Tag Archives: Facebook

3 Ways Social Media Is Fundamentally Changing the Community College

The tipping point has passed. Social media is creating a fundamental shift in the way students connect, engage, and learn. How many college students go even a day without constant access to their friends via Facebook, Twitter, or chat?

Students no longer learn by sitting idle in their desks listening to a teacher lecture while watching PowerPoint presentations with glazed-over eyes.

Students play a more active role in the learning process and instructors are busy developing a more dynamic curriculum. Community college instructors must learn how to use online tools without being overwhelmed and overloaded with too much information.

1. Fundamental Shift in the Way Students Connect

Improving social connections on campus has been shown to improve student learning outcomes.

Social media is a great way to highlight campus events. Social media platforms such as Facebook help to create meaningful and measurable connections between students, faculty, and the institution.

Many students who attend community colleges have jobs and family responsibilities. They do not live on campus and miss out on residential college life. Tools such as Facebook and Twitter help students to foster relationships and social connections.

2. Fundamental Shift in the Way Students Engage

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media help to captivate the students and get them actively involved in the content.

Instructors can adjust their course content to engage students outside of the traditional classroom and improve the learning experience.

More and more students access social media on their smart phones.

88% of students text or tweet during class. Instead of writing more policies to add to your syllabus, why not spend the time and effort to harness this powerful potential to engage students with the class content?

If community college instructors embrace mobile technology, we will be moving in the right directions and staying ahead of the curve.

Whether it is through a mobile device, Facebook application, or other social media platform, these powerful social media tools can be used to keep the students engaged with the classroom content.

3. Fundamental Shift in the Way Students Learn

Christina Greenhow, an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, experimented with Twitter in her classroom, and she found that students were more engaged and earned higher grades.

Students are accustomed to using Facebook groups to connect with each other, discuss course content, and share photos or links of interest.

Millennial students are in the habit of learning from their peers in virtual communities.

Students who are shy in class will often feel more comfortable commenting on a blog post, tweet, or Facebook Page. Students no longer visit their instructors in their offices. Instead, they are more likely to seek academic support from faculty members or student support services through a social media platform.

Listen to an Expert

Howard Rheingold defined the world of social media before it even existed. He coined the term virtual communities way back in 1987. He teaches at Stanford University.

Informal, peer learning should not be underestimated.

Rheingold makes the point that a small number of distant connections creates a network and references John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation. Six degrees of separation is the idea that everyone is connected to each other by only a few degrees of separation.

Rheingold emphasis the importance of helping students create a positive “digital footprint.” Make sure when someone Google’s your name, they find something positive.

Learning to live mindfully in a cyberculture is as important to all of us as a civilization as it is vital to you and me as individuals. ~ Howard Rheingold

You may also be interested in reading:

POGIL Anyone? (Jon Freer)

Pin and Be Pinned: Strategies for Pinterest Success (Joel F.W. Price)

How to Welcome Transfer Students with Social Media (Michelle Immel)

3 Reasons Social Media is Right for Community Colleges (Brandon Croke)

5 Ways Higher Education is Leveraging Mobile Tech (Jeff Kirchick)

Studio by Purdue University

Twitter Boosts College Grades and Class Engagement [Study] (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)

Best Practices for Educators on Facebook (Sarah Kessler)

Howard Rheingold: Net Smart – How to Thrive Online (Howard Rheingold)

Mind Amplifier: Howard Rheingold And The Value Of Convivial Tools (Anthony Kosner)

Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart: living mindfully in cyberculture (Cory Doctorow)

5 Incredibly Effective Tips for Promoting Your Small Business Using Social Media

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Small Business Owner Photo by Mitchell Bryant

Many small businesses are struggling in our local economy.

Social media provides a means to promote your business and turn your followers into loyal customers.

But don’t take my word for it. Research conducted as a part of the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report suggest that small businesses are seeing the greatest results from social media marketing.

Ninety percent of those surveyed indicated that social media is important to their business. Small business owners were most likely to “strongly agree” that social media was important to their business.

Social Media is time consuming, and you have a business to run. You must ask,

“Will the time spent on social media be worth my effort?”

Consider these results from the study as shown on the Social Media Examiner:

Small businesses were twice as likely to find qualified leads than other types of businesses.
Forty-eight percent of self-employed and small business owners saw improved sales as a direct result of their social media efforts.
The self-employed (59%) and small business owners (58%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

O.K. So you are convinced that social media is worth your time. But How Do You Get Started?

Start by building on these five tips for promoting your business using social media.

1. Establish an online presence

The importance of an online presence cannot be overstated. As Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, has said,

“If you are not online, you are invisible.”

To establish an online presence, you first need a website with a blog, which you update regularly.

You must be where you customers are. Start with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Add Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube.

2. Create a video about your products & services

Use a video as often as possible. People want to know you.

Don’t over think the video. Just Do It! It takes time to build confidence. Your customers are not looking for professional, polished videos. They want to know about real people.

Don’t make the video long. Two to four minutes is the most watched time.

Upload your video to YouTube and then embed into your blog. How will you let your customers know about your video?

Send a tweet with a link
Post to LinkedIn
Post to your Facebook Page
Email the link
Post to Google+
Post to your Pinterest board

3. Collect email addresses

Start collecting email addresses today. Collecting email addresses is what Carrie Wilkerson calls “filling your stadium” and Seth Godin refers to as “tribes.”

Customers provide their email addresses and “opt in” to receive regular updates from you.

When you get readers visiting your blog, collect their email address (fill your stadium). You do this by having a form on your website or blog for them to sign up to receive your updates in their email. Entice them to sign up by offering something free. You may want to check out Carrie Wilkerson’s 25 Practical Tips for Endless Lead Generations through Networking, Online List Building, and Social Media.

4. Support a local cause

I’m from a small town, and we love to get behind a cause. It may be packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas child, Relay for Life, or many other good causes. When you use social media to support a cause, you do something good while also helping to create what is sometimes called “top-of-mind” positioning. When someone gets ready to buy, you will be the person or company who first comes to their mind.

Your goal is to create an awareness of who you are. You are a credible, honest, and likeable person. And you want others to know you. Build trust.

Zig Ziglar says,

“If people like you, they will listen to you; but if they trust you, they will do business with you.”

5. Listen to your customers

What are your customers saying?

What are your customers struggling with?

Listen to your customers, so that you can provide them with excellent service and value. Respond to your customers in a timely manner. Address negative remarks with a positive response.