Instagram, Facebook Pages and Groups, and Twitter

 Welcome

Hello again. Today's post is about social media usage in the library. Why do you need to care about it? Well, nowadays social media is EVERYWHERE you look. It's used by major companies, businesses, celebrities, influencers and much more. It's a great way to communicate with others, share posts on your favorite topics, follow accounts of your favorite celebrities or stores, and get news quickly.

In this post, I will be talking about Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To be honest, I wasn't a huge social media user in my student days. My first ever interaction to social media was MySpace back in middle school. Wow, I sound kind of old when I bring it up. Even though I had an account, I didn't use it very much. 

Then Facebook appeared. It became the next big thing in social media thanks to creation. It took over then MySpace eventually became a thing in the past and Facebook was the brand new site everyone I knew was using. I am pretty familiar with Facebook since I had an account for a very long time, but I do not post that much anymore. I do, however, browse a lot or check out Facebook Marketplace from time to time. Every so often, I will post artwork or a random text post, but I hardly use it these days. 

My personal usage of Facebook aside. I will share some information about it!

Facebook 

I find the fact that since parents are not present on campus, social media outlets such as Facebook really does wonders to share information outside the school. Information such as events, announcements and fliers can be shared digitally without the waste of paper and with a simple click of a button. How incredible! Photos and videos can also be posted as well. It's a great way to visually appeal to the community about events happening on campus or the library. Looking through the pages keeps the photos in an album that the users can browse through whenever they like and it's an amazing way to add some life to your posts beyond texts. 

As I look through various posts of school libraries, I took note of things that I noticed through much scrolling. The most common things that I noticed that are being posted quite frequently are: school events, library events, new books, library displays, special occasions such as National Librarians Week or National Reading Month, announcements or newsletters. I also see posts using videos and photos as well. The photos sometimes include students who won a poetry contest or doing a library lesson, sometimes even photos of students on field trips as well. Some of the videos contains small clips of school or library events too. I think adding photos and videos are an excellent way to share what's going on within the school to the community. 

I did not really see a large number of comments or shares on these posts as I looked through them. Personally, I believe it is due to the growth of other social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and more growing in popularity while the usage of Facebook has been slowly dwindling. So in conclusion, the library would probably benefit a lot from using multiple social media outlets and have them be connected (have links) to each other. That way more information can reach out to as many people as possible. 

Here's some advantages and disadvantages of Facebook:

Advantages

• Posting videos/photos of library or school events
• Create text posts for announcements
• Upload newsletters of important information
• Create upcoming events 
• Create a page to make ads
• Edit bio for information about the library
• Share videos or posts of topics related to the library

Disadvantages 

• May not enough followers
• Users need a Facebook account to look at posts
• Users would need the direct page to follow posts
• Not all followers will share the posts
• Not all followers will comment on posts
• The number of users has been decreasing
• Facebook profile needs to have direct links to other social media sites to have access for users

Twitter 

Twitter is everywhere these days. It's becoming a big name in social media as the number of users increase day by day. Now, major companies have official Twitter accounts to make announcements, post pictures or share polls with their followers. Even advertising companies are posting ads on Twitter for exposure for a product or service. Celebrities also use Twitter as a main form of reaching out to fans or sharing news too, so it made the site even more popular. It's more simplified format makes it easy for users to look at plus follow a variety of posts based on their interests. 

Twitter is available on the web, iOS and Android. This platform has slowly taken over what people use to connect easily with others and create "Tweets" to share content based on what they want. I would say a downside would be the limited character count for a Tweet. I've had a personal account with Twitter since 2018, so it's been a solid four years since I have made my account. I only really use when I mostly felt like it or think i have something somewhat interesting to share, but similar to my Facebook account, the activity is not always constant. 

It's a great platform to share a quick text post known as a "Tweet" and share fliers or links and even display other websites such as a podcast site or a Google Site. 

Soon, I created a professional account due to a tech academy is born so I decided that is the account I used to follow some edtech leaders out there along with a few others of my own personal choice. So let me share with you some of those leaders!

Kathy Schrock 

@kathyschrock

• Ms. Schrock shares quite a lot of information in regards to tech or websites and even some ideas to share with others as well. I like that her pinned Tweet is most of her edtechWeb sites with hyperlinks to click on. Pinned tweets are an excellent way to share an amazing post without losing it halfway through, plus a website is great one to share. I looked into her blog where the most recent post is about Lucidspark which is an interactive online white board with lots of amazing features and templates to chose from. How amazing! https://blog.kathyschrock.net/
  

Linda Braun 

@lbraun2000

• The next person on this list is Ms.Braun. As I scrolled through her profile, I eventually noticed that she mostly retweets a lot of posts. This is another feature that Twitter has that I find really cool because you can repost something you found interesting on to your profile to share with others. One article she reposted was about what art does for our brains which is pretty cool, but it would require opening up a brand new tab every time you open a hyperlink which can be a lot for a user. Something to take into consideration for creating or retweeting posts. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55169/what-happens-in-your-brain-when-you-make-art

More

• Included in this list is Jim Lerman @jimlerman. His tweets mainly focus heavily on technology, but he also includes top lists of different genres. He also has a scoop.it page as a pinned tweet at the top of his profile for users to check out. 
  
  
  
• Next, I have Alan November @NLearning. There hasn't been any recent posts from him as of recently, but he is still a relevant name in the edtech world. A lot of posts include sites for information such as making podcasts for different subjects or helping student students develop research skills. He also has his own website as a pinned tweet at his profile. 

  

  
  
• Lastly, I will include Gwyneth Jones @GwynethJones. She mostly tweets about the promotion of being an LGTQB+ community as well as sharing how school are meant to be safe spaces for students. It's an amazing thing that she is doing to make students who are confused about their gender identity or sexual orientation feel that there is someone or a place where they feel comfortable and safe. Bonus: She creates item that you can use for free! Check her profile out and look out for those freebies. 

  

Bonus: If you like digital journaling or want to to digital notes, check out GoodNotes on Twitter. @GoodNotesApp

There are so many users and companies that use Twitter now more than ever. I created my professional account due to being in a tech academy, but I will try to be more active this year. Feel free to follow me if interested. @alexa_rdz8

Instagram

Where in the world do I begin with Instagram? It's mainly a visually appealing platform that users will get to enjoy. I find it quite similar to making collages if you're an Instagram expert. I made one mostly out of curiosity and post every now and then. I mainly used it as a personal account (similar to my Twitter). I posted things about my dog or my art, but I haven't been a recent poster lately these days. 

I feel it's the same for a lot of Instagram users in regards to the platform. With TikTok being the main reason why the popularity is not as used often. But I do see the benefit of having an instagram account because of the visual features it presents and the filtering system is always fun to play around with when adding pictures. Despite having a personal account, I decided to create a secondary account for library purposes. I have pinned my Tumblr blog on to this account in the bio page for quick access and please follow my Tumblr account as well! Visit: Inkwell-Forest

One the features I like is the Highlights because they are quick still images or short videos for users to access and check out. 

It's a great way to promote the library or brand new books that came in. The best part? The highlights stay on the profile page for easy access for the users. There are many apps that are available for features such as adding text or other fun filters to try out on your posts. 

I mainly love Instagram for the visual appeal. It's also has the feature where you go "live" where you can record yourself doing something and followers can watch your live stream in real time without having to be physically present. How cool is that?

 I believe the only downside is when posting photos of students. Be sure to check with district policies when it comes to Instagram posts as well as school policies. It also is highly recommended to get parent permission when it comes to posting photos of students. 

Please check out my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inkwellforest/

Ideas for Instagram in the Classroom

• Using posts to show understanding or display a project
• Upload multiple pictures of a step-by-step process of a project (ex: Making an origami paper turtle or science experiment)
• Use Reels to record a video for a speaking activity
• Use Story to display students' best work or classroom activities
• Use Story Highlights of student presentations, speakers visiting the classroom or a live quiz in the classroom (ex: students participating in Kahoot)
• Use Live to record classroom lessons in real time

Conclusion 

Among all the social media platforms I tried out I would say that number one for me is Instagram. The top reason being that it's the most visually appealing of the three social media outlets. There's a variety of ways to implement Instagram within the classroom or for the library. It's simplified layout is user friendly plus a great way to implement a current platform for students that they enjoy and more likely to use more than the other platforms. 

Second would be probably Facebook. I think a lot of families tend to use Facebook a lot, especially the parents and community members. It's an excellent tool to use for sharing information, creating events, and advertisements special events for users to be aware of and get excited for. Not a lot of students may not be using Facebook, but I think it's an amazing tool for parents, community members and other schools to use.

Lastly, the social media platform I would not personally recommend is Twitter. I do know lots of students use it, but it's not user friendly for the parents. It is quite simple to use and easy to engage into, but does lack a visual appeal. It's a great platform for sending out quick announcements or uploading a flier for information. The downside is the character limit that Twitter has for text posts. So I definitely would leave Twitter in last place in regards to which is the best social media platform for the library and classroom. 

In a final wrap-up to this blog, social media is an incredible tool to use within the classroom and library. Posting pictures, sharing videos and sending out important information has become easier than ever. Sure, social media can have it's negative feedbacks. But it's up to us as educators to highlight the positive ways platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can be utilized for learning and going beyond the traditional classroom. Using social media is a fantastic thing to have by our side as librarians and educators if we show how truly amazing it can be.