The Effectiveness of Social Networking Sites
The word has been out for awhile now that social neworking sites provide a creative and easy way to connect with people. Libraries, businesses, publishers, musicians, politicians, radio stations, you name it, the question is not so much “do you have a MySpace?” but “who does not have a MySpace?”.
One of the first things librarians often do when they create their MySpace (or Facebook) profile is search out well known YA authors and add them as friends. The purpose is mainly to help introduce book titles to visiting teens and to promote books and the joy of reading in general. Besides, who wouldn’t want Meg Cabot on their friend list. How cool is that?
Publishers have caught on and many have started automatically creating MySpace and Facebook profiles for their authors as soon as their books come out. However, after reading an article in the October issue of Publishers Weekly, it would appear that some publishers are becoming weary of this practice for two reasons. First of all, maintaining author profiles can be time consuming. Second, a publishers ultimate goal is to sell books and it’s difficult to find verifiable statistics proving that social networking sites actually do increase book sells. “We have tangible results that blog postings and website features sell books. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of social networks” says Fauzia Burke, President of FSB Associates. Granted, the people interviewed for this particular article mainly publish for an adult audience, so it would be interesting to see what HarperCollins would say about the effectiveness of author profiles when it comes to selling their books.
Nevertheless, this article intrigued me since a librarys’ motivation for creating social networking profiles are in a sense similar to that of a publisher. We’re trying to connect, to direct viewers to our physical and virtual locations. So if publishers are having a hard time getting tangible results from them then how are librarians doing? Is it possible to be able to prove that a MySpace is getting viewed and more importantly, directing viewers to our resources? I believe it is, at least with MySpace. (Keep in mind that I am only 75% techie so if someone out there knows a better way please share). I noticed recently that the “new skin” on MySpace has a new site tracker so you can see how often your profile is being viewed. If you want to know whether your profile is leading viewers to your website or blog then you can use free applications like Blog Tracker and Google Analytics which show you how viewers interact with your site and how they got there in the first place (keywords, referring sites, etc.).
There does, however, seem to be an interesting movement away from traditional social networking sites. Anna Zelenka of Wordpress wrote a post mentioning how some well known bloggers have always seen the whole MySpace/Facebook thing to be pretty much a waste of time and found blogging to be much more effective in reaching readers (the focus of the discussion on these posts has more to do with the OpenID movement, a concept I’m still trying to wrap my pretty blond head around). She also points to a fascinating post by Dana Boyd who uses the term ephemeral profile to describe a particular behavior that I’ve also witnessed with the teens at my library. They have this tricky habit of loosing or forgeting their passwords. However, rather than hunt down the password or having it emailed to them (which is what I and probably most adults do), teens are more apt to just start over again, beginning with an entirely new email address, creating an entirely new profile and possibly even moving to a completely different social networking site (since they do seem to be in abundance lately).
Boyd notes that this behavior is indicative of teens who are all about creating and recreating their identity. What better way to do this than with social networking sites. Create a new profile, a new you and meet completely new friends. She has an interesting quote, “I should note that I don’t think that the answer is “help teens remember passwords.” I actually think that this tendency to shed is advantageous in the way that we shed clothes every year because the “old me” is no longer relevant. Technology is a bit too obsessed with remembering; there’s a lot of value in forgetting.”
So, where does this leave teen librarians? It’s a hazard of the occupation I guess and all the more reason why we need to remain on our toes. 
Feedburner Rss
Tell me who has the time to try to track teenagers multiple ID’s? Not me. My job is intensive and my time to “blog” is minimal. There are not enough minutes in a day for me to do the type of things you suggest. I am not afraid of social networking and I am knowledgeable enough about technology. However, the truth is, I honestly do not have the time to spend reading endless teen rambligs. Sorry, but those are the facts.
…ramblings.
Hello Alan, thank you for your comment. I think many of us can relate to the intensity and time required to maintain a department, let alone a public service desk in a library. I know I can and with all the web 2.0 tools out there right now, I find myself suffering from burnout and user fatigue all the time. It can be very difficult at times.
I apologize, the ending of my post was rather abrupt and not well thought out. I should clarify that I was not insinuating that librarians be tracking teenagers multiple ID’s. I was merely suggesting that we be aware of any trends in their behavior when it comes to online tools and keep those behaviors in mind when we decided to use any technology/internet tools for literacy, marketing and connecting with teens in general. This was what I meant when I said “stay on your toes”. Social networking tools, blogs and such can be cumbersome to maintain but they can also be very effective when used in the right way. I understand, however, the pressure that can be felt in our profession to use these tools, especially when you’re working the frontline, snowed under with monthly reports, ordering books, computer problems on public pc’s, difficult patron questions, etc. No one can force another librarian to use these tools, especially if they only add stress to your daily grind. However, in contrast, I do feel it is important to listen to “teen ramblings”. I feel it is important to listen to teens always. Teens are more prone to ramble virtually then they are in reality, which is why I personally feel using social networking tools is so important in this particular profession.
[…] who spend so much time there. I agree with Dana Boyd, cited by librarian and blogger Carleen in her post “The Effectiveness of Social Networking Sites” last week that for many youth, MySpace is less about soliciting information from traditional and […]
I guess there’s benefits to working in a small library. I think that in these changing times its IMPERATIVE for a teen librarian to know what’s going on in their teens lives. Then you get to know what they’re reading, what they’re watching, what they’re listening to. I think what our first priority should be is to let our supervisors/directors know how important keeping up on these technologies is for our jobs. I’ve given a couple of presentations on technology and every time I hear people say “I have no time”. We need encourage our directors to give us time for these things. Hopefully job descriptions for teen librarians will begin saying “create and maintain myspace page and blog” Wouldn’t that be lovely?
I just watched a frontline show on teens and the internet. It was extremely interesting to see from different perspectives. You can even watch the whole thing online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/.....idsonline/
It frightens me that as a teen librarian, and I’m assuming you’re a teen librarian, that you say you don’t have time to listen to teens ramblings. That is why we are called teen librarians. Not only do we order books, movies and music for teens, but we also listen to their concerns and needs, whether that be face-to-face or facebook-to-facebook. Okay, that was bad, but I had to say that. :)Luckily, my director gives me lots of time to use technology to our benefit, mostly because I can use all the hits as programming…
“We need encourage our directors to give us time for these things.” Very good point. I would be willing to bet that this is a big issue for many teen librarians.
Although he didn’t say specifically, I gather that Alan may be in a similar situation that many teen librarians are in, namely that they are responsible for more than one area of the library at one time. Hopefully he will stumble upon us again and clarify, but I’m basing this assumption on the fact that he listed “public librarian” next to his name. I am actually a reference librarian. There was a time, while I was working this desk as a clerk and attending library school, that I assisted the youth services department with planning teen programs (which is where my interest in teen services came from). Since graduating and becoming employed full time I have since stopped and focus only on my responsibilities at the reference desk. In the past, when I have done job hunting I have come across many job descriptions that list their job title as Reference/Youth librarian or Youth Services librarian. Granted, these may be small libraries and a “doubled” position may seem like a perfect solution when it comes to budget issues but I’ve learned to stear clear of these positions when applying.
There still seems to be an assumption out there that teens don’t deserve their own librarian. Another example is when a Youth librarian is put in charge of every child in the community under the age of eighteen, which means they have to plan programs and order books for babies, elementary age students and teenagers. This is a broad demographic and each age group requires its own expertise. It can be a lot of work, especially when you begin involving technology tools. In addition to convincing administration to give librarians time to consider these technology tools, and to maintain them if they decide to use them (again, don’t just use them because everyone else is…discuss the pro’s and con’s and decide what is needed based on your community), I believe we also need to convince them that teens deserve their own librarian. I can remember reading some statistics a while back, I think it was in Public Libraries, on how many libraries actually employ a seperate Teen Librarian. If I remember right, the number was pretty low. I’ll have to search out that article and follow up.
And I will definitely have to check out that front line show on teens. Nice, that you can watch it on the internet.