START SPREADING THE NEWS. A journey in social media usage for outreach in a cooperative digitization project

Social media is an excellent outreach tool that can be an effective and cost-friendly way to be heard and tell people about valuable primary resources. However, as major projects go, they are part of a larger institution – or cooperative group of institutions – and that entails a look at broader or related procedures and collaboration between partners. Ensuring that social media efforts are in accordance with institutional guidelines and policies is crucial. Creating a social media framework and guidelines to focus outreach and communication for a particular project is highly recommended. It is also important to focus guidelines in the context of collaborating institutional or organizational partnerships. This alignment can provide a roadmap between social media efforts for the project and the larger outreach and educational efforts with collaborating institutional partners. The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project, part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, is on a journey of social media spreading-the-news activities while at the same time, developing an approach that fits into existing or in-progress institutional policies. In this presentation, the author will present on the project\u27s social media activities and channels. We will explore the challenges and opportunities that arise from coordinating social media efforts between different areas of the organization, the project, the partners, and the users. The author will also share his experience in developing social media policy and guidelines