Teen Read Week- Social Media Programming
By Elise Martinez, Teen Services Specialist, Zion-Benton Public Library
October 25, 2018
Teen Read Week's theme for 2018 was "Written in the Stars." Historically, our library has always struggled to get attendance for TRW-specific programming. However, we have been noticing an increase in our engagement on various social media sites, specifically Instagram. Therefore, we decided to host virtual, passive programming that teens could engage in from wherever they were. We posted four "activities" during that week.
Activity 1: Astrology Book Recommendations- teens submitted their star signs and we gave personalized book recs based on that sign.
Activity 2: Cover Crush- We posted photos of a series of new and upcoming YA novels and let teens vote "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on the images.
Activity 3: Book Character Soulmates based on their astrology sign. Similar to day 1, teens submitted their signs and we shared which book character would be "most compatible" with them based on that sign.
Activity 4: Book Mad Libs- teens sent in words to fill in the blanks of a madlib that we posted to our stories.
We incentivized all of our posts. Teens could participate for the chance to win prizes such as $5 gift cards or something from our prize chest.
Type: Self-directed
Age: High school
Optimal size: 20+
Estimated cost: Free
Planning time: <1 hour
Frequency: One-time
Learning outcomes
Teens were able to leverage their digital tools to discover book recommendations.
Teens discovered areas of our collection that they might have been unfamiliar with before.
Teens could connect with the library in a unique and relevant manner.
Instructions
Example of the slide asking for teen star signs.
Activity 1- Star Sign Book Recommendations
Once I had the specific activities that I wanted to do, I planned the posts themselves. I used a free Instagram story-editing app called Unfold to create a few of the "slides" (as IG calls them). Once it came time to post them, I uploaded the image into our stories and swiped up to add a Question sticker so that teens could send their answers.
As we began receiving entries, I would find books that matched the sign of that teen. Epic Reads has several great posts that helped me out, and I would have a CafeAstrology.com up to read the traits of the various signs.
Activity 2- Cover Crush
We posted 5 covers to our story with a Poll sticker for teens to select thumbs up or thumbs down. Instagram allows you to customize the text in the poll, so you can style it any way you would like.
It was very interesting to see which covers teens did and didn't like!
Activity 3- Book Character Soulmates
Similar to day 1, teens sent in their signs and we found characters that exhibited characteristics of a sign they would be compatible with. This one took a bit more time to formulate, so I recommend having that Cafe Astrology website up again to help you.
Activity 4- Book Mad Libs
We posted a Mad Lib with words left out of it, asking for a verb, noun, adjective, etc. Teens submitted their words and we posted the completed MadLib later that day.
At the end of the week, one teen was chosen from each activity to come to the teen room and claim their prize.
Evaluation
We had about 60 engagements with our Instagram stories, which is more than we would have had if we had hosted a program at our library.
I got a few DMs saying that they really liked the astrology-related posts.