Social Networking and Libraries: #Libraries

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Social media is one of the best ways to reach out to people. If you want to find the latest news or upcoming events, you can easily find it at the palm of your hands. Libraries have evolved and have now turned to social media to keep their patrons updated.

Libraries have come to use some of the most popular social media tools such as:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• Pinterest

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In "Landscape of Social Media for Libraries" by David Lee King (2015), he writes about the posting methods a library should follow when connecting with their patrons. "Make sure to create great, useful content," King writes, "This is the hardest 'rule' of social media and the one that will gain you the most traction in using social media for an organization. Share great content, and your customers will want to connect with you" (13). 

King also mentions a few ideas for content to post. One idea is sharing what's happening or recently happened at the library. At Oceanside Public Library--a library I'm interning at--they recently completed their Big Read program. I was not a part of the whole week-long event but I did participate on the last day of the event. They held an Escape Room--themed after the novel, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel--in their community rooms and promoted their event through social media. They posted information about the Escape Room on their Instagram page during the event and posted pictures of all the  Escape Room "survivors" a few days later. It was a great way to include their patrons and show just how connected they are with them!

One of the best ways to reach out to people in the community is by using hashtags. This way, anyone that is searching for certain keywords through social media can easily find posts using those hashtags. It also adds a bit of a novelty to the post and make more of an impression on social media users.

Social media is still evolving and it is interesting to think about how much more it will change in regards to public outreach and connection. We will just have to wait and see!

(Written by Marjorie Anne Portillo)

Works Cited

King, David Lee. "Landscape of Social Media for Libraries." Library Technology Reports, vol. 51, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 10-15. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=100279059&site=ehost-live&scope=site.