The majority of us use social media to keep in touch with friends and family. Some of us even us it professionally. But how many of us are using it as an educational tool?

A few teachers do try to use YouTube as a way of making lessons more “fun” and to help explain topics in a more visual, engaging way but generally that is as far as it goes. Increasingly though, sites such as YouTube are being blocked by tightened school filters.

Yet social media could go a long way towards engaging with and encouraging children and young adults alike to be creative, outspoken and to more actively participate in group discussions compared to traditional classroom teaching.

So what about education specific social media?
What sites are available that won’t be blocked by your school filters?

We will be open at the following times during the Christmas period:

• Christmas Eve: Open 9.00 till 4.00
• Christmas Day: Closed
• Boxing Day : Closed
• Thursday 27 December: Closed
• Friday 28 December: 9.00 till 2.30
• New Years Eve: 9.00 till 4.00
• New Years Day: Closed
• Wednesday 2 January: open as usual

Our opening hours in the new year will be 9.00 – 6.00 weekdays

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Thank you for choosing Brainstorm Digital.

As we have discussed before, you can’t dabble in social media, it is a major time commitment and now more than ever you need to continuously monitor and update your social media activities for success.

To run a successful campaign, follow this basic social media check-list:

1. Come up with compelling content
2. Create a content plan to manage posting your content
3. Be able to share it across all the relevant platforms
4. Find people to follow and connect with
5. Identify followers who could be clients or referrers and engage with them
6. Track what your competitors are doing
7. Create campaigns that will build loyalty and engagement e.g. competitions
8. Track the results of your campaign
9. Ensure social activity is coordinated with other marketing activity

It’s clear from this that to raise your social media presence and deliver the right results is a long-term process and probably needs close to full-time focus. It’s true that great social media doesn’t cost money but as highlighted above, it can cost a lot of time. We are talking about several days a month, not several hours. So what are the options?

Anyone remember the Tamagotchi? It was a small handheld digital "pet" that required constant feeding as well as attention. Failure to take care of your "pet" could lead to its unhappiness, sickness and even death. The same applies to your social media campaign. 

The question is, how much of a commitment do you need to make? The answer depends on which social media platform you are using.  If you only have 15 mins/day or less, you can limit your activity to LinkedIn. By simply keeping your profile up to date, increasing your connections and putting out a daily status update you will help attract attention. If you have a bit more time, you can raise your profile by participating in the occasional LinkedIn discussion. 

If you have more than 15 mins/day, you might consider Twitter which requires at least a few status updates each day as well as regular interaction with other users in order to build up a serious following. 

But let’s be realistic, few of us can commit to our social media campaigns on a daily basis when there are regular distractions such as meetings, conferences and clients that need attention. So instead of spending a few mins each day on social media, why not set aside a couple of days each week, where you can spend at least 30 mins planning your content? The more time you have to think through what you want to say, the better quality it will be.

Why you need to be on board with your own social media campaign…

• Are you outsourcing your social media campaign to someone else?
• Are you depending on a third party to come up with content ideas?
• Do you wait for someone else to feedback whether your social media channels are working for you?
• Are you pouring money into something you don’t quite get?

If you have chosen to use social media to get noticed, drive your business and create awareness, then you can’t just dump it all on someone. You have to be involved. There are five key roles you have to play when it comes to driving and owning your social media strategy.

Have you heard of ‘Personal branding ? 

It’s a process where you differentiate yourself (rather than your company) from your competitors in order to stand out in a crowded market place and make an impact whether it’s in person, on an email or via social media.’

On the 17th October, I was a guest on Oge Okesieme’s Masterclass Series. It’s a monthly question and answer session where members of the public can ask the guest speaker on how to improve their personal branding.

Oge describes herself as a pathfinder for spiritual entrepreneurs. Her aim is to guide entrepreneurs who want to make a difference and help them to ‘shine’. Now this may sound a bit esoteric, but if you look at her steps to discovering what your personal brand is, you really can start to create a picture about how to think about the ways you want to portray yourself and what you have to offer as a brand.

Think about the following:

• What is your Personal Brand?
• Why you should care about your Personal Brand?
• How can your Personal Branding help you make an IMPACT?

It’s not you, it’s me!

Sound familiar? Most people have either delivered the line or received it or both. Either way no one really likes to hear it. It conjures up feelings of insecurity, a lack of confidence and can set you back months or even years in the journey to find "the one". I am referring to the all-to-familiar, "It’s not you, it’s me". But we are not talking about romantic relationships here, we are talking about social media relationships. And in that context, it’s true. Social media is about them – all about them. 

Traditional marketing is targeted to mass audiences through television, outdoor, print, radio. Obviously, you will do best if you can get choose a particular target market and ‘get inside their heads’, but you’re still not really interacting with individuals. The opportunity to direct your message to the right market is mostly static and limited to location, frequency and duration.  This means that campaigns using any of the above channels pretty much need to be all about me – my brand, my offer, my call-to-action, my price, my brilliance, my, my, my… This approach is very much "it’s not you, it’s me", isn’t it?

Bring on social media – where we really need to turn this way of thinking on its head. Make it all about your audience, your followers and fans. You can’t make it all about yourself.