2. Today…
• To tweet or not to tweet... Which Social Media
platform is right for you?
• What do you want to achieve? Can you keep it up?
• Who is going to monitor the site? Who can post?
• Why write a social media policy?
• How do you create "social capital" so that you get a
"return on your investment"?
3. Why Social Media?
• Engagement and PR
• Join the dialogue
• Service delivery
• Developing relationships, etc.
The possibilities are endless….
5. What do I use?
• Twitter
• Youtube
• Facebook
• Blogspot
• Tumblr
• Google+
• Pinterest
• Linkedin
6. Social Media Reach (Au)
% Reach
Twitter
% Reach
Blogger
Wikipedia
Youtube
Facebook
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Social Media in Australia (Source: Burson-Marsteller)
7. The thing about Twitter is…
http://blog.marginmedia.com.au/Our-
Blog/bid/83708/Australian-Internet-and-
Male Social-Media-Statistics-May-2012
Female
9. Social Media cultures and
communities
Facebook Twitter
Connecting with people you know Connecting with strangers
Posts are not as time-sensitive Posts extremely time-sensitive
Local news/events Better for national/global
Posts can be fairly wordy Limited to 140 characters
Emphasis on deep connections Emphasis on follower counts
Complex functionality Simple functionality
More difficult to use Easier to use
Has replaced email and IM for many Has replaced RSS for many
Solomon, 2011, p28
10. Watch your Language!
“Do I sound like a person?”
“If I was a person, what do I do or say to make
people like/follow/friend/share/retweet me?”
11. Risks
• Somebody might post something about us that is not
true
• Somebody might post something about us that IS true
• We might offend someone
• We might breach our privacy agreements
• We might waste time on something that doesn’t work
12. Pour yourself a cup of concrete
• Be honest and upfront about problems and concerns
customers or clients have.
• Respond! Respond! Respond!
• Write a social media policy or guideline to frame and
guide posts and protect staff
• Don’t post people’s private information
• Something in your library was not successful? Boo hoo.
What did you learn?
13. For Best results:
• Set goals!
• Post regularly (twice a week, once a day?)
• Respond a.s.a.p!
• Use visuals
14. For best results (cont.)
• Dedicate someone to the role who knows
social media inside out
• Share, Like, and Friend.
(Follow, Favorite, and Retweet) etc.
• Bank some serious social capital – Remember
the 20:80 ratio rule
16. The nitty gritty
• Don’t reinvent the wheel - Find an example of
policy you like and use it!
• Allow staff to post in a personal or a professional
capacity (within guidelines)
• Restrict access to institutional accounts so you
always know who it is who is posting.
17. AT UQ
• Lib Inform session
• Facebook Insights Metrics Tricks…
• Facebook group to propose posts
• Social Media guidelines based on Qld State government
policy
• Image use guidelines
• Sharing with attribution.
[…] “promotional strategies must be social in nature, aimed at starting conversations instead of simply treating our users as a captive audience.” Mathews 2009, p2“whether you like it or not, your organisation, its products, services, industry, staff or latest initiative is being discussed on social media.” Griffin 2011, p661
“The total number of FB users in Australia is reaching 11670960 and grew by more than 782140 in the last 6 months. http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/australia”, on 3 Oct 2012Twitter has over 500 million registered users, but just 140 million active users (compared to Facebooks’ 950 million active users and probably over 2 billion registered users) http://thesocialskinny.com/216-social-media-and-internet-statistics-september-2012/“If your library can only be in one place online, Facebookshould be it. Ideally, however, your library should maintain an active presence at least on Facebook and Twitter. They are very different social instruments with different strengths. Find the best fit for your library based on the demographics you are trying to reach and your library’s goals.”Solomon 2011, p14.