The Social Media Craze

 

Welcome Back, Readers!

Y’all, I have outdone myself this week! It may not seem like much to those of you familiar with all the techy stuff but I have crossed a threshold I did not EVER plan on crossing. That’s right, I got me an Insta! That is what all the youngins’ are calling it right? Now bear with me a moment. I am not old or out of touch with technology, or so I like to think; I really just didn’t want one more thing to distract me during my nonworking time: my husband and kids. I have enough life distractions between work, school, my school-aged children, a baby learning to walk, two dogs, and my husband who is also a teacher! Every minute of the day is scheduled and accounted for.

 Now, hold on tight, while I explain my experience with Instagram. From the outside, Instagram is exactly what I thought of it would be, a time sucker. Instagram, in my opinion, has always been, “a Facebook with fewer words and people-to-people interaction.” Through actual hands-on exploration, I realize I was somewhat wrong. Instagram does allow interaction but because it is geared more towards a younger, hipper demographic, it doesn’t attract the people I connect with most: my aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents; I know I am cool like that!  However, it is and will be a great way to “meet” new faces.

Instagram will be a great way to help advertise for my own school library when the opportunity knocks. I immediately thought of Book Fairs, another great place to advertise. Show book covers, a sneak peek of the library décor, host challenges, or even prizes available with each purchase, just show the Instagram post! Instagram can also be used to easily highlight read aloud, virtual Author Visits, bulletin boards, Author studies, or Makerspace within the library or focus on activities that are occurring on a daily basis to keep promoting your library. My biggest piece of advice which was told me to me by a fellow library friend, keep your Instagram consistent, post at least once a day, and keep a Google Note of hashtags you frequently use so you can copy and paste…..um, yes=TIMESAVER! Beware, from what I have heard once you get started on Instagram you will be posting way more than once a day! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! =)

One good thing about Instagram is you are able to post to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr at the same time you post to Instagram, so hitting all platforms at the same time. That is a great win unless you are like me and can’t recall any of your passwords to connect them to the app….then it isn’t so great.

Please feel free to follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/taryn.meier. I have taken the plunge and created a “my story”, or video about my campus library what it looks like now during the Pandemic. Let me warn you, the video stops abruptly. It was two frames worth of video when it was posted but now it only shows one, who knows what happened to the second part. I have also included pictures of how I used the Library Makerspace time pre-pandemic. Unfortunately, it is not safe to have Makerspace during this pandemic.

If you were able to follow me through my Instagram adventure, hats off to you! I should have warned you to buckle up! Hopefully, the ride was only bumpy on my end. Shout out to my coworker, Mrs. Pickett who had to explain things like how to make a video on Instagram, yep that was me, you live you learn!

So, what about Facebook? I know my way around Facebook, it’s my JAM! This was popular while I was in college the first time in the early 2000s and though I do believe it has hit its peak and is on the decline, there are still many happy users. My grandparents for one! So yes, the clientele is a little older than that of Instagram. Facebook for me, since my family lives so far away from me in North Dakota. Facebook allows us a quick and easy way to see what is going on in each other’s lives through pictures and it is the best way to get updates on my nieces and nephews and all their sports and activities.  

Facebook has some great features that not only help us socially but also, can help you connect your school, library, or even your business with others who are interested in those same things. I follow several groups that allow you to post privately to group members or publicly, depending on the setting you have selected. This is a great way to connect with select groups of people or people who have the same interest; my personal favorite is recipe groups! I do however a follower of our local community library to keep up to the date of and classes they may be holding or children’s activities that will be taking place.   School libraries can also use Facebook. They can set up their own school page and post new book cover teasers, post QR code scavenger hunts, hold online book discussions, or post information about upcoming events and use Facebook to invite others. I look forward to doing this when I am back in a Library role again. There are some disadvantages of Facebook, parents would have to have an account, and with the age discrepancy of Facebook users this may be an issue as the age of our parents are getting younger so they prefer other forms of social media. Another disadvantage would be locating the Facebook page, this would mean parents and/or students would have to know the exact name of the page or search through a large assortment of pages to find what they are looking for.

Another great social media platform I MUST mention is Twitter. I have grown to love this platform, mainly for its limited characters. This makes it easy to quickly read through posts, like, and share. Twitter has helped me build my professional learning network, as well as get more ideas and learn from others. Twitter has many advantages, self-promotion is easily accomplished. In today's age, we need to be proud of what we know and willing to share our knowledge with others to make our county move ahead. 

Let me introduce you to a few excellent people to follow. First, @lbraun2000. Linda W. Braun is a great person to follow. Her Twitter is full of useful professional articles to read, suggestions. She recently wrote an article for School Library Journal and shares this information. A downside is with over 4,000 followers her like, share, and the comment section is still low interaction. 

Another great person to follow is Jim Lerman @jimlerman. He often posts helpful information to expand your learning and keep you up to date. Most of his posts will require you to click and will open a link to read the actual article. He may not write all the material he shares himself, but he believes in sharing great information that will be helpful to others. One drawback is looking at the example below he has not gotten any likes, comments, or shares. With over one thousand followers I would expect more people would have found this information helpful. 

Gwyneth Jones, the Daring Librarian also has a Twitter handle @GwynethJones. I follow her blog as well it is full of great stuff! On Twitter, she has over 35,000 followers! She tweets about a variety of things from personal thoughts and feelings, to tweeting updates for her own Library. Her overall theme is "Take me as I am", which is refreshing. Ms. Jones has also posted helpful links and ideas for teachers to use during this time of virtual learning. She fully believes sharing is caring. She fully shares anything she has found helpful or thinks others may find helpful. She understands the work and pressures teachers are under and wants to make their lives and her own life as easy as possible. In the posts below, she shares resources to help set up new school routines and a life hack of how to make a document camera at home for those teachers who are working from home and are missing some of the technology that would be available to them at school. 

This next gentleman, Alan November, you can find on Twitter @globalearner has over 46,000 followers! Alan November is a global speaker in terms of technology, I do however use caution in recommending him though as he has not been active on Twitter since May 23 and his website www.novemberlearning.com, has not been updated since 2019. He may not be as active currently as he once was, but he does have a recent youtube interview from April 2020 on Microsoft Education.  In his last Twitter posts, he was providing ways to still have experiences such as taking virtual tours of famous museums. He also frequently posts about upcoming speaking engagements and the topics they will cover, this also includes FREE webinars that anyone can join. 

The last Twitter guru I want to mention is Kathy Schrock. You can follow her on Twitter @kathyschrock. She promotes her upcoming presentations as well as new findings. She tweeted recently, September 1st about Rockwell Schrock's Boolean Machine and provided the link. This is also able to embed to your own site! Her pinned post also promotes the four different websites she controls. She is a technology self-proclaimed "Geek". I admire technology geeks, I aspire to be one, I just need to get over my own fear of failure. 

In addition to the great educational technology leaders listed above, please be sure to follow book publishers, authors, and even professional book organizations to get the latest in book reviews, book releases, and other upcoming events! 

There you have it, folks! I may not be 100% on my social media game, but I will do just about anything to promote my student's love of reading.  Even if that means learning how to Instagram, creating a Facebook page to promote our Library events and book fairs, or even as simple as Tweeting out reminders. Until next time, keep reading!

One last time…..Let me try this Tumblr thing again, some people were having trouble last time, I think I got this link set up correctly now.
*I am also on Tumblr, reach out to me to make connections:  mrsmeierreads.tumblr.com