Introduction

Library marketing expert Nancy Dowd published an article in 2013 titled ‘Social Media: libraries are posting, but is anyone listening?’ (Dowd, 2013). Dowd points out that although the majority of libraries use social media to disseminate information to their communities, many do not keep track of their efforts or claim success in getting followers to interact. With this in mind, libraries that want to create or revitalize their social media presence should consider devising a plan. This chapter presents highlights from a social media case study carried out at the Emily Carr University (ECU) of Art and Design Library in Vancouver, British Columbia. Through the experience of the study, the authors outline ways in which organizations can develop objectives for their social media usage, strategies to increase online presence and interaction with their communities and methods to assess their presence. They also discuss some innovative ways libraries use social media, focusing on the visually rich field of art libraries.

Emily Carr University of Art and Design Library: social media case study

In spring 2013, the ECU Library made a push to energize and bolster its social media presence and formed a social media committee to support this project (Webb and Laing, 2015, 137–51). The committee met to discuss why social media was being used, what goals would be achieved by its use, who would be responsible for each platform, the type of content that would be posted, and how success would be measured. These were some of the goals set out by the committee:

A social media policy was drafted to reflect the needs of the Library and to provide concise guidelines for staff to follow when representing the Library on its social media platforms. Each committee member took responsibility for a social media platform, posting content and keeping track of metrics and anecdotes of usage.