Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Required Social Media Skills.. Are You Listening Schools?

We live in a social world, social media enables us to be social with one another all over the globe,social media isn’t going away.

Consider this... Recently Moz and Fractl analyzed 75,315 job listings which contained digital marketing words, on the job board Indeed. Guess what the result was... The keyword with the largest number of job listings was the keyword “social media” That means many employers are looking for people with social media skills. This is now and as I just said we are living in a social world, social media is over twenty years old, it’s not a fad, it’s developing at an alarming rate, have you got all that?

Now answer this question...Why isn’t social media being taught in schools?

Before I continue I do want to stress that this isn’t a post to rant about teachers. I’ve had some teachers say to me that they’d really like to help empower their students with social media but they have to stick to the curriculum and there’s nothing they can do. I’ve had teachers express their fears over social media because they feel so behind with it all and they themselves would like training. I’ve had teachers say to me that they completely agree it should be taught but they’re scared to say so because it’s severely frowned upon at their school. And so on.

These are some of the reasons I hear why social media shouldn’t be taught at schools.

Cyber bullying

There’s a lot of concern over cyber bullying and rightly so. Bullying is bullying it happens online and it happens offline, by ignoring or banning social media in schools doesn’t mean cyber bullying is going to go away. All social media training should talk about cyber bullying and not just in schools, work places should cover it too.

Cyber bullying can cover:

Pranking
Hate posts
Reputation damage
Humiliation videos
Humiliation pictures
And much more

Social media doesn’t make a bully, a bully is a bully, they just now have another way of carrying out their dirty deed.

The answer isn’t to ban social media in schools, bullying usually happens after school. Perhaps if students were encouraged to use social media in many other ways then using it it in a negative way will become less appealing. There will always be bullies but perhaps we can help to make so that there’s less bullies.

Privacy

Schools are concerned for students privacy. Many students and adults get confused by what can be seen and what can’t be seen, they’re confused by who can get what information and what to do to prevent private details getting stolen. Do you think that the answer is to ban social media? No it isn’t! Social media should be used in schools so students get into the habit of changing passwords regularly, learn to come up with complex passwords and learn what crisis management is about.

It’s a waste of time

Really! I can think of a few school subjects and activities which I consider a waste of time.

There are many ways to waste time and of course you can waste time using social media, just like you can waste time on the phone, in a meeting, round the water cooler, watching television, listening to the radio and more. If you believe it to be just a waste of time then that’s all you’ll see it as, which is very ignorant. Sometimes you’ll have time wasters in your class but you know what, they’re time wasters even before you introduced social media into the classroom.

Facebook this, Facebook that

This is why teachers need training too, many think that social media is just Facebook! Many don’t realise that their students are not using Facebook, that’s how out of touch some teachers are.

Social media is more than Facebook! There’s Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, Blab, Periscope, Instagram, Pinterest, WeHeartit, Flickr, Podcasting, Webinars, Github, Blogs, Tumblr, Snapchat, Tripadvisor, Foursquare, About.me, Yelp, Google+, Linkedin, MyLife, Ning, Reddit, Quora, Slideshare, Stumbleupon, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Vine and so many more

Social media is huge! Wikipedia gives you some idea of the different types of social networking sites ( please note that social networking is a small part of the social media landscape)

What should you show students?

How to network

Showing students how to network is empowering students. We can show them how to virtually network at big events, how to network within the local community, how to network in business groups, how to pitch and how to join in and open discussions. All of this is done online which instills confidence into the novice networker. How much easier do you think it is then for the student to go and network in the real world. They would’ve already met a lot of people online, therefore relationships have already been formed which makes an effortless transition over to the real world.

How to get connected

It’s good to be well connected, it helps when going to get a job, raising funds for start ups or charity, organising events, getting a message spread, getting introduced to other people, whatever the purpose being well connected is key.

How to use it for employment

Employers and recruiters use social media to tap into candidates for their job positions, students need to be shown how to start conversing with them. 75% of recruiters are planning to increase their investment in selecting candidates via social media Schools should not be ignoring what recruiters and employers are saying. Employing via the means of social media has many benefits for an employer as well as being extremely cost effective, so if they’re saying they are going to use social media more, why are schools still teaching yesterdays job finding methods?

Students should also be shown how to use social media to market themselves so they can start attracting good employers and recruiters to their profiles. As well as attracting employers, they can be shown how to source good employers, connect with other employees at companies and use social media to research the company culture.

How to have good etiquette

By showing students the correct etiquette when using social media will not only help them but will also help their future employers. How many times have you heard about an employee making a massive mistake on social media? These mistakes can be lessened by 1) the employer giving social media training for new employees and 2) Schools making sure that social media training is given. If students understand what is right and wrong on social media then it can also help their future employers, it could also help them not to get fired from any future jobs. Knowing the correct social media etiquette will also help them to understand “digital dirt”, something that all students should know about. If an employer sees a picture that paints a bad picture, rude, negative, sexist, racist comments, bad spelling or even an association with a bad group, then kiss goodbye to a possible interview. Students need to know how to conduct themselves so they have a good chance of getting employed.

How to collaborate

Show students how they can work with one another on a project, or how to work with other students in another school, in another part of the world. Students should be shown what they can accomplish by collaborating online and using what’s available to them.

How to raise funds

Raising funds for charity, a start up business, a film, a creative project has been made easier with social media. Students should be shown the many ways to raise funds by tapping into their tribes and crowdfunding.

How to promote events

It may be a local football match, a dog walking day, or even a car boot sale but whatever it is our students should be shown how to promote it using social media

How to interview

Just think how cool it would be for the students to interview a local hero via podcasting or on a webinar or perhaps a Google hangout or even Blab. They can, the tools are there, they just need to be shown how to. You will find that many people are very happy to be interviewed all you need to do is ask them.

This is not only good for the students but great PR for the school too.

So there you have it, a few reasons why social media should be taught in schools.

And one more thing, if you’re a teacher reading this and you’re thinking you’d like me to come in and chat to your students to empower them with social media, then I ask this of you:

Make sure to remove all filters so that I can show your students, not just talk about it.

Make sure you allow your students to use their devices to join in and engage during the session.

Make sure your wifi is good

And make sure you join in as well!

JOIN Jobhop and spread the word.

Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk

Pic credit Technolibrary

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