p.31 Of 366 university undergrads surveyed in 2008, 92.3% used Facebook and 41.3% MySpace, only 21 students used neither; 74.9% were willing to 'friend' the library; 79.2% were willing to receive announcements & communications from library via FB/MySpace
*students willingness to "friend" the library indicates the potential for weak links exist (presently latent)
*how can libraries provide value-added services with social media? People use social networks for short info searches and queries. Libraries can be useful in this respect, particularly if people have already indicated a willingness to include them in their network.
The average user has 229 friends and is 38 years old; 52% visit Facebook daily (36% daily for Twitter, 7% for Myspace, 6% for Linkedin); In an average day, 26% like another user's content, 22% comment on another users' posts or status, 20% comment on a photo, 15% update their own status
-FB is top social networking site in 119 out of 134 countries
*ubiquity of FB cannot be denied
-FB, Youtube and Wikipedia are the 3 top online brands online
*all three are user-generated content driven!
-Over half of all Twitter users post each day
-How people utilize social networks: FB users want community and news; Twitter users want news; Myspace users want games and entertainment; Digg users have mixed interests
-The most dominant age group using social media is 35-44 years old (avg age of FB user is 38, Twitter: 39, Myspace: 31, Youtube: 20-35)
-daily use of social media networks vary according to networks and needs
*profile pic still among the first couple of things noticed (cover pic not as attention-grabbing as one would think)
*first couple of wall posts still top eye candy
*almost everyone looked at pics, basic info and the first few wall posts
*ads not noticed by many
*info on lower right hand side is less noticed
*in Twitter, tweets still king
*each media has different tracking stats, proving people negotiate each media separately, even if its unconscious
Phone interviews in May 2011 with 2,277 adult internet users ages 18
and older p.2 65% of online adults use social networking sites; p3 Of young adult women ages 18-29 who are online, 89% use social networking sites, 69% on an average day. Highest usage skews toward female and younger, but no significant differences in usage by race, household income, geography and education level.
-in 2005, 8% of adults used SNSs, now the figure is at 65%
-most users rate their SNS experiences as positive
*great from a social capital standpoint, as they are more likely to keep accounts active, and pursue weak links in newsfeed
-"Young adult women ages 18-29 are the power users of social networking", 89% have accts and 69% access them daily
*target young adult women with ads on FB, maybe? use GIS data to appeal to interests of that group, and explain what the library can do for them
-more adults are using social networks (driving the avg age of the user up considerably from the imagined age)
-"As of May 2011, over eight in ten internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites (83%),
compared with seven in ten 30-49 year-olds (70%), half of 50-64 year-olds (51%), and a third of those
age 65 and older (33%)."
Positive Negative Neutral Notable
(top ten) (top ten) (top ten) (mentioned only once)
Good Boring Okay Nosey
Fun Confusing Fine Omnipresent
Great Frustrating Adequate Hog Wash
Interesting Time-consuming Family Glitches
Convenient Overwhelming Rarely Vulnerable
Excellent Addictive All Right Crowded
Easy Annoying Communication Stalking
Awesome Addicting Seldom Influence
Informative Mediocre Facebook Conformity
Useful Overrated Infrequent Befuddled
*how to work on changing those negative and neutral to positive associations... how to work the library in as a positive association? Infrequent users can be prompted via opt-in participation to log on and complete activities, post. Process needs to be secure, and easy to use for those who are frustrated with the SNS, etc. Address these concerns and you can generate stron