Introduction

If you ever do a word association quiz with someone and say the word ‘library’ they are probably going to come back with either ‘books’ or ‘reading’. No real surprise of course, but those of us who work in the information industry know just how very far off the mark those associations are now. Step into any library and you’ll see computers, Wi-Fi access, information on e-books and e-magazines, training sessions on how to get the best out of the internet, and so on. Unfortunately, as a profession we are often accused (rightly so in my opinion) of keeping too quiet about what we do and the facilities that are available for our members and patrons. Social media gives us a real opportunity to change this for the better, if we are prepared to come out from behind the desks and go to where the conversations are. As bears repetition, Stephen Abram put it very well when he said ‘Outside the library is still the library’. We cannot expect people to come into the library – to ask us questions, to borrow books or to find resources that they need – when they can ask those same questions on Twitter or discuss them with their friends on Facebook.

Blending your social media presences

If you take a random selection of libraries – be they academic, public or corporate – and see how they are represented on social media you will probably be struck by one really important point. That is, that some libraries will have a great Facebook page, with lots of likes and conversations, and virtually no Twitter presence. Alternatively, they may be really busy pinning images on Pinterest and be doing very little on LinkedIn, and so on. One of the dangers of social media is that it's far too easy to view it in terms of the tools themselves. Clients sometimes ask me to set up a Twitter account for them, and teach them how to use it, but when I ask the question ‘Why do you actually want a Twitter account?’ they are left puzzled, and fall back on the line ‘because everyone else has one’. If you view these tools in that manner your journey into using social media has stalled at the first hurdle.