Monday, 2 September 2013

Module 2: OLJ TASK 2 The 4'C of Social Media





The 4 C’s of Social Media have been described as the following collaboration, conversation, community and content creation (Hay & Wallis, 2013).  Arizona State library ‘Library channel’ has attempted to incorporate these principles in their creation of Library minute video’s.  These clips present short, easy access to communicate services and resources that the University Library provides.  The message provided in this clips is clear, that the library is advocating participation and communication by the students.
Other social Web 2.0 tools adopted by ASU Library to enhance services are:
  • Flickr & Instagram: ASU's photostream
  • The ASU Libraries Facebook page which shares information regarding events, exhibits, archived photos and ASU news updates
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • Itunes-U which allows users to create customised playslits of specfic ASU content.
Conversations
In an attempt to foster engagement with students and opening the conversation channel’s, The Library Channel page has a ‘Get Help’, tab which provides various options, such as ask a librarian and a suggestion box. Although this does invite conversation, as a way to build on this Farkas (2008) suggests that using the suggestions box and publishing in a blog as a way to facilitate conversations.  To illustrate, this can be achieved by posting those questions into a blog with a response attached in the form of a library suggestions blog.  Casey & Savastinuk (2006) contend that this can help ‘”develop trust through social media conversations by answering people’s conversations”.   The facility is there to tweet the ‘ask librarian’ service.  In this way, it could be seen that there is some form of conversation promoted.  Unfortunately, ASU have chosen not to allow comments on their Facebook page which is another way to facilitate conversations with students.

Collaboration
Collaboration is about building participation with the user. Casey & Savastinuk (2006) suggest collaboration requires the librarian to facilitate customer input regarding services and then implement changes.  There is little evidence in this site of collaboration between the University and students except the invitation of feedback.   

Community & Content Creation
It would appear that the content creation is limited to the staff of ASU through the video posts.  These Library minutes are informative and engaging a great way of creating a sense of community among students and staff through social media. This is important point because research indicates that people engage more with video posts (King, 2013).  Appearing at the top of the list accessed video’s is the 'Fun Things to do in the Library' which is clearly about creating a community and inviting students to participate in what's on offer around the University.   As a way of facilitating content creation, Farkas (2007) makes an excellent suggestion of encouraging students to creating a student wiki or blog to maximise knowledge sharing of student research. 


References
Casey, M. & Savastinuk, L. (2006). Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library, Library Journal. Retrieved from, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

Farkas, M.(2007). Building academic library 2.0.[video file]. Retrieved from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI

Hay, L. & Wallis,J.(2013). Social networking for Information Professionals [INF206, Module 3]. Retrieved August 01, 2013, from Charles Sturt University Website: http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF206_201360_W_D/page/e55201b2-9a17-4c37-00e6-90bc87200117

King,D.(2013). Five tips to reshape your social media plan. Retrieved 01 August 2013, from, http://www.davidleeking.com/2013/01/08/five-tips-to-reshape-your-social-media-plan-in-2013/#.UjZxz381cTA


No comments:

Post a Comment