THE TECH SETEllyssa Kroski, Series Editor

Sarah K. Steiner

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries

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

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries

THE TECH SETEllyssa Kroski, Series Editor

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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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FOREWORD

Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries is a one-stop manual forhow to plan, write, and implement a strategic vision and mission forsocial media within your organization. Author Sarah K. Steiner walksreaders through how to do everything from conducting an audienceenvironmental scan, to carrying out a SWOT analysis, to developinginternal guidelines for social media activities. This top-notch primeris full of tips, worksheets, and mini case studies illustrating how to puttogether a stellar strategic plan, including forming a task force, settingup a planning model, and garnering administrator and peer buy-in.Readers will walk away from this volume knowing exactly how to crafttheir own unique strategic plan and how to set it in motion in theirlibrary.

The ten new TECH SET volumes are designed to be even more cutting-edge than the original ten. After the first ten were published and wereceived such positive feedback from librarians who were using thebooks to implement technology in their libraries as well as train theirstaff, it seemed that there would be a need for another TECH SET. AndI wanted this next set of books to be even more forward-looking andtackle today’s hottest technologies, trends, and practices to helplibraries stay on the forefront of technology innovation. Librarians haveceased sitting on the sidelines and have become technology leaders intheir own right. This series was created to offer guidance and inspira-tion to all those aspiring to be library technology leaders themselves.

I originally envisioned a series of books that would offer accessible,practical information that would teach librarians not only how to usenew technologies as individuals but also how to plan and implementparticular types of library services using them. And when THE TECHSET won the ALA’s Greenwood Publishing Group Award for the BestBook in Library Literature, it seemed that we had achieved our goal of

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becoming the go-to resource for libraries wanting hands-on technologyprimers. For these new ten books, I thought it was important to incor-porate reader feedback by adding two new chapters to each volumethat would better facilitate learning how to put these new technologiesinto practice in libraries. The new chapter called “Social Mechanics”discusses strategies for gaining buy-in and support from organizationalstakeholders, and the additional “Developing Trends” chapter looksahead to future directions of these technologies. These new chaptersround out the books that discuss the entire life cycle of these techinitiatives, including everything from what it takes to plan, strategize,implement, market, and measure the success of these projects.

While each book covers the A–Zs of the technology being discussed,the hands-on “Implementation” chapters, chock-full of detailed projectinstructions, account for the largest portions of the books. Thesechapters start off with a basic “recipe” for how to effectively use thetechnology in a library and then build on that foundation to offermore and more advanced project ideas. Because these books aredesigned to appeal to readers of all levels of expertise, both the noviceand advanced technologist will find something useful in these chapters,as the proposed projects and initiatives run the gamut from the basichow to create a Foursquare campaign for your library to how to buildan iPhone application. Similarly, the new Drupal webmaster will benefitfrom the instructions for how to configure a basic library website,while the advanced web services librarian may be interested in theinstructions for powering a dynamic library website in the cloud usingAmazon’s EC2 service.

I have been following Sarah’s work in the field for the past few yearsand was thrilled when she was named a Library Journal Mover & Shakerin 2011. Sarah K. Steiner was the perfect choice to write this book onStrategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries. Not only is she incrediblyexperienced and fluent in this area, but she far exceeded my expec-tations with the depth of coverage she was able to achieve with thistitle. This is an important book that every library will want to have intheir collection.

Ellyssa KroskiManager of Information Systems

New York Law Institutehttp://www.ellyssakroski.com/

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/ellyssakroski@yahoo.com

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Ellyssa Kroski is the Manager of Information Systems at the New York Law Instituteas well as a writer, educator, and international conference speaker. In 2011, she wonthe ALA’s Greenwood Publishing Group Award for the Best Book in Library Literaturefor THE TECH SET, the ten-book technology series that she created and edited.She’s also the author of Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals, a well-reviewed book on web technologies and libraries. She speaks at several conferencesa year, mainly about new tech trends, digital strategy, and libraries. She is anadjunct faculty member at Pratt Institute and blogs at iLibrarian.

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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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