, your blueprint for social media


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does not need to be highly formal and should not be excessivelydetailed. It must be:

! Flexible! Based on data! Maintainable! Regularly cared for

A well-written strategic plan will help you focus your energy and timeon the most relevant tools for your chosen population.

While strategic planning will not be the answer for every library, weshould seriously consider setting some strategy for organized, sus-tained effort that will create meaning and useful content for patronson an ongoing basis. Many of the libraries with the most successfulsocial media services engage in some form of planning.

The next chapter will explore available models for your socialmedia strategic planning process.

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AAccountability, creating, 84–85Action items, writing, 4, 57–58Additional planning cycles, beginning,

73Addressing concerns about planning,

26–27Administrative buy-in, getting, 23Administrators, role of, 15–16, 22,

26–27, 72Agnes Scott College, 33Anecdotal evidence, use of, 34, 37Art of Critical Decision Making, The

(Roberto), 50Askanase, Deborah, 95Assessment and social media strategic

plans, xii, 12Assessment of patron needs, 31, 34–50Audience environment scan, 36–42Audience segmentation, 30–34Avoiding overload in strategic planning,

9–10

BBaer, Jay, 96Bahavar, Shahla, 22, 95Basic planning model, xi, 18Best practices, 81–86Bleeding edge technologies, role of,

37Boston Public Library, 46Branding, 93Bryson, John M., 95Building enthusiasm for, 23–27

CCaptivate, 40Cause and effect, misattribution of,

58Chapman, C.C., 97–98Cheerleaders on the planning team, 16,

24–26CiteULike, 2Cognitive biases, recognizing and

avoiding, 48–50Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4–5,

53, 54, 57, 58, 59Comment editing, constitutionality and

legality of, 69Common concerns and how to respond

to them, 25, 60Common Craft, 97Communication, x, 23–27, 66, 83Consensus, achieving, 84Content, creating, 38Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs,

Podcasts, Videos, E-books, Webinars(and More) (Handley andChapman), 33

Critical questioning and thinking, 83Crowdsourcing, 41–42

DDetermining and managing employee

workload, 24Digg, 2Division of labor in implementation,

67Documentation, maintaining, 81–82

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INDEX

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Doing Social Media So It Matters(Solomon), 72

Drafting, 55–65

EECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and

Information Technology (Smith andCaruso), 48

Edwards, Alexandra, 21Elizabethtown College, 71Empire Avenue, 61Etches-Johnson, Amanda, 48Ethnographic research, 40–41EverQuest, 3External environment scan. See

Audience environment scan

FFacebook, 2

analytics, 38, 41and goals, 57, 59, 60and marketing, 79patron commentary/posting, 67, 68,

72, 93target group use, 32, 33use in case studies, 21, 47, 56, 79why use, 25

Facebook Insights, 61Facebook Places, 2Fad social media platforms, usage of,

ix–x, 35–36Fernandez, Joe, 97Find the Future: The Game, 79Flexibility, 17, 82–83, 89, 93Flickr, 2, 21, 61, 79Focus groups, 39–40Formality levels, selecting, 20Foursquare, vi, 2, 21, 79, 82Fried Foster, Nancy, 44Fusch, Daniel, 97

GGamification, 79, 98Georgia Institute of Technology,

strategic planning document, 82Georgia State University Library blog

plan, 12, 17–18, 54, 68, 69, 79–80Goal-based planning, 20–22

Goals, writing, 4, 56GoodReads, 2Google Alerts, 61

HHammond, John S., 50Handley, Ann, 97–98Help writing, secondary sources on,

95–97Hoang, Daniel, 96Home Depot, social media presence, 72,

91Hootsuite, 61

IImprov Wisdom (Madson), 45Incorporation/integration of social

media. See Social mediaIndividualism, planning for,

91–92Internal environment scan. See SWOT

analysisInternal guideline development, 70–71,

98Interviewing, 38–39Issues-based planning, 20–22

JJet Blue, social media presence, 72,

91Jing, 40 Johnson, Kristen A., 71

KKeeney, Ralph L., 50Kho, Nancy Davis, 98Klout, 61Koerber, Jennifer, 46Kooy, Brian K., 69, 98Kroski, Ellyssa, 69, 98

LLady GaGa, 56Lamar University, Mary & John Gray

Library, 55Lascarides, Michael, 92LibQual+, 79LibraryThing, 2



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Library size and social media planning,xi, 30–31, 34

LinkedIn, 2LiveJournal, 2

MMadison Public Library, 54Madson, Patricia Ryan, 45Magic button exercise, 44–46March, James, 83Marketing, 66, 75–80Mashable Social Media Feed, 98Mathews, Brian, 16McDonald, Dennis D., 96McGonigal, Jane, 98McNamara, Carter, 3, 30, 96Measures, writing, 58–60, 61Measuring success, 59–60Meetup, 2Messenger Public Library, Aurora,

Illinois, 70Metrics, 87–89, 97–99Mission statement, definition, 53Mission statement for social media,

drafting, 55Mulder, Steve, 46

NNegative patron comments, addressing,

68New York Public Library marketing for

social media, 79Ning, 2Nonadministrators, role of, 15–16, 22,

72

OOCLC/WebJunction, 87OECD (Organisation for Economic

Co-operation and Development), 2Ongoing effort, setting expectations for,

68, 72–73, 85Online analytics and usage gauges, 37Organic planning model, xi, 18–19

PPatron assessment, 12, 33Patron engagement, 4, 31, 92–93

Personas, 35, 46–48Pew Research Center Internet and

American Life Project, 32Plan implementation, 66–68Planning

model, definitions and selection of,xi, 18–22

for one department/service area, 10

preparation for, 15–22short-term vs. long-term, 11team recruitment and selection,

15–17team role and charge, 17

Polls, 41Posting frequency for social media,

68Preferred futuring model, 22Project, strategic, and long-term plans,

differences, 12–13, 65Public services and social media, 10

QQuora, 3

RRaiffa, Howard, 50Reception of social media strategic

planning, 12Reddit, 2Responsibility, assigning, 66–67Roberto, Michael A., 50Rogers, Curtis R., ix, 99Role of mission, vision, values in

strategic planning, 4, 52–55Rule and handbook integration, 51

SSample strategic plans for social media,

62–65San José Public Library, project plan

document, 82Scalability, xi, 9–13Schedule, setting and maintaining, 17,

29, 85–86Schmidt, Aaron, 48Schmidt, Valerie, 19Second Life, 3

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Seeley G. Mudd Library, 54Selecting target patron groups, 32–36Simon, Herbert, 83Social media

and businesses, ix, x, 4–6, 36definition, 1–3as feedback and assessment tool,

92help doing and measuring, 97–99impact measurement, 61incorporated into library projects,

21integrating strategic planning for

into the library’s strategic plan,10

platform selection, 60policy development, 69–70, 98return on investment, ixstrategic planning, purpose/benefits

of, xii, 5–6types, 1–3

Social networking sites, 1, 2, 3, 4, 23, 55,82

Solomon, Laura, 72, 99Stakeholders, identifying and creating,

16Standards for social media, 12State Library of South Carolina, ixStatistics and data, use of, 23–24, 31, 34,

37, 42–50Sticky note brainstorm exercise, 43Strategic initiatives, writing, 4, 57Strategic plan

adding vs. subtracting new projects, 6

characteristics, 7, 9, 13structure, 4, 10–12, 30time spent, 3–4

Strategic planning, definition, x, 3–4Students and patrons, role of, 16Success, celebrating, 84SurveyMonkey, 41, 76Surveys

case study, 39as goal action item, 65in marketing, 76and polls, 40question list sample, 42

target audience selection, 33tools, 41

SWOT analysis, 50–52

T“Thinking about the Hidden Traps in

Decision Making,” 50Time management, 25, 52Tone, setting and maintaining, 17, 86Tone and voice in social media,

71–72Training, for employees, 77Transparency, 26Trends, developing, 91–93Truelson, Judith A., 22, 95Tumblr, 2Twitter, 2

as action item, 58analytics, 38, 41and marketing, 79patron commentary/posting, 67, 68patron communication, 12, 71–72,

91–92target group use, 32use in case studies, 21, 79

Twitter Search, 61

UUniversal McCann study (Wave.5: The

Socialization of Brands), 4, 32, 99University of California at Santa

Barbara, 16University of Rochester, 44User Experience (UX) Design for Libraries

(Schmidt/Etches), 48User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to

Creating and Using Personas for theWeb, The (Mulder and Yaar), 46

VVara, Suzanne, 1, 72Villanova University, 21Vision statement, definition, 53

WWatson Wyatt Worldwide, 53Wave.5: The Socialization of Brands

(Universal McCann), 4, 32, 99



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Wiki Answers, 3Wikipedia, 2WordPress, 12, 38Workplace culture, importance of, 51World of Warcraft, 3

YYaar, Ziv, 46Yahoo! Answers, 3

Yale University Library, 54YouTube, 2

analytics, 38and student contest, 67use in case studies, 21, 79why use, 25

ZZoomerang, 41

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Sarah K. Steiner


11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION


Steiner

American Library Association50 E. Huron StreetChicago, IL 60611

1 (866) SHOPALA (866) 746-7252

This is the series to acquire and share in any institution over the next year. I think of it as a cost-effective way to attend the equivalent of ten excellent technology management courses ledby a dream faculty! TECH SET® #11–20 will help librarians stay relevant, thrive, and survive. It isa must-read for all library leaders and planners.

— Stephen Abram, MLS, Vice President, Strategic Relations and Markets, Cengage Learning

“”

Find out more about each topic in THE TECH SET® VOLUMES 11–20and preview the Tables of Contents online at www.alatechsource.org/techset/.

Each multimedia title features a book, a companion website, and a podcast to fully cover the topic and then keep you up-to-date.

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries is part of THE TECH SET® VOLUMES 11–20, a series of conciseguides edited by Ellyssa Kroski and offering practical instructionfrom the field’s hottest tech gurus. Each title in the series is aone-stop passport to an emerging technology. If you’re readyto start creating, collaborating, connecting, and communicatingthrough cutting-edge tools and techniques, you’ll want to getprimed by all the books in THE TECH SET®.

New tech skills for you spell new services for your patrons:

• Learn the latest, cutting-edge technologies.

• Plan new library services for these popular applications.

• Navigate the social mechanics involved with gaining buy-in for these forward-thinking initiatives.

• Utilize the social marketing techniques used by info pros.

• Assess the benefits of these new technologies to maintain your success.

• Follow best practices already established by innovators and libraries using these technologies.

11. Cloud Computing for Libraries, by Marshall Breeding

12. Building Mobile Library Applications, by Jason A. Clark

13. Location-Aware Services and QR Codes for Libraries, by Joe Murphy

14. Drupal in Libraries, by Kenneth J. Varnum

15. Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries, by Sarah K. Steiner

16. Next-Gen Library Redesign, by Michael Lascarides

17. Screencasting for Libraries, by Greg R. Notess

18. User Experience (UX) Design for Libraries, by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches

19. IM and SMS Reference Services for Libraries, by Amanda Bielskas and Kathleen M. Dreyer

20. Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians, by Robin M. Fay and Michael P. Sauers

15

TS 15 FullCover 4/12/12 2:17 PM Page 1

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Social Media Strategy

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