SLA Europe: Engaging with social media

Finding the right social media voice can be one of the biggest challenges for those new to the world of Twitter, Facebook, and the community conversation. Just how much personal information should you reveal without damaging your professional persona?

This was one of the key themes to emerge from Engaging with social media for fun and career success, a recent SLA Europe seminar, held at Morgan Stanley’s Canary Wharf offices.

Three speakers, Neil Infield, Meghan Jones and Laura Woods, all early adopters of social media tools and with a wealth of experience between them, passed on tips, advice and a few words of warning.

Laura began the session by saying that when on Twitter it important to present yourself as a real person, not just an automated RSS feed. She suggested taking a ‘profersonal’ approach - that is blending professional comments with something a bit more personal. Instead of just retweeting and making dry comments, throw in tweets about your own interests and engage in conversation. The key thing to remember is that just because you’re talking about work issues you don’t have to erase your personality.  

This point was echoed by Neil who stated that you 'need to present yourself as a whole human being' when using social media. Of course to what extent you can do this varies from sector to sector.  Meghan suggested having multiple personas through different accounts and possibly using pseudonyms. All speakers emphasised the fact that anyone - not just your dedicated followers - can read your posts and comments, so think twice before writing or uploading pictures.

Perhaps it came as a surprise to some, but there are clear career benefits to using social media. Through blogging and tweeting Laura explained how she had raised her profile and as a result had been offered speaking and writing commissions. Meghan talked about the ‘serendiptious opportunities’, be it making new contacts or promoting work projects, while Neil said that his blog was an important tool for driving traffic to the British Library’s Business & IP Centre.

As a warning to those who still feel uncomfortable about the whole ‘engaging with social media’ business, Neil made the simple point that whether you like it or not, your clients are already out there using it. If you don’t get involved, they’ll pass you by.

That said, don’t feel obliged to sign up to everything. Sample different tools (take note: Twitter may not be around forever), but stick to what you feel comfortable with. As Meghan confessed, ‘I’m a Facebook refusnik’.

Other points made included the fact that LinkedIn is perfect for those with a bad memory as after an event you can remind yourself as to who you were talking to. Also, tweeting may be a much more effective note taking method than scribbling away in a notebook - condensing a point into 140 characters focuses the mind.

Possibly the best piece of advice though came from Neil who suggested that it is better to ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ when in doubt about something you want to publish. Perhaps this should have come with a disclaimer but is very much in keeping with the ‘never wrong for long’ approach taken by news website editors.

 Photographs: Seema Rampersad

Thanks to the three speakers for giving such excellent talks, SLA Europe for organising the event, and  Seema Rampersad for the use of the photos.

The changing face of corporate information services

Outsourcing, the contracting with another company to provide a particular service, has been part of business practice for a number of decades. Originally this covered non-core areas such as pay-roll or data-entry. However, in recent years services to internal clients, such as law libraries, have been outsourced, or offshored (outsourced business processes carried out in another country.)

But is this practice an efficient business model that delivers benefits both to the an organisation and employees? If ever there was a subject waiting to be discussed by SLA Europe, then this was it. And so on March 30 around 50 people gathered at Balls Brothers, Mincing Lane, to take part in a SLA debate, The Changing face of corporate information services - new service models and partnerships.

The panel of experts included both those who had outsourced services - Sarah Fahy from Allen & Overy and Kate Stanfield formerly of CMS Cameron McKenna, and vendors Greg Simidian, CEO of Perfect Information and Liam Brown, CEO of Integreon. The event was chaired by Stephen Phillips from Morgan Stanley.

The debate centred mainly on the the legal sector but the issues raised were relevant to anyone working in information management. Excellent accounts of the evening can be read on both Nicola Franklin's Fabric blog and Tina's Library Related stuff. One thing that I'd add is that it was reassuring to find the whole subject of professionalism being discussed - both in terms of the efforts that have been made to maintain professional development for outsourced staff, and the fact that senior management, particularly in law firms, respect and expect to deal with well qualified information personnel. However, as Tina Reynolds points out: "if firms hive off their less complicated work but keep senior professionals in house then where will we find the next generation of professionals?"

The speakers were certainly knowledegable about the subject and generally delivered their points well. Perhaps the evening could have started with a general summing up of what exactly outsourcing is, along with an explanation of the terminology. At times the discussion veered into David Brent territory with a liberal use of acronyms and overuse of phrases such as 'moving the needle.' All in all though, a worthwhile attempt at trying to get to grips with what exactly outsourcing involves.

Beyond the echo chamber

Complaining or commenting about something in an enclosed space acts like an echo chamber with the same things being heard over and over again. No matter whether it's in the social media sphere or a trade journal, airing the issues may be reassuring for those involved but has little impact outside the space. This is particularly true in the library world where there is an awful lot of chatter about the forthcoming cuts in services but little that makes it into the mainstream media. It was with this in mind, that SLA Europe organised Marketing Libraries Outside the Echo Chamber, a seminar that aimed to show information professionals how to reach beyond the converted.

Held at the City Business Library, one part of the the evening was taken up with Escaping the Echo Chamber, a talk by Ned Potter and Laura Woods. Using a series of examples they built up a strong case for the need to challenge inaccurate reporting in areas where non-librarians and opinion formers will take notice. A good case in point is that of a blog post by the influential marketing guru Seth Godin who wrote, amongst a number of things, that 'information is free now'. Naturally there was a huge response but it was Toby Greenwalt's response on the Huffington Post that was probably read by the most. Another point made was to use a popular medium to get the message across as illustrated by this very funny film on YouTube. There are lots more useful links on their respective blogs and presentation (which, incidentally was a brilliant demonstration of Prezi.)

How to go about putting all this into practice had been demonstrated by two of the organisers behind Voices for the Library, a campaign that "seeks to highlight everyone who loves libraries to share their stories and experiences of the value of public libraries". Bethan Ruddock and Jo Anderson gave a truly inspiring talk, describing how they they were getting (and encouraging others) a positive library message across through stories in the local press, commenting on popular blogs and writing on forums such as Comment is Free.

There was no doubting the enthusiaism of all of the speakers. However, Ned seemed to suggest it was an information professional's duty to promote libraries. As he put it, "if people don't know how we can help them, they won't come to us for help."

This was an evening that challenged all those present to do something. Thanks to SLA Europe and also the City Business Library staff for hosting the event.

Tweeting while you work

Twitter's detractors usually dismiss the site as a plaything for those with too much time on their hands. Supporters point to its social networking capabilities and power as a serious journalistic tool, citing its use in the June 2009 Iranian elections and Trafigura case.

But what value does Twitter offer for everyday working life and business? That was the topic under discussion at the recent SLA Europe's Tweeting while you work: Making the most of micro-blogging, discussion.

The three panelists - Hazel Hall, Julie Hall and Judith Woods all use Twitter in their working lives - for exchanging valuable information, promoting themselves and, in the case of the last two, generating business. Slides will be available soon. One piece of advice, though, that all gave was that it is important to maintain separate business and pleasure accounts. The aim should be to cultivate your own Twitter 'personality'.

It was refreshing to hear such enthusiastic and knowledgeable speakers. They were so good in fact that the Chair, Bob De Laney, LexisNexis Director, News & Business, UK & Ireland, had very little to do. However, he did lob in the question as to whether the panelists would still be such enthusiastic tweeters if they had to pay for the service. The response was, a yes, a yes, and a possibly. Good news for some.

Hazel Hall slides can be seen here.

It's a vexed issue

What better way to start a blog about news librarianship than to report a victory. Last night saw a team comprising of librarians from The Daily Telegraph, Times and The Guardian come a very close second in the annual SLA Europe Winter Warmer pub quiz.

Big deal, you may say. But the simple point I want to make is that news librarians still exist. There might not be so many of us around, but a few serious media organisations still believe that employing information professionals is integral to creation of quality journalism.

Anyway, vexed issue is going to be thoughts and ramblings of a news librarian as he makes his way through an ever changing media landscape.