Do you ever stalk your customers?
I've shifted any 'From the Floor' posts from my other blog to here. I figure the separation is better this way. I was going through emails and notes earlier this week and realised that I had enough questions from the floor to keep me busy for a few months or so. That made me think I should probably make more of an effort to address them as quickly as possible. I will try to update weekly. Once I've been through all of your questions, though, this blog will disappear. It would be crazy to keep it after it's served its purpose. I'm not an expert. I don't ever consider myself to be. I'd be afraid of anybody who said they were. I think, though, that I'm in a little bit of an unusual position with my role in that it allows me the freedom to play, develop and explore social media on behalf of our organisation in a way that perhaps others can't. Really, though, I'm just a dorky girl, standing in front of the interwebs, asking it to give me MOAR fandom feels. (Yes, I did just use and abuse a well known line from Notting Hill).
You're quite opinionated about wider library issues on your personal streams - do you think you should be?
I'm still doing the 'From the floor' posts, I'm just doing them so infrequently as to be virtually non-existent. I also don't do them in the order in which I receive them. It's sort of random-ish, depending on what's going on either personally and/or professionally. As we all know, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans (so said John Lennon). Just as a reminder, the 'From the floor' posts are where I answer questions some of you have sent me about why I do what I do with our work streams, or about social media in libraries in general. I figured that some of you might find this useful. And if you don't, no harm no foul. I'm not much of a one for disclaimers, however I want to reiterate that I'm not an expert. I'd probably get pissed at anyone who said they were. I am, as ever, a girl with a laptop, access to random thoughts and a fondness for cheap booze. Really cheap booze.
Would you ever make your library tweetstream private?
Hi, remember me? I used to blog regularly, and then life happened. And for some reason, some of you still follow/read/ask questions. I apologise for being a slacker, and will try to make more of an effort to keep this up-to-date. I went away to Toronto for a couple of weeks and, when I came back, saw that I'd received a few emails from people asking if I'm likely to feature some more 'From the floor' posts, and the answer is, "Yes, absolutely, I just get distracted by shiny, pretty things and wander off track for ages." Some of you may remember, from my last post, that I was going to make an effort to answer your queries out loud (albeit anonymously). I've randomly pulled this one out of all of the ones you've sent, and I want to make something clear before I answer it. I'm not a guru. Not by any stretch of the imagination. If I heard anyone else refer to themselves that way I'd probably get up and leave and/or spit tacks. I rate 'social media guru' right up there with 'carpetbagger.' Harsh? Probably, and yet I'm unrepentant about voicing that. I'm just a girl with a laptop, and broadband, and a whole lot of opinion.
Did you deliberately set out to gain a large (for NZ public libraries) number of Twitter followers?
You are what you tweet
@sweden: Fitting In vs. Standing Out
~ Seth Godin, Not both
I follow @sweden. I've made no secret of that fact. I admire what they've done, what they're doing and, very probably, what they'll come up with next. Some time back in April I wrote a post for Sally Pewhairangi's Finding Heroes site; Opportunities as seeds, in which I expressed the thought that libraries could benefit from trying a modified version of this social experiment. I've received a few emails, comments and private messages that have all highlighted articles like this one with NYTimes.com, Swedes' Twitter voice: Anyone, saying (blush) almost anything, and others. (It'd take far too long for me to link all the ones that I've received). Everyone has asked the same question: "Would you take your statement back?" I thank you all for your concern and comments. And no, I won't take my statement back all the same, thank you. I stand by it, still.