A Day in the Life

In recent years, digital outreach efforts, including social media campaigns, have been explored by archival institutions in an effort to engage with online audiences. It is, however, difficult to know what makes effective social media outreach. This article considers literature from the field on the topic of digital archival outreach and archival outreach in general, and measures user engagement through ‘likes,’ ‘saves,’ follows, and comments, to explore the possibilities of social media promotion for archival institutions by analyzing the Tiktok activity of the Special Collections and Archives department at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU SCA). Although extensive research would need to be done in order to determine the concrete, real-life impact of these efforts, it is clear that through their regular, varied posts, and efforts to appeal to existing fan groups online, LJMU SCA’s social media campaign is successful in connecting directly with a large number of people, and drawing attention to their activities and collections, as well as archival work in general.