ASIS&T's Social Media Presence: Channels, Communications, and Challenges

Dr. Diane M. Rasmussen PenningtonASIS&T Social Media Manager

August 28, 2014diane@asis.org

infogirl99.wordpress.com@infogamerist

AgendaOur existing platformsCurrent initiativesPreliminary survey resultsFuture directionsInteractive discussion

Asis-l listserv: The original!

Facebook.com/asist.orgThose fascinating algorithms

Facebook.com/asist.orgThis week’s metrics

Twitter.com/asist_org

Twitter.com/asist_orgPopular news source for LISEngagement? Is it possible?

LinkedInMembers are truly worldwide

The ASIS&T Blog: asist.org/socialmedia

The ASIS&T Blog: asist.org/socialmediaBest day so far: August 12

Observed challengesPlatforms exist in silos Very little meaningful engagementMust determine how to repackage contentOne person can’t do it all…

Current initiatives

Engagement Across Boundaries

“[T]he Board is launching a new initiative, called Engagement Across Boundaries, to support selected ASIS&T members sharing their knowledge and experience by engaging with large numbers of members and potential members via social media interactions.”Participants get a $2,000 annual stipendStarted before I took the Manager role

Engagement Across Boundaries: Advisory groupDiane Rasmussen Pennington (chair)Heather PfeifferNaresh AgarwalCreated a social media wiki including

“best practices” and other resources

Engagement Across Boundaries: ContributorsLaura Christopherson: blog and “panel”Kate Dillon: Blogging, MLIS student and

practitioner representationTamara Heck: European presenceSara Mooney: #10minreads, calendarAdam Worrall: SIG/chapter engagement

Like or dislike, content matters

Preliminary survey results

Social media survey: Preliminary resultsn=76; 59% from North America, 16% from

Europe, 5.5% from Asia/Australia58% members, 25% never members, 9%

used to be members57% don’t serve Overall use:

Social media survey: Preliminary resultsASIS&T social media following:

Social media survey: Preliminary resultsPersonal and professional connections are

important motivatorsTopics motivate interactionSIGs/chapters’ social media rarely visitedSplit qualitative reactions to our current

efforts◦Be less formal/more engaging◦Increase community◦Some want more, others are happy with email

Social media survey: Preliminary results“fun, light-hearted, goofy, self-mocking, celebrate itself and its future, creative, "out-of-the-box", young-at-heart (if not in fact), silly, #DOCULOPE -- i mean, there's already a great mascot, why hasn't it taken the #icebucketchallenge yet?”

“I'm an old hand IT person, working since the 70's -- grew up with listservs and enjoy and RELY upon the "orderly", non-chaotic nature of exchange, especially on non-public, non-moderated lists”

Social media survey: Preliminary results“I consider emails as my primary communication connection to ASIS&T. I see those emails in context of my other professional emails (mostly work). Twitter and Facebook are a hodge-podge of all kinds of aspects of my life. Listersrvs are analogous to a work conference room. LinkedIn, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu are like a downtown cafe that serves the business lunch crowd. Twitter and Facebook are like a funky bar where everyone shows up sometimes. They are more casual and not where most people go for business discussions.”

Future directions

What are we planning now?Increasing friendly engagementIncreasing post visibility… through qualityFocusing on the most likely usersBuilding more metricsProviding ASIS&T and non-ASIS&T contentDesigning new website; will integrate the static

and the dynamicRecruiting more bloggersOffering assistance to SIGs and chaptersConsidering other platforms: Hangouts, Instagram,

etc.

What else are we planning?YOU decide!