The Instagram account that I chose to do my social media evaluation project on is the Suffern Free Library account, which is located at 210 Lafayette Avenue Suffern, NY 10901.
https://www.instagram.com/suffernfreelibrary/
This Instagram page has been around since February 7th, 2022 yet it does appear to be making waves online. I believe there are some reasons for this. Before I state those reasons, let us evaluate the positives of this page. Although they do not post daily, they do post frequently enough on current events that are happening in their library. For example, on September 21st, 2023, which happens to be their latest post, they posted about their latest book for a 10-12 Grade Book Club meeting that will happening on Monday, October 16th, 2023 in the evening. They even offered for the first 5 teens that sign up for the event, they will receive free copies of the book they will be reading for the book club and they will be served snacks and drinks at the event. I think it is important that they offer incentives that invites young teens to the event, such as the free books and snacks and drinks. It represents a very welcoming environment where the librarians want to create a homey vibe to their library where teens can enjoy the storytelling and share that love with friends that they meet. Another positive is that their events do not only focus on books, but other medias as well. For example, on September 13th, 2023, they posted for the 7-12th graders that they are invited to watch two episodes of the famous anime, One Piece, have a chance to win a raffle that has manga-themed prizes, and eat Japanese snacks. Not only is it nice that they are using other medias to bring teens into the library and being interactive with them with prizes and snacks but they are also bringing in other cultures to make it more diverse.
Although these are a couple of amazing points to their page, they can be some improvements made to be more engaging. Firstly, there are a ton of events that are happening in October 2023 at the library that are not even posted on the Instagram page, such as Adult Bingo, Author’s virtual meeting to discuss new book, and so many more events. It is very crucial that the Instagram page is as updated as the website, which is listed in the bio on the account, to market and create traction for these events. I do not think they are using their resource of this account as adequately as they can to promote their library. Another thing is a follow up to this point and that is the frequency of the posts. During the regular school year, it seems that on average, this library posts on their Instagram 3-4 times a month and sometimes even less. It appears that in the summer time, they only post once a month. I understand that school is out for the summer so maybe that is why they don’t post as much, but still, I think it will be interesting to keep the followers updated on what books the librarians are reading or what they are watching and just stuff that will keep the followers interested. The interest will be to the point where they want to come to the library because the librarians have made their page personable and the followers seem to know and trust the librarians. Another thing about the account is that they have a very low following of just 89 followers. Although it seems geared towards teens that live in their area, I think if they ever wanted to, they can create a page where if the teens are engaged enough with it, they can share it online with their friends, who will share it with their friends, and it will create more of a bigger following where their library will be much more popular. I mentioned before how they can make it more personal by showing the librarians what they are reading or watching. Other things they can do is to post some writing, researching, or studying, which will be geared towards students who need guidance on that. Another thing that they can post are book challenges for the whole school year and have a contest on which teens can read the most books in the school year or even the whole year. For the following aspect of the page, they do not follow any pages themselves and they do not receive a lot of likes or comments on their posts, if any. I do not think they are doing enough to increase their following or to receive the interactions in the form of likes and comments on their posts. All their posts are 100% in the form of pictures and it does not look like their are professionally handled in the sense of there does not seem to be a filter on the posts and it was just posted as is. Maybe the picture was cropped but it does not look like they put filters on their posts. There are no videos on the account. I cannot tell if they usually post stories or not but right now, there are no stories and if I would have to assume, I do not believe they post a ton of stories. I think that the posts are simple and sometimes people are attracted to regular posts. However, if you would want to stand out, they would need to have well done posts that look more eye popping and will draw attention to their posts more. Finally, another thing I noticed was that they only seem to show what they are doing on their Instagram account. They don’t seem to repost anything outside of the library. They show events with authors and even a event they had just a couple of months ago where a Taekwondo instructor came to teach teens about some self defense techniques. However, the person(s) that run the account do not always list all the events on the Instagram page so people may not know that there are events going on where they are people outside of the library doing an event there. It does not seem to happen a lot where the library will have people outside of the library come and do an event.
If I ran this account, I would make a few changes. Firstly, I would incorporate not only posts daily and I would try to do multiple times a day, but I would also update the account where the events would match the website and be up to date on what is going on in the library. I would post stories regarding each of the posts as well as send reminders or even do countdowns of important events so people do not forget. Also, I would do lives where I could broadcast the event or do Q&A’s of any topics that followers want to discuss as examples. Another thing I would do is connect with other libraries to collaborate on events where I can expand on the library’s following as well as develop partnerships with other libraries. Once that relationship is established with other libraries, I would repost events happening in their library to show online partnership and support. Finally, I would incorporate the examples I said before with the book challenges for the whole year, guidance on writing, researching, and studying tips for struggling students, and videos on life in the library. I think there is so much more that can be utilized on this account that can help grow their following. They do seem to have a lot of great events at this library so it would be splendid if they kept their Instagram up to date to show all these fun events happening at their library.
