Nosing into patron networks can be a double-edged sword. Why some might find it helpful, others can find it intrusive. It's a fine art to mingle in between these two. A library should attack this situation narrowly. That is, sending out unfocused, general messages will not induce any glamorous result. In fact, most will regard it as spam.
In Dawn Lawson's Paper on Facebook as an outreach tool, she was proactive, but with focus and purpose. She wasn't trying to find users to populate her page, she was trying to find the correct users to populate the page. A big difference. Of course this will take strategic planning.
I would think one would start small. Focus in on a specific demographic. Your Library might offer a myriad of services, but all those services do not pander to every individual. Rather, notify the patrons you think could benefit. If a person has interest in the subject, they are more likely to research it.
Don't sound like an advertisement. Inform the user that their are services available and where to reach you if they would like to use them. try hard to keep it unique.
Be careful not to be iterative. You don't want to bombard the same patron over and over.
These strategies will take time and research, and only grow in length as your demographic grows. I think a library needs to weigh the pros and cons of starting an outreach campaign. Much like anything that has to do with social networking, it cannot be done with the foot half in the water. Some Libraries might benefit from being in the space of patrons, while others might want to notify their patrons of their existence.
I agree that to successfully engage patrons through social networking sites like Facebook, libraries should exercise caution. If libraries are too aggressive they will scare patrons off, and if libraries are too passive they will not entice anyone to interact with them. It is sort of like a fine art to mingle in between these two worlds. While I think targeting a specific audience will definitely help, it appears from the Lampson article that Facebook is designed in such a way as to impede libraries from specifically eliciting users via mass messaging. Instead of targeting users in that manner, libraries will most likely use Facebook as a medium for providing information on upcoming events, library news, and library resources via a Facebook Page; where patrons can visit and write on their wall. As an alternative, libraries may consider using other social networking tools that allow more freedom in terms of communication.
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