Cynthia Peterson's Library tagged socialnetworking →  View Popular

You Must Make Time for Promoting and
Training

Sure, it’s easy to build sites like these, but also
remember to do some promotion and education. Announce your new Facebook Group or
Ning site on library lists, in blogs, at meetings, etc. Spread the word and give
your staff some time to build Profiles, join the network, and discuss library
initiatives and plans. Offer some brief training sessions and let staffers get
their feet wet. You may find it’s a perfect way to enable a social online
component at your library without breaking the bank!

Integrity

Don’t be phony! Be yourself — it’s what your
social network friends added you for. There are, of course, many ways
to “game” just about every social media system, to get more diggs, to appear to
have more followers, to get your posts Stumbled, and so on. But in the end, it’s
an empty gain — people who follow you because you appear to be something you’re
not will quickly un-follow you, people who end up at your site because you
managed to get more votes on a post than you deserve will leave without reading,
and all you’ll have is an empty number to show off.

Focus

Signing up for social networking sites and social news sites is easy, but
unless you’re willing to put in some work, you won’t get much out of it. You
need to keep your profile reasonably up-to-date, maintain at least a marginally
active presence, and talk to other people now and again to make it work.