In today's digital age, promoting your organization, business, or art on social media is a must, and education is not immune to this. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be useful not only to promote activities happening in the school or library, but also to share ideas, research, and events with other educators.
Facebook has been around for a while, and while it is not the go-to social media app for students, many adults still frequently use it. Some of the school library sites that I visited shared pictures from library events as well as information about upcoming events, summer reading lists, library checkout statistics, and information about community events at the local public library. I think this platform is a great way to communicate with parents about library or school happenings, but you will have to let them know in a school newsletter or e-blast that they need to like the page in order to stay up-to-date. Many of the school library sites I visited had very few likes on their pages, which means most school stakeholders are probably not aware that the page is out there. As for interacting with students, there are more effective platforms out there, such as Instagram or TikTok. Below is a sample post from the Polly Ryon Middle School Library (https://www.facebook.com/rmslibrary)
Twitter has been used for professional networking in education for many years, and it is still going strong. My principal has also encouraged us to post classroom happenings, and there is a twitter feed scrolling on the display monitor in the front office. I think out of the three apps highlighted on this blog, Twitter is the most frequently used to share information with parents and other educators. Some of the tweets I browsed from library and ed-tech leaders included pictures from speaking events and conferences as well as registration links for upcoming events, book reviews and recent releases, links to podcasts, articles sharing research in education, giveaways, library programming ideas, and much more. In addition to seeing who your follows retweet, Twitter also suggests additional people you might be interested in following, so it is a great way to expand your professional network. Below are two examples of posts that would be of great interest to librarians in particular. The first is a giveaway from an author, Christina Soontornvat (@soontornvat), which was retweeted by John Schu (@MrSchuReads), and the second is a book club idea from School Library Journal (@sljournal).
The one thing I dislike about Twitter is the high frequency of tweets from accounts that I do not follow, including ads, but this is something that users will encounter on all three of these platforms.
Instagram has more potential for use with students, whether it be a way for them to display their products or as a starting point for a discussion. Since there is no text in Instagram, it can be a very quick way to share a snapshot of what is happening in your classroom or library with students, other educators, and parents. While I do not have my own library yet, I have included some posts from my science classroom below.