Thing 9: Social Media

Facebook is the only social media platform I regularly use. Although I'm on it about every day, I don't use it as my public diary, and I share things just occasionally. I use it more to collect information (like about K-pop, go figure) than to share information. I had already liked the Geneva Public Library District page (that Ellen curates), so I receive library updates on my news feed.

When I accessed the page on my phone, I saw that Ellen had recently posted a promotion for my upcoming 20s & 30s program, Aluminum Embossing Workshop, and decided to shamelessly plug my own program by sharing it. I'm pretty average at texting, but for some reason, knowing that what I wrote was going to be posted publicly, I stressed out about the spelling and grammar and ended up making many more mistakes than I normally do (which I fixed, of course, to my best knowledge).

Based on a class I took in grad school about using social media in libraries, I learned that libraries shouldn't use platforms solely for promoting activities with dates and times. They need to balance those with fluffy posts (like fun pictures or lists) and make sure they respond to comments from followers as a way of both giving and receiving information. Whenever I see a fun post, like from Book Riot, or a trailer for an upcoming book-to-movie, I'll send the link the Ellen.

Book Riot recently posted Book Riot Best of 2015 listing the best books of the year. The list was compiled by online voters, so it's most likely a list of popular books rather than the best written or most literary ones. Not every reader will agree!

Pictures are also fun to post. I can't remember if any of these were posted on Geneva's page or if I just saw them elsewhere:

So funny, right?