Exercise 5 - Social Networking & the Library

Despite my continued reluctance to use social media on a personal basis, I think it’s a great institution for private companies and public services, such as libraries, to use.

It is many years since private companies became alert to the unparalleled marketing opportunities and consumer access offered by Facebook.  This was then expanded by the growth of other social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter.  Most individuals today use some form of social media, with many opting to create profiles on more than one platform.  It has also become common place for people to seek information about products and services online, where word of mouth, and popular reviews have reached epic proportions – the popularity of ranking sites such as TripAdvisor attest to the importance of word of mouth reviews through the online communities.  

On 1 June 2016, Sensis released their annual social media report, “Sensis Social Media Report 2016- How Australian people and businesses are using social media”.  This report surveyed 800 Australian consumers and 1,100 Australian businesses to show how social media is being used.  For the purposes of the report, the term social media is defined as:

• Social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and
• Online blogs and online rating and review mechanisms.

The Executive Summary of the report notes that as the growth of social media continues the “It therefore appears to be more a question of how, rather than if, businesses and marketers should use social media to connect and engage with consumers meaningfully and effectively.”  Furthermore the Foreword notes that “Social media is one of the only digital avenues where businesses can have a two-way communication with customers, giving them the opportunity to receive feedback, monitor sentiment and build a relatable brand personality. They can do all of this with minimal marketing spend, making social media one of the easiest and most cost effective channels to get in front of customers.”

This two way access doubly applies to libraries allowing their patrons to build an online extension of the local community.  It also keeps libraries fully engaged in their communities for very little marketing cost, an expenditure many can ill afford.

The Sensis Report also indicates that 87% of Australians access the internet on a daily basis, with up to following proportions accessing social media:

All of this means that libraries need to embrace Library 2.0 and reach out to their patrons, encouraging access by social media.  It seems that a social media profile will not only embed the library firmly in its community’s consciousness, but will also promote its use and its perceived accessibility to their consumer.  Both of which are vitally important in the current age of government cost cutting.

The question then becomes which sites should a Library use?  It appears that research around the world is showing similar trends - the choice of social media platform is age dependent with younger people choosing the more visual platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, foregoing Facebook which is perceived to belong to the older generations. 

To test how Australian libraries were going in this regard, I visited the Australian Bureau of Statistics website to ascertain which of the local governments areas (LGAs) in NSW and Victoria had the lowest median ages.  I then looked at the library website for each LGA to see what social media platforms were used.  The following table illustrates my findings:

In general I found that libraries in these areas were doing well by providing their communities with a number of tools for engagement, with each library supporting at least 2 social media platforms.

There is a potential downside to all this engagement though: firstly the social media sites need to be well managed with entertaining and engaging content otherwise they will be overlooked and forgotten, and secondly, as many organisations have discovered there can be a downside when social media becomes negative. 

In 2013 Nacy Dowd wrote an interesting article, published in The Library Journal entitled Social Media: Libraries are Posting but is Anyone Listening?  This article makes the point that, like all other ventures undertaken by a Library, the use of social media needs to be planned, monitored and reviewed to ensure the initiatives are successful in achieving each libraries stated goals.  The final paragraph of the paper sums up the situation perfectly…

Social media is not going away. As new platforms emerge, libraries will need to choose the channels that work for their communities. But whatever platforms they choose, they must have some kind of plan that outlines their goals and embrace philosophies that support interactivity with their communities. I think Bizzle summed it up best, “Successful libraries will determine what platforms most effectively reach their target audience and aggressively build sustainable presences there.”