Social media

Resources to help you engage with users using social media.

Best for 

  • engaging with library users and potential users 

  • raising awareness and visibility  

  • building a library community 

  • professional networking 

Think about

Should you use a library or team social media account, or should you use your personal one?  

If you are using a personal account for social media, are you happy to share all your cat video’s, family photos and the fun things you did on an;evening out with your professional social media network?

What is the policy around social media in your organisation?  Is there a policy you should be following? If there is, are you following it?

How does social media link into your marketing and promotion of the KLS? 

Remember you can use social media to engage with professional networks. 

Remember once something is out on social media everyone can see it, including your manager and Chief Executive.  

Non-urgent advice: More

Remember to be realistic around what your service can manage in terms of social media. You do not need to be on all systems, choose the ones that work for you. 

If you are actively using social media as part of your KLS marketing and promotion, plan out your interactions, what events are you going to highlight, what awareness weeks are you going to engage with.  

Work with other people within your organisation to like and retweet social media interactions of different departments or accounts.  

Twitter

Twitter basics

  • remember you don’t have to read and respond to every tweet

  • put your favourites into a list

  • think about scheduling tweets to different times of day

  • maintain an informative, relevant bio. If you have a team or work account, make it clear what organisation you work for

  • engage other users directly, ask and answer questions

  • it’s okay to reshare the same content

Understand how Twitter fits into your priorities

Twitter can be a fun distraction or a place to waste time. To make Twitter work for you and your team/organisation you need to place importance on how it helps with planning, networking, marketing, and goals. 

Schedule regular visits to your Twitter stream. Add twitter trips to your work calendar so that you make time to visit twitter throughout the day. Try and do this when your audience is most likely to be active. 

Investigate the use of Twitter lists

Regularly review who is following your twitter account and who you follow. 

Think about if you want to follow inactive accounts, those who don’t follow you back and brand accounts.  

Use #hashtags and images

Remember to capitalise the start of each word, so that they can be used by screen readers, e.g. #GreatDay, #LibraryEvent #NewBooksList.

With images remember to add in the alternative text, again so screen readers can share information about your image. 

Advanced search

Familiarise yourself with Twitter’s advanced search function. You can access this from any search, click on the … dots. Also, remember you can save and rerun searches. 

Instagram

Show off your new books/resources or most popular books/resources. 

Share your events and services. 

Go behind the scenes on a project or event. Are you having new furniture delivered or are you closed because of building work? 

Share some images from behind the scenes to keep your users engaged and explain the limited access. 

Give people an early preview. If you are working on something, give users a peek. Build engagement and interest in a new display or other changes. 

If staff are happy, share pictures of the library staff engaged in work. This can get KLS staff known in their organisations, make them more human and approachable and highlight the different skills the staff have. 

Share your marketing material.  

YouTube 

Not all NHS organisations will allow access to YouTube.  

If you do have access to YouTube, you may want to check your organisation is happy with you posting content on behalf of the KLS. 

If you have access, you can record and share virtual events: 

  • create and share virtual tours of the library
  • share recordings of training events

Remember to obey all copyright requirements for YouTube. 

Remember that YouTube is a public platform, and the public can comment, you may want to consider turning comments off or moderating them. 

Remember, accessibility good practice requires the use of subtitles. 

Next review due: 5 June 2024