Twitter on TechSoup

Tech Soup is having a free Twitter Webinar Thursday (3/16/10).  This Webinar will help you learn how to use Twitter and how it fits into providing library services.


From the TechSoup Blog:

Twitter has claimed its place on the short list of communications tools for nonprofits and libraries to consider when designing online strategies. This webinar will survey the Twitter landscape, explaining core concepts, enumerating best practices, and describing the tools and tactics that exist to leverage Twitter's strengths.

Sign up here! 

I think I might miss this one but will have to catch the archived version once it goes up.  If you are able to get into this one, tell me about it in the comments.

Social Networks: Emerging Technology or Common Place?

as seen on David Lee King's blog post "Follow the Meat Department on Twitter!"


Taken in San Francisco by Flickr user Heather


Taken by Flickr user Kevin McShane

Where do you see Twitter and Facebook?

Next Post: Link to Interview with Digital Branch Librarian, David Lee King

Saving Time: Twitterfeed.com

Unlike Facebook and blogging I hadn't used Twitter for personal reasons before creating a library and professional account. The first part of Twitter for me was learning how it worked, what people were posting, and adjusting to the challenge of saying what you need/want to say in 140 characters or less.  Now that I have had some experience with Twitter, the next part is figuring out the best way to automate some of the processes.

What do I want the library to automatically post on Twitter?
New books/materials  as they are available to check out.
New images on Flickr as they are added to the collection.
New digital objects as they are added to the Montana Memory Project.
New blog posts at the library website.
New events on the library calendar.

What other information would be good for libraries to auto-post?

How can this be done?
There are a number of auto-tweeting options out there.  I decided to try twitterfeed.com (feed your blog to twitter) first.

What auto-post applications do you use?

Pros:
Works with facebook, twitter and other programs.
Shows you how many clicks you have gotten per tweet and from either facebook or twitter.
You can customize your tweet adding a prefix or suffix.
You can decide how many tweets how frequently.
You can even selectively tweet from RSS feeds using search terms.

Cons:
Does not seem to work with as wide a variety of RSS Feeds as I might like.  I don't know if it will work with forced feeds.
I'm at the time of this posting still experimenting with twitterfeed.com and want to compare it to other auto-posting applications. 
 
Next Post: Tool: Flickr

Twitter Hiccups

Rob Friedman / playerx / @px




Twitter isn't perfect and suffers from growing pains, overload, and spam, sometimes of the most unsavory sort.

Next Post: Saving Time: Twitterfeed.com 

Tool: Twitter

What:
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows users to receive and send messages in 140 characters or less, called a tweet. "We came across the word 'twitter,' and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds.' And that’s exactly what the product was." - Jack Dorsey, Chairman.



Why:
So are the tweets us tweeters tweet inconsequential? Are they reaching the people we intend on reaching?  Is there room for libraries in the tweeting world? Do we want to be there?

Twitter is different than facebook in that you can't expect people who follow you to read as many tweets as they would facebook updates.  When you sign into twitter you are able to scroll through some of the most recent tweets by the accounts that you follow.  On Twitter the information you post and the information posted by others is in a state of motion.

A great way to see who is on Twitter in your area is to do a search  or two on Twitter for your area and then subscribe to that feed in your RSS feed reader.  Then you can see what companies, people, things are being talked about.  If work at a library in Helena and no one is talking about Helena, MT (I'm sure this isn't true) on twitter then you might want to consider holding back on devoting resources to twitter or do the opposite and start filling that gap with relevant library information.
 

How:
To get started go to www.twitter.com and create a new account.  You will need to attach the twitter account to an email address. We use the same email address for all our social networking activities at Butte-Silver Bow Public Library, designated just for these accounts and not tied to any particular staff's email account or the official library's email account.  This allows all of the social networks to be managed from the same email address.

Who:  
Butte-Silver Bow Public Library - http://twitter.com/ButtePubLibrary
Missoula Public Library - http://twitter.com/missoulalibrary
Parmly Billings Library - http://twitter.com/ParmlyBillings

You can see a more complete list of Montana libraries that are tweeting in the "Montana Libraries Going Social" link.

 

Next Post: Twitter Hiccups

10 Levels of Intimacy In Today's Communcation

From Please Enjoy - The Work of Ji Lee. Social Networks are an additional way of reaching your service community not a substitute for face-to-face, telephone, and email. Message is more important than method.

Next Post: Tool: The Blog

Let's get social! Opening the discussion with a question.

A few weeks ago I discovered through pure serendipity that the West Yellowstone Public Library had a Facebook Fan Page (an active one at that!).  As the Digital Collections Librarian at Butte-Silver Bow Public Library, charged with creating and maintaining our social presence online (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter), I felt like I had been working in the dark.  I was not aware of all the other Montana libraries (link to list) also reaching the public through social networking tools.  Not only should we all know what libraries are getting social online but also what social tools we are using and what tricks we have learned.  

I'm going to be presenting "Your Library Can Be Everywhere - Social Networking" with Matt Beckstrom, Lewis & Clark Library; and Maggie Meredith, Statewide Consulting Librarian at the Broad Valleys Federation Meeting next Friday March 5th.  I'll be talking about the social tools we use at Butte-Silver Bow.  I've decided to use one of the tools (blogging) to create the presentation itself.

So to start the conversation off online, pre-session, I'm asking you, dear reader to make a comment. Tell us here at Broad Valleys ONE thing you do at your library with social networking tools and what tools you use to do it.

I'll start:  At the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library we have a twitter account: www.twitter.com/ButtePubLibrary that is used to push out events going on at the library each week and each day.  This allows people who follow us on Twitter and those searching for things to do in Butte to find that information.

Ok, now it's your turn... 

Next post: 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today's Communication