Pages

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Starting out with INF506


My first post  for INF 506 will look at several points:

*my understanding of social media
*what technologies I already use
*what I hope to learn in this subject

To me, social networking is the use of a wide range of communication technologies to build relationships, commections and shared virtual spaces with others. Social networking can provide people with the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, to share information and understanding, and to express themselves.

I am not a huge personal user of the technologies, but am a member of a forum on a topic of interest to me, and have maintained this blog via blogger, although that has been somewhat neglected for a while. I have not previously had a Facebook account, but do maintain the account for my library, and am about to set up a work twitter account as well. I have had a twitter account for a while, but really have not used it much -I did participate in one live chat session on twitter for the summer reads campaign, but admit I found it hard to follow all the simultaneous conversations!!!!

I think that I will get a lot out of this subject, as I am keen to become more comfortable with the various technologies for a few reasons
* I need to be able to keep up with what is happening in libraries
* customers expect library staff to understand anfd troubleshoot social media sites
* I want to find ways to reach out to my customers and build a greater sense of community around my library, and social media is a great tool for that.

I do have some trepidation about the need to immerse myself in so many things and am not entirely comfortable with the amount of personal sharing that seems to be a part of so many of these services - I guess time will tell, and that I must continue to make my own choices about what I am comfortable with.

2 comments:

  1. I am as green as your background Sonya: you maintain Facebook (and soon Twitter) for your work! I hope you will tell us more about that: what your goals for both are, what policies/guidelines are in place, will you link for us? what strategies are you using?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mica,
      Taking care of the work facebook & twitter accounts is really just a matter of fingers crossed & hope for the best. Our use is driven by the desire of my direct manager (Council's Chief Information Officer) to try new things to raise our profile, so we are able to do things on a "trial" basis. We don't have a social media specific policy in place, but are expected to operate within the bound's of Council's normal media & communications guidelines. Our goals for use of the media have not been formalised, but I would describe them as; raise awareness of our programs, activities and services; create a sense of community and build "ownership" of the library amongst users; to reach segments of the community we might otherwise struggle to reach.
      Again, no formal strategy, but I try to put something up weekly, and am trying to to think of a range of things to post to try and inform and hopefully engage with readers.

      Our facebook is Inverell Shire Library https://www.facebook.com/pages/Inverell-Shire-Library/177448092339255

      and twitter @InverellLibrary

      We have had facebook for a couple of months, and Twitter since Friday! I am still figuring out ways to raise awareness of them, and am considering QR codes on posters in the library & other local places

      Sonya

      Delete