Published: April 9, 2019 by Greta Snyder

Social media is an important tool for fast-forwarding professional development and engagement and a very useful resource for job and opportunity hunting, so I want to start exploring specific social media tools in the upcoming weeks. This week we will start with Twitter.

As librarian Jane Cowell (2018) points out in a helpful article on the topic: “librarians go hard on Twitter and this platform contains a lot of engaged library folk who share research, interesting links and innovations.” She offers some excellent advice for really taking your Twitter game to the next level:

• Make your Twitter profile sing: identify yourself as a library student/professional and share your interests so that other library folks can connect with you.
• Your Twitter Header is a billboard for you as a professional: show yourself in action, update regularly with new photos interest, use your own real photo.
• Follow influencers and relevant organizations; Create Twitter Lists to maximize your time.
• Retweet strategically:  share quality content; provide value for your followers.
• Be engaging:  do not overshare but be relatable and social; use images if relevant.
• Share your achievements and your own content: link to your blog or your library’s Instagram; do not be shy. If you/your library have done something amazing, share!
• Use hashtags and respond to comments: be excited to connect.

Applying this approach specifically to our profession, being resilient and leading change strategies for change on a personal and organizational level is a 21^st century competency. Change management is such a critical skill for librarians and librarian leaders in the constantly evolving world. As Bell (2018) describes, “in a constant change environment, leaders need to do more than manage change, they need to create a change-ready culture.” Change-readiness should thus be a skill, ethos, and lifestyle that can be demonstrated through how we answer this question of weakness.

Social media should always be used respectfully and professionally, check out these helpful guidelines shared by SJSU, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! Social media provides creative spaces online to connect; I follow @provolibrary which is very engaging; they reach out to both local patrons and a global community of librarians by utilizing a shared crush-worthy hashtag, #bookfacefriday. Here is an example post.

Looking for some additional Twitter best practices, such as the best days to Tweet are Wednesday and Thursday? Then check out this resource.

Next week we will look at LinkedIn and include highlights from a LinkedIn workshop held by Jill Klees, the iSchool Student, and Alumni Career Consultant. Thank you again for reading and please comment or email me any ideas for future posts!

Upcoming Career Development Opportunities

• SJSU + Gartner Blockchain Briefing – April 10, 2019, 9am-11am – RSVP ASAP
• Be a Peer Mentor for INFO 203 – Applications due April 22, 2019
• Present a poster at the ALA Annual Conference this June in Washington D.C. – submit a poster proposal by April 30, 2019
• Library 2.019:  Open Data – June 5, 2019 – 12:00-3:00 pm (PT)

Jobs in Handshake (requires login to Handshake)

• Library Services Specialist – Palo Alto, CA
• Collections Strategist & Resource Access Librarian – Buffalo, NY
• Librarian – Youth – Canton, MI
• Media Cataloger – Los Angeles, CA
• Literature and Humanities Librarian – Boulder, CO
• Law Librarian – Sacramento, CA
• Instruction/First Year Librarian – San Francisco, CA
• Siri Computational Linguist – Cupertino, CA

Interviewing 101

What can you do to help your references write a compelling letter of recommendation for you? See 3 suggestions here.