A comparison of libraries using social networking to meet their organizational goals as at December 23, 2012.

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  Table representing the use of social media services across 3 public library services.

Library Name

Blogs

You Tube

Flickr

Google Maps

Podcasts

Twitter

Facebook

Myspace

RSS Feed

Wikis

Library Thing

Apps for smart phones

Libraries ACT

Adult book club. General News/reading programs/local history

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Casey-Cardinia Library Corp

Adult bookclub Teen book club Local history

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Christchurch City Libraries

General News Adult book club Teen book club

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

Why should libraries be on social media?

1. Communication/marketing. We need to be where are customers are so that we can know their opinions about the services we are offering them. Twitter is great for this as we get instant feed back on a particular topic or issue that is currently being discussed by our community. Facebook serves libraries in a similar way but it allows us to post multimedia content and more indepth stories and to solicit detailed opinions. It is interesting to note that all of the three libraries have chosen to use Facebook but one decided to make smart phone apps available instead of communicating through Twitter.

2. Enriching our customers lives through outreach. Social media can serve both as an outreaching and an enriching tool. All three libraries have chosen to write blogs. Each of these blogs have a different subject/demographic focus and enable libraries to engage with readers when it suits them tailoring content to that particular demongraphic's interests and needs. For instance, teens would be interested in local history and seniors may not want to read about the latest world of warcraft cheat book either. Having different blogs for different groups accomplishes looking after the long tail - groups of people with neiche interests.

3. Recording history as it happens. Just look at social media as a whole. What does it do? People are communicating about events that have happend and their opinions. In this case they've just heard Mick Inkpen chat about making picture books. Photos can be uploaded on to Flickr, tweeted on Twitter and a blog post giving a synopsis of the event. Your library is building social history timeline to be shared with anyone who is interested. This makes them feel apart of what is happening in their community and at the library. This strengthens the social fabric of the community around them through engagement with government services.

What do you think?