The usefulness of social media

Here's a very brief case study of the usefulness of blogging and tweeting!  Last month CILIP held an E-books Executive Briefing.  There were several speakers from FE, HE and public libraries.  Unfortunately we were unable to attend, however I was curious to find out what kind of issues were discussed and if anyone had some innovative tips for promoting their e-books.

First I contacted CILIP to see if there was an official write-up of the event or whether any of the speakers had made their slides available.  They pointed me in the direction of Sarah Burton and her blog post: eBooks: Absolutely Fabulous?  She gave a great summary of the event and the speakers.

Her post also mentioned the #ebooks11 tweets she had read on Twitter. Finally I could see the purpose of Twitter! In July I blogged as part of CPD23 about my VERY brief encounter with Twitter and how I couldn't see the benefits of using it. However, the #ebooks11 tweets directed me to another great write-up of the event by Nicola McNee. From both Sarah's and Nicola's posts I have obtained a good overview of the topics dealt with by the speakers and can make a more informed decision about whether I want to contact any of them for further info.

The Twit has now been converted! Whilst I shall never be a regular Tweeter I have proven to myself just how beneficial it can be!

CPD23 Thing 23: all things considered

In terms of what I would like to do our organisation does encourage personal development plans and we review these twice a year.  As I mentioned in my Thing 10 post I am interested in taking the CMI management course that some of my colleagues have completed.  One of my own personal development targets is to try and become more involved with the profession outside of my organisation. This builds on the themes of personal branding from Thing 3 so I will try and make my presence visible in larger circles.

I have found the CPD 23 Things a valuable training experience. Not only does its set up allow complete flexibility in the way you complete each segment, the topics cover a range of subjects and tools on very up-to-date issues. I spoke in my Thing 19 post about the most significant things I'll take from CPD23 and these still hold. Keeping up with other blogs

I have very much enjoyed this experience I look forward to the next 23 Things!

CPD23 Thing 19: catch up

During my Chartership application my mindset was reflection, reflection, reflection. However, as soon as I handed in my portfolio I stopped. Writing my own blog has really helped me get back into the habit. So, instead os simply describing things I am now beginning to think 'so what?' and 'now what?'. The most significant thing I have taken from CPD23 is reading the blogs of other professionals. I check my updates from these (and the CILIP LinkedIn group) everyday and find it a really useful way of finding out the current issues and discussions within the profession. The number of blogs I follow has grown from 4 to 14! Reading and commenting on these has opened up a new community to me and keeping up with these, as well as my own, is definitely something I'll continue.

I've done a little to help develop my online presence by setting up a LinkedIn profile. This, and my blog, now mean that I turn up on the first page of results following a Google search of my name - woohoo! This will improve the more active I am - something I plan to work on.

Although I'm not using them as part of my regular work I do like the functionality of the following tools that CPD23 has introduced and will keep them in the back of my mind: Evernote; Google Docs; Wikis; Prezi; and Slideshare.

CPD23 Thing 2: exploring other blogs and enlightenment

I've been having a look around other blog postings using the Delicious list to try and help filter the many down to the slightly not so many!

When trying to select which blogs to follow from this vast community I found that a blog's name and the design of the page really influenced my decision whether to even read the postings.  If I'm coming back the blog regularly I want a nice clean page that's easy to read and I'm afraid I was put off a few by really bad design.  After that, I found that a lot of the blogs are still newly established without much content beyond the cpd23 tasks which made it difficult to decide who to follow.  However, I am now a proud follower of four other blogs: one is by a colleague (although I found it through another blogger's recommendation), two are picked from the FE college librarian commnunity, and the last is Phil Bradley's blog - surely can't go wrong there.

Looking at these various blogs has made me realise how little I really think about things going on in the library and information world.  I tend to bury my head in the sand a bit and just focus on what affects my day-to-day work.  I'm looking forward to the fact that having the responsibility of producing an interesting blog will force me to take more notice of what's happening and new developments - CILIP's update will not be making such a quick journey to the bin anymore!