Investigation of Factors That Influence Public Librarians’ Social Media Use for Marketing Purposes: An Adoption of the Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

This study aims to explore multiple factors that are associated with social media use by public librarians for marketing purposes. Based on the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior, the effects of five factors-usefulness, ease of use, attitude, subjective norms, and behavioral control-on social media use intention were examined. A survey was conducted, and 462 valid responses were collected from public librarians across the United States. The findings revealed that all five factors have a significant impact on librarians' intention to engage in social media activities for library marketing. Perceived behavioral control factors were the most influential on social media use intention. Both practical and theoretical implications are discussed based on the findings of this study. S ocial media has emerged as an essential marketing outlet for public libraries to interact and communicate with patrons online. Social media is an internet-based tool designed to support social interactions among users in real time or asynchronously, and it enables individual users and organizations to create their profile pages and to contribute and share content on online networks (Boyd and Ellison 2007; Bertot, Jaeger, and Hansen 2012; Carr and Hayes 2015). Many public libraries have actively utilized social media channels to communicate with patrons and to increase visibility in online environments (Rogers 2012; Luo, Wang, and Han 2013). As a low-cost marketing tool, it is advantageous in that it can increase efficiency, interactivity, feedback from users, community engagement, sense of community, and

Factors influencing intentions to use library social media marketing accounts: taking the example of WeChat

“…It can be seen from the empirical analysis in the previous section that ATT, SN and PBC have a significant positive impact on UI, consistent with the research conclusions of Joo et al (2019), of which ATT’s impact is the most significant. This shows that the “post-00s” (those born after 2000), college students in China are “a generation with attitude”.…”

“…The number of variables in these theories and models is limited, and it is necessary to integrate more related models in future studies (such as the information system success model) to dig out more significant variables. Given the difference in samples and application scenarios, this study’s conclusions are somewhat different from that of previous studies. For example, this study found that ATT has the most significant impact on UI, while Joo et al (2018, 2019) indicated that the effects of PBC are the most significant, and Heirman et al (2016) posited that the most crucial factor is the SN. Therefore, the generalization of this study’s results may present specific limitations.…”

“…Given the difference in samples and application scenarios, this study's conclusions are somewhat different from that of previous studies. For example, this study found that ATT has the most significant impact on UI, while Joo et al (2018Joo et al ( , 2019 indicated that the effects of PBC are the most significant, and Heirman et al (2016) posited that the most crucial factor is the SN. Therefore, the generalization of this study's results may present specific limitations.…”

“…By investigating the Twitter accounts of librarians and users of libraries, they found that the main factors affecting library social media marketing are the time, skills and knowledge of librarians; their understanding of marketing; the social media policy of parent institutions; and users’ participation in and perception of libraries. Joo et al (2019) found that variables such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN) and behaviour control exert a significant impact on the willingness of libraries to use social media, of which the effect of perceived behavioural control on the willingness to use social media was the most significant. Ihejirika et al (2021) investigated user engagement in library social media based on the elaboration likelihood model.…”

“…Most previous studies based on TAM have confirmed that PEOU directly impacts PU and ATT. For example, Joo et al (2019) revealed that PEOU exerted a significant impact on the PU and ATT of librarians a propos library marketing. Choi and Chung (2013) also reported the significant effect of PEOU on the PU of users vis-à-vis SNS.…”