Social Networking
This week you’ll learn about social networking tools, with a focus on MySpace and Facebook.
Listen to the podcast and read the content below. If you have questions about anything along the way, be sure to contact us. We’re happy to help!What is social networking?
Sit back and watch this 2-minute video that explains what social networks are and how they work:
A social networking service focuses on building an online community of people who share interests and activities. Most social networking services are web-based, and provide a variety of ways for community members to interact via chat, IM, email, blogging, discussion groups, etc. Members create profiles that include personal interests & photos, exchange private or public messages, and join groups.
What do people do on social networks?
- Create a profile: you can share as much info or as little info as you’d like, within your comfort level
- Communicate: you can blog on your page, send bulletins, post photos, and more
- Interact: you can “friend” other members and build a network of friends who can stay in touch via the social network; some social networks offer a “feed” that updates you on what your friends have updated on their pages.
There are lots of social networking sites out there; here’s a chart showing the notable ones. That aside, for this week we’ll just focus on the two “500-pound gorillas” of social networking, MySpace and Facebook.
MySpace
As of January 2008, MySpace is the 3rd most popular U.S. web site. MySpace attracts 300,000 new registrations per day, and has more than 110 million monthly active users around the world.
Originally MySpace was for people 18 and older and all data was public. Over time, the age limit dropped to 16, and later to 14. The youngest users are given the option to make their profiles visible only to people they’ve friended, and their profiles don’t appear in search results.
Users may post personal profiles including photos, videos, and lists of favorite books & movies. They can email, post bulletins, and chat with their MySpace friends.
Facebook is the second-most popular social networking site. As of January 2008, Facebook has more than 62 million active users worldwide. It attracts one quarter of a million new accounts per month, and receives over 65 billion page views per month.
The name Facebook refers to the paper facebooks provided by some colleges, which depict members of the campus community as a way to get to know students & faculty.
When Facebook launched in 2004, only people at Harvard University could sign up for an account; within a few months it opened up to other colleges, then to high schools, and now anyone 13 or older with a valid email address may create a Facebook profile. At present, people using Facebook are mostly college and post-college; more than half of Facebook members are out of school. The fastest growing Facebook demographic is 25 years old and older.
Originally Facebook didn’t allow institutions to create Facebook accounts, but in November 2007 they opened up the ability to create business and institutional profiles. Now you can create a profile for your library so you can interact with other members of Facebook, they can become your library’s “fans”, and you can create updates that feed into the newsfeed your friends will see on their own profile page.
In May 2007 the “Facebook Platform” was created, which allows third-party developers to create applications that work within Facebook. Two library-specific apps are:
- Facebook Librarian provides links to a range of resources that include WorldCat & Google Scholar, plus an “Ask a Librarian” link
- WorldCat provides a search box so anyone can search the database right from your page
A big difference between Facebook and MySpace is… to view a Facebook profile, you must have a Facebook account. This makes Facebook a private social network; MySpace is a public social network. You can see just as far as a public search listing into a person’s profile before logging in to Facebook.
Why would a library be interested in creating a social networking presence?
Even though social networking services were set up with the individual in mind, libraries are creating a presence in both MySpace and Facebook…
- To be where millions of people are hanging out
- To reach a community of potential library customers
- To use it as a forum to announce the library’s events and services
- To communicate informally in an approachable, friendly, and fun way
Meredith Farkas writes, “I think there is a big difference between ‘being where our patrons are’ and ‘being USEFUL to our patrons where they are.’” In that spirit, instead of simply creating a MySpace or Facebook page with your library’s photo & hours, consider “surfacing” your library’s services right there: try including your library’s MeeboMe widget to make it easy for people to ask questions or give feedback, or try embedding a search box that goes right into your library’s catalog.
But are social networks the right place for libraries?
There’s been debate in the library community about whether social networks are the right place for libraries to be.
- Pro: librarians need to go where people are, to be there at the point of need.
- Con: libraries are unwelcome guests in social networks, and it’s wrong for us to try to create a presence there.
For a good overview of the pro’s and con’s, read Libraries in Social Networking Software.
What’s your opinion?
As an alternative to a library presence in a social network, individual librarians can create their own MySpace and Facebook pages so they can network with others. Judi Sohn’s 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally has some helpful tips for doing just that.
Great places to find other library folk with which to network are these Facebook Groups:
- Wisconsin Library Association
- Library 2.0 Interest Group
- Answer Board Librarians
- UW-Madison SLIS Alumni Association (sorry UW-Milwaukee grads, I didn’t find a SOIS Alumni Association group on Facebook)
- “Librarians Are Hiding Something” Stephen Colbert
- Don’t Mess With Me, I Worked in a Public Library
- Library Workers are the Best
Examples of ways libraries are using MySpace and Facebook
MySpace
Note: when visiting these web sites you might want to use Firefox with the Adblock Plus add-on; I think you’ll enjoy MySpace more without all the advertisements!
- La Crosse PL
- Oshkosh PL OurSpace
- West Bend PL
- Winnefox Library System
- AskAway
- Kenton County PL
- Pawtucket PL
- Arapahoe PL
- Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County
- Denver Public Library
- Find more at the Library Success Wiki: MySpace & Teens
Facebook:
A.
1. Watch this 2-minute video to get details on registering for an account.
2. Go to Facebook to register & set up a profile for you.
3. On your blog write about your experiences and post a link to your Facebook page.
B. Already have a Facebook account? Become a fan of Racine Public Library and Friend Jill Hanson Lininger. And then write on your blog about your Facebook adventure.
Fun Extras
Open an account for you at MySpace.
MySpace:
1. Take the MySpace Tour.
2. Go to MySpace http://www.myspace.com/ to register and set up your page.
3. On your blog write about your experiences and post a link to your MySpace page.
3 comments:
After I created my Facebook account, I heard from an old college friend - very cool! She works at the Miami Film Festival. I never would have found her any other way.
I also got some links to people whose names I recognized from high school. They popped up automatically when I created my facebook account. Now they may find me more easily for a class reunion, I was thinking.
I like that the name came from a physical facebook that was passed out at a university to make people more aware of each other. (I don't remember that at any university I went to.)
You're absolutely right about the name. Harvard's student directory is called the Facebook and the creator of Facebook is a former Harvard student, so it started as a digital directory for Harvard kids until Harvard shut them down. I bet their kicking themselves now :)
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