Marketing library services through Facebook groups

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discover whether Facebook Groups are conducive for library marketing. Design/methodology/approach Facebook Groups at two major research universities in the USA, along with two global Groups, were analyzed for their activity and membership to examine their performance of effectively promoting library visibility. Findings It finds that the success of Facebook Groups can be controlled by the active organization of librarians and by using more general topics to keep discussions alive. It also finds that Facebook Groups should target not only students but also faculty and staff in support of their research and teaching. Research limitations/implications By effectively organizing Facebook Groups as useful social networking, libraries can extend their services to more users. The findings of this paper provide insight into a new means of library marketing. Originality/value Previous studies on this topic did not analyze the actual activity of specific Facebook Groups. This research is one of the very few, if any, to go into individual groups and examine several important aspects of messages and members in these Groups.