Message critique

Assignment: “Locate two promotional message examples (one good and one bad) on any social media channels from your local library and write a critique (at least 300 words) comparing and contrasting the two based on the readings above or other external sources (make sure to include both in-text and end-of-text citations)”.

Note: it turns out that my local library has never sent a tweet. (See below). Therefore, we will study the SF Public Library.

The SF Public Library is one of the major public libraries in the Bay Area, so I will substitute that for my local one; although I do not have much familiarity with it.

The following post will be used as the ‘good’ example for analysis.

As noted in the presentation by Reuter, retweeting is a technique used to expand one’s reach. The above example corresponds to several of the techniques mentioned by Reuther; namely:

2. Use a capital letter with each new sentence.
3. Hyphens, periods and colons are the most retweetable punctuation.
4. Focus on Keywords.  Here, an author is reading her book to families and children
5. Place the link 25% of the way through the tweet

8. Entice readers to go to the webpage.  (In this case, since the library did not author the tweet but retweeted it, they get credit for the twitter page reference).
9. Mention influential individuals & groups that might be interested – again, a reference to the Public Library

11. Include an image in the tweet.

13. Use hashtags.

The tweet is engaging, lively, pertinent to the audience, and follows most of the recommendations.

SF Public Library‏ @SFPublicLibrary Jun 5

Election results are in – San Francisco Public Library wins LJ Library of the Year award – the highest professional honor in the nation! #LOY18 https://tinyurl.com/y9o57c8z 

As a second example, and truthfully, I could not find a poor one in the SF Public Library twitter feed, we’ll use this award by the Library Journal of Library of the year. Again, it follows most of the recommendations in the Reuter presentation. However, this particular tweet has a sentiment value that pushes it towards ineffectiveness. As noted in chapter 4 of the Strategies for Social Media Success, this tweet feels closer to “Helped a patron find a turnip cookbook today” than it might otherwise. Granted, the follow-on sentence discusses the nature of the award, “…the highest professional honor in the nation!”; yet it feels a bit stilted. Had they personalized it a bit – “We are gratified and humbled”, or some such, it would feel better.

Section 2: Make a tweet for a given scenario

Protect your #OnlinePrivacy: What Hackers Don’t Want You to Know – 14 lessons that will pay off by attending “How to Protect Your Online Privacy” – @ Computer Lab, Central Library Saturday, October 28, 2017 2-3pm. #learnmore please retweet. Register at: LINK.

This tweet – 254 characters – fits most of the suggestions for headlines, clickbait, and tweets. It starts with a hashtag and a ‘grab’ – Online Privacy, so readers will know what the tweet is about. It starts with an action verb, uses capital letters at the start of each sentence, respects punctuation rules, and has 2 hashtags and a link. Given that the tweet comes from the Lexington Public Library, the sender is known. It has all the logistics described and a ‘click-bait’ item in the title, “What hackers don’t want you to know – 14 lessons”. It also makes use of a number – 14 – to help drive engagement. Lastly, it has an image that makes it clear – Online Privacy is the topic.

As a rubric for evaluation, let us examine several key aspects:

• Clarity – the graphic and the leading hashtag clearly define what the workshop is about. The audience is general, so the phrasing is intended to catch everyone’s attention.
• Attention-catching – the image is likely the most attention catching aspect of the tweet. That the graphic matches the hashtag only helps with the engagement. It asks for a retweet so even if this is not of interest to the reader, they likely know the importance and may pass this onwards.
• Human-touch – Does it feel human? I certainly hope so. It uses typical but proven click-bait techniques to drive engagement.
• Go-further – by asking for a RT, we drive the likelihood up by 23x. Hopefully this will spread the word about this important topic and workshop.
• Overall Effectiveness – As this meets just about all of the criteria for a successful tweet and usage of social media, yes, I believe it will be effective.