How to tame social media?

Can you imagine your life without social media? Yes, I think you can, but it’s not that easy. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. have deep-rooted in our lives. Many of our relationships are backed by social media, we can be virtually close to the family members and friends, who we don’t come across every day. Another important aspect of how social media have affected our life, is finding information and consuming it. We might even say that nothing prevents us from reaching the information we seek. 

Both our profession and occupation are closely connected to social media. But how could we implement social media, putting it in front of the professional development?

Networks, conversations, social media sites and personal pages of opinion leaders contain very interesting and research deserving content like blogs, articles, studies, calls to action, etc. All this abundance awaits detection and studying. Being inside the informational issues in social media, connected to your speciality, enriches you with new ideas and motivates you. But you should always evaluate it in advance as everything that glitters is not gold!

By sharing relevant information in social media, you also shape your own professional identity. Write the kind of posts you would like to read and share the information that is true. Valuable and meaningful posts will bring you exactly the right contacts, so it’s worth investing in the time and the will to create and share your own valuable content.

Using hashtags

An excellent way to find interesting and useful information on social media networks is hashtags. Hashtags provide the opportunity to discover and categorise valuable content inside and outside social media channels. Using hashtags allows you to make your own content accessible too, and their appropriate use will make it easier for other social media users to reach your posts.  

What hashtags should be used if you want to find professional information? Think about the main definitions and terms, widely used in this field. Below, you’ll find just a few examples (please, add your own recommendations to the commentaries of this blog post), which might be used for search in the field if adult education and learning – with hashtags like:

• #epale
• #education
• #adulteducation
• #adultlearning
• #instaeducation (for Instagram users)

For instance, hashtags listed in Twitter according to their popularity in the field of education and teaching look as follows:

• #lrnchat (social media and education)
• #edchat 
• #blendchat ja #blendedlearning (combined learning)
• #mlearning (m-learning)
• #elearning (e- learning)
• #pbl ja #pblchat (problem-based and also project-based learning)
• #highered (higher education)

Beware – the word „adult“ in English is not good for a hashtag!

How could you use the hashtags? One possibility is just to look up for them in Google. Alternatively, use hashtags on social networks that you visit. Then you can join a particular social network and a conversation of interest, based on the findings, find familiar persons and topics to follow on the social media channel. 

Social media as a supporter of your professional development

Finally, some recommendations for the use of social media in supporting the professional development. 

• Maintain your image. Reveal such content, in which you are sure not to be embarrassed hearing it later in the TV news. 
• Always create and share high-quality and true information, avoid posting based on emotions.
• When posting and commenting, be always positive.
• Beware of the privacy policy of a social media account and make the right decisions in this regard.
• If you are a service provider, avoid selling directly, instead, offer the value.

 
Attention! We are talking about social media that enhances your professional development by consuming it in a reasonable amount. Over-consumption is dangerous!

The author: Veronika Tuul is a learning designer and educator. As a practising educator, she is interested in spreading learning opportunities in vocational training and professional development through technology. She has an occupational qualification of adult educator, level 7.