SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS FOR MARKETING LIBRARY SERVICES

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 21^st 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 21^st century and to better serve their users as information managers.