Abstract
The social media team at the University of Liverpool Library runs a popular verified Twitter account with over 9,000 followers and is enthusiastically involved in a variety of social media platforms. Since starting a period of sustained improvement, our use of social media has progressed from being a passive channel used to broadcast news and service changes to being an active method of communication in a digital space our users already inhabit. Working collaboratively, the social media team has established a cohesive and clear library voice with a consistent style and tone. This article looks at the development of the library voice with a particular focus on the use of creative, interactive and fun methods to cultivate the library personality. It also covers some of the challenges associated with this type of relaxed and experimental approach to social media and gives examples of special events used to engage and interact with students. Based on a lightning talk and poster session presented at the 40th UKSG Annual Conference, Harrogate, April 2017
Highlights
In recent years interest in social media amongst academic libraries in the UK has grown enormously and there are diverse approaches to managing social media across the sector
It can be hard to make social media work productively in an academic library setting and this is a source of much discussion
We were amongst some of the earliest UK academic library adopters of these social media platforms, for many years we were very cautious in our approach, preferring to use both Twitter and Facebook as a means to update service changes and promote new resources or events
Summary
In recent years interest in social media amongst academic libraries in the UK has grown enormously and there are diverse approaches to managing social media across the sector. Since 2013 the University of Liverpool Library has taken a team approach to all social media. We were amongst some of the earliest UK academic library adopters of these social media platforms, for many years we were very cautious in our approach, preferring to use both Twitter and Facebook as a means to update service changes and promote new resources or events. As interest in Twitter grew, we became aware that to fully exploit the potential of social media, a new approach was needed. This involved the creation of a large team of ten members from all levels and sections of the Library. The background and development of this approach is discussed in more detail in Chatten and Roughley ‘Developing social media to engage and connect at the University of Liverpool Library’.1
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