I’m still thinking a lot about how libraries can better engage with patrons and have found an unlikely area to test and ponder: NHL Hockey.
North Park University is located in Chicago and the Chicago Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup (in thrilling fashion!). Knowing that the social media circles would be buzzing about this – I wondered if the library might be able to tap in and contribute to the conversation. So I decided to test the waters.
First Update
After a thrilling overtime victory (in triple overtime!) I tweeted a short, semi-library related tweet that got three responses. Two replies and one retweet isn’t exactly going viral – but I think it’s still pretty good for most small academic libraries!
Second Update
After the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the library retweeted the official Blackhawks account that said:
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this update got no response. But, then again, it’s wasn’t exactly new knowledge (currently, nearly 20,000 people have retweeted that exact tweet), it wasn’t really that shareable, and it wasn’t unique to North Park patrons.
Third Update
My co-worker actually created a wonderful book spine poem about the Stanley Cup and I published it later that day on both facebook and twitter.
That tweet has now been retweeted 5 times and is now one of our most “viral” tweets.
A similar post on facebook (link here) currently has 17 likes which is above average for us as well.
Lessons Learned
- I would say engaging with big social movements like this is a good thing. It shows that the library is listening and is aware of what’s happening in the world.
- The best content is unique, shareable, and somehow related to your community. The first and third updates contained unique content and passed this test whereas the second update does not. Perhaps retweeting is better engagement on a smaller scale (like if say NPU had won a championship) but it just adds to the noise on a national level.
- Pictures are very helpful – social media seems overwhelmingly visual.
- To summarize: engage big social movements with unique and shareable content.
Question
Despite the somewhat positive nature of these updates, I still have a few lingering questions:
- Is tweeting/posting about public sporting events unprofessional and/or not very library like? I think most academic libraries would object to putting a TV on the circulation desk during the game – do the same objections not apply to putting something up on social media?
- Should there be other guidelines? Responding to this seemed fine and even good to me – but I don’t think the library should tap into every tweeting topic on twitter. Or engage in controversial political topics. Or celebrity gossip news. I think there is a line – but where is it?