Where Are the Research Based Social Media Practices?

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I've been reading a lot of research about the interplay of social media and libraries in preparation for something else I'm writing. As I've been making my way through the literature, one thing keeps coming to mind again and again: there's so much that's been written on this topic, but where are the research-based and proven-effective practices?

Don't get me wrong: I love my heuristic-rule-of-thumb approach as much as the next librarian. I've written about how I approach social media and social networking many times here, not least of which was the post in which I actively suggested my own rules-of-thumb for managing a Facebook page, and what I wrote is definitely in the category of "best practices." Further, people who share their opinions about social media can provide a lot of food for thought. There are two Medium pieces that made the rounds a couple of weeks ago, "A Teenager’s View on Social Media Written by An Actual Teen," by Andrew Watts, and "An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media" from Danah Boyd, for instance, that should be read.

But really, I'm so prone to shaking my fist - metaphorically speaking - at instruction and outreach that isn't at least partially research based, that I'm shocked I hadn't come to this conclusion about social media before now. I don't have the time to conduct research like this at the moment, but I'm hoping someone out there does. I've done basic action research myself in the past, so I imagine a proof of concept study would be simple. Anyone out there interested in this idea? You don't even have to credit me if you want. I won't complain as long as I get to benefit from what you learn.

As for me, I'm going to try to read up on research done in other industries. I haven't even begun to look yet, so please feel free to share citations in the comments, but I know I always learn a lot when I look at tangential fields like how much I learned about wayfinding from looking at how hospitals arrange their signage and maps. It just seems like there's got to be research, even if it's in fields that are only vaguely related, like behavioral economics or human-computer interactions, about how to get effective results from your social media presence.

Or am I fooling myself?

I Tweet What I Tweet and That's All That I Tweet: Revisiting the Popeye Principal

Typically I don't like to revisit topics, not unless I have something new to say. However, after reading a couple of things from The Chronicle of Higher Education this past weekend, I feel the need to revisit the Popeye Principal - a post I wrote a couple of years ago - with little to no reinterpretation.

The first article I read was "Confronting the Myth of the 'Digital Native'". The article is about a university course that teaches students how to present themselves professionally on social media. (As a quick aside - knowing how to behave on social media has nothing to do with my understanding of digital natives, but maybe I'm looking at it differently because librarian or maybe it's just me.)

The second was "In Defense of Getting Personal on Twitter", written by someone who argues almost the opposite: she argues you should be tweeting things above and beyond whatever your professional identity might dictate.

Flash to this past Sunday, which I think is a nice microcosm of how I tweet...

Right side up cat bed? No, thanks. Upside down cat bed? MUST SLEEP ON IT NOW! #felineoverlords pic.twitter.com/71K2w90Kyz
— Jessica Olin (@olinj) April 27, 2014

Well said, @bfister: "Library 'thought leaders' are also not above using fear to garner attention." http://t.co/KN4ddUvJDT
— Jessica Olin (@olinj) April 27, 2014

Don’t Feed the Haters: The Confessions of a Former Troll http://t.co/iZJZdWy8U2 #highlyrecommendedread
— Jessica Olin (@olinj) April 27, 2014

I share those three here to make it obvious that I fall in the "getting personal on Twitter" camp. I tweet random song lyrics, overwhelmingly cute pictures of bats, fat activism articles, pictures of yummy libations, and so on. I always have. I hope I always will. I'm way more than an academic librarian, and my Twitter feed shows the multifaceted me. As it should. As yours should. Again, I know I'm pounding the same pulpit I did in that previous post, but it bears repeating. Not only is it something you all need to hear regularly, but it's something I forget, too. I sometimes get wobbly for a moment after tweeting unexpurgated Beastie Boys lyrics or similar. But I get over it. And just in case you didn't feel like clicking through to the original post I wrote on this topic that I linked above, here's what I think of as the money quote:

"Perhaps someone will judge me as unfit for a job because of an off-color tweet, or think me too political because of a blog post, or worry about my sanity because of my current obsession for all things Doctor Who. If that happens, then so be it. 'Life's too short' is a cliché because it's true. If someone doesn't want to hire me because of my eclectic interests, then why would I want to work for them?" 

Should you be dropping f-bombs every other tweet, sharing pictures of yourself engaged in illegal activities, or causing general mayhem on Twitter or other social networks? No. Should you be airing other's dirty laundry or calling people out personally? Nope. Should you be trolling people to make a name for yourself? Oh heck no. But neither should you be so focused on being milquetoast in order to keep from offending anyone and think yourself "employable". I know this is easy for me to say since I am currently gainfully employed in the industry I love, but let me remind you I'm also a person who hires in this industry now that I'm a library director. So, seriously... tweet on, mad tweeters, tweet on.

"On the internet nobody knows you're a dog"

You, Me, and Social Media, by Virginia Alexander

I found that as a MLIS graduate student, I had few librarian connections. I wasn’t sure where to turn, or how to start making connections with library-minded people in my area and beyond. As I became more and more interested in social media, I started seeing the value of putting myself out there online and how connections through various online platforms could impact job opportunities, friendships, and networking.

2013 has been the year of cultivating my own personal brand of librarianship through social media and my current blog. Now that I have a year under my belt working with various platforms, I only wish that I had begun earlier and certainly wish I would have begun as a graduate student.  I’ve learned many things along the way, and want to share them with you.

What are you conveying to friends, colleagues, and possible future employers online?

Many times it is hard to understand what avenue to take on social media, especially for a young librarian or graduate student. Social media is meant to be fun, but it is also a very powerful outlet. We may feel like we are connecting on a one-on-one level, but it is important to remember there are potentially multiple people viewing your profile.

If you are just beginning your social media adventure or are thinking about revamping your current one, I would like to recommend:

• START SMALL: As a librarian, I firmly believe that being on Twitter and connecting with other librarians from all over the world will help you not only learn more about your profession, but also do more at conferences, and develop a general understanding about provocative issues in the library field. Invest in learning more about an aggregator platform such as HootSuite. You can do certain keyword searches through various platforms such as #libchat.
• FIND YOUR VOICE: As your skills as a librarian develop, this will become easier. I hope to convey what type of person I am through my Twitter account, and various social media. I know that this can feel like a sticky situation because you want to show your personality while still remaining professional in the face of potential employers reading your timeline. It is a fine balance. Remember that your who you are online is an extension of who you are offline.
• FOLLOW THE CHAMPIONS: Whenever I start something I really don’t understand, I try to find the “champions” of that thing. Following PLA, ACRL, Courtney Young (ALA President Elect), and others that will guide you in understanding what is important in the library field.

Best Practices

• NO FIGHTING: Always stand up for what you believe in, but in a non-aggressive manner. Proving your point and tearing someone down are two very different things. Remember, your potential employer, or potential co-worker, could be watching. Show them that you know how to defend your opinions rather than bombard the opposing viewpoint.
• CONTENT: Understanding what you want to post about is a tricky cat to dress. Some librarians on twitter only post or retweet statuses that deal with librarianship or research. Some librarians only talk about their personal life, and some do a mix of both. For myself, I try to talk about things that excite me. I try to show other people what I am creating. I try to encourage others. As you move further into social media, what you want to achieve will become more apparent. Don’t force it.
• DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY: I would say that this is the hardest one for me. Many times people will want to fight, or will want to unfollow for various reasons. You as a young (or just new) librarian must be able to understand that it isn’t personal.
• STEP AWAY: Always know your limitations. Many times it is important to step away from social media. If you start feeling that overwhelmed, put down the device and take a moment. Chances are that you won’t miss very much. Social Media will always be there waiting for you to return.

The concept of Digital Citizenship is still fairly new, and also somewhat geared towards a younger audience. You have the opportunity to be conscious of the image you are projecting and instead of avoiding the subject all together, take the topic by the reigns and become king of your social media. You control your image! I can wager that you will find other librarian that have the same interests as yourself, and will be as lucky as me to find some wonderful friendships as well.

Virginia Alexander, also known as the SketchLibrarian, is an academic librarian in South Carolina. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, crafting, and creating. You take a look at all of her drawings, library musings, and general hatred of interstate-driving on her blog, SketchLibrarian, Three things about three things. Please also connect with her on twitter @SketchLibrarian

"Friend" vs. Friend: The Politics of Social Media

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Before I begin, I want you to know that this is not about anybody with whom I'm currently friends on Facebook, have circled on G+, follow on Tumblr or Twitter or Pinterest, or [fill in appropriate noun] on [corresponding social network]. This is an post idea I've had for a long time, and I'm finally comfortable publishing it because time has passed since the situation that inspired it.

Well, that's not entirely true. Some recent events brought this idea back to mind. You see, it finally happened. I've been at my new job since the beginning of February, and I finally felt comfortable sending a few Facebook friend requests to new coworkers. These are all people who I consider friends as well as coworkers, but it took a while to feel comfortable in that way. I didn't send or accept friend requests for what, in the life of the web, was a very long time. I'm very protective of my Facebook presence because I like the fact that everybody with whom I'm Facebook friends is someone with whom I'm really friends. But that wasn't always the case, not with jobs I've had in the past. I've never had problems saying no to friending certain people (like students currently taking a class from me), but I do have a hard time saying no to coworkers.

Why is that? I know this won't be news to most of you, but social media can be very political. A senior faculty member - someone who makes you want to pull your hair out of your head in real life - sends you a friend request, you can't really turn it down. Especially not when you're friends with every single other member of that full professor's department and you're trying to get that full professor - who happens to be the department chair - to help you further integrate information literacy into the department's curriculum. (Not a real life example, but close.) So I've said yes to lots of friend requests that made me uncomfortable, to becoming "friends" with people who made me want to scream "no."

And "friends" make me filter myself. Unconsciously I'm sure, but sometimes even consciously. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'd otherwise complain about a fight I had with my brother's ex-boyfriend's dog catcher (not even close to real life since I'm an only child) or that the Chief Paperclip Officer at work is being extra stingy with the binder clips. It's just that I'm less likely to post political or controversial things even though I firmly believe in speaking my mind, and I don't enjoy that feeling of self-censorship.

I'm sure that, as things continue to progress at my new job, I'll eventually get friend requests from people who aren't friends. I'm still not sure what I'll do. The easy way is to accept the requests and then filter those people to within an inch of their lives, but I'm not sure that's the best answer either.

What do you all think?

Social Media for Professional Development

A couple of weeks ago, I was the guest on the LiTTech Show. It was fun talking about how I use social networks for more than socializing. I shared it all around - Twitter, Facebook, Google+ - so you may have already listened to it. In case you missed it, here it is again. (Fair warning: the sound quality isn't the best.)

I'm posting it again for two reasons: (1) to make sure everyone got a chance to listen to it, but also because (2) there's a point that I didn't get to make while I was talking. I've seen a lot of talk about personal learning networks lately, and social media is the foundation of mine. Working at a small, liberal arts college has a lot to recommend it, but the relative lack of available budget for professional development can be a problem at times. That's why social media is crucial for me. Whether it's the blogs I read, or the Twitter streams I follow, or even the Pinterest boards in which I participate, there's always something to help me grow as a librarian.

So how about you? How do you use social media? Is it in a purely social (non-professional) way? Professional development? Both?

To Facebook or Not To Facebook, That Is The Question

Is it bad that I like seeing the Fail Whale? S/he's too cute & happy to hate.

I don't quite remember how we got on the topic, but I had a long conversation with a coworker last week about the approach I take to managing my library's social networking presence, and about the successes I've seen with our Facebook page. She shocked me by suggesting I offer a workshop for the campus on the topic. I balked at this, since I don't think of myself as an expert on social networking, especially since we've really only had an active presence since the beginning of this year. However, social networking does seem perfect topic for a blog post, so here we are...

Yes. You read that correctly: my library only began our active engagement with Facebook at the beginning of 2012. It might seem odd, since libraries have been on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and MySpace (remember MySpace?) for a very long time now. I'll own it: I'm the reason we hadn't done anything yet. You see, I think very few institutions do social networking right, and I didn't want my library to be yet another example of what not to do. That's how I felt for a long time. Then I read this blog post by Steven Bell and this one by Brian Mathews, and it opened my eyes. Between these two giants of academic librarianship, I found a reason for my library to embark on a social networking journey: it was another venue to talk with the passionate library users in my community. So, instead of pushing my and/or my library's agenda out through Facebook and Twitter, I mostly post things that I think will make our followers think or smile or even laugh. Also, and I'm not sure where I got this idea, but I once read or someone told me that the reason people follow a Twitter stream &/or like a Facebook page is because they want to hear from that entity, so I post every weekday - without fail. 

Here are some examples of what I've posted:

• Important information like when the library has a change in hours;
• Interesting new acquisitions (almost exclusively popular materials);
• Relevant news items such the death of a famous author/musician or award announcements;
• lots and lots of pretty &/or funny pictures that are at least tangentially related to the library;
• every once in a great while, something just for the fun of it.

Admittedly, I'm still experimenting with different ratios of this kind of post to that, with time of day, and so on, but I know I'm achieving my aim. How do I know it's working? I've seen a slow but steady growth in our  following, and that tells me that I'm doing something right. More importantly, though, people "like" our posts - people who don't work in the library. I've even had people seek me out in person to tell me how much they liked something I posted. That tells me that I'm reaching those passionate library users, and that's what I wanted.

So how about you? What makes you like &/or follow a institutional account? What are your pet peeves? What makes you unlike/unfollow? If you are in charge of an institutional account, how do you pick what you're going to post?

Crazy Librarian Lady, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being a Nerd

Whether you've been one of us for decades or you're in the process of joining our ranks (just got your first job in a library, just started a library science graduate program, etc.), we are all aware of the librarian stereotype held by the rest of the world. There she is - gray hair in a bun, glasses pushed down to the edge of her nose, a stack of books beside, a card catalog behind, and a prim expression on her face. So not me it's not funny.

However, that's not the stereotype I want to address today. Instead, I want to talk about a stereotype that I do fit: the librarian nerd. I didn't realize how much of a stereotype I am until Joe Hardenbrook came up with his fabulously funny Librarian Twitter Bingo. If you restrict the game to Twitter, you can fill out 17 of the 25 blocks. Heck, you could get bingo based on my tweets from the last week alone. If you go further and expand the game to include what I talk about in real life, you can fill in every single box on the game board.

Once I realized how stereotypical I am of members of my online community, I had a mixed reaction. I'm still not 100% sure whether I should bothered by it or proud that I am such an exemplary member of my tribe. I've mostly settled on pride since this is just another instance of me letting my nerd flag fly.

What I'm trying to say here is also another instance of one of my lietmotifs: in everything you do, whether it's a professional or personal activity, you should be yourself. So if you're obsessed with this guy:

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Or this gal:

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Or even this kind of music:

...it's all cool. Be you. You never know when being yourself will come in handy. It certainly helped me find my place in this profession.

What about you? Do you fit any librarian stereotypes? If so, share details.

EDIT: If you don't fit these stereotypes, don't feel like you have to leave libraries. Those of us who do fit the Librarian Nerd mold have gravitated towards each other on social networks. It's the allure of having someone with whom to fangirl/fanboy squee over the teaser trailer for the new season of Doctor Who.

However, the point I'm trying to make is that you should be yourself. I posted the Frankie Yankovic song precisely because I have a colleague who loves polka. My point is the same as Marlo Thomas', librarians should be "free to be... you and me."

The Popeye Principle, or The Joys of Tweeting, Facebooking, Pinning, and Plussing Whatever I Want

I have a confession to make: I'm a random tweeter. On Twitter, I talk about comic books. I talk about cats (a lot). I talk about chocolate and music and science fiction television shows with cult-like followings. I also talk about higher education, the publishing industry, and libraries. That's the point of Twitter, in my mind: to talk about the things you care about. (For the record, I'm just as varied on Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.) I care about my career, but it's not all I am. I think of this as the Popeye Principle, because I am what I am. And I refuse to filter what I say on social networking sites out of fear of some mythical future employer.

Let me say this again: You cannot live your life worrying about what future employers may or may not think about you based on your Twitter stream, your Facebook page, your Pinterest boards, etc.

Joe Hardenbrook wrote a wonderful (and popular) guest post for my blog about how you need to look at future employers to see whether or not they'll be a good fit, and the Popeye Principle is based on a similar philosophy. Perhaps someone will judge me as unfit for a job because of an off-color tweet, or think me too political because of a blog post, or worry about my sanity because of my current obsession for all things Doctor Who. If that happens, then so be it. "Life's too short," is a cliché because it's true. If someone doesn't want to hire me because of my eclectic interests, then why would I want to work for them?

If you don't believe me, then believe Randall Munroe of xkcd. He explained the Popeye Principle (although by a different name) better than I could ever imagine doing it.

Dreams

So what do you think? Am I wrong? Right? Why?