For a professional web marketer, it is essential to know when people are talking about your product. Many libraries have started using Twitter to announce their programs and events. Its important to recognize that good web conversation is not one-sided. Simply broadcasting about yourself isn’t enough, you need to listen to the people who are talking about you. That is where Twitter search comes in handy, and this blog post will offer you a tool to make it that much handier.

I used Yahoo Pipes to make the ‘badge’ below that displays (every time you refresh the page) the latest Twitter search results for the term ‘public library’. Now is a good time to make it clear that I am NOT responsible for any content that shows up in that window. The content in that window is a display of what millions of users have to say about their public library at any given moment. Think about that. That could be useful information, huh?
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The beauty of Yahoo Pipes is that it makes it easy to configure a search like this and put it anywhere convenient for you. Add it to your iGoogle. Your Netvibes. Or embed it in a blog. This can tell your library marketing professional who they ought to be following on Twitter, and it can offer real insight into what people think of your services.

Here is a step-by-step guide to how you can make a Twitter search badge or widget for your library. Have fun, and enjoy listening to what people REALLY think of your services!

Step 1 >

Create a Yahoo Pipes account (if you use flickr or another Yahoo thing you can use that ID)

Step 2 >

Visit my profile on Yahoo Pipes. You’ll see I’m totally new to this and there’s not much of anything there.

Step 3 >

Click on “Twitter Search for public library”.

Step 4 >

Click on “edit source”.

Step 5 >

In the upper left hand corner of the canvas, there is a module called “Keyword (text)”. In the “default” and “debug” boxes replace the text “public library” with the name of your library.

Step 6 >

Click “save a copy” and then click “back to my pipes”.

Step 7 >

rename it “twitter search for ______ library”, and you are done! Add it as a badge, a widget, whatever!

The fun of passing notes in the real world is that it is private and the notes are temporary. I was in a meeting today and watched one person write something on the paper in front of them, point it out to the person sitting next to them, and then exchange a chuckle before scratching it out. One second the note was there, the next second it was gone. That is not the case when your note-passing gets done on Twitter.

The other day, one of my supervisors friended me on Facebook. My tweets are synced with Facebook with the twitter application, so my status automatically updates on Facebook when I write anything on Twitter. So there I was, sitting in a rather dull meeting, reaching for my phone to tweet a plea for empathy from my friends when I realized that my network of empathizers had been infiltrated! If I passed my virtual note, I stood to be busted by the boss! So I took a different approach and wrote this:

My supervisor never commented, and I have no idea if they ever saw the tweet/update. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone; writing that tweet I felt like a curious kid poking a bear with a stick to see if it is hibernating or not. Disclaimer: I like my supervisor and I have no problem with a boring meeting or two, so if you see this now please don’t be upset! This was an experiment, an experiment that I never would have put on the PLA Blog, if I hadn’t needed an excuse to post this hilarious video called “My Social Graph is Getting Weird” by Jeremy Fuksa (found via the Socialized blog). Watch it for a good laugh, but beware that the guy curses a few times in his presentation- so if that offends you then you might not want to click ‘play’. My social graph IS weird! Yours?

My Social Graph Is Getting Weird from Jeremy Fuksa:Creative Generalist on Vimeo.

On the surface, applications such as Flickr and Twitter may not appear to be online communities; but they can be used by nonprofits to mobilize constituencies, enhance outreach and fundraising activities, and expand reach. This multi-media session includes an expert-led exploration of the above Web 2.0 tools, hands-on advice on how to best implement them for your organization, and a chance for you to ask questions to ensure that you will leave ready to implement what you have learned. A TechSoup Stock representative will present information on how to use the TechSoup website and the process for requesting donated products.

This is the first in a series of free online seminars sponsored by ReadyTalk and designed for any size organization. You should attend if you are interested in using these tools to showcase the work of your organization and reach your constituents in new and dynamic ways. You don’t need extensive time, money or tech skills to get started. Space is limited, so secure your space today!

However there is something called “hashtags” for Twitter. I won’t go into too much explanation here (if you want a nice rundown of the magic of hashtags, check out this post), but basically, if you add a # (hash) sign before a keyword — like, say, #pla08 — there are now applications floating around out there built by Twitter lovers that that aggregate those tweets together in a single place (the feature isn’t an integral part of Twitter… yet). That way, if you want to see up-to-the-moment microblog posts on a specific topic, if someone has “hashtagged” it, you can track it. Makes Twitter a bit more manageable for those who don’t want the brain dump of the world from a fire hose. ;D

Lots of conference goers have been using hashtags to document other conferences. So I wanted to give something a go for PLA.

If you’re here at the PLA conference, or if you’re attending the Virtual Conference, and you happen to use Twitter, place the #pla08 hashtag in front of any tweet you might want to share with the world about the conference. (If you’re new at this: You can put it at the beginning or end of the tweet, whatever works for you, it’ll still get picked up.) Looking for people to eat with? Wondering where that party is? Sharing what you’re learning in a session? Feel free to hashtag your tweet.

I’m going to add a widget to the home page of the PLA Blog that will show real-time Tweets that carry the #pla08 hashtag, that will look like this (it’ll take me a little bit to get it just right, after I finish this post):

PLA 2008 on Twitter

• @andreamercado: #pla08 in effect. If you’re at the conference, use the hash tag in your conference Tweets. Have a plan, will post to the PLABlog soon. 25 minutes ago

If you would rather see a web page that shows you all of the #pla08 tweets, you can check out the #pla08 page on Twemes.com. Twemes is one of several hashtag tracking toys (you can read more about tracking toys and the possibilities here), and I was thinking maybe it would be the easiest (and fastest) way to throw together this little experiment.

Why pla08 and not the more traditional pla2008? Since Twitter allows only 140 characters per tweet, the shorter the hashtag, the more space there is for you to say something!

Experiments are cool. Let’s see how this goes…

It’s important to understand that, on a certain level, the new culture is making it up as they go along. On the other hand, much of the etiquette is really being adapted from early social networking sites like LiveJournal, and even from instant messaging (IM) and email etiquette.

Chris Brogan, co-founder of PodCamp, online community builder and contributor, and all-around networking guy, posted a really interesting and to-the-point post titled “Considering Social Network Etiquette” today, with the open invitation to all to participate in the conversation via the comments. The post covers a few sites like Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but the discussion is certainly not limited to these sites.

Ask your questions. Debate the merits of the etiquette tactics discussed. If you’re experienced and feeling like sharing, definitely participate. Consider this your chance to write a “Dear Abby” to the social networking world on how to interact, or even just to read along and learn a little something.

This week, we’ll be highlighting various ALA events that might be of interest to our readers, whether you happen to be attending ALA, or just keeping up with the conference here on the PLA Blog.

Swap & Shop: Celebrate PR!
Sponsored by LAMA
Sunday, June 24
11 am – 1:30 pm
Washington Convention Center Special Events Area
Library professionals will have the opportunity to fill their free tote bag full of the very best ideas in library public relations (annual reports, newsletters, reading promotions, and more). More than 850 library professionals attended Swap & Shop in 2006.

Ignite Your Library’s Public Relations and Outreach Using Hot Technologies
Sponsored by LAMA PRMS
Monday, June 25
10:30 am – 12 pm
Washington Convention Center, 146C
Looking for fresh marketing ideas for your library? Trying to lure those illusive teens to your branch? Want to get undergraduates to think beyond Google and check out your collections? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this program is for you! “Ignite Your Library’s Public Relations and Outreach Using Hot Technologies” will feature Helene Blowers
(Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County), Steven Bell (Temple University) and Michael Stephens (Dominican University GSLIS) talking about strategies for using current technology to promote libraries. After their presentations, participants will break up into group discussions led by the speakers.

Leverage Technology to Enhance Fundraising
Sponsored by LAMA FRFDS
Monday, June 25th
10:30 am – 12 pm
Room 202A, Washington DC Conference Center
FUNDRAISING, a dirty word these days with so much at stake and so little funding to go around, is still the key to raising the library’s profile in our communities, while supporting sustainable services. Does technology offer any solutions to make this difficult job easier? Attend this session to find out.

Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

Twitter accounts are free, and you don’t need a mobile phone to use it, you can do it entirely on the web, if you want. Although Twitter can send real-time posted messages, called “Tweets,” to your phone, it can also send them to you via instant messenger (IM). You can post Tweets to your account from your mobile phone by text message, web access on your phone (there’s a special mobile-friendly URL: http://m.twitter.com), or by IM on your computer, if you don’t feel like visiting the web site. As is the way of text messaging, Tweets are limited to 140 characters, including letters, numbers, and punctuation, so you need to choose your words and text shorthand wisely.

A WBUR (an NPR station) broadcast of On Point on April 27, 2007, included Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, as well as several other guests and callers to talk about The World According to Twitter. The episode is a good, easy overview of the Twitter/hyperconnected social networking mindset, as well as different points of view and questions people have about Twitter, along with mentions of other social networking sites (including LibraryThing). Listen to the archive of this broadcast (Listen on Windows Media Player | Listen on RealPlayer), it’s worth the 48 minutes.

There are several Twitter folks who are doing interesting things with their Twitter accounts, which you can read even if you don’t have a Twitter account of your own. Casa Grande Library in Arizona, under the username cglibrary, posts links to catalog records for books in their collection and their various blogs. TwitterLit posts the first two lines of a book, “so you don’t have to,” and includes links to the Amazon page for the book. BBC News and CNN also have Twitter accounts, where short news story summaries are posted with links to full stories on the sites.

Like most technologies on the web, it’s indicative of a user trend. While not every library or librarian can or needs to find an application of the service, or want an account, it’s worth knowing that this is a type of mindset in our diverse constituency, and that these tools exist.

That said, I do encourage you to play with it, even if it’s just to read a specific Twitter feed (you can even subscribe to a feed via RSS, if you want to follow it in a news reader). And if you find yourself with an account and wanting Friends, you can use nifty tools like TwitterSearch to find people you know. You can find me on Twitter under the name andreamercado.