By Carina Gonzalez, Gary Marks, Jr., and Hilary Westgate

Social media has become a central component of marketing and communication in academia, and so academic libraries are striving to develop their social media effectiveness. However, planning and assessment are necessary in order to ensure that the social media tactics we employ are accomplishing our ultimate goals.  Many questions arise regarding the use of social media. How do we get started? What platforms should we be using? Who is going to do it? How do we know if it is working? How is everyone else using social media?

Any library that considers using social media has faced these questions and many others. The good news is you are not alone. The better news is that librarians are all about resources and sharing!

The NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ Marketing & Outreach Committee is sponsoring an NJLA conference session called Maximizing Your Academic Library’s Social Media Efforts to Engage or Reach Your Audience. Three New Jersey academic librarians will walk you through how they have approached social media efforts at their institutions, discussing everything from just getting started to learning essential skills and tips to getting the most out of your social media presence.

Society dove into social media when it burst onto the scene, potentially without really understanding what it was or how it could work best. Since the dawn of Facebook in 2004 (MySpace, anyone?), social media has expanded exponentially as technological innovations have integrated information-sharing into our daily routines. Many libraries began engaging in social media because they did not want to miss the opportunity. However, many never slowed down to understand the road they were traveling.

Has your library ever felt that your social media is lost in the woods without a compass? It is never too late to get started or re-evaluate your social media presence and gain a sense of direction. Have you ever asked, ‘do we need to develop a social media policy, or should we have a plan’? Developing a social media policy and a social media plan can be an eye-opening experience. The process can shed completely new light on your social media activities, providing a guide to be more effective and efficient as a result.

Many libraries face challenges finding individuals who can commit the time and effort necessary to build and maintain a successful and active social media presence, or they struggle to keep up with content across multiple platforms. There are hosts of social media management systems available that can alleviate some of the challenges of managing multiple platforms or coordinating social media activities. A number of tools and skills can enable libraries to become more productive and efficient with their social media.

We use social media as a marketing tool to promote our libraries’ resources, services, and activities. We know that social media is an integral part of the daily lives of current college students. If current and future students are our intended audiences, how can we take advantage of social media to reach and engage this audience?

Join us at the NJLA Conference on Thursday, May 31st (3:10-4 p.m.) to partake in a discussion on all these topics, questions, and more. Perspectives and experiences from three librarians are joined together to discuss how to make social media more effective and engaging for all of us. To help answer an earlier question of how others are using social media, we would like to create a social media directory of academic libraries – a one-stop shop to see how everyone else is using social media and to find recommended groups to join and libraries to follow. The directory will be hosted on the NJLA College & University Section website and will be maintained by the Marketing & Outreach Committee. We believe this will serve as a valuable resource for librarians in NJ and beyond. Be sure to attend our NJLA conference session and bring your questions and discussion points! Please submit here to have your library’s social media accounts included in the directory:

Social Media Directory Submission Form

Carina Gonzalez is the Outreach Librarian at Raritan Valley Community College. She can be reached at carina.gonzalez@raritanval.edu.

Gary Marks, Jr. is the Reference & Outreach Librarian at William Paterson University's Cheng Library. He can be reached at marksg@wpunj.edu.

HIlary Westgate is the Reference, Instruction, and Outreach Librarian at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She can be reached at hwestgat@ramapo.edu.