Social Media Sites...Oh My!

Facebook
     One of the first school library pages that I looked into was the Mission High School Library in Mission, Texas.  What I liked about Mission's library page is that they are constantly posting memes and 'posters' that appear to be relevant to either the library or the school.  They also seem to be very active with their posts.  And even though they have around 200 people 'following' them, they're not really getting a lot of 'hits' back.  The same can be said for two elementary school pages that I also viewed, which were Elm Grove Elementary Library in Independence, Missouri and Hermon Elementary School Library in Hermon, Maine.  All three pages appear to be active and post events and videos taking place around their campus, and yet each one has limited follower feedback/engagement.  However, out of the three, I would have to say that Elm Grove has the better school library page.  The librarian, Mr. Harris, takes meaningful pictures of his young readers being engaged with either events going on in the library or around campus.  He also provides detailed information about how to get in contact with the school library, as well as what behavior is allowed and acceptable when posting to the school library page.  If anything else, another thing that really stood out to me was that Mr. Harris also ventured out of the library to take pictures of the events going on around campus and even posted videos.

• Overall Opinion about Facebook - I think it is a great tool to be used in promoting the library, but should perhaps provide more engaging and/or interactive content to ensure that the 'followers' are actually participating with the page and not just liking it because it pops up under pages you might like.

Twitter

     I will be honest, I'm not a big user or fan of Twitter (I've never had an account until just a couple of days ago for educational purposes); however, I really do recommend the use of Twitter over Facebook when it comes to promoting a school library.  After reading tweets from those involved with educational technology, I feel like I know them a bit more and that I have an easier time connecting with them through Twitter than I would Facebook.  There appears to be a bit more interaction and engagement from followers, and I also believe that the followers get to be exposed more to the happenings in the world - a definite must for those that are unaware of anything outside of their own home, as well as a point for Twitter since I did not see any of those posts on the Facebook pages I browsed through.  Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) has a Tweet that is such a great example - Cape Cod - Geodesic Dome 360 View.  Also, because of the minimum amount of characters a Tweet can hold, the Tweets are short, simple, and to the point - another plus since the attention span of a student and busy parent is not enough to read a paragraph (a feature of Facebook).

• Overall Opinion about Twitter - After browsing for a bit through Twitter, I definitely see more promotion opportunities for librarians than I did with using Facebook.  It is important to keep in mind that the new generations are growing up with technology, and, though the older generation may have a hard time adapting, they will adapt because there is no where to go but forward.

On a side note - I then went back to look at the school libraries I found on Facebook, and only Mr. Harris has a Twitter account - it does not have as many followers as his Facebook page (which is easily remedied through promoting his Twitter page).  Yet, perhaps the preference of which social media sites to use depends on the preference of the followers?  Besides, librarians do the things they do for the benefit of others.  So, as proven by Mr. Harris, why not have both?