Instagram is a fantastic way to connect with students, teachers, parents and community members. You can showcase what is going on in your library, promote a love of reading and feature student work. If you’re new to IG, it can be easy to feel stuck and unsure of what to post. (Check out my previous post for more on how and why we can use IG to promote and advocate for our libraries).
Here’s some ideas to help you get started with promoting your school library using Instagram:
20+ Ideas for Awesome School Library Instagram Posts:
Promoting Books
- Book reviews – Pretty basic – post a picture of the book, write a caption with your review of the book.
- Book Quotes – Pick out an awesome quote from a book and create a graphic for it (I use Canva). Be sure to include the title and author. I like to create a second image with the cover that I post with the quote.
- First Page Friday – Snap a pic of the first page/first line of a book, add an image of the cover as the second pic.
- What I’m Reading/Book Stack – Share your reading life with your students! Snap a pic of your #tbr (to be read) stack, books you just finished up, etc. #whatimreading
- Books related to a holiday/month/theme, etc – Share a pic of the stack of books you pulled for your Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month display. Or books about Ramandan. Or books that all take place in New York City. If it’s a theme worthy of a display, it’s also worthy of an IG post.
- Shelfies – Take a picture of your home bookshelf. Or take a picture of you in front of your bookshelf.
- Bookface – It’s easier to link to an article that explains it. Basically, take a picture where a book cover and a person merge.
- #bookdroplife – Take a picture of books students return to the library on a given day.
- Book flat lay – Arrange a book with items related to the story.
Sharing library programs
- Library events – Got an author visit? Students creating projects for the Cardboard Challenge? Hosting a parent volunteer luncheon? Take lots of pictures and post them as a carousel (multiple images). This is a great way for your community to see what’s happening in your library. Bonus – programs and events are great Stories material.
- Library displays – Did you put together a cool book display or bulletin board? Take some pictures and show it off!
- Maker flat lay – Take a picture of finished or partial project with supplies
- Student Maker Project Feature – Take a picture of student’s makerspace projects. If you’re allowed to post students on social media, have the student pose with their project.
- Bookfairs –
- Make a video previewing what’s in the book fair.
- Take pics of students holding the books they purchase in front of their faces
- Take a pic of lots of students browsing the bookfair
- Create Instagram contests for students where they can win prizes from the bookfair (I did this once with a secret code word. The first five students who came to me with the word got to pick out a poster that they got for free after the fair was over.)
Using other tools and sharing your professional life:
- Timelapse videos – You can use the timelapse feature on your phone camera to create interesting videos to share on your account. There’s so many possibilities. Here’s a few:
- Day in the library
- Opening up boxes of new books
- Mini-tours of your space
- Boomerang – Instagram got rid of the separate Boomerang app, but if you have an iPhone, you can still create those quick videos that go backwards and forwards. Just use the live photo function and them upload the photo into your Instagram stories. You’ll see the Boomerang Icon which will let you add that effect in your Story. If you’re stumped on how to make it look good, ask your students.
- Student book recommendations
- Maker projects with movement
- Selfies – Let your students see you.
- At conferences
- Shopping at a bookstore
- Taking virtual PD
- Participating in school life somewhere other than the library (this is good so that they recognize you do other things too).
- On field trips
What are some of your favorite things to post on your school library Instagram?
