Teaching trends – will Professors make the grade?
With most universities going back to school this week, there have been many new trends to keep up with in social media since last semester. Somewhere between May and August, bringing a notebook to class turned from a pen and paper to an iPad, and any question could be answered in 140 characters or less.
Students are realizing that if they want careers in business or communication (or anything else really), that they are going to have to get their name out there. Networking on social media has become the most popular form of resume building, and the fastest and easiest way to get your information out there. But have their college professors been keeping up with the trends?
Practice what you preach
Social media cannot be found in a textbook. With trends that change by the hour, the internet is the best hub of go-to technology information. If teachers in the communication and business fields want to be able to show their students the ins and outs of social media, they better know the tricks themselves. For anyone who finds that they are behind on the times, the best place to catch up is in the blogosphere. Mashable, founded by Pete Cashmore, has become a social media and trend resource for go-to information on all things technology. This is a great place to watch trends, read the latest news in digital, or see what’s new on Facebook.
But don’t stop there
Social media goes far beyond blogs. To get connected and stay that way, professors should subscribe to RSS feeds of their favorite news sources, web sites, and blogs. This way they can keep up with the ever changing, always growing list of social media outlets and resources.
Kimberly Lucio is the Interactive Marketing Manager at Walker Sands. She serves as the liaison between her team and clients, developing compelling messaging and branding as well as leading the creative direction on all projects. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago's School of Communication. Follow her on Twitter @kimberly_lucio.
Re: Job Networking on Social Media
I read this blog post and others like it with a deep sadness, because I see a society more and more dependent upon technology, and ever so slowly losing the capability to really connect with each other on a deep level: face-to face. More and more I hear stories of best friends sitting in the back seat and texting each other; and people spending hours pouring out their feelings on facebook without the capability to spend ten minutes and actually talk about those same issues to a live person.
With today’s busy society, I believe that online dating is a great alternative to the bar scene, however traditionally there were a lot of healthier ways to connect with people: school, church, volunteer work, even walking a dog in the park. The difference here is to meet someone in off-line situations requires just a little bit of courage and self-confidence. For most of us, the ability to do this is something we need to learn; we’re not suave and bold when we are thirteen. But it is a necessary skill to obtain in order to develop a healthy mental attitude.
Job search is a pressure situation similar to developing personal relationships. In fact, networking is about developing personal relationships. Personally, looking for a job is not nearly as much of a pressure point as looking for a new personal relationship, but that’s just me – everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. But – we all need to face our own giants. I see kids nowadays burying themselves in social media and couldn’t carry on a conversation face-to-face if their life depended on it. And, regardles of how they connect on social media, I won’t even look at a candidate if they don’t take the initiative to use a phone (ancient technology I know) and make an attempt to set up a face-to-face meeting. Because only someone with the necessary people skills is a face I want to put on my own company.
My recommendation for graduates is to be careful in how much time you are spending online. Make an effort every day to develop your interpersonal skills by having live conversations. Get together with people, and learn to really connect. Then you will be able to really network by being able to build connections that mean something.