Mar 11 2010
I’m having a Twitter Conundrum . . . Thoughs?
No doubt, Twitter can be an excellent and popular tool for Libraries.
-its tone is conversational, making it less intimidating
-it is present time. Whatever is new and exciting NOW is the focus.
-because the messages have a restriction length of 140 characters, users get to the meat of things instantly.
-like several social media tools, a library’s twitter account can be used as a virtual bulletin board.
However, I am a little embarrassed to say this seeing as I believe that social software has great value in libraries, but I am actually torn about a particular characteristic of twittering libraries this week. It occurred to me as I was reviewing the case studies to see some library twitter accounts in action.
My issue, one that I haven’t made my mind up about yet, is the conversational tone of some of the tweets. For example, MyCityLibrary, the West Palm Beach Library Twitter account, has some excellent tweets, such as:
“Yoga and Argentine Tango both at 6pm tonight. We’re a busy place on Thursdays!”
“Here’s what’s happening today at the library! . . . .”
These tweets are catchy, informative, and inclusive to all.
However, there are other tweets within this feed such as:
“@snackbpc It IS one of my favorites. The audiobook is amazing”
“@VirtualJenn Sounds great! I’ll have to send in my RSVP”
These tweets were rather distracting. They were irrelevant to the library community as a whole. I was not interested in reading personal conversations, and I wondered if some library users felt somewhat excluded.
Although I had this reaction, I know that I am not a member of this library community making my opinion biased. These personal conversations might not bother the followers of this twitter account.
However, I couldn’t help but have this debate in my head over whether or not conversational tweets are hindering a library’s twitter account.
On the one hand:
-twitter is a place for conversation to happen. Additionally, it is for conversation that is informal.
-conversation between patrons and librarians, patrons and patrons, or librarians and librarians is actually happening and that’s a wonderful thing. It is something that librarians strive for. This twitter account has established a community atmosphere.
-to tell patrons that they should not interact within this twitter account is risky. Libraries are labeled with that fictitious stereotype of being the “rule maker”. By placing such a rule, the library is reinforcing the old stereotype and building a wall between librarians and their patrons once again.
On the other hand:
-are these tweets overwhelming to new twitter users? Are they getting a sense of community or are they feeling left out of “the clique”?
-is there a danger in too many conversational tweets? Are the valuable informational tweets lost in the cluster of conversation? I mean, if my cell phone kept vibrating with messages such as: “See you 2nite?” I would probably stop following the account. I hope that patrons can still see the overall purpose of this twitter account.
This is such a difficult issue; one that I do not have an answer to. What do you think?