The application of social media in outreach of academic libraries’ resources and services: A case study on WeChat

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the implementation of the official WeChat account, the most popular mobile social media site in China, to share Jinan University Library collections and services to students, faculty and staff. The implementation, experience and issues have implications for academic libraries and other institutions to run and improve social media tools.

This paper is a case study, which elaborates on the implementation process of the official WeChat account, including project group establishment, account application and management, users’ needs analysis, WeChat secondary development and model of development.

The official WeChat account has already engaged a population of followers who are able to directly access library resources and service via their mobile device. The social media tool is an effective approach to promote library services and to enhance relationships between the library and its users. The issues appear during the process of WeChat implementation and promotion, which requires WeChat’s provider, third-party application vendors and the library to work together to solve.

The implementation of official WeChat account has practical implications for academic libraries and other institutions to conduct it and similar social media tools, such as Sina Weibo, Facebook and Line. In particular, it is beneficial for academic libraries outside China which desire to use WeChat to engage Chinese international students. Additionally, it provides insight into the future effort on social media promotion, secondary development and cooperation within the social networking industry.