The use of social media in academic library environment in general and in the Lebanese American University Libraries in particular is covered in this presentation given during the OCLC EMEA 7th Regional council meeting which was held on March 1-2, 2016 in Madrid, Spain.

1. #EMEARC16

2. #EMEARC16
LAU Libraries and the Selfie generation:
Are we doing the right thing to attract….?

3. #EMEARC16
Our Current Social Media Channels

4. #EMEARC16
Facebook Outreach

5. #EMEARC16
Facebook Insights

6. #EMEARC16
Social Media to Market library Events

7. #EMEARC16

8. #EMEARC16
lau_libraries
108 posts
405 followers
16 following
lau_students
3,362 posts
5,563 followers
1,222 following
Lebamericanuni
827 posts
8,518 followers
814 following

9. #EMEARC16

10. #EMEARC16

11. #EMEARC16
Highest Liked photo 37 Likes
Lowest Liked photo 4 Likes

12. #EMEARC16

13. #EMEARC16

14. #EMEARC16

15. #EMEARC16
Where are
my students
?

16. #EMEARC16
Linking Facebook with
Instagram

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18. #EMEARC16
Digital Reference Services
Jelly
SOMETHING TO
THINK ABOUT

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40
25
62
197
218
102
270
440
MAR. 08 – SEPT.
08
OCT. 08- SEPT.
09
OCT. 09 – SEPT.
10
OCT. 10 – SEPT.
11
OCT. 11 – MAY
12
OCT. 12 – SEPT.
13
OCT. 13 – SEPT.
14
OCT. 14 – SEPT.
15
# of Digital Reference Queries
BE & BY

20. #EMEARC16

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LAU Libraries and the Selfie generation: Are we
doing the right thing to attract….?
Useful Figures
Social Media Questionnaire

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200 copies distributed
equally between
Beirut & Byblos
Campuses.
195 copies were
answered.

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Social Media Awareness: LAU Libraries vs. LAU
Beirut Campus

24. #EMEARC16
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Are you
aware of the
Library
Facebook
page?
Are you
aware of LAU
Facebook
page?
Are you
aware of the
Library
Instagram
account?
Are you
aware of LAU
Instagram
account?
Are you
aware of the
Library
Twitter
account?
Are you
aware of LAU
Twitter
account?
72
23
83
25
87
57
23
72
12
70
8
38
Yes
No
Social Media Awareness: LAU Libraries vs. LAU
Byblos Campus

25. #EMEARC16
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Are you aware of
the Library
Facebook page?
Are you aware of
LAU Facebook
page?
Are you aware of
the Library
Instagram
account?
Are you aware of
LAU Instagram
account?
Are you aware of
the Library
Twitter account?
Are you aware of
LAU Twitter
account?
153
41
163
52
177
116
42
154
31
142
16
76
Social Media Awareness at LAU Libraries
Beirut & Byblos
Yes
No

26. #EMEARC16
42
154
32
143
16
78
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
ARE YOU AWARE OF THE LIBRARY FACEBOOK PAGE?
ARE YOU AWARE OF LAU FACEBOOK PAGE?
ARE YOU AWARE OF THE LIBRARY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT?
ARE YOU AWARE OF LAU INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT?
ARE YOU AWARE OF THE LIBRARY TWITTER ACCOUNT?
ARE YOU AWARE OF LAU TWITTER ACCOUNT?
Social Media at a glance

27. NEW CHANNELS

28. #EMEARC16
Where
are my
students
?

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What are we doing wrong?
• No Social Media Plan
• Didn’t build a Team
• Different people handling different tasks
• No single database for all channels (Hootsuite, TweetDeck, etc.)
• Username and Passwords to access channels created with no planning
• No follow up for existing channels, e.g. Twitter account
• Anyone is creating/posting without any coordination
• Didn’t schedule our postings

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How to Fix?
King recommended trying the following six steps:
1. Set up the channel
2. Create goals
3. Listen
4. Create a team
5. Create content
6. Use analytics to measure success
David Lee King (What to do from start to finish, p.33)

31. #EMEARC16
10 Tips, hints, and tricks for posting on Social Media
1. Be relevant
2. Be consistent
3. Pay attention to different
tools/rules
4. Share the library’s story
5. Be human
6. Type like you talk
7. Be helpful
8. Think short
9. Be visual
10. Encourage audience
participation
David Lee King (How to connect with and communicate with customers, p. 16)

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Challenges
• To secure budget for a new FTE to handle Social Media
• To use social media as a tool to connect with users
• To understand how to communicate with our students
• To train staff how to post on social media
• To seek students feedback
• To explore new tools
Sample of our students feedback:
• “Don’t know about their existence”
• “What about WhatsApp”
• “You need to visit the classrooms to promote the libraries”

33. “Every single person
working in a [library] is a
spoke person for that
[library]” DLK.

34. #EMEARC16
References
King, D.L. (2012). Face2Face : using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools to create great customer
connections . Medford, NJ: CyberAge Books/Information Today.
King, D. L. (2015). Analytics, goals, and strategy for social media. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 26-32.
King, D. L. (2015). How to connect with and communicate with customers. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 16-21.
King, D. L. (2015). Introduction. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 5-5.
King, D. L. (2015). Landscape of social media for libraries. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 10-15.
King, D. L. (2015). Social media teams. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 22-25.
King, D. L. (2015). What to do from start to finish. Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 33-35.
King, D. L. (2015). Why use social media? Library Technology Reports, 51(1), 6-9.
Thomson, L. (2015, September 16). 10 Steps to a Social Media Plan. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-steps-social-media-plan-lindsay-thomson