Sonoma State University Library Using the Library Staff and Statistics to Create a Dynamic Twitter Program Joe J. Marquez, MLIS Sami Lange, MLIS @ssulib
Using the Library Staff and Statistics to Create a Dynamic Twitter Program
May 18, 2015
Presented at CARL 2010.
Many academic libraries are using Twitter today. But, how valuable is this tool and how often are the tweets noticed? The Sonoma State Library pulled together a group of library staff and librarians to start a new twitter initiative in the summer of 2009. The group’s goal was to try a semester long pilot of using twitter on the library homepage. The interested librarians and staff agreed to contribute tweets on their various areas of responsibility and offered tweets on new library related resources, gallery events, workshop times, services for faculty, new online tutorials, campus lectures and more. A link was always associated with the tweet and stats were collected using the free tool HootSuite, the twitter client. Once the semester pilot was over, the tweets were analyzed and divided in to four main categories: workshops, resources, events and information about the library. The tweets were also divided into library related and non-library or campus related tweets. The tweets were evaluated based on how many clicks per tweet were recorded. Statistics were pulled to see if certain categories of tweets garnered more interest. The discussion session will focus on implementing a successful twitter program in a library. The focus will be on who should be involved in the twitter process, what statistics can be obtained to evaluate the process and what twitter best practices can be created by the people involved in the twitter program.
Many academic libraries are using Twitter today. But, how valuable is this tool and how often are the tweets noticed? The Sonoma State Library pulled together a group of library staff and librarians to start a new twitter initiative in the summer of 2009. The group’s goal was to try a semester long pilot of using twitter on the library homepage. The interested librarians and staff agreed to contribute tweets on their various areas of responsibility and offered tweets on new library related resources, gallery events, workshop times, services for faculty, new online tutorials, campus lectures and more. A link was always associated with the tweet and stats were collected using the free tool HootSuite, the twitter client. Once the semester pilot was over, the tweets were analyzed and divided in to four main categories: workshops, resources, events and information about the library. The tweets were also divided into library related and non-library or campus related tweets. The tweets were evaluated based on how many clicks per tweet were recorded. Statistics were pulled to see if certain categories of tweets garnered more interest. The discussion session will focus on implementing a successful twitter program in a library. The focus will be on who should be involved in the twitter process, what statistics can be obtained to evaluate the process and what twitter best practices can be created by the people involved in the twitter program.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Sonoma State University Library
Using the Library Staff and Statistics to Create a Dynamic
Twitter Program
Joe J. Marquez, MLISSami Lange, MLIS
@ssulib
Sonoma State University Library
Overview
a. Why we startedb. How we startedc. Best practices d. Tools of choicee. Stats and classificationf. Lessons learned & Problems
encounteredg. Program review/success?
Sonoma State University Library
Why We Started• Method for communicating library tools• Potential venue to garner feedback (via DM or RT)• Price = free• En vogue
Sonoma State University Library
How We Started• Call for twitter team• 10 interested staff/librarians• Initial “Intro to Twitter” meeting• rules, content, brainstorming
Sonoma State University Library
Tweeting Exercise
Of course you want the best sources possible! Just your luck, we have Articles, Books, & Beyond, which leads you through the joy of finding top-notch full-text articles online, locating books & movies, and setting up your online access to all things library. No sign up needed. Tue, March 23, 10-10:30amhttp://library.sonoma.edu/research/workshops.html
Sonoma State University Library
Best Practices• 140 character limit
• Use Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows us to add URLs and track clicks.
• Shrink all URLs with the Hootsuite shrinking tool; this allows us to
track clicks on a posted link
• Put the URL at the end of the tweet
• When using the word 'today' or 'tomorrow', follow up with a
specific date (i.e. (10/12))
• Add title, location, room number (when necessary), time, duration
• We will tweet at least once/wk
• Create a list of filler tweets in case nothing is happening in the
library
Sonoma State University Library
Tweeting Exercise
Articles, Books, & Beyond 30 min workshop helps you find books, articles, media, all things library. 3/23 @10am (Rm 2016A) http://ow.ly/WSMG
Sonoma State University Library
Best Practices
Follow:
• other libraries
• all other feeds at your school or institution
• local or regional news outlets
• cultural institutions
Sonoma State University Library
Best Practices
What to tweet about? Anything and everything related to the library.
• New library material • Hours of operation • Sudden changes in database availability• Library-sponsored events (i.e. lectures, presentations)• Gallery openings • Convocation • Graduation • Finals and mid-term schedules• Campus emergency• freely available reference or research tools that may have a general audience appeal based on interest and usefulness• Campus events (i.e. lecture series, Sonoma Film Institute schedule)
Sonoma State University Library
Discussion• What content would you include in your tweets/posts?• What content would you not include?
Sonoma State University Library
Tools of Choice
www.twitter.com www.hootsuite.com
www.tweetake.com www. twtpoll.com
Sonoma State University Library
Intro to Hootsuite
Our tool of choice: Hootsuite [link]
Why? • Free• Web-based• Scheduled tweets• Auto shrinking of URL• Stats • Multiple user accounts
Sonoma State University Library
Intro to HootsuiteAnatomy of the Hootsuite interface
Sonoma State University Library
Intro to HootsuiteAnatomy of the Hootsuite content interface
Content area
Auto shrink URLs
Counter, turns red when passed 140
chars
scheduler
Sonoma State University Library
Intro to HootsuiteGraphical output of stats for the month of February, 2010
Sonoma State University Library
Intro to HootsuiteGraphical output of a specific tweet
Sonoma State University Library
Stats and ClassificationTweetake is used to download all tweets. Tweets can then be classified and assigned clicks. We can then determine what interests our followers.
Sonoma State University Library
Stats and ClassificationResources (R) – resources, websites, specific items, movies or databases, new library materials, non-library related search engines or articles
About (A) – changes in library hours, database availability, finals and mid-term schedules, surveys
Workshops (W) – library workshops
Events (E) – gallery events, campus lectures, convocation, graduation
Misc. (M) – miscellaneous, announcements about non-library changes, anything random
Sonoma State University Library
Stats and Classification
Click average per tweet “section”Average clicks per tweet: 4.8
* Statistics are for the Fall 2009 semester.
Total Tweets for all sections = 172
About 42
Events 20
Resources 51
Workshops 49
Miscellaneous 10
Total Clicks: 829 for all tweets
A 4.2 clicks
E 6.4 clicks
R 5.5 clicks
W 3.9 clicks
M 5.3 clicks
Sonoma State University Library
Lessons LearnedWhile not rocket surgery or brain science… tweeting correctly is important (and time-consuming (and not for everyone)).
Lessons learned:
• Takes more time to tweet than originally thought• Challenging to get event information into 140 characters!• Conflicting tweet times and need to communicate so as not to over-tweet an event or resource (Hootsuite helps)• …and there were two • Everyone has an idea• Watch out for statistical anomalies
Sonoma State University Library
Problems EncounteredThe anomaly.
Sonoma State University Library
Problems EncounteredOur readership just jumped…and we are HUGE in Canada!
From Dec. 3, 2009 through Dec. 9, 2009 we recorded 1,552 clicks. Odd for a school with 8,000 students. While good for stats recording and making a case for a program, it might be good to be honest.
Sonoma State University Library
Problems EncounteredPeople in Canada need study rooms….BAD!
Sonoma State University Library
Program ReviewSo, is the program a success and how do we know whether or not to continue?
The answer: Sure, why not?
• Produced opportunities for faculty connection (several librarians received e-mail from faculty asking questions about what they saw in a tweet)• Large number of hits• Easy free marketing for programs and books• Lots of re-tweets• Opportunity for all library departments to promote their areas
Sonoma State University Library
Final Thoughts & Questions???
Sonoma State University Library
We AreTwitter account: @ssulib
Joe MarquezWeb Services [email protected]
Sami LangeLibrary Assistant [email protected]
Related Documents
