It’s Kansas Library Association Conference time again! This year’s theme is Libraries Build Communities – Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, and it will be October 23-25 at the Overland Park Convention Center. The KLA Conference Planning Committee has been hard at work putting together speakers, sessions, and activities, and we hope you have a valuable time learning and connecting with fellow Kansas librarians this year.

As chair of the Publicity Committee, I’ve had the fortune of sharing conference news and updates on KLA’s social media channels. I’m now looking forward to engaging with conference attendees through Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Not sure where to start with all that? Come to the Social Media User Group at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday!

Why should you use social media during the conference? It’s definitely not a requirement, but here are five benefits:

Keep up with conference news and updates
Social Media is the quickest way for the publicity committee to share news and updates about the conference. Follow KLA on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook. Also, keep tabs on the official conference hashtag #KLAC2019!

Connect and engage with conference attendees
Hundreds of librarians attend the KLA conference. That’s hundreds of colleagues you could potentially connect with, but only three days to do so. Who has the time to do that in person? By following the #KLAC2019 hashtag, you can easily discover and connect with attendees who may be out of your normal conference scope.

Learn what’s happening in sessions you don’t attend
We’ve all been there. Two (or more) sessions you really want to go to are in the same time block. You can only choose one. Not a problem if someone’s live Tweeting! Monitor that conference hashtag to see if others are attending and Tweeting about the session you’re missing. Bonus points if you’re returning the favor and Tweeting about your session!

Take notes for future reference
Did you know a Twitter thread is a great method of note taking? A thread is a series of Tweets connected by replies to subsequent Tweets. Since you’re limited to 280 characters, it helps you keep notes concise, and you can easily refer back by linking to the original Tweet in the thread.

Capture conference memories
If anything else, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are perfect for capturing conference memories. Share photos, Tweet your positive experiences, create an Instagram story as you wander through the exhibits. Don’t forget to use that hashtag!