Facebook 101: What Librarians Need to KnowLaurie M. Bridges, Business & Economics LibrarianOregon 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

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 Profiles2. Interacting with Applications3. 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

• No updates

• No applications

• No usage stats

• Updates directly to user news feed

• Can add many applications

• Usage stats including visitors per day

Facebook Groups

Keyword search

for “library”

Save the British Library!

2,339 members

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-activity-breakdown-application/

• Anderson Analytics, 2007: http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/college-students-facebook-top-site-social-networking-really-hot-1914/

• 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