The 2.0 Business Card

While doing some research for my Lit. Review I came across this blog post from 2010 on The "M" Word, which is a blog that looks at new marketing trends for libraries.  This particular post describes the idea of using social media business cards as a way for patrons to better connect with librarians.  On one side is the librarian's picture, name, email, and the social media sites they are available on.  The other mirrors the front and has the libraries name, logo, and social media presence.  This way people know where to locate and follow the library's goings on, but also can follow what their favorite librarian is reading/reviewing and interact with him/her.  According to the article this idea has been pretty successful for the library profiled and has created more trust between the patrons and librarians.

I personally think this is a great idea to allow more interaction between patrons and librarians.  Even if librarians do not want to share all their personal/private social media sites (i.e. private FB or Twitter) with patrons (I know there are some I certainly would not want to share that info with), they could create a professional Twitter, or use sites like Shelfari/Goodreads, a blog, etc to connect with patrons on a more personal level.  The cards seem like they can be made easily and can simply be left at the desk that the librarian works at the the patrons to take as they like.  They could also be handed out after performing reader's advisory or after a program a librarian was hosting.  These just sound like such a smart idea, I'm surprised I haven't heard of more libraries using them!