The New York Public Library uses HootSuite to coordinate a decentralized team of contributors to help manage a multitude of social profiles and maintain an online presence as the leading public library on Facebook and Twitter worldwide.

1. Case Study: New York Public Library
Empowering a team with scheduling
and assignment tools
Introduction
The New York Public Library (@NYPL) is one of the leading online public
libraries on Twitter worldwide. But before a coordinated social media team
was in place, a decentralized team of contributors managed the multitude
of social networks. Looking to streamline workflow, expand and maintain
the Library’s social media presence, drive website visits and make @NYPL
a discovery tool for library resources, content and expertise, the New York
Public Library created a brand awareness campaign with HootSuite.
The Challenge
In addition to the flagship profiles @NYPL and NYPL Facebook Page,
individual neighborhood libraries and divisions within the Library total
over 100 social media profiles. With no dedicated social media teams,
coordinating a large team of decentralized contributors was a major
challenge. To maintain a consistent voice and volume of messaging, the
Library needed a way to streamline workflow and manage their messaging
from all facets of their organization in order to accurately represent the
depth and range of the Library’s staff, services and collections.
HootSuite Media Inc.
HootSuite for the Team
The New York Public Library
uses HootSuite to coordinate
a decentralized team of
contributors to help manage
a multitude of social profiles
and maintain an online
presence as the leading
public library on Facebook
and Twitter worldwide.
Educational and cultural
institutions, museums,
NGOs and NPOs will find
this case study useful
as an example of using
HootSuite for social media
management and social
marketing.
Case Study: NYPL | 1

2. The Solution
To accomplish their objectives of streamlining workflow and expanding
online presence, the New York Public Library relies on the following tools
in the HootSuite Dashboard:
Scheduler: Several NYPL staff members contribute to and curate the
@NYPL Twitter feed. In order to spread messaging out and collaborate
with teams across the entire organization, they looked to the scheduler
feature.
Find the time
The HootSuite scheduling
feature allows you to draft
and schedule up to 50
messages in advance so
that you can release multiple
messages at appropriate
intervals and reach your
audience at the time that
they’re most likely to be online.
Shared search streams: Team members needed to be able to respond
and monitor from many locations, so the teams shared their search
streams in the dashboard with the appropriate team members to
collaborate effectively and to divide and conquer.
HootSuite Assignments: Using HootSuite Assignments feature, team
members sharing the same streams to monitor conversations could
assign social messages to others members for follow-up or respond
directly and mark it as such to avoid duplication. This also ensures that
the appropriate people are responding to your audience for the most
effective audience engagement.
Analytics: The New York Public Library was able to measure success on
Twitter using HootSuite’s analytics tools like Google Analytics and Twitter
and Facebook Insights for up-to-date analysis of campaigns.
Using the right tools and educating staff helped NYPL meet their social
media goals and plan an effective strategy for the entire organization.
The Library identified staff in various units to educate them on how
to use Twitter as a communication tool and to take initiative as brand
ambassadors. The resulting streamlined workflow has been a measure
of success.
The Results
The results of The New York Public Library’s flagship @NYPL Twitter
campaign showed incredible growth directly stemming from their
coordinated efforts. As a result of their initial HootSuite roll-out, the
Library’s following grew from just under 7,000 to over 90,000, while
increasing the number of visits to nypl.org coming from Twitter by
353.98% over the previous year.
HootSuite Media Inc.
HootSuite has a team of
Social Media Coaches ready
to help you learn more about
the Pro dashboard. To get
you get started, attend one of
these free weekly webinar
Case Study: NYPL | 2