For this OLJ I have decided to compare and contrast the Twitter presence and feed of the Australian Library and Information Association (@ALIANational) and the American Library and Information Association (@ALALibrary). To do this, I will compare and contrast approximately twenty-four hours worth of tweets on their feed so there is a controlled variable.
What type of content do the organisations tweet (and retweet)?
The two organisations tweet and retweet a range of useful information. Some similarities in the content between the two organisations include the recent inclusion of the support for TransDay, with both organisations tweeting that their support of recognising trans & gender diverse experiences and ensuring trans library patrons and staff members feel welcomed and seen. Another similarity in content is the promotion of online workshops that followers can join in on.
This is however when the similarities end. ALIA continues to tweet and retweet a lot more content than ALA. In 24 hours ALIA tweeted and retweeted 50+ items, while ALA only tweeted and retweeted 5 items in the same time.
ALIA tweets items like tips for library graduates that you may not necessarily learn in your degree, shortlists for the 2021 NSW Premiers Literary Awards, retweeting help and news on possible scams and retweeting information and updates on COVID-19. ALIA is also a lot more colourful and aesthetically pleasing.
What audience are they appealing to?
From comparing the two feeds, the tone of each page is indeed different and seems like they are targeted at different audiences. Audience for ALIA mainly seems to be aimed at information professionals due to the amount of information they share regarding conferences, seminars, and library graduate information.
Contrastingly, the intended ALA audience is a bit more targeted toward the general public and non information professionals however overall still quite professional with a lot of professional information language and terms etc, so therefore a bit more balanced catering to all audiences.
Do the pages appear to be successful?
When comparing success, the ALA Twitter feed absolutely giants the ALIA feed in regard to a following base. ALA currently has two hundred and twenty two thousand followers, compared to ALIA’s relatively small eleven thousand five hundred followers. There is also not much interaction in the way of retweets and replies. On Twitter, engagement and popularity is measured in analytics such as the amount of times a post shows up in other pages feeds, and click stats (Kevan, 2020). Despite ALA tweeting and retweeting less, there is a fair amount more traffic on ALA posts. Could this be due solely to the higher number of followers, or could ALIA’s low traffic and engagement metrics be a result of over saturating their followers with to many posts, and therefore too much for followers to interact with, leading them to unfollow the page? Engagement, which is the core of social media, is pivotal for a page to succeed, as librarians must look for opportunities to engage with users in todays changing technological society (Al-Daihani & AlAwadhi, 2015, p. 1013).
Photo by Cadence Group
References
Al-Daihani, S. M., & AlAwadhi, S. A. (2015). Exploring academic libraries’ use of Twitter: A content analysis. The Electronic Library, 33(6), 1002-1015. https://doi.org/10.1108/el-05-2014-0084
American library association (@ALALibrary) on Twitter. (2021). Welcome to Twitter. https://twitter.com/ALALibrary
Aust Lib & Info Assn (@ALIANational) on Twitter. (2021). Welcome to Twitter. https://twitter.com/alianational
Kevan, L. (2020). How to use Twitter analytics: The complete guide. Buffer Library. https://buffer.com/library/twitter-analytics/