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Dear Ms. Kline, This is an excellent question! I have initiated several Facebook (FB) pages and Twitter accounts for a number of Libraries so I have some experience with this and am very happy to share my knowledge with you. You certainly do increase your traffic by creating accounts with a number of social media platforms but the key is to link these together. Different social media tools target different demographics so by opting to be active on several platforms means that you are reaching out to a wider audience and hence boosting your traffic. I highly recommend it. This might sound like a lot of work and it is a fair bit of commitment BUT if all platforms are linked to one another then whatever you post on Pinterest can be automatically posted to your FB page and what you post on FB page can be fed into your twitter account and so on. Its a very clever system of "cross pollination" of updates, news, ideas etc which saves you a lot of time visiting each site and posting each update in several places.. The main question you have to focus on is what is your ultimate goal? Will the social media sites be there as platforms for you to share your updates or a platform for users to submit their own ideas to you? Do you expect them to interact with you? If you want some interaction then I suggest posting updates and news which solicit responses like opinion polls. You might actually want to create one about your page seeking feedback on how users like your social media and see how many responses you receive through Facebook. Also, keep in mind that not everyone who views your page "likes" it so your membership might be bigger than you think. Consistency of voice is another important issue. Is it just you who is running this page or are there several people? What are your guidelines for posts and language? Currency is also important. Updates should ideally come every day or you might loose interest. There are many books published on social media and librarianship. I reviewed one for CLA a year ago and can check if I still have a copy of it at home as I would be delighted to forward it your way! And lastly, don't forget about Youtube! You can create your own Youtube channel to compile interesting videos in a well curated collection. You can really push the boundaries of Youtube to act as an information literacy tool: http://prezi.com/tqmvec7b8mka/youtube-and-libraries-a-case-for-visual-literacy/ Yours truly, Katya On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 2:14 PM, Heather Kline <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Please excuse cross-posting. > > Good afternoon, > > I know many of you are maintaining facebook pages on behalf of your VRC or > art library. I have visited and "liked" many of these pages. I created a > Bunting Visual Resources Library page ( > http://www.facebook.com/BuntingVisualResourcesLibrary) a couple months > ago which has seen steady readership, but does not seem to have the reach I > am seeking. Ideally, I imagine the page as a platform for departmental > news (as well as broader art-related news), student exhibits, and > highlights of recent projects. From those of you who have experienced > success on the facebook marketing frontier, is there any advice you would > offer for getting more virtual traffic? Have you found other social media > tools to be more effective in this regard? > > Thanks so much for your responses, > Heather Kline > MLIS/MA > Outreach Specialist, Bunting Visual Resources Library > University of New Mexico > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining > ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative > matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to > [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: > http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy > Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -- *Katya Pereyaslavska * * Master of Information (University of Toronto, 2011)*** *M.A. Fine Art History (University of Toronto, 2007)* www.katyapereyaslavska.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~