Facebook 101: What Librarians Need to Know Laurie M. Bridges, Business & Economics Librarian Oregon State University, blog: infodoodads.com
Should librarians be there??
Why should librarians care? • Popularity of the website • Serving generation Y (now and in the future) • Social aspects of information sharing • Organization of information • Outreach opportunities • Advertising opportunities • Virtual networking with librarians
It’s Popular! • Facebook is the most popular website for young adults age 18-24. More popular than Google. (Anderson Analytics 2007) Flickr: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid
Top 10 Websites
Social Networking More Popular Among Women (18-24)
More Stats • Over 58 million active users and more than 1/2 of them return daily (Facebook) • 85% of college/university students have a Facebook account (Facebook) • Facebook is the 5th most trafficked website in the U.S. (Alexa, Dec 07)
Flickr: castortroy520
Social Networking & Teens • 55% of all teens, age 12-17, use online social networking sites (Pew/Internet, 2007) • For girls social networking sites are places to reinforce pre-existing friendships (Pew/Internet 2007) • For boys social networking sites are places to maintain contact with friends and make new friends; older boys who use social networking sites (29%) to flirt (Pew/Internet, 2007)
flickr: Feuillu
Growth & Reach • Members, features, updates
May 24 Sept.
Feb. ‘04
Facebook Usage • Average user spends 20 minutes on Facebook per visit (Facebook) • Average user visits 32 pages per visit (Alexa) • Most Common Activities* (Freiert, 2007) 1. Browsing Profiles 2. Interacting with Applications 3. Browsing Pictures *based on visits per month and time per visit
What is Facebook?
Why Do People Use Facebook? • • • • •
Keep in touch Network Make friends Date Reinforce relationships • Etc. Flickr: james barnes
Homepage (News Feed)
Flickr: Geek&Poke
What’s in a Profile?
Cont.
Cont.
Applications
Applications – Most Active Users • • • • • • • •
Fun Wall (2,146,258 daily active users) Super Wall (2,130,285 …) Top Friends (1,971,734 …) Movies (1,193,392 daily …) Bumper Sticker (947,289 …) Scrabulous (669,245 …) SuperPoke (621,245 …) Texas HoldEm Poker (609,416 …)
Applications for Libraries • Notre Dame Library Search (2 active daily users) • WorldCat (45 daily active users) • JSTOR (20 daily active users)
Groups & Pages
Groups & Pages
Groups vs. Pages • Updates directly to user news feed • No applications • Can add many applications • Usage stats including • No usage stats visitors per day • No updates
Facebook Groups
r ch a e ds r o w ” Key library “ for
Save the British Library! ers b em m 39 2,3
Save the British Library! (cont.)
Facebook Pages • 164 Fans (after 6 months) • Promoted on catalog’s blog and library website
Facebook Pages • Charles B. Phillips Library, Aurora University • Over 100 fans • Promotion: each new Fan entered to win two Phantom of the Opera Tickets
Facebook Pages Stats
Advertising
Advertising on Facebook UNC Chapel Hill – Focus Group Recruitment
University of Calgary – Increase usage of ebrary and Refworks
Cont.
Buying an Ad • CPM • Set the price for 1,000 views
• CPC • Set the price per click
Go to the bottom of any Facebook webpage and click the Advertisers link. Create ad and tell Facebook when to run it and who to target Pay for the ad (credit card)
Lingo • Facebook Me/Friend Me • Poke • Wall
Questions?? Slideshow: www.slideshare.net/ilaurie
References • Freiert, Max. “14 Million people interacted with Facebook Applications in August.” Compete.com. Sep 11, 2007. http://blog.compete.com/2007/09/14/facebook-activitybreakdown-application/ • Anderson Analytics, 2007: http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/collegestudents-facebook-top-site-social-networking-really-hot1914/ • Facebook Stats: http://facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics • Alexa: http://alexa.com/ • Pew/Internet 2007: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp