Social Media and the Library

Social Media is a great outlet for libraries. There are a few different platforms for a library to use, such as Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest. The University of Southern Mississippi maintains a Facebook page for their library which provides different information for patrons to view.

A Facebook page would be the most informative way for a library to approach social media. Whoever maintains the library page can post about special events, changes in operating hours, and receive feedback from patrons.  Photos can be uploaded as well, perhaps to show new editions to the library or images from special events that the library has hosted.

On Twitter, a user can only post a 160 character blurb at a time. Twitter can be used by libraries like a more condensed version of Facebook: Highlights from events, brief reminders and even mention changes to a library's website.

Pinterest is a growing trend among social media. More-so seen as a project board, libraries could "pin" fun book related projects or even find fun every day ideas for the library such as this poem vending machine:

Social Media is a great way to connect to library patrons, and libraries would do well to keep up with the phenomenon.

Photo from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/433330795372450940/