Using Social
Media
January 1, 2017
Facebook, [1]
Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TeacherTube and other forms of social media are
how people keep in touch these days.
They enable anyone to become an instant publisher at a low cost and with
a minimal time commitment. With the
power of reaching a great number of users comes great responsibility.[2] They are also tools that
libraries and other organizations can interact with users and lurkers on a
daily basis. Since posts by individuals
are usually not vetted, sometimes the remarks have mistakes, unintelligible
sentence fragments, poor grammar, unknown abbreviations, or jargon. Posts can be a powerful force for your message
or a source for embarrassing mistakes. When
using social media as business or organizational tools, warn your people not to
post something that is compromising or in any way shows a side of the organization
that would cause embarrassment. As public
relations tools all posts should promote the honesty and integrity of the
organization. As professionals remember to carefully edit
what is posted or e-mailed even when posting as individuals on personal
accounts.[3] I hope that all of you know
this.
This article focuses
on Facebook and I let the readers generalize to other platforms.
Facebook
started as a tool for college students to get to know their classmates.[4] It has developed into a communication tool
for friends, family, groups, businesses, and non-profit organizations. I can
find and communicate with individuals and organizations that are not findable
with Google or other general search engines.
Some companies are using Facebook as part of their customer
relations. For example, last week I
communicated with my Internet provider when regular e-mail refused to
work. I received a quick answer and soon
was back using e-mail.
Facebook groups
and pages may be set up of all kinds purposes including family, business and library
groups. For one of my library professional
organizations, I maintained the page as part of my publicity responsibilities. The Facebook page was a way to reach members
about events, share comments, ask for help, and to share pictures of events. It
was public relations and had no need to attract customers, users or new member. The pictures and stories were a way to publicize
what we did as librarians and spread good will.
One of the core
reasons for publicity is to inform our users, potential users, and those with
the power and money what we do. It is a
way of making people feel good about our brand and comfortable interacting with
us. Too many people think collections
and events happen by magic i.e. creation without professional expertise, time, and
creative energy.
In 2007
Chainigo and Barnett-Ellis[5] observed that Facebook was
an emerging phenomenon that was starting to blur the line between recreational
and informational use of computers. They advised librarians to use Facebook to
“learn new ways to reach out and communicate better with a larger segment of
our users.” Facebook can be a powerful tool for the library to spread its
message. Terra Jacobson in her 2011
article[6] recommended making sure the
page is updated often. Jacobson also
states what I had observed about librarian expectations.
Facebook has
developed a lot since 2007. Not only has the number of users increased, but the
philosophy of a post has evolved from a status report to a story. Posts are not limited to 256 characters as
they once were. I don’t know the current limit but I have seen posts longer
than 500 words. Facebook now reminds
administrators of groups when they have not posted in in a while. Facebook is
also more secure than it was 6 years ago because some people misused their
accounts. Six years ago, Facebook was
more recreational. Today Facebook is a
marketing tool, an information tool, and a communications tool to enable sharing
and support with friends, relatives, customers, and colleagues.
To review what
I said in a previous article -- marketing is about getting people into the
library, informing people about digital services (such as access to the
catalog, databases and electronic books), and informing the public about events
and programs. Public relations is the spreading
of good news about and concerning the library.
Use of social media is an important venue for these messages.
One has to hit
the patrons with multiple forms of the same message because not everyone will
understand or receive all the messages.
Some people have a preference for one form of message and some messages
will be best when hitting multiple senses. To earn the respect of the patrons
we have to give the message that the library is a producer of content. The PR message tells the reader that there is
library content worth their time.
Some
Suggestions
Step back and
examine what the people really need or want. Try to determine the differences between
"needs" and "wants?" Are you creating messages to address
what your users and potential users need and want? There is no "best way" to deliver
your message. One needs to hit the
public with the message using several methods such as e-mail, signs, flyers,
newsletters, personal contact, etc. Think about the types of messages to send
with social media. Different folks respond to different kinds of messages.
Since the
beginning of libraries, librarians have been producing bibliographies, subject
guides, how to do research documents, catalogs, and indexes. These types of works in book format were
standard reference works that librarians and readers used to locate
materials. The ordinary library users
often considered them dull and/or unnecessary. This is until the patron desperately needed
the information and then they couldn’t stop thanking us enough.
Create content for your Facebook posts. Use some of the ideas from Library of
Congress. [7] Connect your posts to the library
collections, resources and exhibits.
Make the posts timely such as “today in history,” remembering the
birthday, passing, or anniversary of the death of someone who is connected to a
book in the library. famous and has
written a book in the collection, or remembering. Commemorate a special day, month or week with
content connected to the library collection.
When library
exhibits are prepared, post pictures of the physical displays, and post some of
the exhibit documents on Facebook. Sometimes prepare an electronic exhibit.[8] Sometimes
it is hard to measure the impact of Facebook posts. Make the posting content oriented rather than
dry news reporting. Spend the time to post frequent content.
There are no
magic answers. You could follow all the
best advice and still not have messages that sink into the right brains. Some retailers send me daily e-mail. While I am not going to buy from them on any
given day, I will buy from them some day. Don’t give up. Keep posting in Facebook and keep the
messages coming.
Getting the
word out that you offer superior service is not easy. First you really have to
offer superior service and believe in yourselves. Then you have to tell people
via personal, electronic and print media what you do. We have to weed out the
negative thoughts. If social media is used as a tool, not a toy it can only
help spread our message.
[1] Picture is “Facebook”
by Sarah Marshal (2013). From PhotoforClass.com. Creative Commons license.
[2] Sorry Marvel Comics and
Spiderman there is no other good way to make my point. The quote was made by the narrator in the
first Spiderman issue 1962 August, Amazing Fantasy #15, Comic Book Story
Title: “Spider-Man!”, Writer: Stan Lee, Illustrator: Steve Ditko, (Quotation
appeared in caption above a panel showing the back of character Peter Parker
walking away down an urban street), Published by Marvel Comics, New York. The quote has sources that go back more than
200 years to Voltaire and perhaps older.
[3] For more information on
how to bet careful about your online persona see: “What You Need to Know About Trade Libel” http://www.inc.com/libertymutual/what-you-need-to-know-about-trade-libel.html
. INC magazine Published
on: Aug 12, 2016; retrieved Dec. 4, 2016.
An unsubstantiated claim about a business or other organization can
leave you open to an accusation of libel.
Litigation based on a posting can be difficult and expensive to
defend. Even if you are proved to have
done nothing wrong, or the case is dismissed for lack of proof, the accusation
can harm your personal and/or organizational reputation.
[4]
There is a Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook)
“History of Facebook” and an article from Business Insider Mar.
5, 2010 (http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3#we-can-talk-about-that-after-i-get-all-the-basic-functionality-up-tomorrow-night-1)
, “At Last -- The Full Story Of How Facebook Was Founded” by Nicholas Carlson. I joined Facebook in 2008, which is before it
was open to everyone because I was a faculty member at one of the early schools
that the founders allowed to join. At
first I checked in about once every two weeks.
Later when I saw students in the Library checking Facebook every few
minutes, I started to learn about the features and power of reading and
posting.
[5] Charnigo, Laurie, and
Paula Barnett-Ellis. "Checking Out Facebook.Com: The Impact Of A Digital
Trend On Academic Libraries." Information Technology & Libraries
26.1 (2007): 23-34.
[6] Jacobson, Terra B. “Facebook as a Library Tool: Perceived vs.
Actual Use.” College and Research Libraries (January 2011 vol. 2:1) p.
79-90.
[7] The Library of Congress
does a great job of preparing electronic exhibits in conjunction with physical
exhibits. Here is the link to the
current exhibit on Rosa Parks (1913-2005): https://www.loc.gov/collections/rosa-parks-papers/about-this-collection/ Library of Congress posted a notice of this exhibit on December
1, 2016 on its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/libraryofcongress/)
This photo is from Library of Congress
is called, “Rosa on a Carousel.” Frequent posts highlight items from the library
connected with “today in history.” I use
this idea in my library Facebook posts.
Contrast
Loyola with Loyola University of Chicago’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/luclibraries/?fref=ts) Loyola has pictures and promotions of events
and some links to blog articles. It has
very little content connecting to library resources. The Loyola Library web site (http://libraries.luc.edu/) does not have
any electronic exhibits. The site is mainly for searching the catalog and
databases.
The
University of Chicago’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/uchicagolibrary/?fref=ts)
has lots of content connecting to the collection including links to staff
profiles and information about learning more about library databases. The
Library web site (https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/)
has a link to information about library exhibits, but no real virtual exhibits.
[8] The
Library of Congress does a great job of preparing electronic exhibits in
conjunction with physical exhibits. Here
is the link to the current exhibit on Rosa Parks (1913-2005): https://www.loc.gov/collections/rosa-parks-papers/about-this-collection/ LOC posted
a notice of this exhibit on December 1, 2016 on its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/libraryofcongress/)
Frequent posts highlight items from the library
connected with “today in history.” I use
this idea in my library Facebook posts.
Contrast
LOC with Loyola University of Chicago’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/luclibraries/?fref=ts) Loyola has pictures and promotions of events
and some links to blog articles. It has
very little content connecting to library resources. The Loyola Library web site (http://libraries.luc.edu/) does not have
any electronic exhibits. The site is mainly for searching the catalog and
databases.
The
University of Chicago’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/uchicagolibrary/?fref=ts)
has lots of content connecting to the collection including links to staff
profiles and information about learning more about library databases. The
Library web site (https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/)
has a link to information about library exhibits, but no real virtual exhibits.
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