Start Tweeting with BFL Twitter Resources

BFL has finally reached the 21st century — we’ve created a library Twitter account! You can follow us at bownhlibrary if you already have a Twitter account, but if you don’t or are asking why would the library want a Twitter account, keep reading!

One of the things that we’re trying to do is communicate more effectively and frequently with Bow residents and our community.  The staff at the library wants to hear what people want to do/read/listen to so that we can help you.  Bottom line is that’s why we’re here.  This blog is one avenue to reach more people with information they want on new books, DVDs, and music.  The library’s Facebook page is another way we reach a specific segment of our patrons — Bow teens.  Twitter complements both by allowing up-to-the-minute information to be posted not only to other Twitter users, but also to the library’s web site homepage.  For example, when our online library catalog was unavailable through the web on a Sunday due to maintenance, I quickly tweeted a message so that those visiting our web site would see right away that the catalog was unavailable and that we were aware of it.  We’ve also linked our blog and Facebook page to our Twitter account, meaning that our posts to the blog and Facebook will appear in Twitter when they are posted.  All of this will help us get the same information out to different segments of our users at the same time.

So, how can you start tweeting?  Check out two new books available here: Twitter for Dummies by Laura Fitton and Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly.  Fitton resides in MA and has given presentations in NH about social networking and Twitter.  The book is chock full of information to not only get you set up, but also details important points such as the etiquette involved in re-tweeting (RT) and how to send a link using Bit.ly or TinyURL.  O’Reilly’s book is also terrific, full of tips and tricks to make the most of Twitter.  There are a variety of magazine resources as well, such as “How to Avoid Facebook & Twitter Disasters” from the August 2009 issue of PC World [we copied this and gave it to all of our Teen Advisory Board members].   One helpful online resource is a blog post by Michael Hyatt, “The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.”  There are many others – feel free to share them as comments to this post if they are helpful to you.

I’m more than willing to walk library patrons through setting up a Facebook, Twitter, or blog account.  Please get in touch with me — you too can leap into the 21st century!