Social media and academic libraries: Is it overrated?
It seems to me that every library feels like they need to jump on the social media bandwagon. I wonder though how effective social media is at connecting libraries with patrons and of course marketing the library and all the other wonderful things it is supposed to do for an organization?
My library has a twitter account but it has a mere 212 followers and a lot of them are not students. The library Facebook page only has a few hundred "likes" and "visits." We have an Instagram account and this currently has 386 followers. Then there's our YouTube channel. What are we really trying to achieve here? Compare the popularity of our social media channels with that of our online subject guides. For example our subject guide for APA referencing has had 196,720 views so far this year and the law guide 19,749 views.
I know that having a social media presence can be really useful at times. One example is when there is an IT outage and students are waiting for updates so they know when they can get back to their study. Instagram is popular with students and is a fun way to market the library, for example we recently invited students to submit photos of themselves in the library as part of a competition. YouTube is a good place to post video tutorials - one of our library videos on EndNote has over 3000 views.
But what about just good old fashioned talking to patrons? Promoting services to them when they come to the service desk for example. Nothing beats face to face contact. And a friendly smile.
My library has a twitter account but it has a mere 212 followers and a lot of them are not students. The library Facebook page only has a few hundred "likes" and "visits." We have an Instagram account and this currently has 386 followers. Then there's our YouTube channel. What are we really trying to achieve here? Compare the popularity of our social media channels with that of our online subject guides. For example our subject guide for APA referencing has had 196,720 views so far this year and the law guide 19,749 views.
I know that having a social media presence can be really useful at times. One example is when there is an IT outage and students are waiting for updates so they know when they can get back to their study. Instagram is popular with students and is a fun way to market the library, for example we recently invited students to submit photos of themselves in the library as part of a competition. YouTube is a good place to post video tutorials - one of our library videos on EndNote has over 3000 views.
But what about just good old fashioned talking to patrons? Promoting services to them when they come to the service desk for example. Nothing beats face to face contact. And a friendly smile.
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