marac 2011 social media what is it good for

Social Media What is It Good For?

Lori BirrellUniversity of Rochester

Agenda• Background on the organizations

in my study• My foray into social media• Results of implementing social

media• Discussion of my study• Recommendations for archival

practitionersLori Birrell

The Tale of a Poetry Society

Who: An international poetry society

What: Implementing Facebook & Twitter

Why: To increase current membership participation & attract new, younger members

When: October 2010- April 2011Lori Birrell

The Tale of a Small, Liberal Arts College

Who: A New England College’s archives and special collections department

What: Contributing to library’s (LITS) pre-existing Facebook and Twitter feeds

Why: To increase campus and alumni awareness of school history and archival holdings

When: September 2010- April 2011

Lori Birrell

One Poetry Organization’s Foray into Social Media

Facebook Profiles, Groups and Pages- OH MY!

Lori Birrell

Lori Birrell

LITS & FacebookBe sure to attend the 2010 Vesper's concert this Sunday. But before you do, take a look at the first Vesper's concert program! Photo from … College Digital Collections, part of the Archives & Special Collections.

Poetry Society: Where is Everybody???

Twitter: Use of #hashtags & @users

Lori Birrell

Lori Birrell

LITS & Twitter• Being one voice among many-

not the lone voice: Using CoTweet

Poetry Society Facebook Results

Lori Birrell

Data Pool: Nov. 8, 2010- March 21, 2011

Likes: 31 users

Page Visits: On average, 21 people visited FB page each week

LITS’ Facebook Results

Lori Birrell

Data Pool: Jan.- March 2011

Likes: On average 245 users

Nearly 10 times as many users visit LITS Facebook page

than visit Poetry Society page

Poetry Society’s Twitter Results

Lori Birrell

Tweet Aggregator: TweetStats

Data Pool: Nov. 2010-March 2011

Average Tweets: 1.7 times per day /14 per month

LITS’ Twitter Results

Lori Birrell

Tweet aggregator: TweetStats

Data Pool: Jan. 2010- March 2011

Average Tweets: 2.2 times per day/25 tweets per month

Lessons Learned: #1

Buy In

Lori Birrell

Buy InPoetry Society• President • Not FB group

administrator• Not content creator

LITS• My boss• LITS staff• I created &

generated content

Lori Birrell

Lessons Learned: #2

Community

Lori Birrell

CommunityPoetry Society

• Meets 1 time/year• No expectation of

continued conversation

LITS• Communications

throughout the year

• Strong connection to central organization

Lori Birrell

Lessons Learned: #3

Content

Lori Birrell

ContentPoetry Society

• Poet’s birthday & annual meeting

• Reporting OTHER’S NEWS

LITS• Constant activity• Reporting THEIR

NEWS

Lori Birrell

Conclusions

• Generate conversations among users

• Implement social media tools into an existing suite of outreach activities

Lori Birrell

Lori Birrelllbirrell@library.rochester.edu

Manuscript LibrarianUniversity of Rochester

Lori Birrell