the use of social media for inforgs
July 14th, 2011 • library, tech
One of the biggest uses for blogging or tweeting is to show that there is a person there as part of the institution to interact with. When a user is faced with solely a catalogue they’re dealing with a collection of items, be they journal articles databases exhibits or books (which I hear do still exist). When you include some sort of dynamic content that’s been made by a person, you’re reminding the user that there are people behind these services.
Example: The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney (Australia – it’s where I’m on my co-op so you’re going to get antipodean examples) is using Koha as their ILS. Integrating their library blog onto the main page of the OPAC makes the catalogue a destination for users. And then when the librarian is blogging about something in their collection (and they’ve got some cool stuff) and deep-links to it, that’s giving the user examples of how people can interact with the catalogue.
Having a personality that reminds people The Library isn’t some building but a collection of librarians is important, and not only when budgets are being threatened. Users are more likely to engage with you if they know there’s someone to engage with.
Great point!
Side story: My coworkers and I were just discussing how we’ve each tested mentioning a major company on Twitter, just to see if there is someone live listening who will respond. Some did (Air Porter, Lululemon, RefWorks), some not. I wouldn’t have done this by email — especially for short & sweet positive comments! It’s kind of disappointing when they don’t reply; it does imply they aren’t interested in interaction.