The Librarian's Nitty-Gritty Guide to Social Media

by Laura Solomon

The vast array of social media options present a challenge to today’s busy librarians: it’s tough to keep current, let alone formulate a plan for using these tools effectively. Solomon, a librarian with extensive experience in web development, design, and technology, cuts to the chase with this invaluable guide to using social media in any kind of library. With a straightforward and pragmatic approach, she enlarges her best-selling ALA Editions Special Report on the topic and:

- Presents an overview of the social media world, providing context for services like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and analyzes how adults’ and teens’ use of social media impacts the library
- Offers advice on easy ways to use these tools on a daily basis, with planning strategies for posting and scheduling
- Addresses the fine points of Facebook, comparing the various types of profiles and accounts
- Guides readers in the basics of crafting eye-catching status updates, and other social media best practices
- Shows how to manage and monitor accounts, including pointers on dealing with negative feedback

Including a bibliography of additional resources, Solomon’s guide will empower libraries to use social media as a powerful tool for marketing, outreach, and advocacy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science, Librarianship, Professional Development, Social Media, Web

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

There are other authors with this name. See also Laura Solomon and Laura Solomon.

CURRENT POSITION Library Services Manager
DEGREE MLS, Kent State University, 1998
PRIMARY HOBBY Competitive Irish stepdance

Laura Solomon is library services manager for the Ohio Public Information Network and former web applications supervisor for the Cleveland Public Library. She has been doing web development and design and conducting classes in public libraries and as an independent consultant for more than a decade. In 2009, the Ohio Library Council recognized her for her role in saving more than $147 million of public library funding by utilizing her expertise in social media tools. She was tapped as one of Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers” for 2010. She earned her MLS from Kent State and was awarded her MCIW (Master Certified Internet Webmaster) in 2004. Visit her blog at www.meanlaura.com.

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tl;dr version: If you had to read just one of Solomon's two Nitty-Gritty guides, I'd recommend The Librarian's Nitty-Gritty Guide to Content Marketing over this one. (My review of that one.) However, both are fast, well-organized reads and each book is under 200 pages, and I still got enough out of this one (reading it via a library ebook collection) that I don't regret it.

This book was very slightly more dated-feeling than its companion title, though only predating that one by a few years. MySpace is still a contender, albeit outgoing, and Google+ exists, though the focus (where applied to specific platforms) is Facebook and Twitter. There was also a quote from someone anticipating the future rise of mobile -- which was accurate, but amusing to see after said 'prophecy' has been fulfilled. I haven't looked up some of the specific tools for alerts or backups yet, but knowing how these things go, the specific ones named are probably dead or expensive -- but eh, there's always new versions to look for.

However, the basic principles -- i.e. the vast, vast majority of the content -- remain sound and applicable in the current time. I just thought the most important parts about building relationships through social media rather than content-blasting gets a better focus in TLNGGT Content Marketing.

There were good, concrete examples of "post like this, not that" included, which is incredibly helpful. This book is also the first time I've seen recommendations for how to go about pulling the plug on a social media account that doesn't justify the time/energy investment, anymore, as well as the repeated recommendation to claim accounts in the name of your library even if you're not using them in order to prevent brandjacking. Good call! She also lightly discusses the importance of in-reach (the inverse of outreach, whereby you're "marketing" to your own staff to get them onboard and familiar enough to likewise advocate), which I would have liked to see have seen explored a little more.

Though not explicitly targeted at any one type of library, I think this one was slightly more public library-oriented than the Content Marketing one as well, and not just because that one explicitly mentioned academic libraries a few times. Just in how some of the expectations and recommendations were worded e.g. like having a style guide (the college totally already has one for you, even if you may need to write an extension of it for the library's internal purposes).

There were a couple nubbins of info that caught my eye with inconsistency, however. Ch. 4: Link Your Profiles (p. 35 in my edition) recommends linking accounts to conveniently cross-post content. While Solomon does state here that it's still a good idea to customize content for each platform, later in the book, this cross-linking is flat-out advised against. When laying out the need for consistency in tone, she wrote that ideally you'd have one person writing the messages to ensure that (but have a style guide/policy if that's not feasible) (p. 37); later, the recommendation is more sensibly to have more than one person involved so that people can take breathers or, y'know, be hit by a bus one day but the accounts can keep going (p. 122). Not necessarily mutually exclusive messages and maybe my eye skipped over an important modifier somewhere, but it was something that struck me as "could have been worded with more nuance" at a minimum across those chapters.

Anyway, lots of common sense or old hat principles, but also some new-to-me things (or at least, things I maybe knew but it helped to see them concretely articulated -- is there a word for that?), and gives a very efficient overview of what's involved when starting to embark on a social media presence -- and just importantly, how to evaluate and maybe wind down when it's needed.

[September Michaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good resource for introducing library staff to social media. What I liked most is that rather than just showing an array of introductions to the various social media channels, this book takes into account the changing nature of website popularity, and focuses on creating quality posts and conversations despite what social website you choose to use.

There are helpful examples showing what makes a good post and what makes a bad post, and there is a lot of information about how to initiate and respond to conversations online. Remember that for libraries, social media is not simply about pushing a brand, but rather it offers a new way to facilitate knowledge and communication within a community (this one just happens to be digital).

Other helpful information:
- ways to gauge the effectiveness of your social media presence
- how to respond to negative feedback
- what to do when you run out of ideas

I do wish this book had more information about creating original content for libraries (videos/photos/blog posts), but I suppose I'll have to get that from another book.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

All too frequently, social media guides intended for libraries are little more than extremely basic technical how-tos ("There is such a thing as Facebook. It has a News Feed! Here's how you click the button to post to that wacky News Feed.").

Solomon's book assumes you've probably at least seen a computer once in the last decade and focuses instead on the concepts that make social media marketing successful, exploring ways to build social capital and manage your online reputation. Even better, she seeds her chapters with specific (God bless you. Really.) examples of how people tend to do things on social media and how those same things can be done better. Best of all, this guide is actually readable - concise and funny, and featuring convenient end-of-section "bottom lines" which sum up the preceding ideas and will likely be a godsend to anyone who doesn't have the time to take full advantage of this book by reading it to cover to cover. (Which you should.)

[Hava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book for our library and read through it in just a couple of days. I was surprised by how well written this book was! It's not an everyday occurrence to have a how-to book be so interesting that I don't want to put it down. I knew that our social media strategy for our library wasn't where it ought to be (hence me ordering the book) but I had no idea that it was completely and totally wrong. It's like the author had been spying on our Facebook account over the past six months and using every post we put up as an example of what NOT to do. A little depressing how "off" we've been.

I will be passing this gem onto the rest of my staff and having everyone who has ANYTHING to do with social media read it. Can't recommend this book highly enough.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite this bookDoing Social Media So It Matters: A Librarian's Guide being by the same author and shorter, I found this book much more readable. As of this review, it is 8 years old, which is a couple generations, in terms of the cyberworld, it still has some good basic information as to how to approach social media in a library.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wasn't a fun book per se, but it was informative (if a bit dated...it mentions Myspace, which betrays its age). I had figured that I knew about social media because I use it myself, but this book allowed me to think from the perspective of a library trying to connect with its patrons, and I think that if I ever get a job where I have a role in social media, I will be well prepared to think the correct way.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bra om än lite daterad guide (hon nämner flera gånger MySpace) till hur bibliotek(arier) kan arbeta med att connecta med sina låntagare på sociala medier. Tyngdpunkt/poäng på att bygga relationer med folk och inte bara för att öka bibliotekens marknadsföring. Många fina exempel, bra guide helt enkelt!

[Tyler Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published back in 2012, so some of the content is a bit dated by now (MySpace is discussed more often than you'd expect), but overall contains some really good nuggets of information for library workers involved in their library's social media presence. I took several pages of notes, and will definitely be referring to them as I develop and carry out a social media plan for our library.

[Julie Kolb]

Published in 2012, but concepts are still viable. Due to the internet and social media boom some details are out of date, but there is a basic thread on examining how and what the purpose of social media as a tool is that will ever be a good resource. Wish I had read this a long time ago, but glad I read it even at this late date. Helpful.

[Angie Shere · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would probably get a higher rating from me in 2013. So my rating is partially based on the fact that this book already is outdated. At the the time it was written, teens were still into Facebook, not twitter. (this is pretty much reversed now) Surprisingly enough, this book talks about MySpace (does anyone use that anymore?) and predicts (incorrectly) that Twitter is not going to be a way to connect to teens. But the section on Facebook was great. Lots of useful tips on how the library can utilize social media and why it is something to invest our time and effort on. I recommend this as a good resource for librarians looking for information about Facebook. But like social media, things are always changing.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of great information regarding organizing and running a social media strategy for a library. I would recommend it to any library!

After finishing the book, I've been very motivated to revamp our social media plan. This book gave me the tools and theory to evaluate, reorganize, and recreate our efforts. Gives a great example of how to set up your own social media schedule.

I think this book would also be helpful to those needing some tips for social media marketing because the advice given is not so specific to libraries that it wouldn't help other non-profits too.

[Readersaurus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Key points:

Use social media to interact with patrons, not as another one-way (outgoing only) means of communication.

Figure out what you hope to accomplish by using these tools (connect patrons with resources previously unused; more patrons at programs, etc.)

Be gracious, responsive, engaging. Ask questions. Start conversations.

Google alerts is cool. I am surprised I didn't know about it before. http://www.google.com/alerts

Lots of good stuff in here for the absolute beginner on the topic of effective communication.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strong overview of how a library can use social media to its advantage. Covers the do and the do nots, and gives a good amount of information about whether its worth a library getting into social media, what there expectations should be, and how to approach it. The chapter on teens and Facebook may be out-of-date now - I have tween and teen children and they tell me that they view Facebook for older people, younger people have moved on to Instagram and Snapchat. But such is the nature of a book like this. Definitely a lot of good tips and best practices.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have guide book for librarian's using social media. A more comprehensive version of the 2011 book Doing Social Media So it Matters by the same author. Solomon uses similar subject matter (almost identical) from this book, but with more detailed information. Excellent guide to help libraries get started with a social media plan, creatively socialize with their fans and use social media as an effective social networking tool in the community.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great no-nonsense discussion and guide for using social media in the library setting. Mostly geared toward the public library, but certainly there are things that are applicable to the school library as well.

My copy is scribbled on and highlighted and will be a valuable resource in a new district where I hope to bring the power of social media.

[Annie Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the point with examples of what not to do and what to do. This book has a heavy focus on the use of Facebook. If you are not looking to use Facebook to promote programming skip around and read the tips for social media in general.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource for libraries just getting started with social media, or find themselves struggling. I had hoped this book would prove useful for my research, but alas - not. However, it was a fun and more importantly, useful read. I would recommend it to my own library.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. I found so much useful information that has really aided me in launching a Facebook page for the library I work at. From starting, to maintaining, to training others in the use, it's a great resource that should be tapped by librarians at any type of library.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically just an update to Doing Social Media So It Matters. If you read that, don't bother with this.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best book I've read on the subject.

[Heather Crozier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A more thorough version of Doing Social Media So It Matters- both helpful, but both probably aren't necessary reads. The chapter on Social Media in the Long Term was particularly helpful.

[Kendra]

http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/201...

[Brandi Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to help librarians and libraries develop and maintain their various social media outlets. Lots of practical advice.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough coverage of subject with lots of good ideas, though I didn't agree with all.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good coverage. It's a hard topic to cover as things keep changing. ...

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

concise, good examples, and supportive of practioners and libraries.

[Emily Rozmus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any organization could use this to get on track with social media. It is incredibly helpful!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A practical book about social media in libraries, however, this a field that changes so fast that a lot of the information provided here is already out of date. A useful review for beginners, but needs to be updated.