Doing Social Media so It Matters: A Librarian's Guide

Citation

du Preez, M. (2012), "Doing Social Media so It Matters: A Librarian's Guide", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 151-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211204169

The advent and development of new social network technologies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter has changed the way in which people communicate and interact. These technologies have enabled people to rapidly share news, views, information and ideas with a wide audience. Social media can also be an excellent marketing tool and a practical resource of current information on a topic in a concise format that is easy to digest.

In June 2009, the Ohio governor proposed a 50 percent cut to funding for public libraries. As a result, many of these libraries faced closure. The libraries' supporters turned to social media and though they could not save all their libraries' funds, they did manage to prevent their closure. In her new book, Doing Social Media so It Matters, Laura Solomon uses this story to show how social media can be used to achieve a common goal.

However, social media tools are at their best, ephemeral. A popular tool today might be irrelevant tomorrow. Online communities and practitioners need to accept these changes and keep on moving with the flow. Also, social media is about building trusted relationships and allowing communities to reciprocate. Social media tools therefore support libraries in building one‐to‐one relationships with their patrons – a step which can result in more loyalty and possible advocacy at a later stage. Building relationships with individuals takes time and cannot be approached in the same way as marketing to the masses. Chapter 1 advises on how to get library administrators and staff to buy in and embrace these technologies to their advantage.

The following chapters advise on the choice, use and monitoring of different social media. The need to write a social media policy for staff is stressed. The concept of social capital is explained and it is shown how social capital can be earned and spent. Thereafter Solomon familiarises readers with a number of social media best practices and advises on how to implement them.

The best evaluation practices for social media are controversial. But, despite this controversy, Solomon does manage to provide some guidelines on the quantitative measurement of social media programmes. She also discusses different measuring opinions and reflects on whether bigger is necessarily better. In chapter 6 she reflects on what to do if social media participation is not really working as well as it was expected to.

In the end, social media is about people and relationships with them. It is a very new way of engaging with patrons and the success of doing social media lies in doing it in such a way that it matters, and continues to matter.

Solomon has written a unique, to‐the point guide for those who are interested, and ready to improve their libraries' services through tweeting, posting and befriending. The book offers practical advice on how to choose, use and monitor these tools effectively. A useful bibliography and index concludes the book. Doing social media so it matters is a resource that those interested in utilising social media to the advantage of their libraries or information services cannot be without.