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This week I’m chatting about a web application called Glue . I look at a good number of web applications, and some are useful. Unfortunately, Glue is not one of those.
The premise of Glue is that it “shows you things that you’ll like based on your personal tastes, what your friends like, and what’s most popular on Glue.” In essence, it’s a browser add-on that will allow you to rate certain kinds of things online and to share those likes/dislikes with people who subscribe (same as friend/follow) you.
I started experimenting with Glue several months ago as a beta participant. However, I soon gave up on it for a variety of reasons (which I’ll detail in a bit). Glue was released fully this month, and I decided to give it another go. Alas, I was disappointed–again. Here’s why:
- Glue is a browser add-on, which means you have to add it to every browser on every computer that you might use for surfing.
- It does not support every site on the net that might have books, movies, electronics, etc. I found that Glue worked fine with Amazon, but did not support Thinkgeek. The limited number of places on the web where Glue works was a deterrent for me.
- I wasn’t really sure what problem Glue was trying to solve. I believe it was using the idea that referencing your friends’ tastes would be useful when picking out items, but in practice it didn’t bear out. The issue comes down to critical mass; Glue doesn’t have it (at least, not yet). Only 9 of my “friends” were on Glue, and none of us necessarily have compatible tastes. The reality is that Glue, to work well, would likely need a community the size of Facebook to make it really useful.
Some of my other comments about this app:
- You can earn virtual “stickers” by continuing to favorite items. These icons show up on your Glue profile. However, some stickers showed up on mine with no real explanation of what they were or how I earned them. Additionally, marking just 10 movies gave me a sticker called “Movie Buff.” Really?
- If you spend enough time using Glue, you can eventually become a “Guru.” There is only one of these per category, so you will likely have to fight it out with other Glue users for the title.
- The idea that Glue was tracking what I was looking at and publicizing it made me a tad nervous. The app does give you the ability to manually delete items from your profile, but that assumes you’ll remember to do that. Granted, I’m not surfing porn, but what if I wasn’t looking to advertise my Betsy-Tacy habit?
What does this mean to me, Laura?
- Glue does not have the critical mass in users or supported sites to make this a truly useful application. Lack of community is a real issue.
- A library could theoretically make use of this for readers advisory services but, frankly, expecting users to have to install a browser plug-in to follow the library is unrealistic.
- Overall, this app has a long ways to go, if it ever gets there.
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If your library is on Facebook, Twitter or other social media site, congratulations. You’ve started down the road to helping your library engage in new forms of communication and public relations. However, just being there isn’t enough, and it may not help you in the long run. It’s time to take the next step: building social capital. (Yes, I know, these posts are all about making more work for you, right?)
What is social capital?
Take a look at the Wikipedia definition. Essentially, social capital is connections to others. Not just the number of connections (although many marketers would have one believe that), but the quality of those connections. Numbers of friends/followers can be misleading. If you have a small number of connections and most of those consist of people who connect back and are active, you’re still better off than the company that just bought 1000 followers who don’t give a fig for the company.
Why do you need social capital?
When push comes to shove, it can allow your library to mobilize troops quickly. The Save Ohio Libraries campaign demonstrated this clearly. In less than 3 weeks, the associated Facebook group had more than 50,000 members; hundreds of tweets on Twitter used the #saveohiolibraries hashtag. OLC reported that the legislature had never seen a response as fast and heavy from the public. Is your library planning to go out for a levy? It may be too late this year to really build enough social capital to spend, but it’s never too early to start for the next time. Think of building social capital as building goodwill and direct connections. Not just direct connections into your community, but connections to a wider community that can get the word out for you.
So how do you build social capital?
There are entire books devoted to this topic, and many tips to help you (and maybe I’ll write about some more another day). I’m going to narrow all of it down to two basic things your library needs to do to get started.
- Turn the bullhorn around: Stop talking and start listening.* Who do you want to be friends with–the person who listens to all your stories, or the person who only talks about themselves? If your library is just promoting itself and not listening to its patrons, it will not build good relationships.
- Social media is about conversations. Start having them. This is really the corollary to #1. Don’t always wait for someone else to ask or comment first. Remember, people put this stuff out into the ether with the hope that someone will comment. Give your library a human voice. A sense of humor is critical.
What does this mean to me, Laura?
- Social media is a completely different way of doing PR. The good news, however, is that most of us know how to be human and talk to others of our species. It’s much less about promoting and much more about relating.
- Timing is important. When someone asks your library something or comments via a social network, it’s essential that a response be made–QUICKLY. Remember that a lot of this stuff is happening in near real-time. Make sure someone is monitoring your social media outlets constantly. (Remember, real social media is real work.)
- Don’t overplan. You don’t plan out every encounter you have with other people during the day; don’t do it with social media.
*From The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt.
- “Winners take imperfect action while others are sitting around perfecting their plans.” –Kevin Nation
- Be the voice that is remembered, not just heard.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously. Be willing to put yourself a bit “out there.”
- Be human. Corporate speak is unacceptable.
- Don’t be schizophrenic. Either talk from the perspective of your organization or from a personal standpoint, but not both.
- Beta is forever. Nothing is “finished.”
- Add value. What are *you* giving to the community? (Nothing? Then you’re a leech.)
- Once you know what value you provide, FOCUS on it. Don’t attempt to be all to all.
- Who’s the winner of the contest? The one who makes it to the top of the mountain, or the winner who lifted him there? Give props to others.
- Nobody likes a braggart. Brag when you have something to share that others can use.
- Get the lay of the land. Every community has standards. Even inadvertently violating them can cause you significant damage.
- Have an actual social media plan. Preferably a good one. Otherwise, you’re just treading water.
- You can’t hide from social media. Hiding hurts situations more than owning up. Know what to do when you get someone mad.
- Social media is the new WOM (word of mouth). It’s not only electronic, the speed of information is faster. Much faster. Be prepared.
- Weed your friends and followers just like you would any collection. Other people are looking at them just like you are and they’re making judgements.
- Social media takes TIME. To build social capital in any signficant way takes MORE time. Know it, schedule it, do it.
- Social media is not like the “Field of Dreams” in Kevin Costner’s film: you build it and nobody may come. Keep going.
- Grab your namespaces, complete the profiles, but don’t set up a complete shop in a million virtual places. Not every social tool is for everyone. Pick 3 and call it a day.
- Tailor your social media work (yes, it’s work!) to each service. The one-size-fits-all approach=#EPICFAIL
- Social media is about building connections to PEOPLE. If you’re not doing that, you’re wasting time.
_______________________
With acknowledgement to the article by Mari Smith
(Don’t know if you’re using IE6? You can check by opening up IE and going to Help–>About Internet Explorer. If you’re using anything less than 7 (and really, you ought to be on 8 by now), you need to upgrade. You MUST (yes, I’m yelling) upgrade. You can get the latest version of Internet Explorer here .)
“You might be asking yourself two questions right about now: What’s so bad about IE6? And why do so many people still use it? The answer to the first question is relatively simple: Internet Explorer 6 is outdated technology in a rapidly-changing Internet landscape. Imagine trying to use the social web, Microsoft Office, iTunes, IM, your video games, and all of your desktop apps…with a computer from 2001 (20 GB of space, 256 MB of RAM, anyone?). It’s the same thing: a great deal of new web technology is simply incompatible with IE6.”–Ben Parr, “IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On.”
In other words, if you want to get the most out of the web, you can’t be using 8-year old technology; not when the web changes minute-to-minute. As Parr points out in his post, not updating your browser is just as bad as not updating your virus software. The results (especially in the case of IE6) are often about the same; it is much easier to end up with an infected or hijacked PC using old versions of browser software. Newer versions of IE are geared to protect your computer from more types of viruses and attacks. Patching security holes is a major reason for upgrading any software, and IE6 famously has holes you can drive an aircraft carrier through.
If that weren’t bad enough, keeping IE6 on your computer means that you’re not ready for the coming Web. For the past 10 years, the standard for web markup has been CSS/XHTML (Sorry, not HTML 4.) But HTML 5 is coming, and IE6 is flatly incapable of dealing with it. Many larger sites have already been cutting back on or eliminating compatibility with IE6 for some time; even Facebook tells you to get another browser if it detects you using IE6.
You might be comfortable with IE6, but 1) it’s not very safe to have installed and 2) you are going to increasingly be unable to use much of the web, especially more of the large scale sites and social applications. What are you waiting for?
UPDATE: Talk about timing! This article about a new movement to kill off IE6 just came out the day after I wrote this post.
