Social Media Strategy Heathlewett Public Library Lewis Sievers

The challenge Social media is increasingly becoming part of our patrons’ lives: How they communicate How they search for information By meeting this information need, we can ensure our current patrons—as well as a new generation of users—will continue to find value in the library system, when there are so many convenient alternatives on the Internet available to them.

The opportunity A significant percentage of Internet users in the community get local news from social media: 32% from social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn 7% from Twitter 19% from blogs that focus on local subjects

Our goal Provide patron outreach through a social media initiative that will include: Facebook Twitter Library blog with social sharing features

What we need This will require greater responsibility by one or more librarians and/or staff members to keep up to date and can entail: Posting timely updates Responding to patron feedback in a timely fashion Acting as a moderator for the online community Expect at least hours per week from library staff devoted to this goal