student use of social media as a personal learning network
TRANSCRIPT
Student Use of Social Media as a Personal Learning Network
Denny McCorkle Professor of Marketing
Monfort College of Business University of Northern Colorado
2015 Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit Boston, MA
October 3, 2015
#mktgEDGE15 Slides at: http://bit.ly/1jzRnKO
Introduction
Educators use social media for pedagogy in two ways:
(1) to manage and/or communicate with their students, and
(2) to teach social media marketing strategies and practice (for personal or business).
41% of higher education faculty use social media in teaching (Pearson 2013).
Frequency of Faculty Teaching Use of Social Media by Site, 2012 and 2013 (Pearson 2013)
are a major selling point on student resumes and job interviews (McCorkle and McCorkle 2012)
are needed for an increasing number of job opportunities (Lombardi 2013)
were the hottest demanded skills in 2013 on LinkedIn (Murthy 2013)
are needed in numerous other jobs that marketing students may pursue (Lombardi 2013)
develops numerous supporting skills, including: technology expertise, critical thinking/problem solving, leadership and teamwork, communication, and creativity (Granitz and Koernig 2011)
Social Media Skills
Three C’s of Social Networking
Consumption
Curation
Creation
The Three C’s of Social Networking: Consumption, Curation, Creation by Brian Solis
Growing use of social media by students, faculty, and marketers.
Problem:
Growing need of current content for:
faculty to teach social media.
students to use social media.
Solution:
Personal learning networks (PLN).
The Problem & Solution
What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?
“A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment.” (Digenti, 1999)
Based on the theory of “connectivism” or the connections of people and their knowledge (Siemens 2005)
Represents a more flexible approach that focuses on the personal needs of a learner’s “personal learning environment” (Attwell, 2007)
Often discussed in the context of eLearning and Web 2.0
Why do you need a PLN?
1. Build knowledge and learning in a chosen career field.
2. Stay current and up-to-date in a chosen career field.
3. Learn from thought leaders in your career field.
4. Always have timely, focused, and relevant content for curation and social sharing.
5. Establish your authority on a particular subject(s).
6. Provide confirmation of a chosen career focus.
7. Stimulate creative thinking for developing original thought and content (e.g., blogging).
8. Provides backlinks in blog posts for improved SEO and notice by influencers.
How do you keep up-to-date on topics of digital and social media marketing?
Question
Resources for a career enriching PLN.
Blogs and Web RSS subscriptions to blogs or other specialized web content (using Feedly, etc.)
Twitter General Twitter tweets from those I follow
Twitter Lists that I have subscribed to that others have created
Twitter Lists of favorites that I have created
Join Twitter chats on your subjects of interest
Twitter general searches or #hashtag searches
Regularly ask your Twitter followers (crowdsourcing)
LinkedIn LinkedIn Updates from those I connect with
News Updates from LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn Groups Discussions in Groups I have joined
LinkedIn blog posts from those I follow and other influencers
Facebook Facebook Pages Likes/subscriptions to content from favorite web sources
Resources for a career enriching PLN.
Google+
General Google+ posts from those I connect with
Specific Google+ Communities, Pages, or Circles that I connect with
Content Sharing Web Sites
Channel subscriptions to video sharing web sites such as Vimeo or YouTube
Photo and visual sharing websites such as Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, or Picasa
Audio sharing websites or podcasts that I regularly listen to
Printed content sharing websites such as Scribd or Slideshare
Discussion boards or forums that I regularly visit
Email, newsletters, or listserv subscriptions
Social bookmarking/tagging websites such as Reddit, Digg, Delicious, or Diigo that I regularly visit
Searches on SlideShare or Scribd
Ask questions on Quora or Yahoo! Answers
Resources for a career enriching PLN.
Use of Smart Devices (phones, tablets) Native apps such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Feedly
Content aggregation apps such as Flipboard, Zite, Pulse, or Apple News
Print Resources Print consumer/business magazine publications I regularly read
Print trade publications I regularly read
Print consumer/business newspaper publications I regularly read
Trade books
Academic books or journals
Face to Face Resources Tradeshows
Conferences
Workshops or Seminars
Mentors
Company or Industry Training Materials
Sample: 35 of 35 students from Social Media Marketing course, Spring 2015
Surveyed in the second week of the semester.
Research question: What do students actually use as their PLN?
Feedly (RSS feed reader)
Required to Organize their Feedly into categories/folders based on keyword topics
Find and subscribe to career focused blogs/online pubs (tools: AllTop; Google searches)
Twitter Lists
Required to organize their best following into Twitter lists based on keyword topics (similar to folders on Feedly)
Find to follow (and follow back) those described in their target market (FollowerWonk, Google searches)
What are students taught to use as their PLN?
My Feedly
My Feedly
Sample: 28 of 34 students from Social Media Marketing course, Spring 2015
Surveyed in the finals week of the semester.
Research question: How was your Feedly experience?
Social media marketing requires content for social sharing (curated and original)
Social media assignments and projects need a PLN for focused and timely content for students to share.
A good PLN provides the content to curate and to learn from.
Students appreciated the use of Feedly as their PLN (and Twitter Lists).
Curation skills provide benefits throughout a career.
Feedly provides benefits to faculty, too.
Conclusions
Connect with Denny McCorkle at:
Blog: DigitalSelfMarketingAdvantage.com
LinkedIn: Denny McCorkle
Twitter: @DennyMcCorkle
Google+: +DennyMcCorkle
Email: [email protected]
Download copy of slides at: http://bit.ly/1jzRnKO
Denny McCorkle ★ Digital Marketing Professor
at UNCo ★ Personal Branding & Social Media
Marketing Strategist ★ Blogger ★ Speaker ★
Geek for Creativity & Ideation ★ #AhaLessons
★ #DigitalSMA