Twittered: A Year Later

About a year ago, I posted a column about launching a Twitter site for one of the libraries at which I'm employed. My expressed feelings toward Twitter have not really changed to any degree but as promised, I stated that I would return to the issue one full year later and review the results.

So here we are, exactly a year and two days later and after some moderate but continuous marketing of this electronic social networking/marketing device, the library has about 45 followers to show for it, most of whom appear to be legitimate and not spammers. Whether or not these figures are typical for a library is hard to say, though I must admit to not being particularly impressed.

On a positive note, the library does have a frequently updated presence on a popular social networking site, one that also proved to be rather easy to administrate and is of course, cost free. Furthermore, I've received no negative feedback and have even overheard some minor positive reactions to it. Whether or not anyone is actaully paying attention to what's posted there, even the 45 known followers, is another question.

Twittering Away The Library

Despite my own personal dislike for Twitter and that's putting it somewhat mildly, I've decided that it might actually be in the best interests of my library to accept this rather prolific online tool, bite my tongue, and just launch a Twitter page already. Again, the move was personal sacrifice performed for the good of the library. However, if you're looking for an endless stream of "tweets" detaling what color shirt I'm wearing today or what condiments I've just sprinkled on a slice of pizza, please defer to some other inane Twitter page.

My decision to employ Twitter was instead motivated by the necessity to find a new way to effectively connect with library users through an electronic medium they're likely to be already using, rather than exerting even more effort by trying to draw them into yet another obscure venue they would otherwise be not inclined to be aware of or visit regularly. Also, being able to achieve this without having to spend a dime was another compelling factor.

Before the launch, I had to contemplate exactly what the library Twitter page might be used for, epsecially if I were to be able to successfully sell the idea to my director. I realized that since our library often encountered schedule changes or closures that would effect our regular operating hours, Twitter would be an excellent way to make such changes known without patrons having to come all the way to the door only to find a paper sign providing that information. It could also be used to promote various library-related events taking place, make important announcements, highlight interesting new titles that had just arrived, and so on. Of course, with only a 140 character maximum space allocated for each tweet (an individual posting on Twitter), the wording would have to be carefully selected to offer the biggest bang for the buck.

Another appealing feature of Twitter can be found in the 'design' console located under 'settings' when logged in to one's account. This allowed me to rather painlessly style the library's page to remain aesthetically consistent with the library website's color scheme, as well as upload our official logo, which obviously helps keep the branding intact across the board.

Whether or not this venture will prove successful is still yet to be seen. However, it will be interesting to tabulate just how many non-spamming, actual library users we'll have following us in exactly a year from now.