marketing finding aids on social media – what worked and what didn’t work society of southwest...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORKSociety of Southwest Archivists 2014
![Page 2: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Introductions
Felicia Williamson, MLIS, CA Special Collections Librarian [email protected]
Scott Vieira, MLIS Electronic Resources Librarian [email protected]
James Williamson, MLIS, CA Digital Resources Librarian [email protected]
![Page 3: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Why we undertook this research We wanted our archive to be known,
fast! Introduced Archon in January 2012.
Archon is a searchable online finding aid database.
While it was indexed and appearing on search engines, it was not getting a lot of attention.
Special Collection & University Archives did not have a presence on the Library’s social media.
![Page 4: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The kernel
The kernel of the idea came years earlier at SAA in Chicago – when a presenter mentioned that Google crawls social media more effectively than a traditional library website!
“Corn Kernel” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_kernel Accessed May 23, 2014.
![Page 5: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Research Questions
Can social media sites be used to promote archival finding aids? Does this type of material operate well
within the online community? Which sites provide the best return on
investment? Running these sites takes a lot of time –
can we see a clear advantage to running two or three sites over their competition?
![Page 6: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Social Media Uses in Archives
There is research touting the many advantages of running social media platforms for outreach and marketing purposes such as: Reaching new audiences. Advertising events. Advertising departmental innovations, staff,
policies, etc. Though our social media did serve these
purposes, our research is approaching the question of whether people will click through a social media post to conduct archival research using a finding aid.
![Page 7: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Methodology – Getting Started
Selected and started maintaining a blog and 9 social media sites.
Steps… Used statistics on most popular sites. Included sites that had been promoted within the
archival community, e.g., Historypin and Pinterest. In both Flickr and LinkedIn we joined related
historical groups. (In some cases this would provide the benefit of exposing our posts to more groups.)
Blog/Wordpress, Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Historypin, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter.
![Page 8: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Methodology – Getting Started II
![Page 9: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Methodology - Getting started part III
We selected two listservs with total membership of almost 1,000 people (although we didn’t measure overlap between the two groups). The groups were selected based upon practical issues and geography. Archives and Archivists (631) Arkansas History (306)
Archon finding aids content was selected for research phase based upon appealing historic or visual interest.
A publishing schedule for the content was worked out for twelve weeks—the duration of the research phase.
In the six months leading up to the research phase, we built an audience for each site by posting content on a bi-weekly basis. Drew from materials in Special Collections & SHSU Archives. Selected content from collections with appealing historic or visual
interest.
![Page 10: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Methodology – Technical Notes
We choose Google Analytics as our usage analysis tool.
Google Analytics Setup: Learning Curve Create a Google Analytics Account. Added Archon to our account, which creates an
unique tracking ID for our Archon URL. Embed Google Analytics tracking code within
Archon’s php footer template code.
![Page 11: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Methodology – Technical Notes (con’t)
Setup Google Campaign for tracking social media sites. Create template URL for Google Campaign. This allowed us to
track sessions, page views, average duration of page views and number of pages viewed across ten social media sites.Sample URL: https://archon.shsu.edu/index.php?utm_campaign=archon&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=blog&p=collections%2Fcontrolcard&id=6
Setup pop-up survey using Survey Monkey on Archon home page. Steps…
Design and tested survey in Survey Monkey. Campus IT placed put together a pop-up with link to the survey. The
pop-up was triggered by landing on the SHSU Archon home page.
Questions included: How did you find us? Are you affiliated with Sam Houston State University? What research interests do you have?
![Page 12: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Methodology – Research Phase
Establish starting point for social media followers.
Prepared content for social media posts and listservs. Primarily edited selection from biographical information and scope and content note. Used Google Campaign URL template and copy and pasted.
During the research phase, publish one finding aid a week for twelve weeks.
Posted once a week around 10am on Tuesday. Email listserv posts to selected listservs.
![Page 13: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Example of Sanford Bates Collection
Wordpress
![Page 14: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Example of Sanford Bates Collection
![Page 15: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Example of the Map Collection
Flickr
![Page 16: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Example of the Map Collection
Facebook Myspace
![Page 17: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Example of the Wild Dog Collection
Tumblr
![Page 18: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Example of the Wild Dog Collection
Pinterest Historypin
![Page 19: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Example of Listserv Email
![Page 20: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Findings-Explanation of Traffic Search Engines
Traffic from search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo). Referral
All traffic from outside websites that contain links to our finding aids. Library website Digital Collections website Emails
Listserv Traffic from the two designated listservs that we posted to.
Social Media Traffic from our campaign on designated social media
sites.
![Page 21: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Findings
Search Engines21%
Referral22%
Social Media21%
Listservs36%
Breakdown of Website Traffic
Search EnginesReferralSocial MediaListservs
![Page 22: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Findings-# of Finding Aid Click-throughs
Project TrafficProject Traffic
Blog Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tumblr Google + Myspace Flickr Historypin Pinterest0
5
10
15
20
25
3030
25
1816
10
53
1 10
Breakdown of Social Media Site Click-throughs
![Page 23: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
# of Click-through vs. Audience size
Blog Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tumblr Google+ Myspace Flickr Historypin Pinterest0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
30 25 18 16 10 5 3 1 1 0104
743364
10865
79 7 1555
0 89
Click-through vs. Audience Size
# of click-throughs Size of the Audience
![Page 24: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Findings- Most clicked Finding Aids Map collection (Map collection)
-Click-throughs:14 -Launch Date: December 3, 2013
Austin MacCormick (Criminal Justice)-Click-throughs:10 -Launch Date: November 5, 2013
James V. Bennett Collection (Criminal Justice)-Click-throughs: 9-Launch Date: October 8, 2013
Ruiz vs. Estelle Collection (Criminal Justice)-Click-throughs: 8-Launch Date: November 12, 2013
John Warren Smith Papers (Research Collection)-Click-throughs: 8 -Launch Date: November 26, 2013
Sanford Bates Collection (Criminal Justice)-Click-throughs: 7-Launch Date: October 15, 2013
![Page 25: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Findings- Activity with Users
Map collection 42 likes/re-blogs/etc.
Wild Dog 13 likes/re-blogs/etc.
WWI 12 likes/re-blogs/etc.
Sanford Bates 6 likes/re-blogs/etc.
John Warren Smith 5 likes/re-blogs/etc.
3 others tied with 4World War I Collection, 1909-2005, Sam Houston State University
![Page 26: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Findings - # of Views vs Click-Throughs
Facebook Flickr Google+ Historypin0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
67
287
111
194 0 0 1
Analysis of Map Collection
Views Click Throughs
![Page 27: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Findings- Increase in Followers The only sites that showed a substantial
increase were: Tumblr 84.8% Wordpress 65.3%
Wordpress content was heavily based on research project. Tumblr had other content unrelated to the
project which produced more re-blogs and likes.
![Page 28: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Findings-Average Duration
History Pin - 00:08:46 (1 click-through) Twitter - 00:02:28 (18 click-throughs) LinkedIn - 00:02:06 (16 click-throughs) Facebook - 00:02:05 (25 click-throughs) Blog - 00:01:33 (30 click-throughs) Tumblr - 00:01:25 (10 click-throughs) Every other site had average duration of
a few seconds
![Page 29: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Findings-Frequency of Use
Tuesday - 40 click-throughs Wednesday -17 click-throughs Thursday - 22 click-throughs Friday -10 click-throughs Saturday - 2 click-throughs Sunday - 10 click-throughs Monday - 8 click-throughs (everyone is
bumming around)
andria-spafford (2012). Monday Monkey lives for the weekend sir. Andria-spafford.tumblr.com http://andria-spafford.tumblr.com/post/22012871831
![Page 30: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Findings-Platform
Only 9 out of the 109 click-throughs were viewed from mobile devices.
Blog Windows (20 click-throughs) Macintosh (5 click-throughs) iOS (3 click-throughs)
Twitter Windows (16 click-throughs) Macintosh (2 click-throughs)
Facebook Linux (14 click-throughs) Windows (10 click-throughs) iOS (1 click-throughs)
![Page 31: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Takeaways from the findings Listservs produced the highest results.
109 click-throughs to the website. 74 click-throughs to the designated finding aid.
Sites like Flickr, Pinterest, and Historypin provide high numbers of views but not an audience that clicks through. Sites like Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter are
middle of the pack. Blog was the winner in term of total number
of click-throughs, number of click-throughs/followers.
![Page 32: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Takeaways from the findings Those interested in clicking through to
your finding aids are going to be on laptops or pcs.
Interesting images may bring activity and new views but it doesn’t necessarily correlate to users viewing your finding aid.
![Page 33: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Benefits of Social Media Effort After a year of social media efforts, we have
already seen these benefits: People on campus are increasingly aware of Special
Collections & SHSU Archives. More students contacting us for research help or to
put up displays (one of our learning objectives). This is probably the most noticeable and drastic change!
We had a researcher come in who had read about collections on the blog, but never seen Archon.
But is this the point? Does social media lead people to finding aid based research?
![Page 34: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Social Media and Google
Our social media campaigns have increased our presence on Google.
We appear higher in the search results (first page, every time) and often have multiple points of entry – for instance we might have a direct hit for a finding aid, a hit for the blog, a hit for Google+, etc.
In a competitive research environment where most researchers start with Google – and some never go beyond Google – this is a compelling result.
![Page 35: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Example of Google Search Results
Google search for “Sanford Bates.”
We are 4 out of 10 results on the first page of results.
![Page 36: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Social Media Tips
Identify and remember your audience. Make announcements on Listserv’s and
even LinkedIn, but aren’t sustainable as a way to advertise finding aids.
Local community interest was high. When limited by location, Huntsville, TX was the most likely point of origin for a click-through.
![Page 37: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Surprises
Google+ received next to no interest from viewers.
It does however enhance Google search results, bringing information about finding aids to the top of the Google Search results page.
There are remaining questions about whether Google+ is worth the effort and whether the Google Search results were a result of Google+ specifically, or the over all social media effort.
![Page 38: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
More surprises
Historypin is touted in the literature and Myspace is listed in the top ten of all social media sites, but does not seem to garner much attention from our audiences.
Tumblr really surprised us by how much patrons interacted with the content.
![Page 39: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
What’s next
We plan to maintain the Blog and Tumblr and to contribute to the shared Library Facebook and Twitter accounts.
We might continue Pinterest and Google+, depending on research interest and staff time constraints.
Pinterest and Flickr are viewed, but don’t generate a lot of click-throughs. They are good for overall archival promotion.
![Page 40: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
What’s best for finding aids? If we were only going to use one or two
platforms? We’d rely on the blog and link it to
Facebook. Then, for kicks, we’d tweet about it. Easy as 1-2-3! after a lot of effort, of course!
The lingering question is whether Google+ is truly producing higher indexing results and is worth continuing.
![Page 41: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
What has happen since 2013
Our Tumblr has blown up! Our Tumblr has
been a trending blog twice
3 appearances on Tumblr Radar
Went from 146 to 8,000 followers (as of last week)!
![Page 42: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
What has happen since 2013
Subscribers to our blog have increased as well! From 172 subscribers to
5,600. Twitter and Pinterest
followers have increased at a faster rate than during the research phase.
Cumulative effect, but how would our project have been different if we launched the research phase today?
![Page 43: MARKETING FINDING AIDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T WORK Society of Southwest Archivists 2014](https://reader034.vdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56649e025503460f94aed9e1/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Questions?
Email us anytime with questions Felicia Williamson, MLIS, CA
[email protected] 936.294.3290
Scott Vieira, MLIS [email protected] 936.294.3743
James Williamson, MLIS, CA [email protected] 936.294.3290