Engaging the Academic Community

Engaging the Academic CommunityJennifer Rian Innovative Services LibrarianJennifer.Rian@luther.edu

Jennifer Self Public Services SpecialistJennifer.Self@luther.edu

Our home at Luther College

2,500 studentsNearly 1000 students participate in music8 Rhodes scholarsRecognized as a national leader in campus sustainability effortsDecorah, IAPopulation 8,000Named to the Forbes Americas Prettiest Towns list

For anyone who doesnt know about Luther College, its an undergraduate liberal arts college affiliated with the Lutheran Church located in the adorable small town of Decorah, IA. Were known for our music program and campus sustainability.Preus Librarys Facebook originsWere going to focus on Facebook as a social media tool for engagement. Our page started in 2008. Like most library pages at the time, posts shared useful information, but didnt draw folks into a conversation. Our approach was more formal and tended to focus on sharing standard library messaging, just on a new platform.Our current Facebook presence

In the spring of 2012, we launched a new Facebook strategy focused on engaging our community. Our page changed from a static series of links to a vibrant space for Luther students and faculty to interact. As an example, heres our most successful post, a video that reached over 10,000 people, earned 136 likes and was shared 19 times. Lets watch![PLAY VIDEO]Guiding principles with examplesNow opportunities like that dont come running through your library every day. Heres how we capture the everyday and not-so-everyday moments in Preus Library using 9 guiding principles that we follow when posting on Facebook. Well share some specific examples of these principles in action, along with tools for monitoring your success.

One of our first clues that we were on to something with these principles came in the form of this unsolicited post from an alum, which we got a few months after launching our new strategy. We were so excited that he noticed our new focus on images and took the time to communicate that.1. Its not all about youFirst Facebook guiding principle: Its not all about you. To modify a quote from library marketing guru Ned Potter, only [post] about your library one time in four. Social media is a conversational medium, not broadcast. Dont be that person at the party who only talks about themselves. Look for opportunities to share information and ideas from across campus and beyond your college. http://hacklibschool.com/10-golden-rules-to-take-your-librarys-twitter-account-to-the-next-level/2. Feature your community

Second guiding principle: Feature your community.

Heres Luther student Berta showing one of her favorite banned books as part of our Mug Shots gallery. This picture is ten thousand times better than a close-up cover shot of The Hunger Games or a photo of a static Banned Books Week display.3. Know your rock starsNumber 3: Know your rock stars. In this picture we were congratulating our student Charles, who had just gotten a job at Google. Feature students who have broad social networks and have them tag themselves and like the photo. If youre anything like me, you might feel a little pushy the first time you ask a student to tag him or herself in your photo, but its worth it! Having the students name connected to your Facebook page will:Ensure instant engagementAllow the students friends to see the image (even if they dont like your page yet)Encourage others to engage with the image tooThis photo received nearly 50 likes and generated lots of conversation.4. Tone: Website versus Facebook

Number 4: Consider the difference in tone between your website and your Facebook page. Neither of these photos would be posted on our website, but we loved sharing them on our Facebook page (and our students seemed to enjoy them too!). In general, we see our website as the librarys professional, more serious digital presence, while social media is our chance to let loose and have some fun.5. Embrace your whimsical sideAlong those lines, we recommend that you keep a dose of whimsy at the ready. Strike the right tone, and folks will enjoy seeing a playful side of the library. For example, heres an exchange that ended with a student saying, Youre a sassy one, Preus Library!.We watch for opportunities to remind folks that librarians can be light-hearted and silly too.6. Seek strategic partnerships Number 6: Seek strategic partnerships with parts of your community that are already engaged. At Luther, our music department is a big deal. They won this Emmy for a televised Christmas concert, so we displayed the statue in the library in conjunction with an archives exhibit. We received 26 likes on the photo and increased foot traffic in the building.7. Make em curious

IMAGE: Cardboard boxNumber 7: make em curious. We were turning this cardboard box into a giant e-reader to promote upcoming programming. We took a picture half way through the project and invited people to guess what it was going to be. That turned out to be a great conversation starter, generating a number of comments--the majority of which were surprisingly from faculty.

8. Make use of internet trends

Number 8: Make use of internet trends and invite your community to contribute. When memes were hot we invited people to create some for us as part of National Library Week. As you can see here, students had a lot of fun with success kid. Keep up with todays internet communication trends and use them to your advantage. Yesterdays meme may be todays gif.9. Give stuff away and get in return

IMAGE: Pencil case and/or Hobbit and/or stack of mugsAnd our final guiding principle: A simple giveaway goes a long way in generating excitement and relevant content for your Facebook page. Think about the kind of feedback you want from your community (for us its been finals study tips, library favorites, senior research experiences). Reward that feedback with simple giveaways every once in a while. Prizes dont have to be elaborate or expensive, students will do a lot for some pencils and a mini-stapler. Tools you can usehttp://socialmediamarketinggirl.com/social-media-mayhem-what-you-can-do/Now that weve reviewed our guiding principles for content, lets acknowledge a reality we all face: a limited amount of time and energy to manage social profiles. How do you do it all and do it well? Here are a few tools weve used to lighten the load. Go mobilehttp://www.iphoneography.com/journal/tag/ipod-touch-with-cameraIf youre not already there, go mobile. Relying on a photo based strategy for success, one of the best investments we made was to purchase a dedicated iPod touch. We can quickly go where the action is and upload photos in the moment to maximize engagement. Borrow from and share with othersNext, borrow and share from others in terms of content--were libraries after all, this is kind of our thing. This graphic was modified from the original found on the shared dropbox folder Libraries on Facebook managed by Ben Bizzle from the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library. A lot of libraries are in this game, leverage the collective for success. Listen using TwitterAlso, remember, social media is conversational, listening is half of it. Search twitter on a regular basis for mentions of your library. You can use advanced search to target tweets within 15 miles of your location. Reach out and respond when appropriate. Remember what we said about whimsy? Dont be shy in reaching out and having some fun on Twitter the payoff can be great.Track core insights If youve logged into Facebook insights recently, youve probably been bombarded with a freakish amount of information. Dont fall down the data rabbit hole. We find it more helpful to choose a small number of datapoints that are significant and export them into a separate spreadsheet. Every Friday we pull number of fans, posts, and total likes, comments, and shares for our posts. Along with a brief description of what was notable about this week in social media.Screenshot and share successSpeaking of tracking success, if you have a post or campaign that works really well, capture a screenshot (or two) with some notes and put it into an on-going slideshow for the academic year. This is a great tool for sharing whats working, particularly for those colleagues who are uninvolved with social media efforts. Its also useful for continuing to tweak your strategy. Know Your Community

Grow Your Participation

Show Your Success

By Pictofigo (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsWrapping it up. . .Wrapping it up, three things to remember for engaging your community on Facebook. First, know your community and provide a platform for them to shine. Next, grow your participation with photos, tagging, and giveaways. And finally show your success to colleagues via spreadsheets and slideshows.