Local Community in the Era of Social Media Technologies

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Using social sites: Twitter and Weibo

Abstract:

This chapter discusses Twitter, which is one of the prevailing social media adopted by libraries for sharing information with their local communities, and which is likely to be with us for a while, based on its omnipresence and increasing popularity. With its simplicity and ease of communication, it is certainly an ideal tool for sharing one’s community with the rest of the world. Its limit of 140 characters per message has not deterred enthusiastic users. On the contrary, users find themselves becoming more creative in composing messages that use texting abbreviations, shortened words, and leetspeak.

Key words

Twitter

information stream

tweet

followers

Weibo

information network

texting abbreviations ...