Digital Education Research Network (Australia) (DERN) (DERN [@derntwits], n.d.) caters to researchers and educators who are interested in the use of digital technology in media, ICT, theological approaches, and current and future trends in learning. In comparison, the American Library Association (ALA) (ALA [@ALALibrary], n.d.), which is the oldest and largest library association in the world, caters to audiences that are interested in the development of, promotion, and improvement of library and information services. Their mission is to ensure access to information for all, through the librarianship profession, to advocate equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Due to their audiences, the content for the Twitter feeds of DERN and ALA are different in their own ways. DERN has newsletters for the latest ICT research reports, conference information and recent news stories, including research reviews, briefs and archives. It is a very research-based platform and attracts a targeted audience (DERN, n.d.). On the other hand, ALA has a broad range of focuses and the eight key focus areas are advocacy for libraries and the profession, diversity, education, lifelong learning, equitable access to information and library services, intellectual freedom, literacy, organizational excellence, and transforming libraries (ALA, n.d.).

ALA appears to be more successful than DERN, not only because ALA caters to a wider audience, but also because of the number of global viewers compared to the Australian population. The population of the U.S. in 2023 was estimated to be 339,996,563 (Chasan, 2023) and Australia’s population was approximately 26,638,544 people on 30 June 2023 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, n.d.). Looking closely at the 2,049 Following 1,746 Followers for DERN (DERN [@derntwits], n.d.) compared with the 4,061 Following 231.8K Followers for ALA (ALA [@ALALibrary], n.d.), it is clear that the popularity is incomparable from DERN to ALA. This can partially be attributed to the number of posts, 31.3K in ALA compared to the 542 posts by DERN, which shows ALA’s active engagement to reach its audience and maintain strong connections amongst its networks.

Furthermore, ALA posts were short and sharp, with a variety of short articles and competitions to discussion forums, including their annual conference posters, free membership deals, library events, book reviews to encourage discussion, advocacy topics, digital book launches, library dispute court proceedings, book clubs, short messages with images, videos, journal articles and various discount deals (ALA [@ALALibrary], n.d.), whereas DERN mainly posted research articles. The content appearance also did not seem as interesting or appealing as the ALA website. DERN’s images were not as attractive, the sentences were not catchy, not original, and they had mainly text (DERN [@derntwits], n.d.). The posts on ALA are very eye-catching with selected texts with images and videos, whereas DERN seems very plain. For the above analysis, ALA is more successful than DERN.

References:

American Library Association. (n.d.). About ALA. https://www.ala.org/aboutala/

American Library Association [@ALALibrary]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/ALALibrary

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (n.d.). National, state and territory population. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release

Chasan, A. (2023). U.S. population grew to more than 335 million in 2023. Here’s the prediction for 2024. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-population-expected-to-top-335-million-by-new-years-day-2024/

Digital Education Research Network. (n.d.). About DERN. https://dern.acer.org/dern/about

Digital Education Research Network [@derntwits]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/derntwits