Tools

Archivists can leverage social media in a variety of ways, from sharing information about collections and services to engaging in community outreach. Social media has brought archivists out of the stacks and in even more direct contact with the public, providing access to historic documents, photographs and artifacts across vast distances of time and space, in very interactive and meaningful ways. It is a communication tool that cannot be ignored in a world increasingly reliant on digital information.

Since I launched this blog in 2008, I have spent a great deal of time learning how to master various social media platforms, and I have used The Posterity Project as my own platform to share what I have learned with my audience. Every day I discover something new in my travels through the social media landscape, so I wanted to create a place on my blog dedicated to sharing links to these stories with readers, especially archivists and local historians who are just beginning to learn how to use social media for the benefit of their collections and the general public.

On this page I have gathered a few of my most useful and practical blog posts about social media into one place. I call it my "Social Media Tool Box." I plan to update this list as new sites are featured on The Posterity Project, so check back often for updates. In the meantime, I hope that this resource page will inspire you to "think outside the box in the digital age"...

[Updated 4/30/2013]

• "Using Facebook Timeline to document the links to your past" - Ideas for creating a lasting impression on Facebook's newest user interface.

• "Archives interest in Pinterest" - An overview of the social bookmarking site, Pinterest.

• "Reciprocity: The Value of Twitter for Archivists" - A primer on Twitter for archivists, and suggestions on how to get the most out of this popular microblogging platform.

• "Too square for Foursquare" - A brief introduction to Foursquare, the location-based social networking service.

• "A Flickr of hope for Tennessee's archives" - Two of Tennessee's archival institutions serve as inspiration and encouragement to create your own Flickr image sharing project.

• "Thinking outside the box in the digital age" - My manifesto for archives and public outreach in the 21st century.

• "WhatWasThere maps your journey to the past" - WhatWasThere allows users to upload photographs to Google Maps, creating a unique portrait of our past.

• "Historypin is looking for images from Tennessee archives" - Historypin overlays historic photographs on Google Street View and Google Maps to create a compelling and interactive view of the past.

• "Are we there yet?" - Tennessee Archives on Google Maps