In the past few years, several libraries have migrated to the social networking site Facebook to develop a presence there. There is some literature that describes the migration, goals, and best practices developed in these attempts. However, it is difficult for this type of literature to withstand even a few years time, as Facebook is constantly being changed and updated. Much of the following references “pages” although many libraries now have a presence on Facebook “places” so that patrons can physically “check in” using smart phones and other devices. Some capabilities change over time, as Facebook is updated, but the overall function of having an organizational presence on Facebook is the same – to engage patrons in a medium outside of the library, and to utilize Facebook as an extension of the library’s services.Goals

Most all of the literature surveyed made it clear that libraries hoping to develop a Facebook presence should sit down and make a list of goals before jumping into the endeavor. By establishing goals and forming a plan of action, libraries can avoid having a failed web presence. It is important to keep any web presence established up to date because otherwise it could reflect poorly on an institution (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 125-126). It is also important to keep in mind the ultimate goal of the project. As Ligaya Ganster and Bridget Schumacher (2009) reiterate, “Librarians must keep specific goals in mind when pursuing social networking as an outreach tool. The literature champions the mantra ‘to go where the patron goes’; however, most authors insist any new extension or service also must ultimately remain useful to the patron” (p. 114). Additionally, they make the important point that whatever format a library chooses needs to be compatible with that library and its goals. It is not enough to merely create a Facebook presence without a goal in mind. “When considering social networking as a form of outreach, it is not a matter of jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and using every tool available; the key is to know your needs – in our case, marketing and extension of services – and to find a tool that will help fulfill those needs” (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B. , 2009, p. 127).

In addition, David Lee King (2011) lays out several questions that libraries should ask themselves in the midst of setting up their Facebook profiles:

Who will do the work of the Page, like posting updates? Who will answer questions? Will you use the Events section of the account? If so, who will post events? How often will you post updates? Who keeps track of user names and passwords? Figure out those practical details, and also create some one year goals for your Facebook presence. Goals can include how many status updates you plan to post per day/week or how many fans you want (p. 43).

There appears to be a consensus in the literature that it is best to update the page at least once a week. The librarians at the University of Buffalo Libraries check their Facebook page once a day, “. . . as one would check their personal e-mail account” (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 126). The librarians at Western Michigan University report to have a policy of updating their Facebook page “approximately once or twice a week” and say that their “peer institutions reported doing the same” (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 47).

Another important aspect of best practices is to determine who will maintain the Facebook page. Most of the literature suggests that this should be handled by more than one person: preferably, someone who enjoys working with social media and has the time to keep it up to date. Ligaya Ganster and Bridget Schumacher (2009) articulate some of their research to this effect:

According to Paul Gillin (2007) author of The New Influencers, when it comes to deciding who should manage a new social media account, “the answer is simple: Unless they want to, they probably shouldn’t.” Gillen mentioned CEOs (or library directors and supervisors) probably should not consider managing a social media presence because of the time commitment needed. Public service librarians and staff who work directly with patrons are often more aware of student needs and what their target audience may want on a social presence (p. 126).

Realistically, someone who is excited about creating a social media presence would be better for the job. If no one in the organization is excited about maintaining it, it might be wise to rethink whether it would be a good endeavor for the particular library to get involved in. Most libraries have more than one person maintaining the page. As David Lee King (2011) explains:

It’s a good idea to have more than one person manage your Facebook Page. Why? The goal with a Facebook page is to start and continue conversations about your staff and your stuff – and conversations require responses. Monitoring conversations and creating responses when needed are best handled by more than one person, so you can adequately cover the day’s interactions. On another level, it allows you to spread out the work … and the fun (p. 43).

Libraries that are successful in their Facebook presence include a team of people who update on a regular basis and check the account for messages every day. There should always be a plan in place. The same goes for marketing the facebook page – libraries need to come up with a plan and goals that they would like to reach. Harry Glazer (2012) expands on marketing goals:

Based on the Rutgers University Libraries’ experiences on Facebook, I suggest that each academic library’s marketing goals include some of the following components: the number of fans of your page and direction that number is going, how often fans “like” items posted and how often they post comments, anecdotes that illustrate your page is having an impact, and the size of the “impressions” of many of the items posted on your page” (p. 19).

It is also possible to obtain demographic information through a program called “Facebook Insights” that is available to administrators and to then design marketing strategies to cater to your online demographic (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 47). David Lee King (2011) discusses the possibilities further: “You can also focus on specific audiences. Facebook Pages have Facebook Insights – daily, weekly, and monthly statistics that provide a snapshot of your Facebook audience. This information can be used to find out just who your audience is. For example, at my library’s Facebook page, 71% of visitors are female (over 40% are ages 25-44). That tells me we can focus on adult females and customize our content for that user group. (Maybe we already are!)” (p. 45).

Things to Strive for and Avoid

Early on, libraries found it better to create one profile representative of the entire library, rather than have separate librarian profiles. Students and other patrons seemed more comfortable interacting on Facebook this way (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 114). The University of Buffalo Libraries also decided to only have one profile for their entire library system, rather than by separate libraries, in order evade confusion (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 116).

A library must also be aware of the privacy concerns surrounding and social networking medium that they choose to engage in. Meredith G. Farkas explains the importance of investigating a site’s policies before jumping into the endeavor:

When using community-building services from other companies, consider that when you put content on someone else’s server, you may not have as much control over what happens to that information. Look carefully at each site’s terms of service to determine what rights you have to your own content and what rights the service provider has to your content. Look at the privacy policy: Will the company sell your personal information or republish it elsewhere? (p. 123)

It is important to understand the legalities of using any outside source to promote an organization. It is also important to keep in mind the privacy concerns of the users who will be utilizing your services in the social medium, and to be conscious of how to protect your patron’s information in this digital realm.
It is also essential to develop policies around how you will conduct activities within the Facebook page, including a privacy policy. Western Michigan University librarians developed a policy detailing the monitoring of their profile, who gets administrative access, and a privacy policy stating they will not use content posted by their Facebook friends on their personal pages without their permission. They also reserve the right to “use, edit, or remove any postings on the Waldo Library profile ‘wall” and to “terminate the friend relationship with any user whose content appears on the Waldo Library profile and is deemed inappropriate” (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 48).

It is also imperative to keep in mind that social media sites (especially Facebook) change constantly. It is at the discretion of these sites to change operations at will and any content or capabilities that the library posts to their profile could be lost: “Libraries may have to adjust to continuing changes or updates to Facebook’s functionality, platform, and even its privacy policies. In some cases they may find it difficult to take advantage of the “latest and greatest” eatures without either starting again from scratch or making significant revisions to policies and procedures” (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 48).

How to Create Great Content

In order to have a successful Facebook presence, it is essential to be able to create content that will engage users and get them talking. It is important to keep in mind that content does not always have to revolve around the library and its services. Sometimes just being able to get users to open up and start a conversation can open the door to information needs. This produces a positive image of the library, when one can point a user in the direction of something they never knew they needed. “Adding variety can increase your audience’s engagement with the page overall” (Glazer, H, 2012, p.20). With regard to content, Harry Glazer states that you should “Be interesting, Be interested, Run contests and quizzes, offer prizes, and talk about things other than your library” (p.20). He goes on to say that “When deciding what to post, don’t think in terms of what news your library wants to disseminate. Think about what your fans’ interests are: then select and phrase your posts accordingly (Glazer, H, 2012, p.20). He also reiterates the importance of responding to anything users post on your page (p.20).
David Lee King also chimes in about creating content to engage users. He states that “The status update box is your main point of connection to your local Facebook crowd . . . To keep up that steady flow of content, you have to devote staff to adding content to your Facebook Page. You also need to work on being personable online. Make sure your status updates read like something you’d say out loud . . . The more conversational you sound, the more opportunities for conversation you’ll have” (p. 45).

On surveying several library Facebook pages, the libraries who consistently update their status, respond to user comments and queries, and create engaging content have the most success in engaging users (measured by number of likes or comments). More engaging content seems to revolve around outside links that librarians found interesting, asking questions of patrons, posting photos, and promoting community events outside of the library as well as within the library. Some other strategies are holding Facebook events in which librarians will hold an online book discussion or suggest books for users to read based on the previous three books they have read. Cuyahoga County Public Libraries’ Facebook page does this regularly. Of the libraries surveyed for this project (and that I have personally seen), Cuyahoga County Public Libraries have the most members or “likes” – 9,320 as of February 16th, 2012. 10,412 as of March 8th, 2012. Whatever they are doing seems to work, and will be analyzed further in the “Real Life Examples” section of this wiki.

Results

Results – How Facebook does and does not work well for Libraries

Most libraries that have experimented with Facebook as a means of an extension of services have found that it works best for promotion. They also find that they are reaching a younger targeted audience. They receive better results when letting students (or patrons) friend the library rather than when they initiate the friend request with the patron. They have also established that most students will not ask reference questions via Facebook (although some do).

Ligaya Ganster and Bridgette Schumacher (2009) discuss the results of their attempts at the University of Buffalo:

Overall, the use and response to the Page has met our expectations. Our goals were to influence our library users to reach out to us virtually and to build a sense of community around the University at Buffalo Libraries . . . The Page provides the chance for library staff and faculty to connect and encourages them to use social software. We can virtually connect with other departments on campus and market our resources to the university community and beyond (124).

Librarians at Western Michigan University echo these sentiments and describe their Facebook presence as a “positive experience:

We feel that Waldo Library’s presence on Facebook has been, on the whole, a positive experience. Despite our original goals for using the Library’s Facebook profile for marketing, reference, and asynchronus instruction, we have found that only one was truly successful – promotion and marketing (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 48).

They continue to explain that some students did ask reference questions but they were so rare that they realized Facebook was not a good platform for that type of service (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 48). Western Michigan University also polled peer institutions and found that promotion and marketing was the “most common library-oriented use of Facebook” (p. 48).

Terra B. Jacobson (2011) echoes similar results in her study: “The results presented here show that many libraries are using Facebook primarily as a marketing tool, and it may be valid to assert that this is currently the best use in the library realm” (p. 87).

Additionally, the Facebook Page Insights for University of Buffalo Libraries indicated that they mostly had a “younger demographic” and that 37% of their users were between 18 and 24 (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 123). Western Michigan University sent out a poll and discovered that 90% of undergraduates answering the poll thought that “Facebook was a good way for libraries to stay in touch with students” (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 41). Graduate students were apparently less than impressed by the idea. Of respondents, 73% were undergraduates, 15% were graduate students – the rest were faculty, alumni, or other (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 41).

Most of these students seem to want to soak in information via environmental scanning and not be contacted personally or actively participate. “Only 4 of 115 respondents said that they had ever asked a librarian a question via Facebook. It appears that, while our facebook users are willing to initiate a friend relationship with the Library, they are more comfortable with passively receiving information and are unlikely to use Facebook to actively request assistance from the Library” (Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A., 2011, p. 43). While this is true for Western Michigan University’s study, there are examples of some public libraries where patrons do participate more. This will be explored further in the Real Life Examples section of this wiki.

Lastly, one interesting result from The University of Buffalo Libraries is their ability to surface some of their deep web in a more user friendly way:

Large, complex, library-oriented Web sites are often a challenge for students to easily navigate. Through our Page, we can consolidate and bring forth content from buried sections of the University at Buffalo Libraries homepage while creating an additional avenue of access to our information (Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B., 2009, p. 123).

Although these academic libraries have found that Facebook is mostly good for marketing and promoting services and programming, having a Facebook presence does provide for some interesting results – like the ability to make some information more accessible to a younger targeted group, in their own environment. Some public libraries however are finding that their Facebook page does assist them in engaging with users and building rapport in their communities.

Real Life Examples: Cuyahoga County Public Library, Chardon Public Library, Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library and Kent State University LibrariesTo add to my research (and just for fun!) I decided to look at some examples and take some screen shots of some of the local libraries that I personally follow on Facebook. I live in Chardon, OH. I chose to look at Chardon Public Library, Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library where I volunteer, Kent State University Library, and Cuyahoga County Public Library – because theirs is the most impressive Facebook presence I have seen as far as my own personal environmental scanning behavior.

Facebook “likes” can be a good measure of how many people are scanning information for a library’s updates. It also depends on the size and patron base of the particular library. It is interesting to see how far the number goes up within one month, or at intervals over the course of any defined period of time. When I began to collect data for this project, Chardon Public Library’s Facebook page had 443 likes (as of 2/16/2012). Today, as of 3/15/2012, they have 485. Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library had 852 likes on 2/16/2012. Today, as of 3/15/2012, they have 874. Kent State University Libraries had 449 likes as of 2/16/2012. Today, as of 3/15/2012, they have 485. Finally, Cuyahoga County Public Library had 9,320 likes as of 2/16/2012. Today, they have 10,677 as of 3/15/2012.

Cuyahoga County Public Library has a massive following on Facebook. This may be partially due to the fact that their library system spreads over the entire county and their Facebook page encompasses the entire system (whereas Chardon public encompasses Chardon Public Library only, rather than all of Geauga County Libraries). It may also be due to the fact that Cuyahoga County Public Library system has 28 branches so it is difficult to compare numbers and claim that they are more successful than other libraries as there are too many variables present. Still, when analyzing the content of their Facebook page, it is easy to see that whatever they are doing works well. All of the libraries have had growth in the past month however, and success must be defined by each individual library as to how Facebook is meeting their needs.

The following pages will take a look at some screenshots to see what kinds of content these libraries are employing and whether it is succeeding in engaging patrons online. There is also a sidenote page that focuses on how Chardon Public Library handled the aftermath of the school shooting that happened in our community on February 27th, 2012 in regards to their Facebook presence.

Kent State University Library

Kent State University Library seems to update their Facebook status on their page a couple of times a week. They post things like campus reminders, invitations for student focus groups about their services, and announcements about programming.

Here is an example of a posting for a library event, next to a posting offering free pizza for feedback on library services. What better way to engage students in library services than free pizza? The pizza posting received two likes.

In this example, the library advertises black history at Kent State exhibit. Next to that, they advertise their Kent Reads program.

Here is an example of a post to a link about changes in the library. Next to that (and in a continuation below this image) is a posting from an alum reminiscing about the library that has sparked a conversation between a few alumni and the KSU librarians. This is a perfect example of keeping up with what others post on the library Facebook page to create a great experience for everyone who participates.

Here is an example of an advertisement for programming. Below that, a student provides feedback for the library and librarians expertly reply within a few hours to address the feedback.

Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library

Like most libraries, Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library system uses Facebook to advertise for programs, suggest materials, pass along information about resources, and try to engage in conversation with their patrons. The following are some screen shot examples and brief discussion about tactics and results.

Here is an example of the library using their Facebook page to promote a library event. This post, at the time of the
screenshot, had two likes and one share. By advertising events and programs, the library can potentially gain more exposure.
Especially through their patrons who share their content on their own pages, as David Lee King (2011) explained, “When your library’s Facebook followers share the library’s content, they are acting as a type of advocate for the library by helping spread its message” (p. 45).

Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library also updates with content surrounding things like women’s history month and current events or times of the year. By asking questions, they can attempt to engage their patrons in conversation. This attempt received one like but no comments.

A Facebook presence can also be a great way to showcase what has been going on at the library. This can be a great way to advertise and stay in the public eye.

Here is an example at an attempt to pose a question that worked well and sparked a discussion. The post ended up with four comments from patrons. These kinds of posts can work well to humanize librarians (even though they are posting through the organization’s name). This is also a good example of why it is important to check updates regularly and provide feedback to patrons who participate. Feeling involved in the library in a positive way is a good way to create good feelings towards the library.

These are two screenshots of the same post. They speak for themselves as far as a successful posting.

Chardon Public Library

Chardon Public Library also uses their Facebook page to promote library services and programs. After Feburary 27th 2012, their Facebook page also became a place for resources and healing after a school shooting in Chardon. Prior to that, and now a few weeks later, they focus more on library content.

Screenshot captured 3/15/2012

Similar to other libraries, Chardon Public Library uses their Facebook page to post resources about holidays and current events to engage users. In this example they have posted some information about St. Patrick’s day. Chardon Library also has Facebook Fan of the Week. Every week they pick someone who has commented or liked some of their posts that week. They then post the announcement on their page.

Screenshot captured 3/15/2012

Chardon Public Library also takes the extra step of recognizing new followers in a post every few days. This is also an example of the library using their Facebook page to promote their programming.

Cuyahoga County Public Library

Cuyahoga County Public library has one of the most active Facebook pages I have seen for libraries. They engage in Facebook posts to promote programming like other libraries do. However, they also incorporate successful book discussions online, recommend books daily, update their status several times a day, post about other events in the community, pose questions, post quotes, and discuss content that is not necessarily library related in order to facilitate conversation. As of 3/16/2012, their Facebook page has 10,728 likes. Most of their posts get liked by more than one person, and many of them contain comments. They have a very active Facebook community and it is obvious that they engage in many of the best practices for content creation discussed in previous sections of this wiki article. They post daily, keep up with content almost constantly, and look for any opportunity to converse with patrons online. They obviously have more than one librarian running the show, as sometimes when they start book discussions they will introduce themselves by name (while still posting as “Cuyahoga County Public Library”).
Here are some examples of their content:

Cuyahoga County Public Library has a program on their Facebook page called “Night Owls”. They use the “notes” feature of their Facebook page to start a separate page for discussion about books. This occurs on Thursdays around nine p.m. and is facilitated by library staff. It is extremely active and sparks a great discussion. Over the course of the past few weeks (since Feb. 22nd, 2012 to March 16th, 2012) the comments on nightowls for each session have averaged 117 over the course of four sessions.

On Wednesdays, their Facebook page has a Science Fiction/Fantasy Book discussion online, which takes a similar format to the night owls discussion. These discussions seem equally as active and are also facilitated by library staff. Over the course of the past few weeks (since Feb. 22nd) comments each week in the Sci Fi/Fantasy Book discussion averaged 59.25 over the course of four sessions.

Although it is rare for a library’s Facebook page to receive reference questions, as evidenced from past literature and through observing the content of several of them at a time, it does happen occasionally. Cuyahoga County Public Library was relatively quick to respond (within three hours of the question being posted) when someone did post a question to their Facebook. Again, an example of keeping up with Facebook posts and using the technology as a new way to connect with patrons.

Here is an example of the library posting an advertisement for an event with some positive responses from patrons.

The library posts a book recommendation every day, with a brief synopsis of the plot, a picture of the cover art, and a link to the record in their catalog. These postings usually receive at least one or two likes – it would be interesting to see if these books end up getting checked out. Below that, a patron utilizes Facebook to alert library staff that there is a broken link on their website. This illustrates another way that library staff and patrons can communicate in this online space by library staff being available in a space that their patrons already occupy.

Here is an example of the library using Facebook to post interesting unrelated tidbits in order to facilitate conversation. Postings do not necessarily have to have anything to do with the library. This way the library and its staff can be seen as people who are available to help you with information needs, as well as people who are available to chat about pop culture, movies, books, etc.

This is an example of another aspect of the library community online – the ability for patrons to be able to discuss books (or anything else for that matter) in an online space with each other as well as with librarians.

Conclusions

Many of the real life examples assessed address some concerns put forth by previous literature. It is clear that libraries such as Cuyahoga County Public Library who update often have a great deal of success in engaging their patrons in conversation and publicizing library events. They are the best example of checking Facebook every day, responding to comments regularly, and they obviously have a well defined system of who updates and when. They are the most active of each library Facebook page surveyed for this project, as they regularly hold online book discussions, recommend a book daily, and clearly have more than one staff member adding content to the page on a daily basis. Libraries such as Chardon and Cleveland Heights – University Heights do well also. They too, update their pages daily.

Pros and cons of libraries using Facebook
Pros:

• Engaging Facebook users in library content and services
• Initiating conversations between library staff, current patrons, and prospective patrons
• Reaching a demographic of patrons that may usually never set foot in the library (“going where the patron goes”).

Potential Cons:

• A lot of time must be put into developing a Facebook presence
• certain staff must be devoted to maintaining the Facebook presence
• Staff should draw up plans on who will update content when, as well as a system for regularly determining the success of the Facebook page, based on what each library wants to accomplish with the social media presence.
• There is a danger of a Facebook presence “flopping” despite putting a great deal of work into creating it – it depends on your patron base.
• There is a constant danger of Facebook making changes to their privacy policy, design layout, etc. with no warning.
• There is also a possibility of a certain group of users consistently commenting and liking the page, creating the illusion that the page is successful, when it is really only reaching a handful of patrons.

Conclusion:
Despite the time and effort that must be put into maintaining a library’s Facebook page, the results can be very successful if one devotes the right kind of staff to the project. The page must be checked daily, updated continuously, and the content must be interesting and conversational. Some libraries make it work well, and some do not. It also depends on the library itself – each library must make the decision based on their patron base, goals, and services whether or not having a Facebook presence would be a waste of time, or a great social media outlet to supplement their services. A list of monthly goals should be drawn up as well, to determine the successes of setting up a Facebook presence, based on the library’s specific set of conditions.

Cahill, K. (2011). Going social at vancouver public library: What the virtual branch did next. Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems, 45(3), 259-278.

Farkas, M. G. (2007). Social software in libraries: Building collaboration, communication, and community online. Medford, NJ: InformationToday.

Fernandez, J. (2009). A SWOT analysis for social media in libraries. Online, 33(5), 35-37.

Ganster, L., & Schumacher, B. (2009). Expanding beyond our library walls: Building an active online community through facebook. Journal of Web Librarianship, 3(2), 111-128.

Glazer, H., hglazer@rulmail.rutgers.edu. (2012). “Likes” are lovely, but do they lead to more logins? College & Research Libraries News, 73(1), 18-21.

Jacobson, T. B. (2011). Facebook as a library tool: Perceived vs. actual use. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 79-90.

King, D. L. (2011). Facebook for libraries. American Libraries, 42(5), 42-45.

Sachs, D., E., Eckel, E., J., & Langan, K., A. (2011). Striking a balance: Effective use of facebook in an academic library. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 16(1), 35-54. doi:10.1080/10875301.2011.572457

((also: screenshot images from the facebook pages of Cuyahoga County Public Library, Chardon Public Library, Cleveland Heights – University Heights Public Library, and Kent University Libraries))