The first Debunking Social Media Event was on today. ALIA Queensland and Ella Doyle, founder of Social Cut,started the first of three Sessions.

Session 1:

Focus was on strategising about creating a social media content calendar to plan when to post to social media. (How to plan your content to reach/engage with your library audience online via different platforms).

Barriers:

What barriers are in the way of libraries promoting, posting or marketing content was the next topic.

• Are councils providing a place for specialist knowledge?
• Don’t have a plan or guidelines for Social Media Best Practices?

Ella’s tips to libraries for collaboration include

• Research the council marketing & PR team to identify their goals, priorities and area of focus for social media. (Will help tailor your social media campaigns to align with their social media objectives).
• Prepare a clear proposal outlining your social media campaign. Who is your targeted audience? What timelines do you have for the campaign? What is the desired outcome you want?
• Emphasise the value of your library. Highlight the importance of the library to the community online. 
• Collaborate with the council’s marketing team on a joint social media campaign.
• Build a relationship with the council marketing/ PR team – build an impactful & successful social media campaign.
• Be persistent and follow up with the council if you don’t get a response.

How to create a social media strategy tips:

• Identify who is your targeted audience.
• Build a list to represent the target audience (Are there any special national days of the month that represent your audience & collection?)
• Promote your library event via the council website. (Do they have a council newsletter?)

Creating Content Pillars:

• Does your library have any events they celebrate each year?
• Create a content schedule that shows the date, channel, content (blurb) and type of image. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of content posted for the month Eg. Library quizzes, Staff TBR or book picks from the collection, book face, QandA with staff, and book club.

The final part of the chat was an overview of Social Media channels libraries can use to promote content to the community.

Instagram:

• Showcase your library collection. Use Instagram to share the content from your collection. 
• Engage with your followers with branded hashtags.

Facebook:

• Use Facebook reels as an alternative to TikTok
• Share Facebook Events feature to share events.
• Add posts with Alt-text
• Create library groups to engage with your followers Eg Book Club

Copyright:

• Ask for copyright permission before sharing/ reposting Instagram content.
• Always write an acknowledgement of copyright on images not created by you.
• Add Alt-text to Instagram images or reels.

Register to join Session 2 and Session 3 of ALIA QLD next Debunking Social Media: Platforms, Policies and Practices event via ALIA Events page.

When: May 16th Time: 11:00am – 12:30pm | May 30th Time: 11am – 12:30pm

Location: Zoom Cost: ALIA Members (FREE)| Non-Member $5

Reference:

ALIA QLD (May 3, 2023) Debunking Social Media: Platforms, Policies & Practices Session 1 (YouTube Video), YouTube.

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