CLIC Social Media Event: How Cardiff University are managing their social media presence

Matt  Harvey discussed the number of ways Cardiff University Library Service were using social media with a very swish Prezi that you can see here.  

Cardiff University has a number of different online presences both internal (VLE, Portal) and external (web, blog, Twitter, Facebook).  Some of the Library's external sources include;

Web pages

Ask a librarian live

Library blog

Training videos on YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

The Library Technology Group was set up to look at new technologies and how they can be used by the library.  That lead to setting up the Social Media Group, which is made up not just of library staff, but is inter-departmental.  As part of that the Editorial Group sorts the day to day social media stuff, such as liaising with site managers and bloggers.


The core audience for their online activities are the students, but the general public, NHS users, alumni, distance and life long learners also benefit.


Although each library branch already had its own Twitter account, they decided there was also a need for a general one too.  When setting up that account there was a lot of discussion about what type of avatar to use, they decided to go with a professional picture, rather than using text or a logo.

The kinds of things @cardiffunilib tends to tweet about include;

Opening hours

Changes and disruptions to services

Promoting services

Emergency announcements, such as bad weather

Promoting information literacy and skills

Some external news, limited to what's relevant to the students

Specific information tends to be the domain of the various departmental social media tools, and staff notices are disseminated through the staff intranet and Portal.

@cardiffunilib has also created Twitter lists that it feels will be useful to their followers. Some of these lists include;
-Cardiff University departmental libraries

-Cardiff University schools and admin departments

-Bodies like UCAS, e-resources suppliers, funding bodies

-Cardiff Central Library, National Museum Wales, Chapter Arts Centre

They tend not to follow the accounts of students, as it might be considered invasive.  And although they follow the accounts of the various departmental libraries, they don't follow the individual librarians.


They also use Twitter as a form of two way communication with the students and to gain feedback, for example using the #yousaidwedid hashtag.

They have only recently started to use Facebook; they've set up their own Facebook page and are able to use it to organise events which students can RSVP to.

Finally, Matt ended by pointing out that all this activity on social media sites can be a good way to record things that the library is involved in.