Social Media Monitoring: @NPRLibrary

I decided to use Twitter to find an organisation to follow for the social media reflection. I made a Twitter account at the beginning of this course to increase my professional network, it was through my interaction with users online which made me realise how important Twitter connections are through out the library community. When I joined Twitter I followed a number of library-related accounts; one of the accounts I followed was NPR Library. I chose to follow NPR Library because I have been a fan of NPR (formerly National Public Radio) programs for a long time. I was surprised to find the NPR library twitter page and after looking at some of their tweets I found the content both informative and interesting as it was coming from librarians in a broadcast setting.

According to NPR Library’s Twitter page they are currently following approximately 700 people and are followed by over 6,000 people. Their first tweet was on the 3rd of March, 2009 and since then they have tweeted over 700 times. Going back through their tweets to the very beginning, it is interesting to see the way Twitter has changed and how the librarians have developed as social media experts. The first few tweets were tentative but they soon developed into well-informed, targeted bursts of information to their audience.

Upon monitoring their account from the beginning of January to the end of March 2014, it is interesting to note they post at least once a day, some days even warranting 5 or 6 posts. The majority of their posts are re-tweets from other NPR departments ie. @NPR Music or @nprarchives or other organisations like @SmithsonianLibraries or @NatGeoMag. In the three months of media monitoring I conducted, I noticed there was a nice balance between re-tweeting other organisations, promoting other NPR stories, sharing interesting thoughts or asking questions of Twitter followers, and how the NPR Librarians work.

While there are no particular themes to the NPR Library tweets the feed provides a diverse mix of engaging content and personable/professional quips. The impression I get from this is what I imagine all social media should be: a little insight into the daily life of an organisation.

Joining and monitoring the NPR Library twitter feed has been immensely beneficial to my professional development for a number of reasons. Firstly, the NPR Library Twitter feed is a glimpse into the world of broadcast librarians and is something different from the traditional public library or university library Twitter page. Secondly, the professional network of people who follow or are followed by NPR Library are diverse and allowed me to expand my person Twitter connections. Lastly, by following and interacting with NPR Library on Twitter inspires me to work hard and aim to work at an organisation with an international reputation.