These Are Sites You Probably Use, But If You Don’t Go Get On Them ASAP!

Facebook
Facebook offers a very user friendly way to share information about the library and what is going on in the community. Special books, areas, programs or even multi-media presentations can be described, uploaded to the site or linked to the Facebook page to develop a greater understanding of the services the library can provide.

Twitter
Perhaps the most popular social media or social networking site, Twitter offers many opportunities for librarians. Short messages of 140 characters can be delivered to all subscribers to inform them of new additions, programs, events and services provided through the library itself.

Blogger
A free blogging tool developed by Google, this service provides a lot of flexibility for the author in creating the blog. Blogs can be about anything of interest and allow multi-media options within the blog.

Wordpress
A free web-based publishing platform that supports blogging and research. This site can be used to inform readers about the library, services offered and even make recommendations for specific projects or reading options.

Delicious
Social bookmarking allows multiple users to contribute to customized bookmarks or tagged categories. Through this option lists of relevant sites, chosen by real people that are researching, interested in or involved in the actual topic are available to anyone, greatly cutting down research time on search engines.for any account. Remember, no bidding on or usage of trademarked or branded terms in any campaign- unless you own the rights.

Squidoo
This site allows you to create your own web articles that can be categorized based on content. Book reviews, general information, tips on using the library, researching online or any other relevant information can be provided for students and faculty alike.

Flickr
A social media site dedicated to the sharing of pictures and videos. This site offers a wide range of visual representations that can be searched according to topics or tags.

Plaxo
A professional social media and networking site, Plaxo offers links or possible connections to other professionals that are also members. This is an excellent way to share resources and information through a web based format with other librarians around the world. The site is free to join and you can accept or decline offers to connect with other members.

Wikipedia
A reference tool that is generated by users, for users. It often provides simple, concise information about very detailed and complex topics and provides information on further references. It is also multilingual, making it more accessible than many online references.

YouTube
Video presentations developed by users on virtually any topic imaginable. Often virtual tours, news articles and even highlights of important commentaries can be found in easy-to-access format.

We Also Found A Great Blog Identifying Each Category of Social Media & Ranking the Best of the Best.

Thank You Microgeist Blog for these great resources!

1. Microblogging
Leader: Twitter - Everyone knows this service. It’s got such a lead in this space that it’s difficult to see anyone else taking over. This is partly due to the traction it already has but it’s biggest asset is the community of users. They are the ones giving the application it’s value and this crowd will not be easily herded into another platform without a very compelling reason.

Why microblogging? This article explains the value of microblogging more completely, but in summary microblogging is an ideal way to get a quick snapshot of the mood of the times on any given subject. It is also one of the first services to catch viral fire in the mobile space and shows a lot of growth potential there.

2. Bookmarking
Leader: Digg - They are tops in social bookmarking and it would certainly behoove you to really have a look at them, not just click through on a link they host. Because of their position, they are better able to try out what might be considered riskier or more blatantly commercial models. In the case of the latter, them adding a bar at the top of pages others have added to Digg might be annoying, helpful or neither but watching how Digg works to monetize is a valuable education in itself. Monitoring the reactions of others would be a master class. It is very important to keep in mind that Digg, like Twitter and Youtube are not the only applications of a given type. Always keep a look out for others in the same space.

Like microblogging, Social bookmarking adds a great deal of efficiency to your searches for useful information on the web. Not only are resources easier to find, but YOU are as well. This means additional promotional opportunities for you and your brand by being able to better target people who will be interested in what you are about.

3. Video
Leader: Youtube - Youtube has the volume, there is an incredible amount of variety here and it is increasingly a source of education as well. I’ve picked up some tips from various videos here and find watching videos a nice change from scanning through assorted blog posts of various quality. Youtube videos do well on Google search, so videos you produce can help generate traffic as well.

Online video is going to become a standard component in social media, there is no doubt about this. What differentiates online video from your network TV variety is that you can do very well with a low budget and high quality content. It is an equalizer for many small businesses and if done well can create trust very quickly, perhaps even quicker than text which can easily be copied or paraphrased from others.

4. Photo sharing
Leader: Flicker - Leaders for many of these types of sites are so well known, you might wonder what the point of listing them is. The answer to me is that it is important not to lose track of the service for the brand. Social media will evolve from technologies and less so from branding efforts, particularly when those big sites struggle to monetize and are finding themselves to be playing more and more of a utility role.

Photo sharing gets good search results so you’d be unwise not to keep an album of photos labeled with keywords related to your site. It’s another traffic driver. Beyond that, it is a good way to research the graphic inspiration of competitors in your niche. This will help with design considerations.

5. Search
Leader: Google - You can personalize your searches, rate results and save sessions. This not only increases efficiency it also builds the service into a more powerful tool. Beyond that, Google is an innovator and you should be following their changes not via Technorati, as they interpret what important is, but directly with your own eyes as tuned to your own goals.

Search is getting more and more powerful and granular. Part of it’s evolution will be to both measure social media sites and to incorporate their features. Both of these will be able to provide very valuable data.

6. Professional
Leader: Linked In- Like Twitter, the community is the asset and it is unlikely that people will abandon the connections they have built up over years to try the next cool thing. There is a lot of stability in this model and time put into it is a worthwhile investment

How you choose to promote yourself may or may not include a social network as tight as Linked In, but you should absolutely have a look at and understand the appeal of a system that is more exclusive.

7. Purely social
Leader: Facebook - While huge, it also employs the ‘no monetization’ model. Connections can be made here, but what might be the most educational aspect of this application is the lesson it seems to be teaching us about massive scale not leading to massive money. Their efforts in this area should be closely watched because any success they have in making money may be easily transferrable to your own site.

With all the technology out there it’s easy to forget that social media is about socializing. These sites are a great source of both inspiration and warning. Inspiring because of the number of creative applications found within and a warning for the same reason. Purely social sites don’t seem to have a particular purpose and so it is difficult to identify a potential customer and point them toward your value proposition without being ‘The Amway guy’

8. Forums
Leader: None - The leader depends on the niche and the number of communities around a given topic varies widely. You will have to do that research but there are great rewards to be had here

Forums might be a static throwback to last century, but they are still a great knowledge resource if moderated with care. Well run forums come with built in trust because the users know that the moderator will drive conversations toward constructive usage. Therefore, when you do put in links to your site, and they stick, you are more likely to receive quality, well targeted traffic.

9. City/Regional Weekly
Leader: None - Like forums, there are no internet wide leaders. Individual cities and towns will certainly have them and you would be wise to make use of the marketing insight you can get from learning about smaller regional areas.

Social media is going local, this couldn’t be more obvious when you see how many Tweeps are tweeting from smart phones. If you don’t get a more specific regional knowledge, you are unlikely to be able to see where conversations are headed and your targeting of visitors may end up coming across as a spammy saturation bombing effect.

10. Gadget News and reviews
Leader: Engadget - This one is more of an example, there are heaps of gadget blogs out there and they differ as to area of specialty. You may end up changing favorites as you investigate different types of devices.

Social media is going to go where ever gadgets go. Instead of waiting for the next iPhone to become so popular that you will have started building the application 6 months too late to get easy attention you should plan ahead. Gadget blogs provide a sense of where hardware, software and social interaction will intersect. They don’t describe this explicitly, but the devices are part of the equation and essential to forecasting and preparing for future trends.