Understanding public libraries’ challenges, motivators, and perceptions toward the use of social media for marketing

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges and motivators to social media adoption for marketing purposes in public libraries and to investigate how these libraries perceive the importance of social media marketing. Design/methodology/approach: A nation-wide online survey on public libraries in the USA was conducted to carry out this study, and a total number of 470 responses were used for data analysis. Findings: This study determined a range of challenges and motivators to implementing social media for marketing in public libraries. The results also showed that public libraries perceive social media as an important tool for their library marketing and intend to increase their use. Practical implications: The findings from this study can serve as a guideline for public libraries when employing social media for marketing purposes in their libraries. Originality/value: This study assessed the current state of social media use for marketing in the public library context, a context that has been under-researched in the literature, from three perspectives: challenges, motivators, and perceptions.