Social Media in the Library @ CSULB

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What is Twitter?
Twitter is a microblogging service that can be used to update multiple social networking sites as well as a link to a variety of news, professional. and individual profiles.

7 things you should know about twitter (educause)

Twitter Shorthand

Tweet- Short posts that answer the question "what are you doing?" in 140 characters or less.

Retweet/Via (RT or via)- The indication at the beginning or end of a tweet that is using text of someone's head. Basically being cited by other tweeters. Some use via when original texts of tweets are altered.

Hashtags (#) - Tagging individual tweets so they show up in a "stream" ex. #COMM200 or #Educause2010

@ replies/ mentions - when you send a message directed to a particular users. Usually a reply to a tweet or if you want to send something to the "attention" of other twitter users.

Direct Message(DM) a private message that does not appear in a twitter timeline

Twitter Lists - A new feature that has not been launched to all users yet. allows you to organizer people you follow in particular lists. Some third party products already have this feature (brizzly and tweetdeck)

Who uses Twitter?

Portrait of a Twitter user (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

11% of adults online use Twitter (as of December 2008)

17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 tweet and update their status

10% of internet users in households earning more than $75,000 annually

27% of Bloggers also Twitter

news about the library
links to workshop registration
links to websites
screencasts/podcasts

research questions
information/general questions
getting feedback about services

Vital tools

Managing Twitter

Cotweet (for librarians interested in helping manage the Twitter Account)
brizzly
tweetdeck

Other uses for Twitter

professional development
interacting with other librarians/faculty
staying abreast of current technology news

Benefits of Twitter

Negatives of Twitter

Additional Reading

101 ways to use Twitter in the Classroom (has a section regarding libraries)

NC State Twitter Aggregator (something CSULB would benefit from)

How Your library should be using Twitter (ideas on things we can post)

Essential follows:

@zephoria (Danah Boyd)

Subject specific follows