How the Library of Congress Uses Social Media

I found this great example of how the Library of Congress uses Social Media. There are some great lessons here.

Social Media Marketing Example #12: Library of Congress

Lisa Braziel | April 17, 2009 | 0 Comments

Continuing with the series, 26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail , I will cover The Library of Congress. Perhaps you may think that this isn’t the most exciting example to showcase on a Friday, but hopefully you will be just as pleasantly surprised as I was to see the neat ways the largest library in the world is sharing some of its unique content. And if you are a library geek like me, you’ll find yourself subscribing to some of these tactics by the time you are finished discovering them.

Here is what they are doing:

Blogging

Apparently the Library of Congress has been blogging for more than 2 years now, and while they don’t post very frequently, the manner in which they write content is fun, engaging, and puts some personality and humor back into the Library. Most of the posts are made by Matt Raymond, whose humor and relevancy keeps audiences engaged (with most posts experiencing double digit comments). Who knew that library’s could have a sense of humor?

Flickr

The Library of Congress just started this Flickr page in January to upload historical pictures from their collections. At first, I thought that it wasn’t as populated as I thought it would be, but then I realized that for many of the pictures uploaded, this is the first time they have been available in digital format (which is really cool!). Interestingly, because the staff uploading these pictures are relying on information that came with the photos (that can sometimes be incomplete/inaccurate), they “welcome your contribution of names, descriptions, locations, tags, and also your general reactions.” I’m completely in love with these collections already, and from the 80+ comments from other Flickr members on just one album, I think this is a crowd favorite and a huge success.

You Tube

To provide users with its historical video content, the Library of Congress also has a You Tube channel, LibraryofCongress . Within this channel, users can currently watch around 75 videos ranging from historical videos from Thomas Edison to speeches from the National Book Festival. The blog announced the reason why the Library started this channel by stating, “When you’re the stewards of the world’s largest collection of audiovisual materials (some 6 million films, broadcasts and sound recordings), nothing less would be expected of you”. They also noted on their blog that, “We have made a conscious decision that we’re not just going to upload a bunch of videos and then walk away.” I love that :-)

Social Networking

Facebook: It appears most efforts on Facebook are made from the fans of the Library of Congress, because I couldn’t seem to find an official page. It seems I’m not alone, as one user within one of the fan pages I reviewed noted, “Is there an official Library of Congress fan page?”. While I don’t think it is a mandatory that they have one, I think there are plenty of patrons who would be happy to join.

iTunes

So far, the Library of Congress is offering podcasts from the National Book Festival for 2008 and 2009 through its website and its iTunes account. I expect that this may expand to offer more content, but for now it is great that it is an option.

Twitter

In case you are wondering if the Library has explored Twitter,they are also there as well! They seem to use this account to share events happening at the Library of Congress, and to update users on fresh and relevant content. Currently they have a following of more than 5k followers, so it seems as if people are responding well to the effort.

Do you have any reactions to the Library’s initiatives in social media marketing? I think that they are doing a great job using the social media tools to share content in a new way. It’s likely that other library’s will begin to follow in their footsteps.

Join the Online Revolution - Engage in Radical Self Promotion

The Goal of Social Media is to Increase Sales. Really?
Social media provides the tools that enable us to have online conversations. I know, the big advice out there today about social media is don’t try to sell anything to anyone. The idea of social media is to be part of the conversation to build relationships over time. Of course, our goal in business is to sell more stuff to more people. The new revolution in business is social media marketing. If done right, it can be your key to radically improving sales. The question is how do you increase sales by using social media? Sun Tzu in the Art of War explains that strategy is determined by the terrain. Here is an overview of the social media terrain.

Your Word-of-Mouth Marketing Just Got a Megaphone
There are three ways your customers eventually find you online:
1) Search engines
2) Browsing
3) Recommendation

Susan Boyle, chances are you have heard of her, the Britain’s Got Talent superstar already has just under 40,000,000 views on one YouTube video in just 11 days. She is listed on the second page of most viewed videos of all time for YouTube. Most of us heard about Susan because her performance was recommended to us. The idea is you want your business, your products and your services to be recommended as well.

Social media gives your word-of-mouth marketing a megaphone. You have a good business, your customers love you. You just need more customers. Here is an important rule of social media marketing . . .

You Must Be Present to Win
Out of sight is out of mind. There is a saying in business, “You must win mind share before you can win market share.” Social media is where conversations and recommendations are happening. By joining the conversation you become visible and good things can happen from there.
Here are some ways to be present to win:
1) Listening to the conversations you are interested in
2) Participating in those conversations
3) Publishing information
4) Facilitating a conversation

Listening
Ask your customers which social media they use. Twitter, Facebook, forums, YouTube, Yelp, others? You can also search topics that relate to your business to find where relevant conversations are occurring online. You can use Google alerts and www.search.twitter.com to find articles, blogs, newsletters, and other online content that will help you gain insights into your customers, your industry, and discover a whole new world of ideas.

Participating
By participating on social media websites like Biznik.com, Linkedin.com, Twitter.com and hundreds more just like them you can create a profile that will show up on the front page of search engines. (I was surprised today to find I was on the front page of Google when I searched my name.) Participating in social media increases the likelihood that you will show up on the front page of search engines when customers are looking for you.

Here are some interesting ways to participate. You can start a blog, comment on other people’s blogs, comment on relevant news articles, comment on published online articles, and link to interesting information on your website and other people’s websites on Twitter.

Publishing
You can publish (for free) pictures, videos, articles and announcements. Your new customers will find your published materials and those materials will link back to your website. There are hundreds of places to publish your information.

Facilitating
Websites like Biznik.com, Linkedin.com, Facebook, Ning.com, and others like them allow you to create social networking groups for free, for your customers. You can facilitate your own conversations that will meet the specific needs of your existing and new customers.

Social Media is More like Customer Service than Sales and Marketing
There is a buying process customers go through when they are deciding to do business with you:

1) Awareness
2) Consideration
3) Purchase
4) Loyalty

Social media helps with the awareness, consideration, and loyalty aspects of the buying process. Think of social media marketing as a customer service outreach. Chances are, you are already good at customer service and social media gives you exposure to new people very quickly.

“Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About”
You know what I mean. Believe me; we are all learning how to use and how to win customers with social media. I’ve talked to several social media experts and they admit they are stilling learning and discovering. No one has all of the answers. So don’t feel bad as you feel your way through this new terrain. The best advice I have heard about social media marketing is to spend no more than one hour per day working on it. You are already busy enough. What you put online stays online and works for you 24/7. So giving it an hour a day allows you to build slowly and get better as you go.

You may not get results over night; however momentum will build as you give them something to talk about.

Radical Self-Promotion - Crawl, Walk, Run
People do business with people they know, trust, and like. Social media gets you out there. You are the face of the company. As you participate and publish you build credibility and trust. That’s why we call it “radical self-promotion.” We want to get know you. Start small. Crawl, then walk, and then run. Do one social networking site at time and then add more as you go. The good news is, you become visible, your search engine ranking improves, you encourage raving fans, you get recommendations, you get to know your customers better, you get to meet new people, and yes social media will result in more sales. I highly recommend it.

Social Media Action Plan:
1) Search online for information about your industry or line of business
2) Join and check out several online communities as you have time
3) Pick one social media website at a time and learn how to use it
4) Spend one hour a day listening, participating, publishing, and/or facilitating
5) Track website traffic, search page rank, and increased sales for effectiveness

Kirk Davis is a SBDC Certified Business Advisor at Green River Community College (GRCC). GRCC offers no-cost guidance, bringing big business advantages to small businesses. Kirk can be reached at 253.856.9595 ext. 5041 or at kdavis@greenriver.edu. Check out his blog at www.grccnxlevel.blogspot.com.

How to Start Your Own Business Workshop

The City of Auburn and Green River Small Business Assistance Center are putting on a seminar “How to Start Your Own Business” for any South King county resident interested in learning about how to start a business.

The seminar will take place Monday April 20th, 2009 from 4-6p.m.

Please see the flyer below. We also have a flyer in Spanish (e-mail me to request a flyer in Spanish). Please let folks know about it We will have ethnic bank lenders, micro-lending groups, a panel of business owners and a packet of resources available.

Registration is required. Call or e-mail 253-333-4954 or Toya Turner at tturner@greenriver.org



Check out the new Auburn Diversity Blog:
http://www.auburndiversity.blogspot.com