Thursday, November 29, 2007

Facebook Page

The library now has a Facebook page. You can link to it by clicking the title of this post or you can search Lucy Robbins Welles Library in Facebook. If you search using the library name you will also find that a few of the librarians have set up Facebook profiles.

You may wonder what is the difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook profile. A page is created for an organization or entity but a profile is created for a person. The page allows an organization, like a library, to have a limited presence on Facebook. Unlike a profile anyone can see this page even if you aren't a fan. We have posted our hours, listed upcoming events, added a couple of games, posted some photos of READ posters and of course added an application for you to review books, music, or movies. If you visit your Facebook profile often become our fan and get updates about library programs on your Facebook profile.

A Facebook profile is for individuals. You can become friends with individuals and then see their full profiles. Both parties must agree to become friends before you can see a full profile. There are many applications for profiles. I have been experimenting. I have been able to feed my Wordpress blog to my Facebook profile using the rss app. My Flickr photos are highlighted using a couple of apps. I have posted articles from the online NYT. Posted a list of favorite movies and books with a few reviews. Look me up Vicky Chase, in the Hartford region, to see some of the useful and fun things you can do with your Facebook profile.

Why did we create a Facebook page? Many teens and twenties are using Facebook daily. They aggregate much their online activity to social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook user's visit their profile at least once a day. In their profile they get updates from their friends and organizations. Any changes we make to our page are pushed to our fans. So if we add a new event, or post photos of a program or list some new books it will show up on their profile. Just another way to reach our patrons online and for them to reach us.

-vc

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