JSTOR’s Use of Social Media: One Organization’s Story

Nov. 4, 2010Charleston Conference

Jenny McKillop, Education Coordinator

ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the academic community take full advantage of rapidly advancing information and networking technologies. We serve scholars, researchers, and students by providing the content, tools, and services needed to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. We are committed to working in collaboration with other organizations to maximize benefits to our stakeholders.

Our Mission

• Ithaka S+R works with initiatives and organizations to develop sustainable business models and conducts research and analysis on the impact of digital media on the academic community as a whole.

• JSTOR helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive of over 1,000 academic journals and other content. JSTOR uses information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.

• Portico preserves scholarly literature published in electronic form—more than 10,000 e-journals and 28,000 e-books—and ensures that these materials remains accessible to future scholars, researchers, and students.

Our Services

The Agenda…

Introductions-StoriesExamplesTipsTake-aways

Why are we here? What’s our experience?

(Yours and mine)

The Stories…Facebook

73,106 page likes

The Stories…Facebook

The User Experience Team set up a Facebook group so people who wanted to could help with user testing online.

As of Nov. 3, it had 493 members.

The Stories…Twitter

The Stories…YouTube

The Examples:Facebook

We connect with end users and sometimes librarians via social media, including opening comments to the public

The Examples:Facebook

We listen to concerns, likes, and feedback, so we can improve services.

The Examples:Facebook

We answer direct questions to help users on a real life, personal level.

The Examples:Facebook

Stats (“Insights”) come in handy to see who our audience is.

The Examples:Facebook

We provide relevant info to users, librarians, etc.

The Examples:Twitter

TwitterListening to users and librarians via Twitter:Can we see patterns? It is time to tweet a certain useful tip?

The Examples:Twitter

Twitter is an excellent venue to communicate useful info.

JSTOR had 3,315 followers on Nov. 3, 2010; mostly libraries, librarians, and students.

We listen to blogs as well, helped by Google alerts.

What’s the current mood?What are people saying about JSTOR?

The Stories:Social Media Integration for JSTOR Plants

We listen to blogs as well, helped by Google alerts.

What’s the current mood?What are people saying about JSTOR?

The Examples:Blogs

The Examples:Blogs- JSTOR Plant Science

Getting Started with Social Media

• Set goals• Make a plan for ongoing maintenance• Allow two-way conversation• Get support of decision makers• Keep true to brand• Know your audience• Know your venue• Get the word out• Content, content, content• LISTEN to your audience! • Drop what doesn’t work

Questions, comments?

• Facebook: jstor• Twitter: @jstor• Email: support@jstor.org• Phone: 888-388-3574• Contact Us form: www.jstor.org