In today’s age of technology, social media has become ingrained into our daily lives in one format or another. Whether we use it to check the news, keep in contact with our friends, or as a marketing tool, this technology has created a paper free method of connecting the world together in an online platform.
When we think of social media, we think of the colossus giant, Facebook – much like Kleenex became the universal name for “tissue.” There are several other players in this social media game though. We can think of social media as being divided into essentially 7 different categories, based on its intended use. There are social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which are used to connect friends, family, professional networks, and brands together. There are social review sites, such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, which take the guesswork out of consumer experiences. Image sharing sites, such as Instagram and Snapchat, allow users to create, curate, and share images within a network. There are video hosting sites, such as YouTube, Bitable, or Vimeo, where users create and share content. Another type of social media is through community blogs. Sites such as Medium, Word Press, or Tumblr provide a space to express and share thoughts that connect us to other users. Discussion sites, such as Reddit and Quora are useful spaces for sparking conversations or sharing interests and curiosities within sub-communities. And there are also sharing economy networks, where sites like Airbnb or Rover, help users find holiday vacation rentals, or other opportunities from pooling resources on a large scale. These types of opportunities wouldn’t be available without the use of technology as a means of advertising globally.
For the sake of today’s discussion, I will look at how Twitter can be used for professional development. As seen in the prior paragraph, the use of social media has expanded well beyond a method of sending messages to friends. There is a platform to address a wide range of professional and personal needs. From a professional standpoint, Twitter allows users to make connections with other professionals around the globe. This platform uses “tweets” which consist of short messages of up to 280 characters. The benefit of this format is that it forces the user to be concise and intentional with their communication, while providing the opportunity for that message to reach millions of people. Another advantage to this abbreviated format, is that it is more conducive to getting directly to the point, without oversharing personal feelings. Twitter uses #hashtags to connect users to topics of interest. This method allows for a focused search on related topics, career paths, network affiliates, specific companies or universities, to name a few. Another powerful tool to consider when using hashtags for professional development, is to check their ranking on hashtagify.me . By monitoring their performance, you can boost your own professional visibility more successfully.
Twitter can also be used as a tool for networking and building a brand. Social media gives individuals the power to have visibility and showcase your professional knowledge, creativity, or skills on a much larger scale. By creating strategic network connections, and tagging influencers for added visibility, or specific brands that you want to connect with, Twitter becomes a powerful tool for marketing. In addition, by using graphics, photos, or videos to support your tweets, you create eye catching and memorable content, which will provide more information to those you are wanting to connect with. And for those looking to make strategic connections with those businesses or groups trending on Twitter, you can check out https://www.tweeplers.com/ for the top 20 trending twitter users in the United States.
Specifically within the realm of education, Twitter can be used as your personal learning network (PLN). Educators are synonymous with being lifelong learners, from earning their teaching degrees, to the continuous professional development required to maintain certifications. This ongoing pursuit of knowledge also requires collaboration between other educators, who are willing to share information, resources, or provide a review for a fellow educator. A PLN helps educators connect all over the world, through blogs, discussion groups, online learning, and chatrooms. Twitter can be used as a PLN, where educators can share challenges and questions or exchange ideas and encouragement with others in the field. Here are several ideas and hashtags that can be used specifically for educators using Twitter as a PLN.
I currently use several different social media platforms, from Facebook, Google hangouts, twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Between all of these I have found that they connect me socially, professionally, or creatively to like minded individuals that I’m looking to connect with. As I am working on completing my Instructional Design portfolio, I am discovering tools to help me with professional development. Some that I’ve discovered are the Bitable platform, which can be used to assist in creating professional video presentations. I would consider this to be more of a collaborative tool, rather than a full social media platform, however, they do have a social media presence on Facebook, which I’ve joined, in order to collaborate with other creators and learn more about their services and products. Bitable offers a free version, which provides users with animated video templates that can be customized and edited for your specific purpose. On a larger scale, and with an annual subscription, this platform allows for features such as collaborative video editing, royalty-free images or music, studio-quality animations, as well as chat and email features within an unlimited sized professional group.
Another platform that I’ve discovered for multimedia content creation, is Wistia. This company makes a marketing software subscription based service that allows you to create multimedia content to use on social media or other platforms. Their goal is to help you create content to build your brand and reach your target market. While this is not a social media platform, a free subscription gives you access to a company learning center where you can subscribe to a Wistia blog, podcast, and learning community on the topic of creating multimedia content.
A social media platform that I have recently signed up with, is Academia.edu . This site is touted as the biggest academic social media network, with over 114 million subscribers. It allows you to share research papers and see the impact of that paper and research, through likes and shares. You can connect with scholars in your field, and follow their research work as you build a professional online community. You can search for your research interests, download public papers, and request private ones as well. It is important to note that there are legal terms and conditions associated with some publications, which may not allow public sharing, so be mindful of any publishing terms in advance. I will also point out that I wrote a paper about cyberbullying during my masters program, and once I logged into Academia.edu, there were several recommended papers presented to me on the topic of cyberbullying, due to my prior research on the topic. I can see that this could be a valuable community when conducting research.
My Journey Through Instructional Design 