Branching Out to Connect: Medlibs Twitter & FriendFeed Social Networking

Summary Approximately 200 of the individual accounts the Medlibs group Twitter account follows were active on Twitter during the time the poll was open. The response rate of 41 is too low to assess usage of information shared via the Medlibs group Twitter account accurately. Trends indicated by the poll include sharing Medlibs information on Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels (39%), bookmarking websites shared by the account (22%), and inclusion of information in email (16%). Inclusion of information in blog entries and not using the Medlibs information were infrequent (9%) and other feedback included “I work in a one person library, so medlibs keeps me connected to what’s going on in the bigger world of medical librarianship.” Just as MEDLIB-L and other listservs were once cutting edge information and communication methods for medical librarians, online group social networking channels are today. If you like MEDLIB-L, you may love Medlibs Twitter and FriendFeed! Background Twitter is an online social network messaging service limited to 140 characters per message (tweet). A group Twitter account allows for tweets from an individual user to be sent to all members of the group account, even if the members do not usually follow (regularly read) an individual user’s tweets. The Medlibs group Twitter account was created by David Rothman after users of an informal group Twitter account for sharing information during the Medical Library Association conference in May 2008 at Chicago wanted to continue the group for social media networking and collaboration. In July 2008 Nicole Dettmar assumed administrative duties of the Medlibs group Twitter account with approximately 50 individual accounts participating. In August 2008, the Medlibs group Twitter account was added to post into a FriendFeed group. Conversation threads (additional comments) can be added under messages in FriendFeed groups, an advantage over Twitter’s single message with no comments format. 2009 brought rapid expansion to Medlibs and the previous practice of allowing non library-related Twitter accounts to post was discontinued due to spam accounts and messages. As of October 2009 there are over 270 library-related individual accounts that can post to Medlibs Twitter, over 90 accounts on the Medlibs FriendFeed group, and over 700 followers of Medlibs Twitter information.

Methods

http://twitter.com/medlibs

Medlibs on Twitter is a group account for all to view and follow

Spam accounts are blocked from following when detected

Medlibs follows back library-related Twitter accounts indicated in profile information or message (tweet) content

Medical librarians, libraries, and library students are the majority of individual Twitter accounts in the group

Only with reciprocal following can individual Twitter accounts post tweets to Medlibs that are sent to all followers

Tweets can include abbreviated hyperlinks that lead to additional information

Tweets may be viewed and posted online using a web page, third party applications, and via text messaging with mobile devices

http://friendfeed.com/medlibs

Medlibs on FriendFeed is a public group for all to view and follow

Spam accounts are blocked from following when detected

The Medlibs group Twitter account posts tweets as messages to the FriendFeed group

Anyone with a FriendFeed account may also post a message (not using Twitter) to the Medlibs FriendFeed group

Vendors are welcome to follow but not post messages to the FriendFeed group in order to avoid commercial messages

Medlibs FriendFeed group messages and comments may be viewed via instant messaging, individual or digest emails per individual account settings, and RSS feed subscription

Examples Poll Results Branching Out To Connect: Medlibs Twitter & FriendFeed Group Social Networking Nicole S. Dettmar, Education and Assessment Coordinator National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region, Seattle, WA Figure 3: Message posted to Medlibs FriendFeed group (not via Medlibs group Twitter account) with the individual posting a comment to update with query answer and source Figure 2: Medlibs group Twitter account message posted to Medlibs FriendFeed group, with conversation thread comments Figure 1: Messages (tweets) from individual Twitter accounts, automatically prefaced with “via @” in front of the account name, posted to the Medlibs group Twitter account Figure 4: Medlibs poll via http://twtpoll.com , data collected for 3 weeks during September – October 2009 Introduction Medical librarians are always seeking ways to connect with colleagues in order to share the latest news and information in the field, ask for collaborative help and opinions, and invite feedback on projects and services. Online group social networking channels, such as Twitter and FriendFeed, are emerging as popular communication tools. These enable librarians and others interested in health information to send and receive brief real time messages and participate in conversations that can be viewed online, via RSS feed, or on mobile devices for portability.