FACEBOOK @ EMMANUEL D’ALZON LIBRARY

ASSUMPTION COLLEGE

HISTORY Began our page in 2008.

Marketing student evaluation - Fall

2011.

Began implementation of ideas - Spring

2012.

MARKETING STUDENTS’ INPUT More status updates

Events & contests

Change profile pictures

Pictures of students

Videos

Use student administrators

WHAT WE’VE DONE Student Administrators

Pictures of Student Workers

Status Updates

Profile Pictures

Sharing

FALL 2012 PLAN Contest—attract students

General interest posts—keep students

Library service links—inform students

HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS Rutgers: (Glazer 19)

# of fans and the direction it’s going How often fans “like” items posted and how many

comment on posts Anecdotal evidence of impact # of Impressions (now Reach)

Survey of 115 ARL libraries (Wan 314) # of fans between 6 and 2280, with a median of 136 35.8% below 100 fans 31.4% 100-200 fans 17.6% 200-300 fans

GRAPH OF LIKES

9/1/119/2

0/11

10/9/1

1

10/28

/11

11/16

/1112/

5/11

12/24

/111/1

2/12

1/31/1

22/1

9/123/9

/123/2

8/12

4/16/1

25/5

/125/2

4/12

6/12/1

27/1

/127/2

0/128/8

/128/2

7/12

9/15/1

210/

4/12

10/23

/120

50

100

150

200

250

300

Lifetime Total Likes

Lifetime Total Likes

COMPARABLE PAGESCollege LikesHampshire 72Stonehill 99St. Anselm’s 106Holy Cross 121Merrimack 214Providence 216Tufts 226Assumption 241Mount Holyoke 616WPI 681

INTERNAL CHALLENGES Choosing student administrators

Working with student administrators

Student buy-in

Pictures

EXTERNAL CHALLENGES Twitter

Twitter + 18% Facebook -7%

(Dahlstrom 26)

Integration with other platforms Changing features Academic library=Work

Do students want to create yet another “community” with us?

STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY“Most students prefer to keep their

academic and social lives separate, and they see social networks as more about connecting with friends and less about doing academic activities…The majority of students continue to want to keep their academic and social lives separate…even though students use a technology regularly as part of their everyday lives, it does not necessarily mean they want that same technology integrated into their academic lives.” (Dahlstrom 25)

CONCLUSIONS Develop a Plan

Consider Various Platforms

Modest Expectations

Evaluate: Time vs. Benefit

BIBLIOGRAPHY Castonguay, Remi. “My Library Has a Facebook Page and a Twitter

Account: Now What?” http://www.gslismedialab.simmons.edu Accessed March 9, 2012.

Dahlstrom, Eden, with a foreward by Charles Dziuban and J.D. Walker. ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2012 (Research Report). Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, September 2012, available from http://educause.edu/ecar.

Glazer, Harry. ""Likes" are Lovely, but Do They Lead to More Logins?" College & Research Libraries News 73.1 (2012): 18-21. Web.

Sachs, Dianna E., Edward J. Eckel, and Kathleen A. Langan. “Striking a Balance: Effective Use of Facebook in an Academic Library.” Internet Reference Services Quarterly 16. (2011): 35-54. Web.

Wan, Gang. “How Academic Libraries Reach Users on Facebook.” College & Undergraduate Libraries 18 (2011): 307-318. Web.