Using Social Media to Promote the Library

Once again, I have found myself having to step out of my comfort zone. Facebook and Twitter are both familiar to me on a personal level but not when it comes to educational technology. With that being said, I took the challenge and created a Facebook page for my current library. I knew that if I was going to create a page, I wanted to make sure I would use it, so I had to go all the way. I have to say, that once I started, it was difficult to stop myself. While designing the page, I realized how many benefits there were and I look forward to interacting with my followers. I was also cusious to see how others used Facebook and Twitter to promote their librariies,

Lets start with Facebook, As I explored, I was surprised to see how many schools actually use this social media tool. This does make sense though. Almost 100% of our parents have access to Facebook and can quickly follow a page and instantly connect to the school. Many of the schools I viewed used Facebook to inform the followers about reading programs, Battle of the Bluebonnets, Book Fairs, and projects that certain grade levels were working on . I personally plan on stealing each of these ideas to post on my facebook page. I could tell that these pages were being used because the followers were leaving comments. They ranged from students who would comment about a book review that was posted and parents commenting about the projects that the librarian had students working on. I do realize that even though I have fallen in love with the use of social media, many will still find it difficult to catch on. Some advantages are very clear, Facebook allows the students to post book reviews as well as others reccomending a book they enjoyed reading. Using Facebook also allows parents to have another way to be informed about library activities and be involved with what's going on at school. Honestly, one of the only disadvantages I see is safelty. However, I'm a big believer that we need to teach our students how to use social media correctly. This is a resource that is way too valuable not to be used because we are afriad.

Twitter is another form of social media that can be intimidating if you are not familiar with how it's used. I found that twitter is used more as quick reminders, links to information they found worth sharing, and retweets. Of course, with searching though educational technology, I wasn't suprised that most of their tweets were related to this subject, I love that Schrock uses Twitter to provide her followers with apps, articles, or websites. I know that others do this as well, but I felt I connected with her tweets the most. Th "Write Over Live" video she tweeted was amazing. However, one of my favorite tweets I found while researching was from Linda Braun. She said, "We can no longer be afirad to let our students explore their passions and not be restricted," This was actually a retweet by Mindshift @mindshiftQED. I thought this was a perfect tweet because of the topic at hand.

Here is my Library Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/aesLibrary/