The purpose of this study is to examine and evaluate how five Swedish university libraries use Facebook and Twitter. The paper is intended to determine what reasons there are for university libraries to use social media, what information they intended to convey through them, and whether different media was used for different purposes. The libraries idea of how they used social media is then correlated to the information published and how the libraries communicated through Facebook and Twitter. The theoretical framework consists of the base and convergence model of communication and Gummessons relationship marketing theory. The method contained four different parts; an examination of the library's Facebook and Twitter profiles, a web survey, a qualitative content analysis of the libraries published Facebook and Twitter posts during the fall semester 2015 and a content analysis of the library's media policies. The results of the survey shows that the libraries use Twitter and Facebook for different purposes. Facebook was used primarily to promote the university libraries as well as to communicate with and build relationships towards the users. Twitter, on the other hand, was used to communicate with researchers and external monitoring. The content analysis showed that university libraries have an overall accurate idea of how they published material on social media but lacked de- tailed knowledge. The libraries also exhibit a lack of an strategy of how they should advertise through social media and how to initiate a two-way communication with their users. The analysis revealed that the libraries contact attempts over Facebook and Twitter primarily results in one-way communication. Passive user feedback, like Fa- cebook likes and web traffic, were common whereas active user feedback as comments and private messages were rare. University libraries seemed perplexed of the reasons behind the target groups' communicative disinterest and appeared unsure of how to respond. The author draws conclusions concerning the university libraries attitude towards marketing and communi- cation through social media. The analysis shows that academic libraries seems to consider marketing synonymous with providing information about the library resources. Such a mindset might set limits to the libraries marketing strategies and restrict innovative thinking about how social media can be used for public relations. Libraries also seem to want to establish a dialogue with their users, but what kind of communication the dialogue should consist of and what subjects it should contain seem to be unclear to them. The thesis ends with a discussion about how university libraries can use relationship marketing, social media etiquette and brand development for strategic marketing and to engage the library users on social media.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-296240 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Wiklund, Alexis |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser inom biblioteks- & informationsvetenskap, 1650-4267 ; 693 |
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