Developing an Effective Social media Marketing Strategy in a School Library

AnnaLaura Brown’s tips for developing a social media marketing strategy for an organization are obviously written for application in a commercial organization. Most school libraries are not using social media to make money, however they could use it to attract more library users’ and to enhance the library experiences of their clients. The basic concept of developing a social media marketing strategy is a sound practice that libraries could use to ensure that their efforts to harness the advantages of social media are more effective. The process of creating a written social media marketing plan, would enable the school library staff to define some goals and consider exactly what the library is trying to accomplish with them (Solomon, 2011p.11). Farkas (2007, p.233) advocates the inclusion of staff and other stakeholders from the school community from the planning stage to establish their support.
Brown’s strategy encourages administrators to consider how much time per day will need to be spent on setting up your social media profiles and marketing them. Failure to realize the extra time and effort involved in setting up new technology, providing training and marketing it to the community can be a reasons for a lack of staff support (Farkas, 2007 p.233). Therefore, it is important that these factors should be documented in the plan and that time be allowed for their implementation.
Brown suggest that you need to identify what is your target market on social media. In a school library, you need to consider who you want to connect with and what social media sites they are currently using, for example,Facebook, Flickr or Twitter? The market analysis techniques suggested by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of ‘Social Technographics’ that are represented visually on ‘the ladder ‘ are very impressive, however, would be beyond most school library requirements.
Farkas advocates that technology must meet your colleagues’ or patrons’ needs and suggest some techniques to get to know patrons’ needs (Farkas, 2007, p.233). Informal observations and a survey of social media use by representatives from sectors in the school community, would be more practical methods for a school library to use. This data could be analyzed to decide which social media tools would be used, this decision would also need to be aligned with school internet policies and network filters.
Laura Solomon (2011, p.2) and Farkas (2007 p.242) note that many social networking tools are free or low cost, which could suit school libraries with a limited budget. However it would be relevant for a school library to develop a ‘follower policy’ in writing and to create online products, using social media, to promote appropriate users’ etiquette and the principles of digital citizenship.

References
Bernoff, Josh. (2010). Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder. Retrieved from http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.htmlom

Brown, AnnaLaura. (2009) Developing an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy. In Examiner .com. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/social-media-in-the -salt-lake-city/developing an effective social media marketing strategy.

Farkas, M.G. (2007). What will work @your library. In Social software in libraries: building collaboration, communication and community online. p.237. Medford, N.J. : Information Today, Inc.

Laura, Solomon. (2011). Doing Social Media So it matters: A Librarian’s Guide. Chicago: American library Association.