Exercise 6 - Hoot Suite Preview

Anonymity and Community

Anonymity can both help and hurt your forum. Providing easy access creates more traffic. It also lets user open up a little more. On the other hand, some users might abuse this privilege, filling your forums with obscenities and nonsense. Securing your forum can cause traffic to lower, but the information will be much more valuable to the users. basically quality instead of quantity.

In order to offer a secure forum, you have to offer the user something, otherwise they'll just keep moving. the internet is fast-paced, and if you don't give a reason for a user to sign up, they simply won't. On top of this, make the sign up effortless. The less time it takes to sign in, the less time it takes for a user to give up on the idea.

An article from alistapart.com gives some great examples of bettering your forum through membership. My personal favorite would be the reputation system. I use this quite frequently on e-bay. It lets me know who I can trust and who I cannot. e-bay also emails you about the user after purchase, basically forcing the issue to rate them.

Email confirmation, Rating system and Reputation systems, for me, are the best way to verify your forum's legitimacy.

Wisdom of Crowds

I think the strongest argument you can post about the wisdom of crowds is the fact that they are made up of individuals (The selfishness attribute Derek Powazek mentions in his article.)Each person formulates their own opinion, thus leveling out others. We now become reliant on a contingent of people rather than a couple of experts. This is one reason to consider WOC's.

When we think of experts, we think of people that know a great deal on the subject (obviously). What we don't know is how they personally feel on the subject. Moreover, something or someone can sway their reasoning. This is where the wisdom of crowds schema nullifies that attribute. It is possible to come out with a fair outcome.

Of course the masses are not without influence, but spread over thousands of votes rather than a couple yields a truer result. Each apex should counteract the other. Thus giving a result of what people are looking for.

Using Wikis for collaboration

Wikis can work in a business environment, just as long as everyone lets them work. I think Penny Edward's article "How does your wiki grow" hits the nail on the head, especially about role-players. Everyone can participate, but just like any other team collaboration, there must be roles.

Not everyone can sit around and invent. Not everyone can mediate, and certainly not everyone can lead. These roles should be doled out and clearly defined. They should also be done so voluntarily. Find the people that are willing to mediate and edit. Some people are drawn to this, just like some people are drawn to writing or creating ideas.

The article also makes a good point not to smother the experimentation phase. Managers should let the growth of wikis happen naturally. People need time to find their footing. Let them find there place in the wiki world.

Letting wikis thrive can give many benefits for a business. Such as:
1. People become more experienced in technology.
2. People can take work home with them. (In some cases, stay home!)
3. Information is shared across the board.

If everyone comes together to assemble a different part of the machine, it will run much smoother than parts being flung together

Traversing the Tagging Universal

I started my bookmark search on delicious with the phrase "social search". What was interesting to me was the amount of websites that it returned. There wasn't very many articles or blogs, but rather numerous links to other bookmarking sites. This was true for my next to searches; "tagging" and "bookmark". I chose three popular ones:

Stumbleupon
Clipmarks
Simpy

These all are essentially different ways of bookmarking pages. From the Simpy link, I decided to see what other people bookmarked with this. This is where I found Zootool, 15 best bookmarking sites, and Social booking Wikipedia. Most of everyone that had Zootool also had another link to social bookmarking in one way or another.

Next, I searched delicious by using the bell246 tag to see what other classmates have posted (much easier than clicking on each individual link and seeing if anyone updated. Sorting by most recent did that for you.) I noticed Basya Samuels also tagged two links that I had. (We must have had similar search techniques!) I also tagged an article of Erin's on collaboration tools because I don't know really what companies are supplying these tools. I love lists on the internet!

In my next venture through the delicious universe, I'm hoping to find a little more scholastic material on bookmarking. I'm sure they were there, but buried deep. Maybe delicious isn't cut out for finding the needle in the haystack, rather just finding the haystack. I personally felt like most tags were advertisements for more tagging sites. Sounds like a vicious cycle.

If I wanted to find applications and ideas, I think Delicious is great, but researching could pose a problem. It was hard to find links of any substance.

Tagging Problems

Social Bookmarks are useful for finding information on the web. They have the ability to traverse the web where machines cannot go. this is because they rely on the user rather than algorithms. Users can tag and look up tags of interest. Thus creating communities of like-minded tags and individuals. Although tagging can create some problems:

1. Tagging does not produce what is known as "synonym control". Basically, if someone looks for the tag "fruit", they'll miss tags like "apple" and "orange" (which are obviously also fruit).

2. Tagging has a problem with polysemous terms. Are you looking for orange the fruit, or orange the color?

3. Many search engines only search the tags, thus missing many relevant articles.

These problems naturally occur because people perceive things differently. These problems can be marginalized by doing the following:

1. Provide them with a list of popular and recommended terms. This will make users more likely to use them.

2. Clustering. Take tags that already exist to see if the tag is referring to the same thing.

3. Collaborative filtering. When a user tags an item, create an algorithm that can link people together with like-minded tags.

It would be hard to fix these problems, because people will always think differently. What we can do though, is cure the way it is organized and project it to the user.

Marketing Critique

Marketing, Outreach, and Branding

What Library are we profiling?

I decided to critique a library that I use the most, the San Diego State Library (SDSU), also known as the Infodome. The SDSU site boasts five Social Network Links on their main page; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, and Flickr. In this essay, I will discuss how they market, outreach, and brand themselves through these sites. We will also look at some other ways that SDSU markets to the “cyber-patron”.

What are we critiquing?

In each of these sites, I will be looking how the SDSU Library markets, outreaches to their patrons, and brands themselves. The key areas of interest are:

· Marketing – When we speak of marketing, we are looking for the way a library plans and executes their goods and services to their community. Is there a clear schema in place?

· Outreach – What does the library do to connect to their patrons? Are they actively trying to aid and find patrons? What tools do they use to achieve this task?

· Branding – When we refer to branding, we speak of how a company makes their presence known on the internet. What does a library do to get recognized? Are they successful?

The Social Networks

Facebook

SDSU’s Facebook page is a prototypical fan page setup. Tabs are clearly marked at the top page. Most Libraries I found keep the side bar menu to the left. Considering the user reads in an “F” (That is horizontally long first, horizontally short second, then vertically), it’s wiser to keep your focal points in plain view. The menu contains a wall, information, photos, notes, events, and boxes. The only tab that is irrelevant is the boxes tab. It combines notes and events, giving it no real purpose.

SDSU has all but abandoned the Facebook page except for the wall. The last event posted was March of 2010. The last note was December of 2009. SDSU’s marketing plan is funneled into the “wall”. All the current information they post can be found here. This includes links to their blogs and other resources. They clearly decided it was easier for users to connect with one page rather than sifting through tabs.

MySpace

The MySpace page gives information on how to contact the library and what collections they have. Unfortunately SDSU’s Myspace appears dead. The last blog of any information was May 2010. The last comment was in 2008. There is nothing here that tells me that MySpace is part of any marketing plan in SDSU. The effort for outreaching in MySpace slowly dwindled out.

Twitter

SDSU’s twitter account appears to be running alive and well. The tweets appear daily, to once every three days. Some tweets include #SDSU, exhibit links, and their own blog links. It appears that the bulk of their outreach and branding exists in twitter. Where the information sits on a board in Facebook, this information is streamed.

Blogger

SDSU’s blogs are also alive. They have four blog spots; main library blog, a techs and services blog, a news and notables blog, and a SDSU tech blog. Techs and services blog only seems to update when a new technology comes out. Main Library and News and Notables are the most frequent bloggers of the site. News and notables updates users on exhibits and circulation. The main library blog is more random. It has updates on lectures, readings, and it even has recipes. Whether they update, frequently or seldom, it appears that SDSU likes to market their services through Blogging.

Flickr

Much like the blog accounts, Flickr has more than one account; main photostream, and digital projects. The Flickr project appears to have stopped at the end of October, 2010, and began in November of 2009. In this time, the Library posted many albums and pictures, but abruptly stopped. It’s hard to tell if the account is dead, as pictures are usually posted in bunches, and then the account lies stagnant for a couple months. The digital project Flickr was done in September of 2010. The gallery has a vast amount of Chicano Chicana Artwork. I assume this was an exhibit they featured in September.

Other Marketing and Outreach tools

Google

The Library has an application that connects through your iGoogle page. This gives users the opportunity to browse the selections from their search engine site. This can be a very handy outreach tool considering many companies are pushing towards a “search optimization”. This refers to getting your pages to highly rank on search results. This application bypasses the need to use Google directly, but allows you to use it indirectly, thus giving the user less links and sites to access information.

Mobile Applications

SDSU has an application that lets you access their archives via smart-phone.

How SDSU Library markets

Judging from what I gathered from the sites I visited, I deduced the following from SDSU:

1. That their blogs where used to post information about exhibits and resources.

2. Facebook Wall and Twitter were used to reach patrons and point to their blogs and resources.

3. SDSU Library brands their identity through using steps one and two, and offering applications for use on other sites and devices.

4. Other sites were used, but where poorly maintained, hence rendered useless. This can hurt Social Branding efforts because it could give the appearance of not caring.

What would I change?

First I would consolidate my networks. Social dashboards such as Hootsuite work well for this problem. This way you send the same message to all networks, thus connecting them together.

Second, I would keep photostreams in one place and provide links to albums. There are different areas other than Flickr that you find pictures and albums. This can cause confusion on where to post what. If we keep it in Flickr, we can organize the process better.

Third, I would move the Social Network Icons, on the front of the Library Page, from the bottom left to the top left. This gives the icons more prominence. Where they are now seem hidden.

Summary

Example of a Social network project following my ideas:

1. Take pictures of the exhibit and upload them to Flickr.

2. Blog about the exhibit and what it details. In addition add a link and pictures from the Flickr account

3. Through Hootsuite, send a message that connects through MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter that has points to the blog.

In summary, I think SDSU is not aggressive about their Social marketing, but they maintain a presence. Offering applications for phones and Google are great techniques to get your name out there, but you have to market it. Put an effort forth to let people know about these services. Updating users on exhibits and readings isn’t the only thing you can blog about. Also try invoking conversations with patrons. Try blogging about issues relevant to the city or your school. This can lead to dialogue and grabbing the interests of patrons.

Proactive campaigning and the Library

Nosing into patron networks can be a double-edged sword. Why some might find it helpful, others can find it intrusive. It's a fine art to mingle in between these two. A library should attack this situation narrowly. That is, sending out unfocused, general messages will not induce any glamorous result. In fact, most will regard it as spam.

In Dawn Lawson's Paper on Facebook as an outreach tool, she was proactive, but with focus and purpose. She wasn't trying to find users to populate her page, she was trying to find the correct users to populate the page. A big difference. Of course this will take strategic planning.

I would think one would start small. Focus in on a specific demographic. Your Library might offer a myriad of services, but all those services do not pander to every individual. Rather, notify the patrons you think could benefit. If a person has interest in the subject, they are more likely to research it.

Don't sound like an advertisement. Inform the user that their are services available and where to reach you if they would like to use them. try hard to keep it unique.

Be careful not to be iterative. You don't want to bombard the same patron over and over.

These strategies will take time and research, and only grow in length as your demographic grows. I think a library needs to weigh the pros and cons of starting an outreach campaign. Much like anything that has to do with social networking, it cannot be done with the foot half in the water. Some Libraries might benefit from being in the space of patrons, while others might want to notify their patrons of their existence.

Fourth Tier - Live Streaming

Twitter no doubt leads the charge into live streaming. We are now seeing a development of a fourth tier in the internet.

first tier - internet (foundation)
second tier - web (destination websites)
third tier - web 2.0 (interactive websites)
fourth tier - live streaming (live and conversation fueled data)

The internet is sprouting like a seed and developing branches as it grows. In addition, it grows exponentially. A magnificent causal chain that gains momentum as it pushes forward. As it grows, the internet seems to shed a little of its tiers as it progresses.

The numbers are considerably down on destination sites. Interactive sites are also seeing a decline. the web is becoming more dynamic and "real-time". But does that mean that the bottom tiers fade to obscurity?

I would venture to say that the numbers will eventually level. Although live streaming is gaining popularity, People still like a place to go. Much like watching a baseball game on t.v, sometimes you like to go to the baseball park, but the broadcast will gain more viewers. That doesn't take away from the importance of the park. there wouldn't be a game without it! Therefore there wouldn't be no live streaming without interaction, no interaction without destination, and no destination without the internet. Their importance might drop as more tiers become prevalent, but it would be impossible for them to completely disappear.

So is the destination age over? Yes. Although destination sites will still be around, their reign of terror has come to an end. Live streaming promotes conversation, dynamism, and no interface. This is the next step in internet evolution. We must welcome it with open arms.

Five reasons to have an RSS for a Library

RSS feeds are an integral part to utilizing web 2.0 material. For this reason, it is important to know how to use them. If we are a library, lets consider the benefits they offer for connecting to patrons. Here are five reasons why a Library should use RSS feeds.

1. Patrons and aggregates : A library can use RSS feeds to connect to patrons directly. Instead of users surfing the main site, a Library can send information directly to the patron. This can alleviate site browsing (Which can be frustrating and time consuming). Also, a Library can set up many specific RSS feeds so a patron has a choice of which updates they would like.

2. RSS and Publishing : A library can place RSS feeds to their blogs on their main site. This will make finding Librarian blogs easier for the user.

3. Boooks : RSS feeds can be used to let patrons know about new books. You can also make RSS feeds by subject, letting the user peruse the list by genre.

4. Catalogs : When searching the catalogs, a patron can save their search and make it a RSS, then save it to their aggregate. This notifies the patron when their request is ready at the Library.

5. Accounts : A RSS feed can be used to let the patron know that there are changes to their account. Such as when their holds are off or when their books are due.

Community and the Blogosphere

Chris Abraham sums up the Blogosphere quite nicely:

"The blogosphere, on the other hand, is big city and feeds on naive innocents — you had better watch what you say and to whom. If you have anything of value, you had better lock your door and learn some street smarts otherwise the blogosphere like a big city could chew you up and spit you out, like it has done to so many who just got off the bus."

His Blog if you're interested.

The virtual communities got its start with passwords and entry ports. But the Blogosphere doesn't need that. Everything is out there. Everything is open. It's a land of opportunity and warring tribes. Like-minded individuals will seek each other out and make connections. After all, there are strength in numbers. But how do these communities start?

As Quentin Jones (1997) points out, we need to meet certain requirements; interactivity, communicators, common space, and minimal membership.

1. Communicators - The communicators are the author and the reader.

2. Common Space - The communicators peruse the blogosphere looking for information they find interesting.

3. Interactivity - when said information is found, they leave a comment, initiating conversation.

4. Minimal membership - If they like the comment, or the reader likes the author, they subscribe to the blog. Thus creating a link to that person, and, in a sense, starts the beginning of a beautiful community.

Example:

I'm looking for information on the Detroit Tigers and what people are saying about them. I find a blog called Motor City Bengals that blogs daily about the team. I sign up and add comments, thus creating banter with other individuals that were doing the same thing I was. A community has now started centered around the Detroit Tigers.

Here is a video of two students diving into the philosophy of virtual communities:

Exercise 2

The five mandatory blogs:

1. "In the Library with the lead pipe"
This Blog would fall under the category of Knowledge Logs. It is intended to disseminate information to the reader through long essays. Each post is intended to be taken as academic and further strengthening the library community and organizations. This blog could be considered a mixture of reference/community building. It invites the reader to comment and at the same time lists all the references in certain blog uses.

2. "The Librarian's Commute"
The Librarian's commute is written in a personal journal format,but also carries the characteristics of knowledge logs. The author writes about her everyday thoughts and happenings, but also looks to post knowledgable content. The blog posts are mannered in the style of short essays. Olivia Nellums, the author, summarizes her blog topics as :
"I am one of many figuring out what a librarian is as the information world changes, and libraries, technology, and higher education are the topics I try and stick to."


3. "The Distant Librarian"
This blog consists of reviews and links to book reviews, applications, and anything else the author deems interesting. I would categorize this blog as a filter. This blog also keeps its blogs short, but is closer to the style of "brief remark". That is, it gives some commentary and provides links. Because it refers sites and links, I would mostly think of this site as a reference tool.

4. "Librarian by day"
Librarian by day is a knowledge log that is dedicated to helping librarians jump the digital gap.
This blog has a lot going on. It offers various ways for you to stay in contact with the author. The blog's postings are series type and sticks close to its subject; teaching technology for librarians. Because she tries to teach people a trade, I would consider this a workshop blog.

5. "Davidleeking"
This blog is used to talk about library technologies. Although it appears to be a Filter blog, it also contains original information by the author. I would say it is a cross between both Filter and Knowledge. David King posting tactics combine the efforts of the brief remark and short essay. Each post contains links, but he also can be long-winded. The blog is close to a workshop blog (because he also instructs on it), but it is more of a market blog. Mr. King encourages readers to use the items he's promoting.

So in summation, these five blogs have one underlying subject; There all librarians. But they each have different ways of promoting their trade:

Name - Type - Post - Use

In the Library with a lead pipe - Knowledge Log - Long Article - Reference/Community

The Librarian's Commute - Personal Journal - Short Essay - Subject

The Distant Librarian - Filter Brief - Remark - Reference

Librarian by Day - Knowledge - Log Series - Workshop

Davidleeking - Filter/Knowledge - Brief Remark/Short Article - Marketing

All these blogs seem quite successful, but I have to say I prefer the blogs that injected multiple ways to access their site. Also, sites that incorporated different aspects of media. I would have to say that "librarian by day" and "davidleeking" both were successful at doing this. "the distant librarian" also incorporated these tools, but seem to lack the overall enthusiasm that the others put into their site. They both also included bullets, listings, and numerals. I love these in blogs, because it lets the reader get to the point. The user usually reads in a "F". That is, once across, once across briefly, than scales down. Including numbers, bolds, bullets, etc. is a good way to catch the reader's eye as they skim.

3 Library Sites:

1. "What's new @ the ASIJ HS Library"
ASIJ stands for American Students in Japan. It is a News blog for the school. The blogs appear once a month or so updating the community on the happenings at their school.

2. "Shelf Talk"
Shelf talk is a Seattle Public Library Blog that posts by subject. The site lets you browse their topics by category. It also couples as a book review site.

3. "Ohio University Libraries News and Events"
This blog updates the readers on what is going on with the library, much like the ASIJ site. It also updates you on tweets and offers a meebo chat to a librarian.

I purposely chose a library from High School, Public, and Academic domain to see the differences. The High School blog only blogged when it had information to do it with. The public library had a large demographic and dealt with it by giving multiple links and options. While the academic library also aided students. What I mainly liked from the sites:

The ASIJ High School site not only updated information for the student, but also pandered to the parent. In some of there blogs, they offered scholarship and grant information.

Shelf Talk had something for everyone. If you were a teen, it offered another blog that had teenage book reviews. It also provided several links that where like their blog. Such as libraries close to them, bookish, and sites that were affiliated with them.

Ohio Universities had a library on "meebo me" you could talk to. It also boasted a schedule of upcoming events. thus it served as a blog and as an information site.

What to do...what to do....

What should a company do if they receive negative comments online? Should they delete the message? Retaliate with negative comments of their own? Shut their business down and quit? Or all of thee above. Could there possibly be a better solution to these problems? Well possibly.

If we learned anything from the readings this week is that a corporation needs to be transparent to live in social media. Check that, rather, thrive in social media. If you are not fully submerged, you will ironically drown. Social media holds the doors open for company-consumer relations. And to every yin, there is a yang.

Negative comments should not be frowned upon. Put them in a different light. they are ways to improve your company. These are perfect opportunities for "constructive criticism". Mind you, comments like "Your company sucks" obviously doesn't help as much as someone complaining about something specific, such as customer service. Negative comments that have a drive and purpose need to be taken seriously and investigated.

When this happens, a business should act in accordance to social media norms:

1. Be honest.
2. Answer promptly.
3. Appreciate the input.
4. And don't be afraid to delete the "your company sucks" comment. That helps no one!

Consumers appreciate a business that takes them seriously.

Exercise 1 - Groupon

Groupon is a company that offers discounts to customers if enough buy the deal. Hence "Groupon" not "coupon". The beauty of the site is that everyone wins, consumers get great deals, while businesses see an increase in customers. I personally love the site. I went whale watching for 17$, saw see caves for 30$, went to a PGA event for 17$, and have a four hour outdoor rock climbing class for 40$. The savings truly are tremendous. Moreover, they have a formidable presence in the social market.

Groupon has strong connections in Facebook and Twitter. But they also didn't make the Coke mistake and just push their products. They get their users involved with a suggestion page and a job listing page. They also have a campaign going called "living off groupon". They select one person and have them live off of groupon for a year. You can follow it on their daily blog post.

In summation, Groupon uses social networks to keep users involved with what is going on in the company and the direction of the company.

Here is "Good Morning America" explaining Groupon:



But then a funny thing happened when I was researching the Groupon company, the Superbowl. Apparently Groupon aired a controversial commercial starring Timothy Huttton that makes light of the strife in Tibet. Here is the commercial:



The backlash on Facebook has been large. Here are some comments from Groupon's Facebook page:

"Absolutely HATE your ads. They are in such poor taste that I am dumping you on FB and removing myself from your email list."

" i love groupon, but i'm seriously disappointed in the ads. i found them to be tasteless."

This type of event is exactly what we were reading about this week. How does a company like Groupon, who lives off of social media, respond? Exactly how a transparent company should, honestly.

The CEO, Andrew Mason, responded in his blog that "Our ads highlight the often trivial nature of stuff on Groupon when juxtaposed against bigger world issues, making fun of Groupon."

The humor behind the commercial might have been ill-advised, but the intention wasn't. In tweets and blogs, Groupon responded furiously to their contingents. They did not apologize, rather they wanted people to know their true intention; that Groupon donates portions of what they make to these charities, such as the Tibetan problem. they offered links in all their blogs and tweets to let consumers know about their charity known as "savethemoney.org".

When you look at Groupon's Twitter page, their are many followers thanking them for letting them know about the charity. Here's a taste of the activity:

@chanler Thanks for spreading the word about the Save the Money charities!

@TravelFit Thanks for the Tweet!

@MsVanessaS You're welcome. That's not the experience we want people to have.

@DashTreyhorn You can check out the story behind the commercials and donate to the charities
here: http://gr.pn/f2TMmv about 4 hours ago via Sprout Social in reply to DashTreyhorn

@joewescott Thank you.

@martinize Understood. Glad you're supporting the cause.



Socialmention registers more than 300 positives and only 30 negatives in sentiment. They turned it around just as fast as users turned on them. Social Media is 24/7 and it is impressive how quickly Groupon responded.

Here are some articles on the subject:

www.clickz.com

Groupon Blog

Green Celebrity

Social Media and me

When I first started getting into social media, around 2002 with mySpace, I didn't take it that seriously. As a matter of fact I don't think most people did. Most my information was silly and messages were infrequent and superficial. But as social media progressed through the years, it has grown up.

You now have to worry who is taking pictures of you doing what because they might end up on Facebook. From a career prospective, this has to be taken seriously. Some jobs that I have applied for have asked for access to my Facebook account, or any other social media accounts I have. It's alarming to me how my social life can now effect my career.

Some people actually say you need to develop two identities in social media. One for business and one for pleasure. Some of your friends might post something you find inappropriate about your boss and that's the last thing people need to see. And quite honestly, half of them are not even your friends anymore!

When I look at social media now, it is in a more serious lighting. I monitor who I become friends with better and what I update. It's simply not about connecting with friends, but it's also about connecting with jobs and networks.

Introduction LIBR 246

Hello everyone, my name is Eric Beckrest and I'm in my third year at SJSU. I received my Bachelor's from Ohio State and decided to take my education further. I was originally going to go to campus but decided to stay in San Diego and pursue it online. The first semester definitely was challenging. I had know idea what I was doing. Furthermore, I was out of school for three years and wasn't used to the daily grind. But as I progressed, I was able to find my bearings.

Because of the online environment, I started to take a shine to everything web 2.0. I'm interested in designing sites and coding sites that make the user get the information they want quick and easy. I personally feel that the field is moving more digital because users are.

I'm hoping this class will get me better grounded in the online environment. I try to keep up with social media, but that is a task in it of itself, it's constantly moving and changing.