Marketing Critique: Multnomah County Library

The Multnomah County Library system in Portland, Oregon, which consists of 19 libraries, has a vast web presence that includes pages on Facebook and MySpace, a Twitter feed, and a readers’ blog.  They market themselves quite well on the web by using each of the primary social networking tools available. Instead of focusing on one or two of the sites, they have a well developed presence on each of them through which they are surely reaching many users.

The main Facebook page has 11,487 people who ‘like’ them. They post at least once a day and sometimes as much as two or three times. Their posts include photos, information about events, links to newspaper articles that would be of interest to users, and book or author suggestions. The info tab includes the main phone number and a link to the official social software policy; also included on a separate tab is an RSS aggregator to the blog. Many of their posts get comments, and when a user directs a comment to them, the library is quick to give an answer to the specific question asked. Users feel free to post photos to the library page, and the whole feel is very warm and quite like a community linking each of the individual branches.

The MySpace page seems a bit lacking with only 258 friends. Granted, MySpace is aimed at a younger audience, so fewer people would be likely to ‘friend’ an entity such as a library on MySpace. The last login to their MySpace page was over a week ago, the last blog post was in April 2010, and the last status update was in December 2009. There is great room for the Multnomah library to improve in the MySpace arena, though there are a number of helpful things present on the page, such as a link to contact information for reference questions, a link to subscribe to the e-newsletter, and general contact information. If the library were to devote more time to the MySpace page by reaching out and marketing events, conversing with friends, and updating photos, the page could be revived. In fact, the same things that are being posted on the Facebook page could easily transfer to the MySpace page for those users who prefer the latter venue.

The Multnomah County library’s Twitter feed is being followed by 1,892 people, which is an about average figure for an organization on Twitter. The feed is updated regularly throughout the day; today, for example, there have been five updates. Three of those five tweets were event notifications, one was a link to an article posted by the local newspaper, and one was a reply to a user that advertising their “ask MCL” service. The library is using a good mixture of ways to promote their brand through short tweets on Twitter, and they’re using it often. They dialogue with fellow tweeters consistently and answer questions. Their tweets are often retweeted, and despite the number of followers being on the small side compared to Facebook, they are doing a great job keeping up with their brand on Twitter.

The library has a blog that is unique but underdeveloped. I discovered the link by searching the website for ‘blog.’ As a follower of the library on Twitter and Facebook, I had not heard of the blog before I looked for it. The blog is called “An Embarrassment of Riches,” and it consists of short writings about materials the library has as written by library staff and guest bloggers. Blogs were posted six times in the month of September. There is a link to staff bios, and it appears that any person can blog whenever he or she feels so inclined. Most blogs have no comments, but a few have up to two comments per post. I think the idea of the Multnomah County blog is a solid and beneficial one, but the layout of the blog caused me great confusion. I found myself searching extensively for some sort of explanation for how the blog was organized and only found it when I scrolled down through the first page and into the second; once there, I found a short ‘about’ link that gave me little information about how the blog was run. Underneath the ‘about’ section is a link to a short ‘guidelines and disclaimer’ section that I think is a great addition to the page as it helps readers to know what is expected of the bloggers and commenters. It also links to the full Multnomah County Library’s social software policy statement.

The social software policy statement is brief but informative. It states that the library’s use of social software is “intended to create a welcoming and inviting online space where library users will find useful and entertaining information and can interact with library staff and other library users” (Social Software Policy, 2008). They have also smartly listed the things that will be removed if found in comments, including spam, threats, and images.

Overall, the Multnomah County Library has developed a strong online presence, but there is room for improvement. If I were hired as a social media marketing consultant, there are two things I would suggest they improve. The first area is in their MySpace presence, which is seldom updated and has few connections to friends. Perhaps they feel they do not have time to keep up with both Facebook and MySpace, the former being the one of the two that is done remarkably well, but I believe there would be nothing wrong with duplicating information from one site to the other. Users might overlap, but for the most part, I have found that people either prefer one site or the other, so most would not be irritated by the information being repeated twice. The second area for improvement is in the blog, which is a good idea but has not been marketed or organized well. The interface is confusing for something such as me who expects a typical blog layout. Advertising the blog posts through tweets and Facebook and MySpace status updates would go a long way in spreading the word about the great things being written there.

"Social Software Policy for Users." Multnomah County Library. 05 Sept. 2008. http://www.multcolib.org/about/pol-socsoft.html.

Libraries in Social Networking

Question: Do you think libraries should be building presence and providing services in MySpace and/or Facebook?
My answer: Absolutely!...given the circumstances of the site.

I believe that facebook has a great venue for libraries to build web presence and provide services through answering questions or connecting with users' concerns. Myspace, on the other hand, doesn't have me as convinced as a proper place to build a library presence. This is an example of what I think of as a bad, might-as-well-not-even-be-there-because-you're-embarrassing-yourself myspace page as built by a library. They have clearly used the features available to them, but in my opinion, that's not saying a lot. Myspace has not evolved to a place that is easy to personalize; shouldn't libraries be able to create a page as an organization as they can on facebook? To have to put an age, relationship status, and whether you smoke or drink is quite silly to me. I don't really know enough about myspace to say whether these features can be modified and this library simply didn't do it, but I do not think libraries have the proper venue to connect via myspace.
One could argue that any place users are present, libraries should be there as well. I would say this is false. If there is not an easy way for a library to look organized and respectable, they probably should not try to make their presence known on that site.
Facebook, on the other hand, allows libraries to make a page that is different from the ones individuals create for themselves. In this example, the Multnomah County Library does a great job of looking professional, organized, and giving contact information, photos, and status updates about events.
If myspace were to evolve and develop some of its features to be more organization friendly, it could go a long way in allowing libraries to be where their users are, but for now, stick to facebook all you libraries of the world.

Reflections on Twitter



I created my twitter account (@ChrissyLJohnson) a month ago, but I finally forced myself to become active on it for the first time yesterday. I tweeted a few things, found some people to follow, and searched for an app to use with my smart phone. I also did a bit of reading on the twitter site about the use of #hashtags, @mentions, and other twitterisms. After spending a few hours on all of this, I came to my own conclusion that twitter is not as banal as I originally thought it was; also, it seems to serve a different function than I thought it did.
I have thought for years that I had no need for twitter since I use facebook. Upon signing into twitter for the first time, it simply looked like a much more stripped down version of facebook. You find friends, you tell them what you are doing, they tell you what they are doing, and you converse about it. In trying to find people to follow on twitter, I didn't care to follow anyone I was already friends with on facebook since I get status updates, links, and personal information from their facebook account. I did, however, find myself looking for companies and organizations to follow, such as my church group, my undergraduate college, my favorite NFL team, and my favorite breakfast place. In theory, I don't really care about having access to a complete profile and photo archives of SJSU SLIS, but I would like to be notified if they have anything they feel is important enough to tweet. The same goes for other businesses, groups, and organizations. I would also like use hashtags to contribute to a bigger conversation through my tweets if I feel the need. I have decided that for me, facebook is for friends and family, and twitter is for companies, organizations, and the occasional celebrity tweeter (c'mon--who can refuse the entire cast of the Office on twitter?).
From this vein of thought, a multi-branch library system like the Multnomah County Libraries in Portland might not be able to do a lot with facebook in terms of posting, keeping up with comments, and replying to inquires. Perhaps they could choose to create a page on facebook so that it's present but use twitter to update through twitter and link profiles with facebook to also update on that site. In this way, patrons can find them on two of the most popular social networking sites, but the effort is really only going into twitter for the most part and facebook for the occasional profile revamping.
This idea might be too simplistic if an organization or library really wants to delve into social software, but for those who find the idea of being everywhere at once overwhelming, this is a fairly simple possibility.

RSS Feeds: What I Learned

Time for truth telling--
I feel ashamed.

I cannot believe I had not set up an RSS reader before this week. This time around, I didn't create one because I felt like I should as a future library professional (as was the case with creating a Twitter account). Since I have already admitted my social software inadequacy, I will go a step further and describe how I have been reading blogs up to this point...for a few years now. I have a folder saved under my Internet Explorer favorites titled 'blogs.' Ever week or more, I would go through the folder and click on each link to bring up a blog to check for new content that may or may not have been updated since I last checked. It was a time waster to say the least.
Furthermore, I have no excuse since I knew about the benefits of utilizing RSS feeds. In the first class I took with SLIS, Online Social Networking: Technology and Tools, I learned about the benefits of RSS feeds. I recall this video helping me to understand them, and I even bookmarked it for future use. I recall setting up an RSS reader through Internet Explorer but being dissatisfied with the format of the software or something silly like that. Of course, Google (aka the god of all things social software) has an amazing RSS reader through google.com/reader. In creating my reader, it was simply linked to my existing Google email account. I added each of my blogs (all 33 of them) and created folders to organize them. Here are the folders I created and some individual shout-outs:

1. LIBR 246: where all my lovely classmates' blogs are collected for easy reading and commenting
2. Photography: the best way to view lovely photos on a single high-res format. For example, Jenny Bedard's photo blog is one that I still follow. She took my husband's and my engagement and wedding photos. I swear she keeps getting better and better.
3. Cooking: I love to follow cooking blogs partially for the recipes and tips but mostly for the beautiful photos that accompany them. The Pioneer Woman Cooks is my favorite.
4. Fashion: Okay, I think we're following a trend here. Although I'm far from a fashionista, I love following a few fashion blogs because of the crisp and beautiful photos. For the content I love What I Wore, and for photos I love Sea of Shoes.
5. General: I also follow friends' blogs for general merriment, such as my friend Russell's adventure blog (think Jack Kerouac) and, of course, Postsecret. Sunday=postsecret day for me.

Initially setting up my reader was time consuming. It probably took a few hours since I had to add each link, navigate through broken links a few times, organize them into folders, and 'read' through each blog so as to start my reader a-new the next time I log on to find new content. This wasn't a necessity--I could have marked old posts I had already seen as already read, but it gave me a chance to star recipes or blogs with links in them that I wanted to save. That's the impression I get from RSS--it's simple and eventually a real life saver, but the process of developing and compiling the data is a big time consuming.

Suffice it to say, I'm basically crazy about RSS now. I told my husband that I'll be setting one up for him, and he's all for it. I also love how libraries are starting to utilize RSS in their catalogues and not just in blogs. Being able to receive updated catalog info about books being added on a particular subject is awesome and frankly pretty mind blowing to me. As I learn more and more about what libraries can do to interact with patrons on the web, the more I'm itching to get inside of one and start making things like blogs, catalogue RSS, and social network connections happen.
Thank you google reader for making my life simpler :)

Execise 2: Through the World of Library Blogs

The eight blogs I subscribed to via RSS feed (Google Reader) are:

Class requirements

1. In the Library with the Lead Pipe
2. The Librarian's Commute
3. The Distant Librarian
4. Librarian by Day
5. David Lee King

Personal choices and why I chose them

    6. Librarian in Black
    7. Genre-X
    8. Library Suggestion Blog

1. What do you see as the differences between the five blogs I asked you to subscribe to in terms of the type of blog and type of post (genre, length, etc.).

In the Library with the Lead Pipe initially struck me as very un-blog-like as the first page consists of one long post complete with bibliography of sources at the end. I decided I didn't like it because it didn't offer a short, witty blurb with a few links and pictures, but I decided I better read the 'about' section. In doing so, I learned that the blog is a collaborative effort for the improvement of the library field. Their purpose is not to quickly enlighten/entertain but to create an online presence that can be academic and useful for librarianship.
The Librarian's Commute is based on an academic librarian's work and musings that I found to be incredibly insightful. She posted at length about the process she is going through to collect a copy of each text book on campus in order to have them on hold at the library--fascinating! Her posts are not trying to be academic or showy--just thoughtful and personal.
The Distant Librarian is a blog as written by a university webmaster/librarian. His posts are short, informative, and really not my cup of tea whatsoever. He writes about useful technologies to use in the library, but I know so little about that field that almost nothing he posted had any relevance to me.
Librarian by Day posts are also of the technological media influence, but this particular blogger's posts have more interesting topics mixed in than simply the newest software applications. I appreciate the style and layout of her blog and posts.
David Lee King's blog combines a number of interesting topics to interest readers and does so with links, video, and photos. He discusses twitter, collaborative tools, iPhone apps, and other interesting and applicable topics that all readers and librarians can relate to in one way or another. His writing style is clear and straight to the point.



2. What types of posts do you find most appealing to read and why?

One of the articles we read this week about story telling showed me exactly how to make a blog appealing in a way that I hadn't quite put into concrete methodology. By becoming transparent, discussing the process of 'a day in the life' or simply how a library functions, a story takes place that is so much more interesting than simply stating the facts. Even if a blog post is not based on a subject that is of interest to me, I will likely read through it if it's telling an interesting story simply because I love stories.


3. What three library blogs did you subscribe to? Please include a 1-3 sentence description of each one.

I chose the Librarian in Black primarily because of the name and then because I was so impressed with what she had to say about music in the library. She deals with everyday issues of the library world and either offers ideas, suggestions, or links she has found from other sites or blogs. She has quite a collection of blogs that consist primarily of a list of short snippets of links and descriptions of them.
Genre-X fascinated me because it is a public library blog specifically for 20 and 30-somethings. They post reviews to books that would be of interest to that age group as well as many events set up targeted those patrons. So often I hear of libraries focusing on children, teens, and adults, but the ever-present 20 and 30-somethings (for lack of a better term) fit into a different group--a group who still want to have Guitar Hero World Tour Competitions and white elephant gift book swaps (how freakin' cool is that?!).
The final blog I chose is of an entirely different and quite controversial nature--a library suggestion blog made by Virginia Commonwealth University. For a library to openly advertise a blog entirely for suggestions is a bold move. They not only put themselves out there for criticism, but they also have to commit to answering the concerns of students and staff in some way whether it be by explaining why a thing can't be done a certain way or by implementing the changes to do it.

4. Based on the blogs you chose, what are some of the characteristics that you think make a library blog successful?

As stated above, I absolutely value when a blog is told in story form. I also appreciate when a blogger is confident enough to state when something is wrong and needs fixing but can also be humble and transparent enough to present a question requesting feedback. Basically, I will read a blog if I feel like the person behind the words is exactly that--a person. If I wanted to read a scholarly article, I would do so through the SJSU database and not through a blog.

Community in the Blogosphere

Community is easily created through social networking now-a-days. One blogger can link to other blogs through hyperlinks inside of posts or by displaying lists of fellow bloggers on their own site's toolbar. Proper linking of blogs should be done because the poster thinks the content is legitimately of interest to readers and not simply to boost readership for a friend or colleague. I can attest to the fact that searching for blogs via google or other search engine is not as simple as one might expect.

There is something refreshing about people visiting others on their own turf. For example, it would be perfectly normal for my LIBR 246 classmates and me to post and respond to posts via Angel as is the way of SLIS, but instead, we have each created our own territory in which  we naviagate to each other's blog to read and comment on posts. Each page has been created and designed by that student, and in the process, we each have the opportunity to peer into the lives of our classmates and connect in a different forum than Angel which in turn creates a different kind of community outside of class.

Exercise: Mod Cloth

One of my most frequently visited sites is Modcloth.com. I visit just about every day and compile a favorites list based on the 'new arrivals,' and sometimes (actually quite rarely) my efforts result in a purchase such as this one:

[My dear husband bought this lovely dress for me for my birthday last week :) I haven't had the opportunity to wear it yet...saving it for a special occasion]

As a customer and appreciator of Modcloth, I have noticed ways in which the company is actively involved in utilizing all kinds of social networking tools. In fact, further research has revealed to me even more ways in which they are involved than I originally thought.

Here's an example of how Modcloth interacts with negative reviews to their products through the website. (I love these shoes!)
View the reviews at the bottom; the first of the two reviews mentions a problem with shipping, and Modcloth responded directly. Instead of ignoring the issue, letting the customer deal with the damaged product through the routine return process, or messaging them privately, Modcloth made their apology about the issue public so that other shoppers would see it and have positive feelings about the company's customer service despite there being a complaint about the product.

In addition to responding to customers on their well-developed site, Modcloth proactively interacts through a blog, a twitter account, and a facebook account. Their blog is very extensive and contains postings about all kinds of things including contests, products, fashion trends, employees and interns, and fashion bloggers and companies. Their twitter account has similar content but in short spurts for those on-the-go. The facebook account combines all of these topics by offering just about everything a fan would want to know about the company and the fashion world.

I used Backtype to analyze their twitter trends for the past few months. They have had a total of 32,323 tweets and are ranked as 3,644 as compared to all other twitter account holders. I believe these numbers to be solid considering the company's recent start and the fact that their presence is only known in e-commerce and not in physical stores. The tweets are overwhelmingly positive usually linking to a piece of clothing the tweeter likes.

When I searched Google with keyword 'modcloth,' the first two pages were links to sites related to the company as well as some business articles discussing their success as a business. The response to their business model and brand is overwhelmingly positive; I struggled to find even one negative response or anything they would need to deal with in order to maintain their reputation. The Modcloth browser and shopper knows how expensive their merchandise is but somehow fans seem to understand that they are paying the price for desirable and quality-built clothes and accessories.

Overall, I find Modcloth to be doing a fantastic job at maintaining their reputation and making themselves known in every popular social networking venue out there today. Good job, guys!