UK ACADEMIC LIBRARIES ON TWITTER:WHAT ARE THEY DOING AND DOES IT WORK?

Michael O’Hagan

Overview

Research warrant: why study Twitter?

Research questions.

Overview of research approach.

Discussion of results.

Conclusions and implications for libraries using Twitter.

Disclaimer!

Limitations of this type of study:

Purely a content and statistical analysis of available data.

Only measuring visible interaction ignores other kinds of value.

Differences in institutional characteristics, student populations, etc.

Your library’s (positive!) experience is what really matters…

…though some extra thoughts and ideas never hurt.

Why study Twitter?

An abundance of literature on using Twitter for organisational benefit in for-profit and not-for-profit sectors…

…extols the virtues of Twitter as a marketing and stakeholder engagement tool.

Why study Twitter?

Libraries are getting stuck in as well…

Why study Twitter?

Existing studies: Anecdotal reports of success. Generally focus on a single institution. Little in-depth quantitative/qualitative analysis.

In particular, no studies: Examine specifically UK academic libraries. Provide an analysis of follower interaction with content.

And: Concerns about privacy and forced use (JISC report, 2009). “I’m honestly kinda creeped out.” – response of a US student

to being retweeted.

Why study Twitter?

Controversial

viewpoints

Few in-depth

studies+

There’s a dissertation in this ...

Research questions

For what purposes do UK academic libraries use Twitter?

…how do the trends observed relate to the ideas in the literature?

How, and to what extent, is Twitter used as a conversation tool between libraries and their followers?

…and are they happy about it?

What trends exist in follower retweeting dynamics and how is this affected by use of the tools available on Twitter?

…can any suggestions for good practice be made?

Research approach

Content analysis coupled with statistical analysis…

Sampling: Stratified sample of UK higher education institutions. 2 x one-week periods of activity selected.

Harvest: 440 tweets from 23 academic libraries. Tweet content. Associated statistics (retweets, pictures, links, etc.)

Research approach

Content analysis coupled with statistical analysis...

Coding: Developed schemes using a combination of existing

literature and induction. Schemes to code content of the tweets and accounts

interacting with them.

Analysis: Excel Pivot Tables. Statistical tests where appropriate.

RQ1 – Purpose

Provide news or information; 254; 58%

Retweet another user's content; 90; 20%

Talk directly to another user; 85; 19%

Personal/casual aside; 8; 2% Attempt to elicit a response

1%

Use of Twitter by UK academic libraries

Library related, 214, 84%

External news, 32, 13%

Internal organisation re-lated, 5, 2% Other/unknown; 3; 1%

News or information tweets

RQ1 – Purpose

Scope for increased focus on other academic-related information for users: Would demonstrate the library is in touch with wider issues. Marketing/branding value of retweets by related organisations.

News about the library

Collections 74

Services 62

Events 52

General/other 26

Why are parent organisations and academic staff not tweeting about their libraries? Or are libraries just not retweeting this content?

News or information tweets

Library related, 18, 20%

Non-library related, 61, 68%

Casual aside, 8, 9%

Praise of the library; 3; 3%

Retweet another user’s content

RQ1 – Purpose

Origin of library-related retweets

Internal organisation 5

Internal librarian 4

External account 9

Library users, 46, 52%

Internal organisa-tions, 2, 2%

Librarians, 6, 7%

Other / un-known, 35, 39%

Who are libraries talkingto on Twitter?

Library-related questions, 26, 30%

Non library-related questions, 4, 5%

Complaints about library services, 19, 22%

Non-direct men-tions, 10, 12%

Other, 27, 31%

Tweets prompting libraries to mention a follower dir-

ectly

RQ2 – Conversation

Users are actively engaging with the library presence on twitter to ask questions or moan! Opportunities to deliver information literacy advice, market resources. Respond to issues that matter.

RQ2 – Conversation

Who are libraries talking to on Twitter?

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East

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Liver

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0

0.2

0.4

0.6

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1

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1.4

Direct mentions received and replied to per 100 followers

Can this be explained… By marketing strategy? By resourcing of the service?

RQ2 – Conversation

“Listening in” to followers… Only 10 directed tweets found not prompted by a direct

mention:

Need to: Adopt a better “who-to-follow” strategy. Develop techniques to discover relevant tweets.

Not prompted by direct mention

Answer question 1

Respond to complaint 5

Other 4

RQ3 – Retweeting

Securing retweets is identified as beneficial throughout the literature: Shows you’ve been read. Increases the audience of tweets across social networks. Acts as an endorsement of content or service.

RQ3 – Retweeting

Promising evidence that content is valued by users. Good to see internal organisations retweeting library

content.

Library users, 17, 13%

Internal organi-sations, 53, 39%

Internal librarians, 9, 7%

External ac-counts, 27, 20%

Other/ unknown, 29, 21%

Accounts retweeting library content

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Retweet likelihood

No RT

One RT

Link No link

54

21

145

130

No retweetsRetweet(s)

RQ3 – Retweeting

Hashtag No hashtag0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

6 69

29 246

Picture No picture

8

67

11

264

Effect of a range of Twitter features on retweet propensity:

Include more pictures and links!

Conclusions and implications

Demonstrable success in the following areas:

Providing library-related information.

Opportunity for library and users to engage in dialogue: Evidence: 46 tweets (approx. 1 in 10) represent

conversations with library users.

Opportunity for parent organisation to demonstrate the relevance and importance of the library: Evidence: 39% retweets from internal organisations.

Conclusions and implications

But to improve...

Increased focus required on information relevant to users other than library-related: Evidence: only 2% of tweets about institutional (non-library)

news.

Better techniques to “listen in” to Twitter are needed: Evidence: only ten non direct-mention tweets were replied

to by libraries.

Strategies should be developed to better encourage organisations and faculties to engage with the library on Twitter: Evidence: few tweets from internal organisations and none

from faculty members retweeted.

Thank you for your attention

Acknowledgements

Dr Robert Stephens

Alena Ptak-Danchak Music Faculty Library staff

Questions?