Elisabeth Leonard on Libraries

Liaison responsibilities

Until June, I was chair of the ALA/RUSA CODES liaison with users committee.  Our committee has spent the last year on a project; we wanted to know what the responsibilities are for liaisons in academic and public libraries.  At the Charleston Conference, Sarah Jeong, Peggy Ridlen and I presented some of the results from the academic library survey.  Have a look at our presentation (http://www.slideshare.net/eleonard/liaisonfor-charleston-final) -- and if you have any questions or comments, let me know!

Advice for marketing with viral videos

Advice from AdAge on viral marketing:

1. Lesson one: Tap into the video community
   Online-video creators and watchers are a large and active community.
2. Lesson two: Quality of the video is not what determines its popularity
   "Though popular videos tend to be short, funny and shocking, there are other variables that have as much influence on getting the video seen. Many second and third-tier sites will give entertaining sponsored videos preferred placement for relatively small amounts of media spend."
3. Lesson three: A video of a dog skateboarding can get 3 million views, but that doesn't mean your commercial will
   "While some clever advertisements (with surprise endings, humor or sex) do become viral, most ads don't translate online, and it's a rare promotional video that gets millions of views."
   His advice: product placement in a video, rather than the stereotypical ad.
4. Lesson four: Online-video marketing is not just about contests
   "While contests are pervasive tools to engage online video creators and audiences, they're just one tactic of many. Smarter brands are connecting directly with prominent viral video creators."
   By which he means that you work with the video creator...something like, "This video brought to you by..."  Libraries may not be able to pay to sponsor a video, but we might be able to find other ways to persuade someone to partner with us.  Increased exposure?  Good will in the community?
5. Lesson five: "Tagging" your video with keywords doesn't get them seen
   "Keywords may get your video to rank in searches, but there are far more effective ways to get your videos seen, such as title and thumbnail."
   The author doesn't say this, but it makes sense to me...
   Or, a funny or clever video with a lot of hits and people linking to it-- think about how Google moves  items to the top of a list.  If you can  be involved in a viral video  not only will people be linking to it on their pages, they will be forwarding it to their friends.  That's what viral is all about.
6. Lesson six: Consumers might see your video, but that doesn't mean they'll visit your site and buy
   My comment?  This is true for any advertising!  So, before you advertise, decide what your goal is and how you will measure it.  And remember, just because your first effort doesn't work, it doesn't mean the method is ineffective.  You may need to try a different video or find a better way to get people to notice your video.
7. Paying for a well-produced video won't necessarily increase your brand's ROI
   "A $250,000 production cost makes a return on investment difficult. Since fewer than 2% of people will visit a website after a video, a good ROI requires a low production cost and the highest number of views possible."
   The author makes a good point!  Not only do few libraries have that kind of money, I think that a really slick video from a library might actually backfire.  How would the community respond to that kind of spending?  And would it make our community suspicious of the message?
8. Lesson eight: Not all video portals are created equal
   "The vast majority of online viewing occurs on YouTube."
   Nuff said.
9. Lesson nine: You may be a conservative organization, but don't let that keep you from this medium
   "Conservative legal and public-relations policies have prevented many marketers from entering into a dialogue with prominent video creators....Quietly watching from the sidelines is no insurance policy and certainly won't grow revenue."
   My take?  You won't know if it can work for you until you give it a real try.
   
10. Lesson 10: This medium will become measurable
    "As it matures, it will become as measurable as search. But for the time being, the most controllable variables are cost of production and total views."
    I say again, figure out why you are doing it and once you know that, decide on the appropriate metrics.

Facebook and libraries

Someone asked me last week if I had an example of social networking and libraries gone wrong.  I used Facebook as my example, saying that when librarians have told me they are in facebook, I have asked who their friends are and that they have only named other libraries or librarians.  Well, I now have 2 examples that lead me to eat crow!  And I really couldn't be happier....

As my momentary need to save face, let me say that I am all for libraries involvement in social networking, I just think that if we enter a social space, we need to match our behavior to fit within the environment we are entering.  And that's what I hadn't seen libraries do well.

On to my new examples....

The first comes from a librarian in California who uses Facebook to communicate with her students.  It lets the students know that she is available in a way that they like and in a space they use.

The second comes from UNC Greensboro.  When I added myself to Facebook, within hours I had a friend -- Irma Minerva,   who represent the Library's Chat service.  Lynda Kellam tells me that students at UNCG have befriended Irma and that they find out about the library's events because of postings Irma makes in Facebook!

My last thought for you, which comes from Lynda, is that libraries need to take the value of communicating with our students and departments through the social aspect of a campus seriously. We should not dismiss it.

I agree!  When we are able to authentically integrate ourselves into social networks, it is for the  benefit of the library and for the benefit of our community.

Thoughts from the Geek Squad

Some quick notes from the founder of the Geek Squad, from a video taken at IDEA.
He said:

With blogs and YouTube, customer no longer feel the same desire to write their complain directly to you.
Use a Google alert to discover it
Then fix it
And
Every problem we face has been solved elsewhere -- steal the solution from the hospitality industry for example

Alright, so here's what I think libraries can take from this:
We do focus groups, surveys, interviews, and observations to determine what our patrons want/feel/think.  I don't know too many libraries looking to see what patrons have blogged about them.  It's a great idea to add that to our repertoire!
As much as I think of libraries as a service industry, I confess I haven't really looked at the hospitality for ideas!  And I think it is a natural match.  Next time I travel, I'll be looking at my experience in a different way.

Defining innovation

Who knew a definition could be so hard?!  Last Saturday, Robert McDonald and I presented on innovation at the Charleston Conference.  And while we never did our innovation rap, I think we managed to make our point that innovation can have structure, it doesn't need to rely on serendipity (in fact, if an organization supports innovation, serendipity can be supported as well). 

Today is a more difficult talk: it is for my doctoral seminar and I have 10 minutes to present my findings.  My findings so far?  Just defining innovation can be a struggle!  So, my 10 minutes will be on WHAT IS INNOVATION?  Is innovation any new idea?  Is any new idea invention, and any first instance of the idea at work innovation?  Does innovation need to be disruptive or does incremental change count?  It's a murky world, the researchers world.  I am still reading, so my final definition may not come for a few months, but I tend toward the definitions that make a distinction between invention and innovation, where innovation adds value.  If the definitions intrigue you and you want a reading list, let me know!

Where is the library heading?

I have been in Charleston all week.  The Charleston Conference is drawing to a close.  This morning I listened to Rick Anderson and Scott Plutchak talk about open access and the implications OA might have on libraries.  Rick referred to traditional librarianship, alluding to the idea that most of the library's traditional functions are becoming undervalued by our communities as the patrons either find other sources for the services and goods we provide OR they find that they simply aren't interested at all.  The discussion from there turned to areas Rick sees as open for libraries to move into, to replace the functions that are becoming obsolete.  He included becoming an information creator using avenues such as institutional repositories; becoming a local archive and data services; and becoming a virtual journal provider.  Now, I'm not sure that I quite got what he meant here, but in my groggy, caffeine deprived mind, this meant that there is an opportunity for libraries to support researchers by giving them personalized journals.  It seemed like monthly course packs that would be customized to the researchers interests.  Now, whether I got this right (and I apologize if I didn't), I am interested in the idea.  I know librarians who regularly monitor research areas and the library's collections, printing off long lists of materials in hopes of enticing faculty to read materials in the collection.  Preparing a virtual journal as I have described would truly be enticing to many faculty I know, much more interesting than the bibliographies I have seen circulating!  So, I pass this idea along to you, dear reader.  If anyone has the time and money to do it, I can only imagine how wildly popular it would be....