1. Social Media What is It Good
For?
Lori Birrell
University of Rochester

2. Agenda
• Background on the organizations in my
study
• My foray into social media
• Results of implementing social media
• Discussion of my study
• Recommendations for archival
practitioners
Lori Birrell

3. The Tale of a Poetry Society
Who: An international poetry society
What: Implementing Facebook & Twitter
Why: To increase current membership
participation & attract new, younger members
When: October 2010- April 2011
Lori Birrell

4. The Tale of a Small, Liberal Arts
College
Who: A New England College’s archives and
special collections department
What: Contributing to library’s (LITS) pre-
existing Facebook and Twitter feeds
Why: To increase campus and alumni awareness
of school history and archival holdings
When: September 2010- April 2011
Lori Birrell

5. One Poetry Organization’s Foray into
Social Media
Facebook Profiles, Groups and Pages- OH
MY!
Lori Birrell

6. LITS & Facebook
Be sure to attend the
2010 Vesper's concert
this Sunday. But before
you do, take a look at
the first Vesper's
concert program! Photo
from … College Digital
Collections, part of the
Archives & Special
Collections.
Lori Birrell

7. Poetry Society: Where is
Everybody???
Twitter: Use of #hashtags & @users
Lori Birrell

8. LITS & Twitter
• Being one voice among many- not the lone
voice: Using CoTweet
Lori Birrell

9. Poetry Society Facebook Results
Data Pool: Nov. 8, 2010-
March 21, 2011
Likes: 31 users
Page Visits: On average, 21
people visited FB page
each week
Lori Birrell

10. LITS’ Facebook Results
Data Pool: Jan.-
March 2011
Likes: On average
245 users
Nearly 10 times as many users visit LITS Facebook page
than visit Poetry Society page
Lori Birrell

11. Poetry Society’s Twitter Results
Tweet Aggregator:
TweetStats
Data Pool: Nov.
2010-March 2011
Average Tweets: 1.7
times per day /14
per month
Lori Birrell

12. LITS’ Twitter Results
Tweet aggregator:
TweetStats
Data Pool:
Jan. 2010- March
2011
Average Tweets:
2.2 times per day/25
tweets per month
Lori Birrell

13. Lessons Learned: #1
Buy In
Lori Birrell

14. Buy In
Poetry Society LITS
• President • My boss
• Not FB group • LITS staff
administrator • I created & generated
• Not content creator content
Lori Birrell

15. Lessons Learned: #2
Community
Lori Birrell

16. Community
Poetry Society LITS
• Meets 1 time/year • Communications
• No expectation of throughout the year
continued conversation • Strong connection to
central organization
Lori Birrell

17. Lessons Learned: #3
Content
Lori Birrell

18. Content
Poetry Society LITS
• Poet’s birthday & annual • Constant activity
meeting • Reporting THEIR
• Reporting OTHER’S NEWS NEWS
Lori Birrell

19. Conclusions
• Generate conversations among users
• Implement social media tools into an existing
suite of outreach activities
Lori Birrell

20. Lori Birrell
lbirrell@library.rochester.edu
Manuscript Librarian
University of Rochester
Lori Birrell