
Facebook for Libraries Made Simple…05.31.11

31 05 2011

David Lee King had a good article on American Libraries titled Facebook for Libraries excerpted here:

“…In Facebook, conversation is a huge draw—it’s a primary activity of most Facebook users. Rochelle Hartman, information services coordinator at La Crosse (Wis.) Public Library, agrees. At LCPL, staff members ‘post things designed to invite conversation. It’s been a lot more successful than [our] website,’ Hartman tweeted.

The status update box is your main point of connection to your local Facebook crowd. Keeping your library’s status updated is real work, and it takes time to do right. Toby Greenwalt of Skokie (Ill.) Public Library says ’daily engagement—keeping up a steady flow of content and conversation—is key.’ To keep up that steady flow of content, you have to devote staff to adding content to your Facebook Page.

You also need to work on being personable online. Make sure your status updates read like something you’d say out loud. Sometimes, it helps to actually say your status updates aloud. If it’s not phrased like something you would say in conversation, edit away. The more conversational you sound, the more opportunities for conversation you’ll have.

Once you have figured out how to approach conversation, start asking questions. Nicole Pagowsky of the Dallas County (Tex.) Community College District’s El Centro Library agrees. Colleagues in her workplace find that ‘asking questions [is] more successful than just making announcements,’ she says.

Be witty. Share really interesting stuff about your library and the information found there. For example, at TopekaLibrary, asking about books really encourages comments. People love sharing their favorite authors, or which books they’d want if they were shipwrecked on a desert island (the Bible and a book on building a sailboat from scratch were popular choices).

Give your Facebook community the content they want, and they will become your fans. Even more importantly, they’ll start interacting. My guess? Get that interaction going, and your customers—the ones wanting to interact with you in Facebook Pages—will become advocates for you and your library—not only online, but in person, too.”

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