Once we all heard that we should never post on the same day, it got me thinking: who is coordinating the content, what schedule are we following, do we have a marketing plan, should we have brand consistency with specified fonts, colors, and logos throughout? And is it true that multiple posts would have an adverse reaction?
As I started scrolling through the library’s feed, what jumped out to me was that the topics were mostly about upcoming events, with young adult and children’s content alternating. What is missing is general information about the library, as well as any adult programming or special offerings. The second thing I notice is that the likes for each post far exceed any comments.
Comments!!?? I can never hold back on making a comment if something intrigues me, so how can we get more interaction with our socials? Ahhh, let’s think about promoting a participatory culture, a concept coined by scholar Henry Jenkins in 2006. Social media should shift people from being consumers to being creators participating in the social media culture. Entry and acceptance to participate should be easy, knowledge should be shared, and collaboration encouraged. Indeed, a public library is a social environment, and members should feel welcomed to be part of the community.
So back to the title question – is less more with Instagram posts? What do you think? Does your library have a marketing department? What prompts you to share a post? What gets you to comment? Does the content need to spark controversy to engage you?
Hey Maude, thanks for such an honest blog share this week. This topic, circling so many concepts of how social media dissemination occurs, the amount of planning necessary for such an ongoing "conversation" us librarians have with our community, the conversation on "likes" vs. "shares," these are are such excellent topics that I hope our blog can cover as we continue the semester together. Via Longwood library, a drive away from your library, I know that each department is able to post - but also the option for separate insta accounts for each age group is another intentional conversation to be had. Being admonished for something never inherently communicated is, in my opinion, just another ill-fated leadership moment, and hopefully one that can be addressed via establishing a policy or committee that speaks to to social media as whole. Thanks for the share!
ReplyDeleteHi Maude,
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great topic to think about! Right now our senior clerk in the Teen department does most of the social media, and I do some as well. She posts pictures from programs, the weekly lineup of each program, and she also posts a What we are reading Wednesday, where staff members fill out a google doc and send it to her with what they are reading, and she posts that on a graphic along with the call number. We schedule all of our posts ahead of time using the website Later Social Media Scheduler. It's really neat because there is one login for the whole library, and everyone can see who has what scheduled when. It also gives insights as to when our top performing posts are posted, for us, we usually post at 10 am and 3 pm. As long as the posts are far enough apart in terms of hours, we will usually have different departments posting throughout the day.
I'm definitely a believer in the idea that you can make your own rules! The "one post a day" rule on Instagram has been around since I first made my account there back in high school. I always thought it was an interesting rule--you don't want to post too much, clog up feeds, and cause unfollows. Makes sense. But what would happen if I posted twice in a day? Honestly, with the way algorithms are these days, I doubt anyone would notice.. Sometimes I see a post that was created 20 minutes ago, followed by a post from 4 days ago. I don't typically check the posted date unless it's relevant to the post itself, so if I were to see the same person on my feed twice in a day, I wouldn't think much of it.
ReplyDeleteNow if I were running an organization, maybe I would make a rule of two posts maximum, and they must be differing topics. Honestly, posting once a day between all of the different departments (say, adult, teen, children, for example) could lead to one department getting less posting time, or one dominating the others. If the adult department posted on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and the children's department posted on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, that leaves the teen department with only Sunday. With three departments and seven days a week, there's no way for it to be equitable without creating a three week posting schedule and allowing each department seven days to post.
So, the way I see it, I would want to get together all of the posting departments and come up with a solution--a new rule. One post a day from each department? Switch off every other day? Just because one post a day is the norm, does not make it a requirement! But maybe I'm just trying to break rules..