Social Media for the Library

“Reigniting Your Relationship with Social Media: Policies, Plans, and Peccadilloes,” presented by Katherine Gerwig (Arndt) and Samantha Klein, was another session that offered practical and useful information for any library or institution struggling with social media. They started the session by discussing some of the cons to getting involved with social media.  Social media can take time away from what some consider “real” library work and many are still under the assumption that libraries don’t do social media. Another con to social media might be fear that something bad will happen. Luckily, the presenters offered many more pros to social media then cons.  Here are some of the pros to getting involved with social media in your library:

• Engage with communities
• Listen / Learn
• Increase visibility
• Inform
• Build connections
• Instruct
• Create a sense of team

A common obstacle to creating a social media program in the library is lack of support within the organization.  One positive aspect of social media is that the cost is low and therefore it has found some supporters that it wouldn’t have if it was a financial burden. Once the decision has been reached to create a social media presence, begin drafting a social media policy.  A great way to do this is to look at your library’s mission statement.  The presenters listed the following questions to ask in order to create a social media policy:

• What platforms to explore?
• What are your goals?
• Who is your audience?
• Who do you want the library to be?
• What are staffing needs?
• What rules govern digital space?
• Does the larger institution have guidelines to follow?

Once that is completed, decide who is going to make up the social media team.  Like some institutions you might find that there are too many cooks in the kitchen and decide to go with a small team of 2 or 3 people.  You will also need to get the workflow down.  Create a posting schedule or calendar and find out what days and times are best to post.  Continually evaluate your social media presence.  And last but not least, get people involved.  Encourage staff, students, Deans, employees to communicate ideas and to have others to bounce ideas off of.