RSC West Midlands Learning Resources Blog: Is it time your library was on Facebook?

A lot of library and LRC staff in our region seem to think so and many already have a presence on Facebook or are thinking about it. I've also helped one college (Warwickshire College) with a planning session, which involved thinking about some of the advantages and also risks involved. In this post, I've included some of the resources I used and some hints and tips I've acquired.

Flag flying in Cambridge Massachusetts,
the birth place of Facebook. By Essygie on Flickr

Why bother?
The chances are, over half your users will be "on Facebook". So having a presence for your library or LRC is a good way to get among them and deliver some positive messages about what you do and what your service has to offer.

A Facebook site is also a good alternative launch page for your e-resources and other Web-based services such as your library OPAC. Facebook also works well as a means to display content from other services you may use, such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter or Delicious.

Viral marketing
Facebook is designed to increase the popularity of pages virally - so if one person likes your pages, people who like them will be aware of what they like and so-on. Provided you get your message correct and the tone right, you can very soon pick up a lot of followers - much more quickly than a static website.

Conversation
The holy grail is to generate some two-way traffic on your pages and encourage users to comment on your services and how they can be improved. This isn't easy and relies on your postings being interesting and adopting the right tone (see tips below).

Facebook Applications
As well as updating users on what's going on in your library, there are a range of additional library-related Facebook Applications which you might want to add, to enhance your Facebook site. Here are a few examples:

What are the risks?
The main risk factor is reputational and anyone contributing to your Facebook page should bear in mind that they are representing your organisation on the Web, with a potentially large readership. It's worthwhile establishing some ground rules and boundaries, to ensure that communication is informal and chatty, without becoming over-personalised.

A stagnant Facebook page is worse than none at all and doesn't give a good impression, so you do need to plan a programme of regular contributions and make sure that at least one (preferably more) members of staff are responsible for maintaining a steady flow of information.

Hints and tips

Adopt an informal, chatty tone with good use of humour. Anecdotes and musings are much more interesting than announcements!
Update the site daily and give several people responsibility for upkeep
Seek approval from your organisation, as well as the support of the marketing department
Set clear aims and objectives about what you want to achieve from the site, but be realistic!
What are the do's and don'ts when adding content? How do you deal with inappropriate comments from users (usually rare)?
How can you measure the impact of your site? For example including it in a student survey.
Involve students in the development of the site. What would they enjoy reading about? What is dull?
Facebook is usually a supplement to formal communication channels, such as websites, VLE etc. Don't forget these need to be maintained too!