Finding Your Twitter Niche:
Engaging with a Targeted
Academic Audience

Nina Verishagen, Tasha Maddison, and Alexandria
Delorme, Saskatchewan Polytechnic Library

Marketing Libraries Journal, volume 4, issue 2,
pages 53-80.

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Abstract: In this study, an academic library pivots their efforts on Twitter
from content directed to their entire academic community to content for a
group within the community. To do so, the library’s social media committee
formed a team with the goal of increasing faculty and staff engagement with
the library’s Twitter feed. Tweets from a typically engaging month, from two
different years, were selected and compared. Several sources of analytics
were contrasted in order to determine whether the change influenced
followers and engagement. Although the target audience shifted, the content
remained consistent. While the library experienced a decrease in follower
numbers, the project was ultimately a success in that it led to a deeper
engagement with the intended audience. The initiative provided a more
accurate snapshot of the situation and equipped the team with new social
media strategies for the future.

Keywords: Twitter, social media, academic library, scholarly communication, college, faculty, staff, post-secondary staff, target audiences, personas

Citation to article:

Verishagen, N., Maddison, T., & Delorme, A. (2020). Finding Your Twitter 
Niche: Engaging with a Targeted Academic Audience. 
Marketing Libraries Journal, 4(2), 53-80.  https://journal.marketinglibraries.org/summer2020/05_MLJv4i2.pdf