Teaching Social MediaBy: Jeff Gale

Teach how to get an audience

• Before someone can maximize their potential helpfulness to society and social good they need to gather a following

How to gather a following

• Ask those with many followers for a retweet

• Show personality• Incorporate other

social media• Comment on blogs• Advertise

Get Students Involved• Have them get an ACTIVE

Twitter account, Facebook account, blog, and Flickr account

• Have them interact/write about social organizations via these platforms

• Results in learning about those they might work with and the platforms they will use

Teach what to Post

• Flickr- Photos that engage the audience and want to get them involved (i.e events, helping out)

• Comment the photos of others (i.e. the social group they are studying)

Teach what to post

• Have students blog about their favorite social organization and how they use social media• Post news from the organization•Use videos/pictures

Teach what to post• Have students create their own fan page- this could be a needed skill for the job market (I.e. copywriter) and they could post it on their Linked In page!

Teach what to post

• Twitter & Facebook status- have students post interests/news relevant to them and their organization they are studying• post relevant links• engage in discussion with those who want to learn more

BOTTOM LINE• TEACH THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE AUDIENCE INTERESTED, ENTERTAINED, AND WANTING MORE ON ALL PLATFORMS (I.e. using interesting stats/news)

Use Examples of agencies or people who are successful

• For example, analyze how The Nature Conservancy uses Twitter

Nature Conservancy (41,000 + followers)

• Uses background to tell who tweets and links to other social media sites

• Posts news

• Uses hashtags (#climate)

•Engages in conversation with followers

Teach Safety Features

• Important to show how to make group profiles/ individual profiles private and protect info (comes in handy when students are looking for jobs, possibly for the same agencies they are helping)

Real World Practice

• Before class starts, have organizations agree to have students partner with said organizations to create a social media strategy

• Also, have students write an essay/ create a project where students analyze group’s social media strategy

Most Importantly

• ENCOURAGE!• TELL THEM THEY

CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON THER OWN! (i.e. look what Julian Assange has done with Wikileaks)

Have fun Socializing!