Social media in training

I am having to prepare for a future professional development day workshop on aspects and use of social media and making sure I keep the topic in context with training students at Central. Where to start...

This hot topic and ongoing argument has raised major concerns amongst lecturers of what we should be teaching our students about embedding social media and general communication and wondering if it actually has a place in industry.

I have noted on numerous occasions that those who embrace and challenge their students are generally educated in the art of using social media for both personal and professional use. Those who argue its integrity and negativity, rely solely on the general populace stance that 'all' social media does not have a place in training students to be work-ready when embarking on their future career pathways.

Key to my workshop will be a number of facets that include social learning, and advocated in http://www.fastcompany.com/1546824/where-social-learning-thrives by Marcia Conner states "Social learning is not just the technology of social media, although it makes use of it."

Another area of concern is the confidentiality of students work, personal details etc in that I state categorically that every person should have two online identities - personal and professional and neither one should be aligned with the other.

The use of social media in the class is paramount for the potential it holds in communicating with one's students in the environment they visit most. Consider the following from http://wearesocial.com.au/blog/2012/04/03/social-tuesday-tuneup-33/:

1. Australian Social Media stats – March 2012
Facebook grew by nearly 200,000 Australian users in March, though the surprising figure is the Myspace traffic, with nearly half a million visitors.

1. Facebook – 10,889,960 Australian users/accounts (up 186,800) – 13 million UAVs according to Google Adplanner. The difference between the user numbers and unique visitors is people probably logging in from multiple locations – home, school, work etc.
2. YouTube – 10,000,000 UAVs (down 1,000,000)
3. Blogspot – 4,000,000 (up 500,000)
4. LinkedIn – 2,100,000 (down 100,000)
5. Twitter – 1,600,000 (down 200,000)
6. WordPress.com – 1,600,000 (steady)
7. Google Plus – 1,289,940 (up approx 90,000 – Estimated calculation below)
8. Tumblr – 1,100,000 (steady)
9. Flickr – 840,000 (down 80,000)
10. MySpace – 470,000 (down 50,000)

and...4. L’Oreal has a team of 400 staff working in social media

I believe embracing social media and its use in the class and training students is a required skill-set.

I will ensure that my presentation will be engaging, varied, statistically eye-opening, fun and above all practical.