1. Twitter for Engineering Libraries - Worth the Effort? Christine Drew, Manager, Instruction & Outreach Data analysis: Nick Mondor, WPI ‘12 twitter.com/WPI_library

2. The Research Question Since fall 2009: using Twitter & Hootsuite Tweets promote services, information resources, & events How can we determine the value of Twitter as an outreach method and should we continue to tweet?

3. Most Successful Tweets January 3, 2010—18 clicks – “The library reopens tomorrow 1/4 8a-5p. In the meanwhile read some online books! New titles include: Windows 7: Up and Running...” – “Our new journals search is live - find out what journals WPI subscribes to @ http://ow.ly/Sftj”http://ow.ly/Sftj hootsuite.com

4. Total Tweets vs. Total Clicks 361 Total Tweets as of 12/16/2009-5/18/2010 238 Total “Clicks” or.66 Clicks per Tweet Views: unknown but we feed tweets into blog & website hootsuite.com

5. Who’s Following Us? More than 50% of followers are affiliated with WPI Many of the companies/businesses followers are database vendors (AccessScience, Reaxys, etc). Class#% Company1729.8% Library/School23.5% Other712.2% WPI Related23.5% WPI Department/Club1017.5% WPI Faculty/Staff1221% WPI Students712.2% TOTAL:57 Type of Follower% WPI54.3% Other12.2% Library/School3.5% Company29.8%

6. Should We Continue? Yes, but we’d like to: Increase followers, retweets, and replies to posts Continue with mix of informational, fun, & events- related tweets Tap into student “voice” (5 hour per/week student position - Social Media Content Developer) Increase interactivity (contests, tweet wars, prizes hidden in the stacks)

7. Questions/Comments? Christine Drew Manager, Instruction & Outreach - Gordon Library cdrew@wpi.edu 508.831.6163 cdrew@wpi.edu

8. WPI Founded in 1865 as Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science as nation's third-oldest private independent technological university More than 50 project-based undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, management, social sciences, and humanities and arts 3160 undergraduates/1309 graduate students/314 faculty