The Jungle Beat of the Tweet: Social Media and Music Library Networking

Karen McAulayWhittaker Library,

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

What I do Bigger issues

On the ground and blue sky …

And also ...Unique situation: dual existence as 60:40 librarian : researcher

I blog:- http://whittakerlive.blogspot.com (library)

On the ground

I do also write other blogs in my own time:- http://TrueImaginaryFriends (own research) http://airsandgracescpd.blogspot.co.uk/ (cpd)

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/blogs/music/(career blog) http://salctg.blogspot.com (shared cpd) http://www.music.arts.gla.ac.uk/bassculture/

(shared AHRC research)

Or, to be truthful

Twitter:- My own account @Karenmca Library account @WhittakerLib Bass Culture project account @bassyculture Academia.edu Facebook? No, just family and a few friends. LinkedIn? Again, limited use. Dislike

LinkedIn group discussions! The Conservatoire VLN, Moodle and Mahara

So, I do a lot of blogging! Also…

Diigo (social bookmarking) Bufferapp.com (scheduling tweets) Storify (for bringing together different kinds

of information – really, another kind of blog) Slideshare

These, together with Whittaker Live and Twitter, are the resources I depend upon.

Recommended social networking resources

Whittaker Live Hits

Whittaker Live Annual Hits

Whittaker Live postings – promote on Twitter and email to targeted groups in RCS community

Use blogspot apps for automated feeds etc Bufferapp – schedule tweets Tweetdeck – can’t download to use at work

(nice but inessential anyway)

Combining media

How many accounts Professional versus private persona What attracts followers?

Crowdsourced my research again

Blue sky

Most people differentiate in some way Mode of differentiation varies:-

2 Twitter + 2 FB accounts 1 Twitter (work + personal), 2 FB (1 dormant), AND input

to library accounts 1 Twitter (work + personal), 1 FB (personal) I myself favour the last approach (but also have a strictly

library Twitter & share research project account).

“conscious of how easy it is to spread oneself too thin over social media…”

Beware confusing your followers!

How many accounts?

Responses largely related to Whittaker Live:- ”personal interest” “When you visited a library or collection” “variety of topics” “the character/personality of the posts”

“mix of content, from PhD links to other blogs & performing arts info”

“strikes a good balance, being informative but chatty, not stuffy”

“useful aggregator”

One follower commends the way National Archives interacts with its audience. “Know your followers/what they want”

What interests your followers?

Blog is for library users and other performers

My tweets are as much professional networking as user interaction

Challenge of different personas Establishing a brand Making it relevant

Summary