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WLA Social Media Poll Results - A Summary
By Richard Counsil

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! In late 2014 the Marketing and Communications Committee administered its Social Media Poll of the membership. We’d like to share a results summary and foreshadow some work that may be coming to a membership experience near you.  The whole committee would like to thank the Social Media teammates Karin Schulhauser and Marta Murvosh for their hard work.

A quick note. The Social Media survey is helping the committee make more member-informed decisions. While social media may not be of interest to all members, and while some kind of year-round social media presence may not be of strategic priority to the organization, we on the committee believe it will increasingly help the WLA engage and retain members in the coming years.

Future surveys may encompass WLA communications as a while, for as you may imagine, the line between it and Social Media can tend to blur for a survey taker and maker. But before I end up writing a book here, the summary:

  • There were 225 respondents with fairly even distribution in age/years as WLA members. 65% were from public libraries and 25% from academic.
  • There may be a preference for Listservs and Linkedin (with blogs and Facebook third and fourth, respectively) when it comes to professional information and discussions.
  • Just under half of respondents say WLA social media is very important or somewhat important to their membership. About 77% say the same about social media when it comes to their professionally life.
  • Respondents prioritize (from given choices) what they want from social media: 1) Ease of Use, 2) Immediacy, and 3) Use by Others to Share/Discuss Information about Events and Issues
  • 98% report they’ve used social media for three or more years.

What may this foreshadow from the Marketing and Communications team? Stay tuned for: 1) a renewed emphasis on engaging members through LinkedIn, especially about opportunities to discuss, serve, and get the leadership experience/evidence we all often need to enrich our careers; 2) stay tuned for consistent social media engagement aimed at enriching your WLA experience at events; and 3) stay tuned for an OLA-inspired idea to engage WLA members with a listserv.

Finally, does WLA social media impact your IG or committee? Could it? And just what questions did we ask? Please feel free to see the entire results of the survey. It’s an excel document and you can receive your own file by emailing [email protected] with a request.