How far through this post will I get before I mention the G word?
Thing 6 covered online networks and having dutifully joined and explored several of the ones recommended I now have social media fatigue. I have so many passwords to remember, emails, usernames and profiles to fill out that I need a secretary. Some are great, some I'm not so sure they will be of any use to me right now but it's good to know that they exist and I already have thought of several librarians who will benefit from them more than me.
I have a Facebook account which is solely for personal use. I have a small group of friends with whom I connect, share a couple of photos and little else. For me it's a way to keep in touch with friends who live abroad and who I would otherwise have lost touch with.
Facebook gets a lot of controversy and attention in the press because of security issues but Twitter and Google are both guilty of similar infringements in the past and probably will be again. I was delighted when I googled myself as part of my brand identity thing and although a link to my Facebook account came up, it was locked down tight with no access to it. I've learned to keep on top of my security settings and I check regularly to see what other people can see if they look at my profile.
I think Facebook is a great tool for libraries. It is a fantastic way to have a readymade website for libraries that may not have the funding to host their own website. Facebook works on a kind-of 'word of mouth' model and even though it plays on our voyeuristic weakness for watching other people's activity, from a business point of view this works a treat for publicizing events and services.
I really can't see myself ever using it for professional purposes. I don't want to bore my friends with my library stuff and I don't want my colleagues to see what I got up to last weekend. In the same way that bebo was used mostly by teenagers and myspace is dominated by musicians, Facebook is the social gathering - 'the barbecue' as was quoted in Thing 6.
LinkedIn is most definitely the office. I had heard of it but never ventured onto the website. Bizarrely I never thought it to be relevant to me. "Me? I'm not a professional." I'll have to address that in the future.
LinkedIn seems to me like an online cv. I'm sure there's more to it but I haven't had a chance to explore it fully yet. I suspect I'm not at a place in my career that requires LinkedIn at the moment. The profiles we were invited to look at as part of getting to know LinkedIn are very impressive and much more high profile than mine would be. So immediately my little 'pop-up blocker' in my head appeared and I shied away from filling out my own mediocre profile. I will get back to it in the future though. Like anything, I'm sure it takes time to grow.
I loved LISNPN! What a fantastic resource for librarians. I think I'm just about inside the 10 year window so I'm definitely going to explore it more. I can't wait to recommend it to some recent library graduates.
So finally I get to talk about Google+. I am in love with this social network!
There are dozens of articles out there in the blogosphere at the moment discussing Google+ versus Facebook or Twitter, 'will it replace them?', quoting statistics about Facebook's declining numbers and Google+'s growing numbers. I really don't think Google+ will replace either of those networks.
It serves a very different purpose which I will try to explain without gushing or waffling. My main problem with Facebook has always been the inability to compartmentalize the different groups in my life so that I can pick and chose who sees what. And yes, you can do that with Facebook now, but it is complicated to set up and for me this is a turn off straight away.
Google obviously have learned from Facebook's mistakes and have created circles, which has become the most popular feature of the site. Similar to Twitter, with Google+ you can add a person to your circle but they don't have to add you, just like following someone.
You can create as many circles as you want and call them what you want. So for example I have a family circle, friends circle, a knitting circle and a library circle. I also have a 'following' circle for people I find interesting but don't know, and wouldn't expect them to add me to their circle. When posting stuff on your 'stream' you can chose who sees your post, be it the wider public world, a particular circle or even just one person.
Unlike Twitter however, I feel much more inclined to comment on people's posts, share them with others and get involved in the discussion. I'm no longer lurking in the background.
Google+ has lots of other little bobs and whistles that are neat and I'm sure they will add more to as they go along. For me however, it's the circles that make it a winner, and a very different type of network. The circles break down all kinds of barriers.
Already a huge number of librarians, authors, publishers, artists and photographers are using it to connect with each other on a professional basis, swapping articles, snippets of their daily lives, projects they are working on. I have added a link to my profile to a list of library professionals and when I check in on my library stream now it's like attending an online library conference every day. It's like a blog feed and a twitter feed all rolled into one.
For librarians Google+ is definitely worth a look. Google are not allowing business pages yet, so it's difficult to say if it will turn into an ad-fest like Facebook has become. At the moment it's ad-free which is all the more reason to get in and enjoy it before the businesses and promotions start rolling in.
Of course, it's still a social networking site and like Twitter, Facebook and the internet as a whole you need to be wise about who you connect with and what you share. Here's an article from Librarian by Day which gives a more objective view before you take the plunge.
If you would like an invitation to Google+ just comment below. If you're already on Google+ look me up.
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