What’s new in 2022 on the UP Library social media channels?

Over the university break, our library social media channels continued engaging with our users, responding to queries, and asking questions such as what advice they would give to new UP students. We also shared pictures of our community outreach trip on World Read Aloud Day, continued promoting our book donation project in conjunction with the National Reading Coalition, and introduced incoming students to our library staff.

To kick off the 2022 academic year, our social media team made significant changes to how we utilize our channels, following feedback from an audit of the university’s social media channels. Our pages went through significant aesthetic changes to align with the university’s new branding regulations, to be more image-oriented, and to emphasise the university’s signature shade of blue. In another notable change, we started publishing Instagram Reels to promote UP Library events, services, and atmosphere. Our #ThingsThatJustMakeSense Reels were particularly successful in introducing thousands of Instagram users to some of the functions of the Merensky 2 Library.

This year, we have started a new series of posts for #NewBooks in our Special Collections Unit, while keeping quality content going in our #MondayMotivations, #ThrowbackThursday, and #UseYourLibrary series. So far in 2022, we have also published four InstaNovels (for which Lindiwe Soyizwapi wrote an article for University World News), and four new #UPisLit one-minute book reviews.

We also strove to make many of our regular series more interactive, resourceful, and clearly communicated. Several ongoing series, such as #ResearchTipoftheWeek, #StudyBreakQuiz, #ThisDayinHistory, #BookoftheWeek, and #UPResearch now reside in our Stories section on Instagram, to increase interactivity, and make the page more navigable. Our #eResources series was adapted into a carousel format directed at the students who will find them most useful. With this directed marketing approach, more of our resources are being discovered by the students who most need them.

Our social media team ran a #LibraryLoversMonth competition, which saw users celebrating their love for our libraries, with three of them winning prizes sponsored by Protea Bookshop. Our channels also helped publicise our #SouthAfricanLibraryWeek competition, which asked users how they have READiscovered their library after the global pandemic, with six of them winning vouchers to Geek House Eatery.