Notes for the presentation for NoWAL for their conference "Social Media in Libraries", April 2014. The full prezi can be viewed here: http://prezi.com/-zvabstcrdys/keeping-it-social-staffsuniis/

1. Keeping it Social @StaffsUniIS
Information Services (IS) at Staffordshire University use a number of social media channels to
communicate effectively with students. Here are some of the things we have been doing and I take a
look at which ones work best in various situations.
View the Prezi here: http://prezi.com/-zvabstcrdys/keeping-it-social-staffsuniis/
facebook.com/staffsunilibraryTwitter: @StaffsuniIS
First up is a bit of a Digital Footprint message, from a very unlikely source. It‘s a trailer for an opera
called Two Boys made by English National Opera in 2011. You can find this on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDycZH0CA4I
How interesting that an opera company (not a librarian, a lecturer or your parents!) produced this.
So – what does Staffordshire University Library do?
And here on the presentation is a picture of people who work in the same department as me –
Information Services. This includes the library.
The Ancient Past (2011)
No social media strategy. We had set up accounts. That was it really.
Little Facebook activity as nobody was assigned responsibility. There was little interest,
people were scared of writing the wrong things, people didn’t know how to log in, some
staff looked down on social media (and still do) as ‘not work’, ‘silly’ or a ‘waste of time’.
Used Twitterfeed to send messages from the blog onto Twitter - not directed and focussed.
Absolutely not using the Twitter setup correctly. We were getting, at best, ¾ of a sentence
and a very long link to a full article.
Less interaction with students – messages were mostly about service downtime or things
that could be perceived as being negative (or just quite boring)
So we:
Got interested – myself and colleague Paul Biggs joined the service and we met with existing
staff to garner interest and talk about the opportunities of social media.
Got informed –we sought some in-house advice and university marketing were very helpful.
They were happy to talk with us, give us best practice tips and promote our Facebook and
Twitter accounts. We also include their handles when posts are of cross-university interest.
Had a go – as per the reasons of why we did not get involved, it was time to! So show
interest, don’t be scared of writing the wrong things, know how to log in and it is work and is
not silly or a waste of time.
Learnt by trial and error, and only then starting thinking about strategy

2. One of the big challenges is the decentralised nature of social media and the fact that there is not a
one-size-fits-all model for success; this is why social media approaches must always be flexible and
open to changes and adjustments when needed.
Ok, here is our Facebook experience: http://www.facebook.com/staffsunilibrary
Establishing a tone or voice
Once you decide on the desired behaviour of your audience and the tone of voice that will best
speak with your fans, be consistent in using it. Depending on the nature of your department and
your intended audience, you'll decide whether users will respond best to a tone that is light-hearted,
institutional (or authoritative), laudatory, conversational, etc.
Consistency in the early stages of a Facebook presence is key. As time passes and the audience for a
department’s page grows, the tone of voice may evolve, but the questions asked in the early stages
to establish your tone should continually be asked.
Accuracy
Verify facts before posting them, and review content for grammatical and spelling errors. If you
become aware of an error, correct it immediately. This is especially important when "sharing" posts
from outside sources. If an error is discovered immediately (i.e. before any comments or "likes" have
been added), delete the erroneous material and re-post a corrected version. If an error is discovered
after discussion or commentary has already begun, correct the error in the least destructive way
possible. Photo captions and video descriptions can be easily edited, whereas status updates should
be corrected in the comments.
Frequency
Update frequently -- but not too frequently. Seek a happy medium in which fans are engaged but
not alienated or turned off. Updates will appear in fans’ "News Feed" on their personal Facebook
accounts, so provide content that will be of interest to them. Make your page active, because it in
turn reflects on the activity of your organisation, but don’t spam users and alienate them. A general
rule is to post at least one status update per business day, with added posts for news and
announcements.
Too many posts in a day -- which includes the number of shared posts or outside links -- may
become a red flag for users and cause them to disassociate from your page.
Finally, posts should be spread throughout the day. Pages that load all of their posts at once, no
matter how important, will quickly become a nuisance to users.
Facebook operates using the algorithm, EdgeRank. This means that not all fans see your content.
The more a user interacts with your page, the more content they will see. This is in place to ensure
that you post relevant content to your audience. We will return to this in a bit……

3. Encouraging interaction
Ask questions to encourage interaction. A Facebook page shouldn’t be a one-way communication
tool. Fans have the opportunity to communicate with a unit and with each other. Asking questions
encourages fans to comment on status updates, which elicits a feeling of participation as well as
boosting the exposure of a page. Asking questions also provides administrators with an opportunity
to learn more about a page's fans.
Monitoring/moderating conversations
Conversations should be encouraged and allowed to grow naturally. Often, users will have a
question about a department or about Staffordshire in general. When possible, answer these
questions with links to official University websites rather than posting information directly on
Facebook. This ensures that if official information changes or is updated, fans have direct access to
that information. It also encourages fans to explore the websites for the department, initiative or
program in which the fan has demonstrated an interest. There may also be questions that we are
unable to answer. Direct these to the appropriate member of staff and let your user know that you
have asked the staff / department for help.
Deleting offensive comments
Administrators should exercise judgment regarding comments before deleting them. Negative
comments about the unit or the University should not be deleted simply because they are negative.
Comments must violate terms of service, policies about offensive posts, and/or decorum. Such
examples are comments that include cursing, bullying, hate speech, etc. These comments should be
deleted immediately, and users who repeatedly post such comments should be banned. I can report
that the Library has not had to ban anybody yet and we are still feeling the love (just like
Rudimental).
Measuring impact: Insights
Insights is the built-in analytics tool for a unit's Facebook page. Use the tool to keep track of user
statistics in order to chart progress in growth of your Facebook presence and engagement with
followers and fans.
How to track interaction: At the top of the Facebook page, in the admin panel is the "Insights" link.
Through Insights, you can see how many new fans you have added each day compared to the
number of fans that have removed themselves, which is a good way to measure whether you are
posting too frequently or not enough. You can also see how engaged your fans are with your
content. In addition, another useful feature is the ability to look at the demographics of your fan
base by age, gender, and location. There is no set formula for how to look at the information in
Insights, but there is a great day of data freely available with no hard work or passwords required!
We have set a weekly email to send us this information so we are constantly updated with likes and
reach.

4. What we found out
Facebook is completely different from other forms of contact, especially compared with static, fixed
and unresponsive forms of communication, such as posters and signs.
Posts& Response times – 90% of all responses come within 10 minutes of messages being posted.
That is absolutely amazing compared with ‘non-social’ media
Pictures (Flickr CC) – super popular, catch the eye and lead readers to view more. Pictures we use
are either Flickr Creative Commons (with attribution), Uni pictures, or ones we took ourselves.
Links – lead to other stories, other recommendations
Wall – where users read their messages, you will know if you are a user.
Content – follow the guidelines as above and get going! The library has so much to offer that it is
easy to post daily about our services and other issues that we can help with, such as information
literacy, digital identity, student services etc.
'likes' – people can like pages, plus like posts.
Changes – happen a lot to the look and feel of pages. Take time to familiarise
And students love pictures! (the presentation has some that we have used in the past year)
What was good:
We started getting students to post on Facebook and ask us questions, post comments etc
We received unexpected messages about all kinds of things
We were becoming interactive, responsive and engaged
As a result, our 'likes' have risen fromunder 1200 (Jan 2012) to 2200 and counting (March 2014)
And then we have a couple of comments from users:
A super day - and I'll be popping along to get advice on how to get those top grades every time!
Thanks.
Irma Mir The student email is also messed up 2 April at 10:38 via mobile · Staffordshire University
Library We'll investigate that for you Irma and report back. Thanks for letting us know.2 April at
10:42 · Staffordshire University Library There appears to have been some problems with e-mail over
the weekend, but they seem to have been resolved now. Please let us know specifically what your
issues are if still experiencing problems. Thanks.2 April at 11:05 Like..Irma Mir Its okay now. Thanks :)
Then follows a screenshot of what the Facebook page looks like.
Some interesting developments at Facebook....video by Mike Elgan
Facebook was good, but now they are limiting access…
This really interesting video explains clearly how Facebook limits reach on posts, reacting to users'
likes and comments, thereby creating a self-fulfilling channel of opinion. It also argues how personal
users paying to promote their posts is anathema to 'social' media.
View The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ZqXlHl65g

5. And the brilliant follow up if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag
Some good news.....
The new privacy dinosaur - Facebook users can specify the group with which they want to share
their posts, and the pop-up asks them to ensure they are sharing with the intended group. There
hasn't been a change to how privacy or sharing works on Facebook; the company is merely alerting
users to the option.
If this doesn't strike you as a typical Facebook move, you aren't alone. Slate technology writer Will
Oremus suggested it may be a sign that the company truly understands the importance of user
trust. Has anyone at today’s talk ‘seen the dinosaur?’
Twitter
So we have a Facebook presence and are also using Twitter @staffsuniIS
A different medium - but a different message?
Brevity – there are 140 characters. Most people reading on a timeline may read the first three
words…..
Twitterspeak - hashtags, handles, RTs, DMs(not boots)– get a full rundown on what these mean
here:http://support.twitter.com/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary
Humour – some ‘corporate’ or ‘company’ accounts are renowned for their humour (o2 in theUK,
Charmin toilet tissue, Betfair Poker and from our field Orkney library is really funny). You are simply
spreading a message in an engaging way. See the final video of the presentation…..
Links – the 140 character limit will mean you will have to shorten your URLs- https://bitly.com will
allow you to see how many people have clicked this link and where they have come from.
Twitter – the Presidential Challenge (2013)
In 2013, Phil Bradley and CILIP put out an open call for entrants from across libraries in the UK to
demonstrate the importance of information literacy in all areas of society. So we did ours via
Twitter!Sorry but we did not win…..
“Don’t tweet all about you: tweet all about them.”
Use hashtags to join in with events / conferences (this is also good personally)
What we will do next:
Work with the University as a whole to increase our presence (we hope to receive the "Official
University site" stamp of approval)
Plug shamelessly at Open Days and events, ask students and staff to recommend us
Schedule staff time to be using our Social Media tools for marketing and to answer queries - this will
improve our e-desk and helpdesk services and be genuinely 'live' chat
And finally – how Bodyform responded to Facebook comments (please see the final Prezi frame!)