Getting Social

Love it or hate it, social media is a part of our lives now and the lives of our students. If I sit and listen for just a few minutes to the middle school students I work with, the conversation will eventually turn to who posted what on Snap, or about some TikTok trend. It influences their language, their decision making, and what they like for better or worse. As educators, if we want to reach our students, using the medium that they are frequenting most often is probably the best way to do so. They may not check their school email to see the newsletter or events for the week, but they will more than likely see your Instagram feed and even interact with your postings.

For my school library social media, I have chosen Instagram as my social media platform. Below are a few of my posts to date. While I am currently working in a middle school, I am not the librarian so my posts reflect things that I have done and am involved with at present along with a logo for a hypothetical school. Some reasons that I chose Instagram include it being highly visual, only requiring smaller captioning, and the fact that it will reach a larger percentage of teens and tweens than many other platforms, as Molly Wetta (2016) points out. I will be more proactive with my hashtag use at that point.

Once I am running a school library I will either transition this account over to post for the school or pick up on the school's current Instagram if they have one. Things that I would post about would be programming like book clubs, guest speakers, giveaways, or other activities the library is hosting. Using some of the ideas that Wetta (2016) mentions like following other libraries, book reviewers, and school librarians can help with fresh ideas to post. Her article in the School Library Journal outlines many good ideas of things to post. I particularly loved the thought of having teachers give book reviews. This would be a great collaborative effort that could encourage literacy among the students, but also could help other content area teachers to share literature about their area of expertise. Depending on the school policy and media releases for students I would love to also have students participate, because students and parents alike often enjoy seeing their picture and recognition. I think using Instagram and Facebook in conjunction would reach the most students and parents, so I would set it up to allow posts from Instagram to be shared automatically to the school Facebook. While more students are using Instagram, a lot of their parents are using Facebook.

As outlined in Dr. Green's PowerPoint, by sharing all the wonderful things that are happening in your school library you are also helping to advocate for your position and helping others see all the benefits of an active library program. You can also use these outlets to raise awareness of any fundraising efforts and book fairs that you may be hosting. It can also be a good way to share other educational resources and their social media outlets. The main key is to get people involved. Utilizing hashtags can help more people to see your message. In order to build the following on these social media platforms, I would have it shared in the beginning of school materials that students get at registration, share it in the school newsletter and on their social media if it is separate from the library website. I would also post QR codes during open house events and the name @librarymouseadventures (or whatever the school name is at that time). I would also share these pages from my own page to develop more inorganic followers.

References

Green, PhD. (n.d.). Harnessing the power of social media to advocate for the school library. [PowerPoint Slides]. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PEcu3mz0Tdmrt1P0oglRrDQDSgot240POIlQWvOcPHM/edit?usp=sharing

Wetta, M. (2016). Instagram Now. School Library Journal, 30–32.