How do you find our use of social networking?

We at libcom.org would like to know what our users think about our use of our social networking presences on Facebook and Twitter, so please give us your feedback.

Submitted by libcom on February 15, 2012

So, we have only really had a proper presence on Facebook (www.facebook.com/libcom.org) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/libcomorg) for a few months. However, since starting making an effort to use them we have had a massive increase in traffic to the site from both of these places, as well as quite a lot of interaction on them as well.

So basically we wanted to ask you lot if you think we are using our social networking presences effectively and appropriately. If not, what can we do better?

Are we posting too many stories? Or not enough?

At the moment, we aim to post simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter, anything between one and four stories every 24 hours, generally averaging around two per day.

Should we try to post more frequently to Twitter, say, but keep Facebook the same? Should we post more of different types of content, like images, or different features of the site, like the map?

We would really like your input in order to make your experiences of the site as useful as possible.

(And of course if you don't yet follow us on Facebook or Twitter please do!)

Comments

Mark.

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mark. on February 15, 2012

Regarding Twitter I'd normally come across tweets by following a hashtag that relates to a news story I'm following. As libcom doesn't seem to be using hashtags I wouldn't run into libcom on Twitter unless I was specifically looking for it.

I'm not actually signed up to Twitter or Facebook though so maybe I haven't really got the hang of social networking.

Maybe some of the forum news threads could be tweeted as well. The al-Ahly / Egypt general strike thread might have been an example, though that seems to be over now.

RedEd

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by RedEd on February 15, 2012

I'm only on facebook. I think libcom get it pretty much right there in terms of number of updates. I'm more likely to read the blog links than the library ones but I don't know if that's just me. When I see an update on facebook, I tend to be more likely to read current affairs and lighter stuff, but a bit of a mix is nice.

On a side note, I've recently seen trots who previously only posted (political) links to their party's site and the fucking guardian posting links to libcom, which surprised me.

Steven.

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on February 15, 2012

Cheers for the feedback. Maybe we should try to post a bit more to Twitter using hashtags…

Ed, that's interesting, and sounds positive. Certainly, our most popular Facebook links are usually current news/blog posts, rather than historical stuff, but we do try to mix it up a bit. As well as promote articles posted by a variety of different users.

Rob Ray

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rob Ray on February 15, 2012

Was wondering whether you'd investigated cross-site posting at all - Ping and the like? Been starting to look into it to run with other projects - idea being you hit a dozen different potential strands at once with the content.

Juan Conatz

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on February 16, 2012

I think your use of Facebook is pretty good. I agree that linking to threads on hot news items (or putting more of a priority into turning them into news articles) would be beneficial as well. Twitter I don't notice as much. Maybe worth thinking about Reddit, StumbleUpon?

Rob Ray

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rob Ray on February 16, 2012

Mm see this is what I was thinking, I mean the way libcom's working atm focuses on the two biggest platforms of FB and Twitter, but it might be able to reach a wider selection of users if it went on others as well like Reddit etc.

But given lowish amounts of resource to actually do that, an automatic cross-site platform might be a way around it, the trade-off being that it's not always going to be exactly right for a given community.

blackout

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by blackout on February 16, 2012

Agree with the above thoughts about twitter, being a bit more reactive to news items might attract more attention. For example @Squashcampaign and @boycottworkfare both do a lot of this. There's always some could work really well if @libcomorg linked to libcom articles, blog posts and discussions relevant to things that are doing the rounds at the time.

Steven.

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on February 16, 2012

snipfool

please use this

ha ha, I was going with DIY.

Rob, that looks like it could be a good idea, although looking at that service most of the places it seems to post to either aren't very popular (MySpace), or wouldn't be that appropriate (tumblr, WordPress). We do get a lot of referrals from Reddit and StumbleUpon, but those are all posted by users. If there was a way we could post there automatically that would be great.

I guess we should try to post forum threads/turn them into news stories quickly. At least to post on twitter. Because to me at least it seems that too many posts on Facebook would be very annoying, but twitter it probably wouldn't matter would it? As twitter is so fast paced anyway?

Joseph Kay

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Joseph Kay on February 17, 2012

The other thing I thought we could do is turn forum threads with lots of updates (Greece, Egypt) into. blog posts and edit the OP to say follow the comments for updates?

Steven.

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on February 17, 2012

Joseph Kay

The other thing I thought we could do is turn forum threads with lots of updates (Greece, Egypt) into. blog posts and edit the OP to say follow the comments for updates?

what we decided to do a few months ago was turn them into news articles and edit the OP. We have done that with some of them, like Tunisia, Egypt, etc. Maybe blog posts would be better. We can either put them in the libcom blog or create a new blog called libcom updates or something like that…

nitsua

12 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by nitsua on February 20, 2012

I don't have a twitter but your facebook page is pretty useful.