Creating a Venue, Not a Vault (thanks to Alex Daley)

 


In one of Alex Daley's blog posts ("The Knowledge Base That Won't Sit Still"), she makes an excellent point about structuring social media content as a venue, not a vault.

In reading through the Young and Rossmann article "Building Library Community Through Social Media", it discusses the successful 2012 effort by the Montana State University Library to create a social media group that would shift their social media activity from automated posts that lacked personality to hand-crafted posts intended to be welcoming, energetic and connect with students & build community.

Their focus on their goals, audience and voice were all great reminders that the most effective social media platforms are designed to support relationships, not just focus on marketing and promotion.

These themes tied back well to my discovery from the examination of Roblox and Zepeto that users generally remain engaged when their online life is a supported version of their offline life, rather than just an escape from their analog world.

This insight has been one of the most interesting and helpful discoveries to come from our class material and will be critical as I work toward building content for a knowledge sharing platform going forward.

Comments

  1. Alex E. DaleyJuly 12, 2026 at 2:13 PM

    Flattered to read that you found value in my blog post. That Roblox/Zepeto line is the one I keep chewing on. Online life as a supported version of offline life, not an escape from it. Honestly, that's a sharper test than anything I put in my post, and I'm a little annoyed I didn't get there first.
    And look how neatly it maps onto Montana State! Those librarians didn't win by posting more — they won by sounding like someone the students already recognized. Same idea, different room.
    Okay, here's my gentle push. You say this'll be critical as you build content for your knowledge sharing platform going forward — but what does that actually look like on day one? Because "venue, not vault" is really easy to nod along to and really hard to build. The first real decision is usually the unglamorous one: who answers the first question out in the open, and what happens to that thread six weeks later when somebody asks the exact same thing again.

    So tell me — what's the platform, and whose offline life is it supposed to support? Nail that down and the voice and the recirculation stuff mostly sorts itself out. Whatever you land on, I'm stealing it ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KGabbingJuly 18, 2026 at 12:13 PM

      Love that!!
      So ... I have learned (in my in-person instruction) that I am prone to making assumptions about where learners begin. And they rarely feel comfortable enough to ask the questions that let me know I need to slow down, and create a good foundational baseline, before zooming off into new content.
      Thats where your observation hit me ... I need to make sure my tone is welcoming to newcomers and balance knowledge with an open approach to participation. Lots of open chairs in the "venue".
      My platform for my project will be Instagram and it will be an introduction to visiting the Florida springs - especially for women with children. I will try to cover all the bases as I introduce my audience to the various springs and use a dashboard to rate everything from safety to bathrooms to cost to make them feel comfortable exploring.
      But I am also going to include the times when things went sideways. And I will probably hit up a few friends to "break the ice" with comments/questions.
      I am also creating a "mascot" - a little otter friend - who may end up being the one to answer questions.
      Because ... who doesn't love an otter?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Praise of Mark Rober and CrunchLabs

Image
A few years ago, a friend with a son the same age as my grandson (Tucker) suggested I look up Mark Rober's videos on YouTube. Life has not been the same since! When it comes to online learning and exploration, I feel his videos are the Gold Standard ... fun and engaging, making complex scientific concepts easy to understand and relevant. He asks the questions that every tween (and beyond) has wondered - what happens IF? how can I? why does THIS do THAT? how can I build the world's largest nerf gun? He makes science approachable, messy and full of wonder. I appreciate the fact he makes mistakes and misfires part of the process. As a former NASA engineer, he is obviously an accomplished scientist,  but presents himself in shorts, a T shirt (that looks like he picked it up off the floor) and a backwards baseball cap. If you have never seen his videos, I highly encourage you to grab your inner middle school troublemaker and check out a few of them. I have linked two samples below: ...
Read more

PLN Visual Challenge

Image
  Over the years, I have developed a robust Personal Learning Network in my real estate work at FSU. I focus on both using my experience to support the college units at the university, as well as mentoring and engaging with students. In the process, I learn from the people on the "front lines" of both the academic administration of FSU and the students who provide insight into the changing dynamics, challenges and priorities of their generation.  As a public university with a $3 billion annual budget and a $1.1 billion endowment, FSU is a significant and complex economic and social engine with a wide-ranging real estate portfolio that includes The Ringling Art Museum in Sarasota, a Panama City campus, regional sites throughout Florida and four international campuses abroad. FSU also leases a significant amount of private sector space for offices and research labs. Because of FSU's continuous expansion, I make it a point to keep up with the construction and real estate bro...
Read more

Read the Room

Image
  In our overview of networked learning communities, it brought home to me how important it is to understand and "read the room" in the different communities. Much like your different social groups have different ways of expressing themselves and various social norms, online communities have their own audiences and social norms. There can be a bit of crossover but it is treacherous ground, for example, to bring too much personal content to LinkedIn. Similarly, if you dwell on politics in Instagram, you will likely be muted or unfollowed (unless that is your entire brand). I love the variety of topics and the focus of each district online community because I also like variety and diversity in my in-person life. When the community content becomes scrambled, however, I find it frustrating and generally leave it behind. Fortunately, most online platforms are easily curated so biased or overly provocative content can be rejected or blocked. Also, I recognize that some communities ...
Read more