SOCIAL
MEDIA TOOLS FOR MARKETING LIBRARY SERVICES
BY
SARAH
ERHABOR OZUEM
INTRODUCTION
Social media as define by Ben Parr, (2009)"is a
term used collectively to describe a set of tools that foster interaction,
discussion and community, allowing people to build relationships and share
information". Social media is about conversations, community, connecting
with personalities and building relationships, it is not just a broadcast
channel or a sales and marketing tool. Through social media, people or groups
can create, organise, edit, comment on, combine, and share content, in the
process helping agencies better achieve their goals. “Social networking is the
way the 21st century communicates” (IFLA, 2010). Also, the term
social networking refers to a process of building relationships among group of
people who have common interest (what is Social Networking, 2010). The internet
is full with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to
gather and share first-hand information and experiences, developing friendships
or professional alliances, finding employment, business-to-business marketing.
It also enables individuals or groups to create profiles, share ideas,
activities, events and interests within the individual networks.
Social media is now mainstream and is expected by library
users and client groups (O’Dell, 2010). It is a means whereby people communicate
without engaging themselves physically as reported by Facebook, 2012 that “
they have 845 Million monthly active users on Facebook” and also Twitter
reported that “they reached the 100 million user mark in 2011”. This is to say
that in addition to other social media tool available in the world libraries
can use these tools in marketing their services and reaching out to their users.
The use of online social media by libraries and information organisation is
also increasingly prevalent and a growing tool that is being used to
communicate with more potential library users, as well as extending the
services provided to individual libraries. Social Networks or social software
can be used for providing user centric service in social library environment.
User attitude towards library is changing day by day. User wants most practical
and speed information in e-learning age. But providing quick and easy retrieval
information to user is a great challenge to library. Therefore library should find
and search some new techniques for impacting valuable information to the user. Virtual
Reference Desk (VRD) can be performed by wikipedia. You can plan, design and
disseminate information to patrons by KM Wiki. Marketing of library services
can be possible by using social software tools like Podcast, YouTube, Blogger,
SecondLife, Ning etc. Catalogue some of your library books on library thing.
Library can host their personal websites in PBwiki or blogger. Library version
can be possible by secondlife. Start a library podcast and interview students,
teachers, patrons and members of the community. Digital video
library can be framed by using the most successful tool like YouTube in
Library. Impacting and planning online course curriculum in online learning environment
by PBWiki. Support just-in-time reference, since students may find it easier and
more comfortable to communicate with a librarian through this medium than in traditional
ways. Take online assistance by implementing chat reference i.e. IM in library.
Library assignment and teaching scheduled through social software tools like Jhoomla.Professionanls
can put their collections on flicker. Footnote.com may be used to learn about
history of library. After all it will be helpful to provide the means to learn more
about students, which can help libraries, better meet their needs.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS FOR LIBRARY SERVICES
Social
networking helps librarian to share information with patrons and students in
the easiest way for digital library environment. According to Mashra C., (2009)
Librarian can use Social Medias in three broad activities in library and
information services. The major three are Information communication, Knowledge
distribution and knowledge organization
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION
In
this process librarian can keep constant touch and effective interaction with staff, patrons, and faculty in
online collaborative environment.
The social networking tools that can be practiced by the library for the aforementioned purposes are:
I.
MySpace:
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) and Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com)
are extremely popular social networking sites Which primarily have a social
function allowing people to make friends, talk online and share resources.
II.
Facebook: this
is another social media site frequented by library users and is librarian
friendly, it also encourage Group communication among patrons.
III.
Ning:
Librarian can use this tool to get connected with library patrons, library associations,
and more. You can also use it to share information with many people at a time.
IV.
Blog: By
creating a blog, you'll be able to disseminate information to lots of people at
one time. Whether you're updating patrons on new collections, or just
conversing with library staff, blogs are a powerful tool, especially when combined
with RSS.
V.
Meebo: librarians
can use this tool by creating a network of library users and thereby assisting
them, no matter what IM client they use. Online chatting or virtual reference
service in library can be impacted by professionals to clients.
VI.
LinkedIn:
This social networking site for professionals is a great way to get library
patrons connected with the people that can help them find information. Whether
that's you, faculty, authors, historians, or other sources, they can find them
in your LinkedIn network.
VII.
Twitter: Use
Twitter, a micro-blogging application, to keep staff and patrons updated on
daily activities, like frequently updated collections, new arrival, current
content services of library.
INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION
Information
sharing is the major part and crucial area where professionals should looks
seriously while considering and designing library activities in digital age.
Patron’s satisfaction should be given first and foremost priority by providing
right information at the right time in a right way from anywhere. Library professionals
should rethink for implementing social media technologies in library services
from early period. This may include among others;
I.
Flickr:
This image distribution tool is a great way to share new image collections.
Library can share photo collection of workshops; conferences and different
programme that are organised within the library environment or may which to
share photos of their physical building and areas where materials are stored
and may include staff offices. You can create image sets with metadata, as well
as take advantage of the many plugins available for Flickr users. Flickr users
can also help gather missing information about images.
II.
YouTube:
Library video and e-learning tutorials, events and other videos of library
services can be effectively promote and webcast through YouTube.
III.
TeacherTube:
TeacherTube, which is a YouTube for teachers, presents an excellent opportunity
for instructor-librarian collaboration. Instructors can guide students to
helpful library resources, and vice versa.
IV.
Second
Life: On Second Life, you can create a virtual library with
streamed media, discussions, classes, and more.
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia updated by users. You can use this tool to
share your knowledge by editing, or simply point library patrons in the right
direction. You can also host your library websites on wiki software like
PBWiki.
VI.
PBwiki:
PBwiki is the world's largest provider of hosted business and educational
wikis. It encourages collaboration from students, a way to showcase work, and
offers a central gathering point for information. PBwiki offers controlled
access, so you can give some editing privileges, while others can only read.
VII.
Footnote: On
Footnote, you'll get access to original historical documents, and can update
them with your own content and insights. You can even find personal anecdotes
and experiences you won't find in reference books.
VIII.
Community
Walk: Community Walk offers a geographical way to interpret text
and events. You can use it for instruction, such as showing someone where to
find a book, or walk them through a historical and geographical timeline.
IX.
SlideShare:
Encourage faculty, staff, and students to share their slideshow presentations
for the greater community to access on SlideShare. It's a great way to
disseminate information among research community to the field of research and
development (R&D) activities.
X. Digg:
Digg is a great way to find useful content that you wouldn't come across in
traditional ways. Find stories here, then share them with others using Digg's blog
function.
XI.
StumbleUpon:
Another way to find great content is with StumbleUpon. You can channel surf the
Internet to find useful content, research tools, and more.
XII.
Daft
Doggy: If you've found a particularly good resource, you can
use DaftDoggy to create a website tour with instructions, pointing out useful references
and items of note.
KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION
Social
software can helps the professionals in KO environment for getting handy
information which can be accessible with the social media technologies. The
below mentioned tools cab effectively in library and information center for
patrons as:
I.
aNobii:
Social networking site like aNobii helps book lovers to share reviews and
recommendations. It also prepare due date alerts, lending, and discussions.
II.
Del.icio.us:
With this social bookmarking tool, you can create a custom directory for
library patrons. Teach them to search by your tags, and it will be easy to find
useful Internet research links.
III.
Netvibes:
In
Netvibes' new Ginger beta, you can create a public page that can be viewed by
anyone. You can use it to help guide patrons to helpful internet sources, news
feeds, and more. It can be integrated with many of the tools mentioned here,
like Flickr and library blogs.
IV.
Connotea:
Connotea is a great reference tool, allowing you to save and organize reference
links and share them with others. They can be accessed from any computer and
offer integration with lots of other tools.
V.
LibraryThing:
This social cataloguing media is great for librarians, and you can catalogue
along with Amazon, the Library of Congress, and more than 200 other libraries
around the world. You'll get recommendations and easy tagging as well.
VI.
lib.rario.us:
Another social cataloguing site, you can put media such as books, CDs, and
journals on display for easy access and tracking (Hupp, 2008).
CONCLUSION
Libraries
and Librarians should serve their patrons with emerging trends by implementing
the use of some selected social media platforms in providing their core
services, they should create several social media platforms in other to
publicised their services and existence as patrons tends to look for better and
more relax ways to access information content. Also libraries in providing
reference services to patrons should adopt the use of information communication
social network to better serve users to off-the-site referencing. With this, I huge
all libraries and library professionals to move with the current trends of
social networking and other social media in order to stay ahead in the 21st
century and to better serve their users as information managers.
