The Changing Landscape of Social

Media

Emerging Technology Trends

Mark DellenbaughAPL Virtual Services Supervisor

Current state of the industry

Where Social Media seems be going(with one large disclaimer)

Our strategic response to emerging trends(with a few modest proposals…)

What I’ll be covering

Major players in Social Media:

We focus on a just a few of those platforms, but doing those well!

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2012/05/how-do-users-compare-on-facebook-twitter-google-linkedin-and-pinterest-social-networking-sites-infog.html

Not to scale.

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2012/05/how-do-users-compare-on-facebook-twitter-google-linkedin-and-pinterest-social-networking-sites-infog.html

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2012/05/how-do-users-compare-on-facebook-twitter-google-linkedin-and-pinterest-social-networking-sites-infog.html

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2012/05/how-do-users-compare-on-facebook-twitter-google-linkedin-and-pinterest-social-networking-sites-infog.html

Out to pasture

◦ MySpace

Primary players

◦ Facebook

◦ Twitter

◦ Flickr

◦ YouTube

Not right for APL at this time, but on our radar and in our sandboxes

◦ Pinterest

◦ Foursquare

◦ Google+

◦ Tumblr

◦ Goodreads

Contingency planning for rapid response

IFTTT can help us if we need to bring a new platform online quickly

APL & current Social Media platforms

This is a Common Arrangement

“The Social Library: How Public Libraries Are Using Social Media”

How many of you have personal Facebook accounts that you actively use?

Twitter accounts? Google+? Pinterest? Tumblr? MySpace? Instagram? Others?

For those who actively use Facebook, how many are fans/likers of our page? (Why not join your colleagues?)

For those who actively use Twitter, how many are followers of @ArlingtonTXLib? (Why not join your colleagues?)

Some questions for you!

Where Social Media seems to be going…

Created by Socialnomics, discovered at Stephen’sLighthouse

Disclaimer: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." —Niels Bohr

Click the button on the SUV to launch a video in a browser window. Then continue presentation!

1) Are we using social media as effectively as possible in terms of content??

2) Do we have too many eggs in Facebook’s basket

3) Is the era of the “Free Lunch” over?

Three strategic concerns:

The Real Value of Facebook Is Friends of Fans

We will place greater emphasis on interactive posts that take advantage of the social and interactive aspects of this media to energize current fans to generate awareness with their friends:

◦ Encourage interactions with content to build awareness

◦ Run contests or trivia where your fans reveal interesting things about their personality

◦ Ask customers to post photos

◦ Feature customers on your Facebook

◦ Provide incentives for sharing

◦ Build contests for sharing and social spread, not to maximize entries

◦ Create an extraordinary visual experience that customers want to share

◦ Build mass momentum with events

Source: The Real Value of Facebook Isn’t Your Likes or Fans

http://mashable.com/2012/11/20/business-facebook-engagement/

1) From a One-to-Many model to a Many-to-Many model: Fully embracing a conversational medium

http://www.opte.org/maps/

No. Facebook has large & stable enough market share that external threats to their dominance are effectively managed by either imitation (Foursquare) or acquisition (Instagram)

Credible alternatives simply do not exist right now, so despite the popular Facebook pastime of grumbling about changes…

2) Is our emphasis on Facebook risky?

…most Facebook users remain loyal, active, and engaged.

3) Is the era of the “Free Lunch” ending?

Facebook’s IPO and new responsibilities to shareholders mean additional pressures to increase revenue

Customers/personal account holders cannot be a source directly…

What we’ve observed

Guesswork – nothing official

Others noticed too & folk remedies emerged…

Logical flaw

Monkey see, Monkey do

Opinion wars flared on blogs

Finally journalists did some reporting…

Facebook Clears The Air On News Feed, Promoted Posts

“The upshot is that brands can still access fans of their Facebook pages but they’ll have to pay to reach them all.Some may have assumed that they could reach all their fans no matter what through a Facebook post for free.

But because there is so much content going through Facebook, they’ll have to pay.”

We pay for printing…

Will we pay to play?

bookmarks and

fliers and

newsletters.

posters and

We pay for email marketing

Why wouldn’t we?

Let’s try a pilot to see if promoting a handful of carefully chosen Facebook posts that support our biggest priorities is money well-spent.

If we get to the point of a vote for library construction, we’ll want to make sure we have all marketing tools primed and ready for maximum impact!

Thank you!