Twitter in Libraries

Courtesy of https://www.marketbeat.com/logos/twitter-logo.png

            
            Twitter is another popular social media site and was created in 2006.  Users have up to 140 characters to tell their tale.  Libraries can use Twitter to not shorthand the posts, but to post the title and a link to what they want to say.  According to A. Nicole Sump – Crethar in “Making the Most of Twitter”, “A library’s Twitter feed needs to build relationships, grab people’s attention, fit the user’s needs, and generate a conversation between the users and the library … tools, tricks, and fun ideas make using Twitter easy … Social media dashboards, picture sharing, location services, and sharing games and reference questions keep a library’s Twitter feed fresh” (pg. 350).  The library can answer reference questions through Twitter, create their own hashtag (which is a word or string of words so that users can access the same type of information) to use or for users to use to get in contact with the library, and share information about events going on at the library.  

             The New York Public Library uses Twitter to post things several times a day. Their posts are usually no more than two sentences with a url link to their webpage that is related to that post.  This helps keep users interested in posts by keeping it short and makes it easy for them to glance at so that they can see if they are interested in that topic. 

Sump-Crethar, A. (2012). Making the Most of Twitter. Reference Librarian, 53(4), 349-354.