Tweeting into the void?: creating a UK library Twitter list and analyzing best practice – successes and myths

Despite the vast amount of research into social media use by libraries, no research has been made into its use by smaller UK libraries. Although many statements have been made regarding the time- and cost-saving nature of social media, there is a lack of comparative research about its usefulness in different types of library. To address these points, this study gathered statistics from 1,425 library accounts on the social media tool Twitter. Five smaller libraries were selected for a more in-depth metric analysis and interview regarding their accounts and their measuring of return on investment (ROI). The study found that while many libraries are using Twitter, academic libraries were the first to sign up en masse. Despite clear best practice criteria, many accounts are not utilizing Twitter to its fullest capacity. The two greatest influencing factors on followers were found to be the amount of time since the account’s registration and the type of library. When interviewed, the smaller libraries in this study were shown to be following best practice criteria, but were working outside these parameters to create unique initiatives. However, the five interviewed libraries have not been recording any metrics, data or examples of successful tweets on social media, making it difficult to measure ROI. Furthermore, the libraries interviewed have been reaching followers who are not library users. This alters libraries’ social media strategies and is something that should be part of the discussion surrounding library use of social media.