Week 2: Social Networking

What is social networking?

Social networking links organisations and or individuals who have a shared interest. There are as many different social networking sites as there are social groups. Some social networks connected to specific topics include: Mumsnet, Confetti, Ravelry, Goodreads and The Student Room. Other Social Networks include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, instagram and LinkedIn  to name a few and these are larger, linking people not just by interest but by many different connections. They often interlink, connecting people from existing networks. For example I get notified whenever a facebook or twitter friend joins Instagram.

Social Networking in Plain English (video)

Many social networks allow you to browse so if you don’t want to sign up you can still see much of what is going on if the material is public.

Why is Social Networking important?

Why should library staff and libraries engage with Social Networking?

Marketing  –  you can promote events, services, workshops

Updating – let people know any changes to services,  database downtime, opening hours

Information – very immediate you can see what is happening before it hits the main news even if you don’t have an account and ask for help or information from other users when you do have an account.

How are libraries using social networking?

We will cover Twitter and Pinterest later but the following are examples of library use of other networks (no login required)

Facebook

British Library
Brunel University Library

Cass Library Services
City Business Library
Judge Business School Library
Keele University Library
Leeds Libraries
MIT Music Library
Orkney Library and Archives

Royal Holloway Library
University of Sussex Library

Google Plus

Cambridge University Library

Cotham School Library

New York Public Library

Rochester Public Library

Springfield Central Library

Instagram

Examples of library use of Instagram

Note

The terms Social Media and Social Networking are sometimes used interchangably but they are slightly different things:

Social media is a terms for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online. The tools include blogs, wikis, podcasts, and sites to share photos and bookmarks.

Social networking sites are online places where users can create a profile for themselves, and then socialise with others using a range of social media tools including blogs, video, images, tagging, lists of friends, forums and messaging.

Often when the traditional media talk about social media they mean social networks.

[Source: A-Z of social media  http://socialmedia.wikispaces.com/A-Z+of+social+media ]

Helen

Thing 4: Reflect on your own social networking experience

Here are few questions to think about but feel free to blog about any aspect of social networking or share any good / bad examples.

What is your experience of social networks?

Do you use any?

How do you engage with them?

Can you see a professional value to them?

Do you have any thoughts on any of the networks above?

Thing 5. Create a Twitter Account

Things 5 and 6 are Twitter. How many of you have been dreading this week? Twitter can have quite a mixed reaction, so it would be really interesting to know what everyone’s opinions of Twitter are (and if you change your mind after the course of the Things). Post your opinions in the comments below!

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ tool which allows people to post short (140 character) messages, reply to other people’s messages and follow the messages other people are posting. All the updates from people that you follow will be collected in one timeline that appears when you log in to the site. Links and photographs can be included in tweets, so they are a good way to quickly summarise information.

Why should I care?

Twitter is a quick and easy way to network (even with people you already know!) and share ideas or interesting things that you see around the web. You can use it to keep up to date, following people/organisation of interest, or you can be an active user: tweeting your work and getting feedback, asking questions, publicising events and news. You can tweet your every waking thought, meal and sleeping patterns (and some people do) but it’s generally not recommended.
Understanding TwitterSpeak (see the Twitter Glossary for more vocabulary)

• Tweet: a single update of no more than 140 characters
• RT: A Retweet, or a way of reposting a tweet originally posted by another user, sometime with your own text added (more info on Retweets from Twitter support)
• @reply: a reply to another user (more info on @reply from Twitter support)
• DM: a private message sent to another user (more info on DMs from Twitter support)
• #: A hashtag, which provides a method of grouping tweets by adding a standard tag, e.g. #RHUL23, so that all tweets on a particular event or issue can be easily searched and tracked (more info on hashtags from Twitter support)

N.B. It’s important to know that you can unfollow people! Should you be overwhelmed, or bored, by someone’s tweets, you do not have to read them forever. Click on their name and instead of clicking ‘Follow’, choose ‘Unfollow’.

And another thing…
Twitter allows you to create ‘lists’ of users, so that you can separate your timeline into more manageable, themed chunks.

The Library uses Twitter @RHUL_Library, and the feed of recent tweets can be seen on the Library Homepage. The Library has 650 followers, who receive updates on services, resources, events etc, and so this is a good way of keeping in touch with students without emailing them.

Thing 5 is Setting Up A Twitter Account.

Use the instructions in the link above to do so, or if you already have a Twitter account, try setting up a list of RHUL23 participants.

Please move on to Thing 6 to find out how to interact on Twitter.

Thing 6. Interact on Twitter

Now you’ve done Thing 5, you can move on to interacting on Twitter. Twitter can be difficult to get your head around at first, and the best way is to dive straight in. Finding people to follow, talking to your followers, keeping up to date are all part and parcel of Twitter, and once you’re in – you might not turn back…

There are 6 different elements to this week’s task, do any or all of them!

1. Make your first tweet.
2. @mention someone else doing RHUL23.
3. Send someone a direct message.
4. Find something interesting and retweet it.
5. Use #Hashtags to find information.
6. Use #Hashtags to discuss.

The instructions on Interacting are here, and when you’ve done one or more of these things, update your blog with your opinions on how easy/useful you found them to be. Comment here to let us know whether your opinions on Twitter have changed – is it more or less useful than you thought it might be? Is it a fun or frustrating challenge to say what you want in only 140 characters?

Happy tweeting!