Facebook VS Twitter - is one really better than the other?

     This is a question I have been asked in more than one graduate class. My answer would be: It depends! The choice of platforms for a social connection depends on several things. 1) Are you looking for friends and family connections? Are you looking to connect with others in your same profession? 2) Do you know who you are looking for (names specifically) or do you just have a general idea (a broad term like "librarian")? 3) Do you want to know what others are doing day-to-day, or are you looking for advice on how to do a great lesson in your library? Depending on your answers to these and other questions, one platform will probably emerge to be your "go-to" place. That being said, both platforms are actually more similar than they may first appear.

    In terms of school librarians both Facebook and Twitter have large numbers of users. On Twitter, when you put "school library" into the search box, not only libraries and librarians are returned but also other entities that have a vested interest in school libraries, such as publishing companies and associations created to support school libraries. Whereas putting the same criteria in the Facebook search box, the results are hundreds (or more - I got tired of waiting for Facebook to "Load more results") of actual school libraries and not so much of the other entities. That isn't to say that YALSA, AASL, and the big publishing companies are not on Facebook, they are, you just have to look for them by name.

     The information and ideas that filter through either platform entirely depends on who you follow and are friends with. If you only follow authors, libraries, and other professional entities the tweets that come to your account will be what you need to help you in your library endeavors. If you are friends with your faculty, staff, parents, and students, you will be sharing information they want and need. These aims are completely up to you. If your account is a mixture of your private life and your school life and you share with parents and students - you really need to rethink your account and make one personal and one professional.

     As far as what most accounts and pages tweet/post for the world to see, this is what I found: On Facebook the pages I selected are sharing what is going on in the library. I saw many Book Fairs being promoted, happy kids using maker spaces, and announcements of other events either in the library or on campus that parents and students would be interested in. On Twitter when I clicked on actual library accounts I saw much the same thing, sharing day-to-day activities that the stakeholders of their library would be interested in seeing. What I found on Twitter that isn't as apparent on Facebook, are the many individual librarians who have accounts where they share their experience with other librarians and educators. Again, many of these folks are also on Facebook, you just have to know who to look for. Buffy Hamilton will show up in a search for librarians in Twitter, but you have to know that she is "TheUnquietLibrarian" to find her on Facebook. She and many others post basically the same awesome information on both platforms, so then it just leaves the end user to decide which format they prefer.

     What we, as librarians ourselves, must remember is that even though we may feel as though we are the end user most times, we aren't. We have students, parents, and faculty needing to hear and see what is happening in the library. They need book recommendations. They need to know what is going on elsewhere on campus. They need help with finding resources for great lessons. We need to meet them where they are most comfortable, just like a classroom teacher with their students. Self-proclaimed professionals may be more comfortable looking for library information on Twitter because of the two, it seems to be dominated by the people viewed as "experts". Facebook seems to be viewed more like the Wikipedia of social media on the internet - written by everyday people and not always to be trusted because the authors don't always know what they are talking about. On Twitter, you rarely see what the comments are in regards to a tweet because, unless you follow both parties involved you are unable to view them. On Facebook, of course, you can see all 5k comments if you are interested in that many opinions, the beauty of that is you can look or not, it is your choice. At my school we have a library Facebook page where our librarian shares the day-to-day happenings in the library. It works well to keep parents informed and kids excited to see their pictures on the internet! Search for Magnolia School Library or click here: Magnolia School Library
    
     My recommendation to librarians (and others) is this: Have a presence in both! You may even need to have more that one account or page in each place - one where you are the expert, sharing with others and one where you are the learner, asking questions.  One caveat: We need to remember that in the near future this question will be completely moot because we will have other platforms that we have moved to for communication. We need to stay aware of what is going on around us and be flexible enough to change with the times - Instagram is already the platform of choice for most of my students, and parents are bound to follow in order to keep an eye on their babies!

This is a tweet that was retweeted by Mr. ©olby Sharp (@colbysharp) that I thought was especially poignant today:

"Reading is humanity, and after 9/11 we need all the humanity we can get." - @noraraleighB https://t.co/VqzY7jtybA

— Mr. ©olby Sharp (@colbysharp) September 8, 2016