Anindita Basu Sempre initiated our Region’s social media presence in 2009 by creating the @nescbwi Twitter account during her tenure at conference co-coordinator. In 2014, Kris Asselin took responsibility for the Twitter account, and more recently, various other members of the Regional Team also contribute tweets. The account is most active in the weeks leading up to our regional conference, but includes at least a few posts each week. It currently has about 3,700 followers.
In 2014, Margo Lemieux created the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Facebook page. Margo continued to oversee the page, which includes information about upcoming SCBWI events and provides answers to questions posed by members as well as non-members until she stepped down as Co-RA in 2018. Around the same time other RT members created some more targeted pages.
• Stacy Mozer created a closed Facebook group that allows critique group leaders to connect so that they can discuss common problems and learn from one other’s experiences. When the region was reorganized in 2018, all three of the new regional critique coordinators received moderator rights to the page.
• Kris Asselin created the New England SCBWI Published and Listed (PAL), a closed group that keeps PAL members up to date on local events and allows them to share ideas.
• Kris also started the New England SCBWI Regional Meet and Greets page, which advertises upcoming Meet and Greet events throughout New England. Shawn Anderson took over moderating this page in 2018.
• With assistance from Kris Asselin, Linda Crotta Brennan established the New England SCBWI Book Marketing Group page in 2014. This closed Facebook group served New England SCBWI members who were interested in share book marketing ideas and/or coordinate efforts to promote their books until the program was shut down in 2018.
• In 2017, Pam Vaughan created a public Whispering Pines Retreat-SCBWI Facebook page as well as a closed group for members who have attended or are interested in attending the annual Whispering Pines Retreat at the University of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones Campus. She also created a retreat specific Twitter account: @wpretreatwriter.
The Regional Team is currently considering consolidating some of these social media outlets to prevent redundancy and so that members can find all the information they’re looking for in one location.
