Week 4: Social Media Policies and Instagram

 I could see the necessity of having a social media policy if you worked in an environment where multiple staff posted on behalf of the library on social media accounts.  I also think it would be a good idea for schools to have a social media policy discussing what type of posts employees should refrain from making on their personal accounts.  I have heard of teachers losing their positions because of inappropriate posts on their personal Facebook pages.  Right now, I am the only person who posts to social media sites on behalf of the library.  At some point, if we have multiple staff posting, we would probably need to develop a social media policy.

Now, on to the homework -- posting the URLs of two libraries who using Instagram for marketing and giving examples of how they specifically use it.

Since I am an alumni of the University of Tennessee, here's the URL of their Instagram account for the Hodges Library.  http://instagram.com/utklibraries.  Some of the photos promoted artwork of students displayed within the library.  Recent photos contained photos of students de-stressing by petting therapy dogs during finals time.  So, this library is using Instagram to promote its exhibits and programs.  However, I can't help but wonder how many people are actually reached with Instagram.  Is it really effective at marketing?  Most of the photos I looked at on their account had less than 5 folks liking it.  Five folks at a school with over 27,000 students does not seem like a lot to me. 

I decided to look at the Instagram account of the public library of our largest U. S. city, New York.  Here's the URL:  http://instagram.com/nypl.  One of the things they are currently using their account to market is the opening of their new branch, Mariners Harbor.  Many of their photos have over 300 likes, though I didn't see any with 400.  But, when you think about it -- even 400 likes in a city of 8.3 million is a very low percentage (less than .005%).  So, once again, I'm not sure it's all that effective as a marketing strategy.