Posted on September 01, 2019
Social media use has become a driving force in library promotion and engagement with a diverse student and staff community. An overwhelming majority of students have a presence on social media and it is especially important for academic libraries to also engage with our clients online because it has transformed the way relationships are formed between the library and our customers, wherever they are based, and influences how they choose to learn about and access library services and resources.
To effectively manage a social media presence, continuous engagement and regular postings are necessary. This year, the DLS Marketing Office has successfully been following an updated social media strategy to ensure the creation and development of relevant, original and high-quality library content within a formal publishing schedule. It must be noted that this content is curated with the aim to repurpose it for the plasma screens in our libraries.
The social media team meets at the Merensky 2 Library on a monthly basis to evaluate the performance of the previous month, discuss new ideas, and learn new tips and guidelines to improve the social media strategy. Other faculty library managers have recently joined the meetings as they have indicated that they wish to run their own Facebook pages. Julene Vermeulen manages the Education Library Facebook page and Ameilia Breytenbach manages the Jotello F Soga Facebook page. Both pages thus follow their own social media policy and liaise with the main UP Library Facebook page.
The new dedication to the DLS’ social media platforms (including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube) has been paying off! From May to August 2019, the total number of Facebook page likes has increased from 3,943 to 4,487. Instagram has also seen a rise in followers, with the total number of followers almost doubling since the start of the year. It has been very rewarding to see continuous and active engagement on our social media pages from established authors, international libraries and especially, our very own Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Tawana Kupe!
Image 1: Follower increase May - August 2019
Comparison with other institutions such as UNISA Library, Unizulu Library, UFS Library, University of Cape Town Libraries and Stellenbosch Library, currently places the University of Pretoria’s engagement at the top! Two university libraries have more Facebook page likes than us: UNISA with 10.8K and The National Library of South Africa (NLSA) with 7.5K, but the UP Library has recently reached 4.5K likes and surpassed Unizulu and UCT library!
Image 2: Comparison with other libraries across the country
The top performing Facebook post with a record-breaking reach of 38,721 people and a total of 220 shares:
Image 3: Top Facebook post
The top performing Instagram post with a reach of 970 people and a total of 117 likes:
Image 4: Top Instagram post
The top performing tweet with 3,238 impressions and 115 post clicks:
Image 5: Top Tweet
A warm thank you to the social media contributors for their creativity and commitment to their weekly posts. We kindly ask that our colleagues support our online presence by liking and sharing our content – we promise to keep it interesting!
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