So, about two years ago I started to delve into social media, and began playing with how to use social media for my library to build relationships, extend the reach of the library beyond the physical space, create avenues for students to feel connected to the library even when not in the library, and for advocacy of the value of the library program.
I started with Instagram for our high school library and it has been, probably, the single best thing I’ve done for establishing relationships and branding our library to the students. It has also been HUGE for advocacy with admin, teachers, parents, and the community. You can see my blog post on “Tips for Creating and Insta Students Love to Follow” for more on all that.
This week I did two new things which have really spiced up, or amped up, my library’s social media game, which I’d like to share here!
#1 – First of all, the biggest new thing I tried, thanks to the @punk_rock_librarian (insta & twitter), was the social media app Tik Tok. If you are not familiar with it, as I was not, it is an app for creating short videos where sound or music is usually a big component. It is EXTREMELY addictive. After seeing @punk_rock_librarian ‘s hilarious library Tik Tok (you can see it here), I was pretty much immediately addicted and I’ve been playing with the app ever since. So I made an account for the library and started making a couple videos.
Well apparently Tik Tok is VERY popular with the students because they are LOVING the Tik Tok videos. For now I’ve been creating and posting them in Tik Tok and then posting them again on the Instagram. If you have the time and enjoy being silly, I HIGHLY recommend you give Tik Tok a try.
The second thing I did was I transitioned my Instagram over to a business account.
This was pretty easy to do, didn’t cost anything, and the best part is that it allows you to run analytics. The analytics are AWESOME because they help you understand how much interaction your posts are getting, which is really helpful for guiding you on what types of posts are popular.
To change your Instagram over to a business account:
- Click the three lines in the top right hand corner of your account and then click “settings.” Then click “account.”
- Once you’ve switched it to Business you will have access to analytics on each of your posts. You can either go to the post and click “view insights” ……
- OR you can click the three lines in the top of your account and choose “insights.”
So that’s it for today! A short post but I’ve been so excited about Tik Tok since starting it that I just had to share! I should probably do a legitimate post about all the benefits to social media and why I think librarians should absolutely have social media accounts for their libraries, and I will one day, but……….. not this day!
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