Social media: A guide for college and university libraries

Abstract

S ocial media is a powerful new form of communication. The number of users on poular social media sites is growing at exponential rates. Facebook has more than 300 million active users, 1 which rivals the population of the United States. From February 2008 to February 2009, Twitter experienced 1,382% growth rate. 2 Millions of people are using these tools as part of their everyday lives for both work and play. Because of the ubiquity of social media use, academic libraries can leverage these communication tools to interact with faculty, staff, and students in new ways. It is often diffi cult in academic libraries to spread the word about different events or services that the library is offering. Social media provides another vein in which to market new library products or initiatives. In addition to marketing, the simple act of having conversations and creating relationships with patrons is immensely useful. Through conversations on social media, libraries can gain insights into what their users want and need and ultimately understand their users better. Many libraries are already experimenting with different social media services like Twitter or Facebook to interact and connect with their patrons, yet there are still a number of questions that come up as this is still fairly new territory. "How do I get started?" "What sorts of things should I post?" "How can I grow our social media presence and gain more fans or followers?" This article seeks to be a practical guide for launching and sustaining a successful social media presence.

Information Professionals' Knowledge Sharing Practices in Social Media: A Study of Professionals in Developing Countries

“…Social media, like any other technology, takes a bit of time and play to learn. Usually librarians have limited time to learn how to use social media, which is not given priority (Burkhardt, 2010). In addition, the study also found that interactive features of Social media and willingness are not enough to remove all barriers for knowledge sharing.…”

Facebooking It: Promoting Library Services to Young Adults through Social Media

“…This is especially true for public libraries. The bulk of literature on social media marketing is produced by professional librarians in service-oriented publications in the form of how-to articles, manuals, and similar guides (Burkhardt 2010;Glazer 2012;Hardin, Klug, and Williams 2012;Salomon 2013;Solomon 2013). Case studies of individual libraries as exemplars of best practices in social media are also common (Cahill 2011;Dempsey 2012;Ezeani and Igwesi 2012;Dankowski 2013;Salomon 2013 Not only do librarians need to know how to use social media to reach patrons, but they also must understand what types of patrons they are reaching and what services appeal to social media savvy patrons (Horn 2011).…”

Social Networking Tools in Library Service Delivery: The Case of Academic Libraries in South-East Zone of Nigeria

“…This can be done through online social networking. Burkhardt 4 affirmed that online social networking tools create an avenue which academic libraries can explore to market its products and services. Burkhardt also noted that the versatility of online social networking, made in evitable for libraries to utilise and communication with faculty, staff, and students in new ways.…”

“…Social networking in libraries will promote adequate information access, sharing, dissemination which are core functions of academic libraries. Chu & Meulemans 3 , Burkhardt 4 , Robinson, Aggarwal & Buggarapu 5 see online social networking as an effective tool for organisational productivity and service delivery. In china, social media is increasingly an important force for defining taste and driving purchases.…”

“…Despite Kelleher's claim, research shows that online social networking tool enhances business, and therefore, has the capability and features to improve library processes and services [4][5][6][7] . Based on this assertion, it is convincing that the use of online social networking in academic libraries will boost libraries' services.…”