This week, let’s take a peek at TikTok. You can go back and look at the previous PLN posts that included Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. TikTok has been shaking up the world since 2016, but it’s been more recent that librarians and other educators have joined in on the fun. By the way, when it first debuted it was called musical.ly.
In case you don't know much about TikTok, it is a video-based social media platform. When people think of TikTok they mostly think of people lip-syncing to popular songs. But, more and more you are seeing people lip sync, dance, sing, or just talk. There is a social aspect to this platform since you can browse, follow people, like their videos, leave comments, and send each other messages. You can choose to make your account public (by default) or private.
So where is your PLN in TikTok? You are going to need to search (Discover button) for people, browse through popular creators, search for categories (school library, education, library), and hashtags (#tokstarlibrarians, #schoollibraries) to find videos.
You can also search for people by name, from your phone contacts, and from Facebook friends.
This week’s blog post featured one of the #tokstarlibrarians of TikTok. Her name is Amanda Hunt and she is AWESOME!! She uses the name thenextgenlibrarian on TikTok and other social media to connect with her middle school students. Listen to her interview and grab some tips of what you can do to get started. Amanda also recommends following akbusybee and any of the other #tokstarlibrarians. Here’s my friend Renee Dyer leading students in “Never Have I Ever” Library version.
When you search for #tokstarlibrarians you will see a list of videos to choose from. First, go ahead and add #tokstarlibrarians to your favorites.
Next, start opening the videos and see which people you connect with. When you’re watching a video, the first circle on the top right is where you can view the person’s profile and choose to follow them and add them to your PLN.
If you're a video person, TikTok is a GREAT way to have a little fun with your professional life and a great way to connect with students. And while you're at it, you might even get #tokstarlibrarian famous yourself!
Have a great weekend and keep making a difference every day!
Dr. Laura
Have you met Amanda Hunt? She's the TikTok librarian I mentioned above. Be sure to listen to her interview. She's doing awesome things!
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