There is a very important short post today by David Lee King that librarians and everyone else needs to heed entitled Friend Customers like Gary Vaynerchuk which I hope he doesn’t mind is copied below in its entirety. Watch the video from Gary Vaynerchuk for emphasis.
“Gary Vaynerchuk has some good things to say about social media. Here’s one example (embedded above) discussing how to “make friends” – watch it, then let’s discuss.
In this video, Gary talks about how to participate in social networks and how to friend people – this is essential for libraries! Some big points from his video:
- think of the internet as a big conference or room or a mixer – in those settings, you find a group to talk to and jump right in
- in social networks, you do the very same thing – you walk in, and you start saying hello (it’s not stalking)
- if people are putting stuff out there, they know that people can see it (so it’s really ok to friend them)
Take-aways? Don’t be scared to friend people. Set up a library twitter account, facebook or myspace account, etc… then search for people using those tools who live in your community, and say hello by friending them.
Then start participating in their conversations.
OK – someone will say “but David, that’s weird.” No it’s not – it’s how the emerging online world works. Businesses are already doing this successfully (ie., Gary’s doing just this thing for his Wine business).”
