The following are some suggestions as to how your school can utilize social media to increase the morale of your students and aid in giving back:

1. Feature your school’s sports teams and other special interest groups

Highlight achievements and promote events. Nothing feels better than having a full house at your team’s games and being cheered on by your supporters. Being active on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can help build a community and provide a common place to demonstrate support, promote your teams/groups and add a sense of unity and encourage students to get involved.

2. Promote events and charitable/fundraiser efforts

Use social media to remind students, parents and your community of upcoming events and share your successes. These events may include everything from parent-teacher interviews, to food drives, to prom. How great would it be to be able to go on your school’s Facebook page and be able to share and look back at the difference you made within your community with your latest food drive or car wash? Social networks also provide the perfect place to share success stories and the positive outcomes of fundraisers. Furthermore these networks create an archive of fun events, such as field trips and sports days.

3. Provide support and tips to your students

Everybody can always use some words of encouragements and motivation. We all have those moments when we are supposed to be concentrating on studying for exams or writing an essay when the word “break” or writers block comes to mind, the first place a lot of us usually go is to an online social networking tool (or for some of us it may be the dreaded fridge!). As a school, being active online and providing educational tips to your students can be extremely helpful and convenient as the information and support is right where your students are, by default. This type of support can not only provide that little extra push just when one needs it but it will also show that you care and are making a conscious effort to invest in your student’s successes.

4. Create easy-to-access online databases for your students

Compiling an online archive can help make stressful milestones less daunting. Some of the simplest tasks such as finding your classrooms on your first day of high school, choosing your elective classes, or making new friends can be stressful. Providing an easy way for your students to connect online and providing simple information such as maps, links to information about choosing classes, school teams and social clubs, can help ease extra anxiety.

5. Other helpful links, inspiration and help

Use social media channels to provide general encouragement, positive influence, and support. Some students may not feel comfortable asking for help or advice from their teachers or peers. Providing links to information, such as social services or assistance within your community is a perfect way to provide help to those students who may not feel comfortable speaking up about problems they may be facing either at school or at home. This may also be the perfect opportunity to encourage students and parents to get involved and take-part in fun events and activities within your community. Your school can become the go-to source for updates and information for families, making the job of being active and involved that much easier for today’s busy parent.

An alternative to using social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, may be to use a private social network. Using private networks can help ease concerns that some parents or schools may have about sharing information publicly. A network that would work well within schools is Speechbobble. This instance is user friendly and has added bonuses such as awarding points and badges for being active within the community by uploading information, pictures, documents, feedback, comments or by simply anonymously answering a poll.

The following infographic demonstrates some interesting insight into some of the ways students are currently using social media.

One article I read mentioned the concern that people are becoming addicted to social networking to the point that when in social settings the focus continues to remain online. This becomes concerning when the majority of the social interactions occurring at the dinner table are happening on Facebook and Twitter rather than between the people around the table.

This unease came to mind last night when I was attending Sprout Up April in Toronto. The keynote speaker of the event was Matt Meeker, a co-founder at meetup.com. If you haven’t heard about meetup.com here is a little background and why it peaked my interest…

Meetup.com was started before social media existed. It was created post 9/11 when the founders noticed a shift in the frequency of people meeting up and engaging in social activities together in New York City. There was a notable decrease in the amount of time people were spending together. The two founders, Matt and Scott were reading a book entitled “Bowling Alone” at the time and became inspired to find a way to get people out and meeting each other, which lead to the development of meetup.com. The site’s main function is to facilitate meetings within local communities between strangers with common interests.

Meeup.com is almost having the opposite effect than other social networking sites. Strangers are meeting online with the prime intention of creating real life connections, rather than moving real life relationships online.

Social networking is great, it keeps us connected, up-to-date and in many cases it increases productivity. Just don’t let social networking take over real socializing. There are so many opportunities during the day to update your status, send an email and search the web. Just ask the 75% of Americans who use their mobile phone in the bathroom…

Here are 3 aged principles of communication to keep in mind when interacting on your social network.

Post to users, not to Facebook. In a recent interview  with Fastcompany, Facebook designers explained that  ”Facebook is not about human-computer interaction.” Instead, it’s about human-to-human interaction. While this may not be ground breaking insight, this idea is important to understand. New users are typically intimidated by Facebook, looking at it as a static entity instead of a dynamic tool for communication. When sharing content on Facebook, ensure you frame your posts as communications with your target audience – not the tool.

Consider the power of a meme. Most internet users have seen an internet meme. Viral in their nature, these communications are easy to understand because they play off of cultural norms.  Richard Dawkins defines the word “meme” as replicating patterns of information (ideas, clothing, art work etc.).  He coined the term as a direct imitation of the word “gene”, emphasizing how ingrained these cultural patterns are. When trying to create viral content, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s much easier to play off the ingrained cultural patterns that people already understand.

Lolcat meme used during presentation at Ignite Portland.

Curate the web for your audience. The future of the web is that of curration, where users sift through the vast amounts of content available online and reorganize it for others to see. This trend is perhaps best observed through the platform Pinterest, which simply hosts existing content for visitors to consume. When you reorganize and reuse you save massive amounts of time and money. Instead of investing two hours to design, edit and share a single piece of content, why not invest two hours finding ten pieces of relevant and valuable content that your audience will appreciate?

You do have to create unique content to specifically promote your product or service, but as every good community manager knows, you can’t saturate your social streams with self promotion only. When sharing neutral content, start curating instead of creating.

Social Media platforms are constantly innovating and evolving but the principles of successful communication remain the same. Research content that your target audience enjoys and tap into the power of memes. When you post to your networks always frame your communications directly at your audience, not the social media property you’re using. Creativity is fantastic but manage your time well. Invest in curating.

It is very clear that we are socioeconomically impatient. As a result, companies have a short amount of time to communicate their pitch and products to visitors online. So how do you make the most of your time?

Make Mobile Sleek: As outlined above, 50% of users abandon a mobile page if it doesn’t load in 10 seconds. Of that percentage, 3/5ths will never return to the site – looks like not showing up is the worst impression you can make (pun intended). To accommodate this trend, make sure your site shows up by reducing the feature set available on your mobile page. When determining your feature set start with the action that you want your users to complete most often and then build your functionality with this goal in mind. If you want your users to complete a sale, design a quick and easy sales process.

Design To Highlight: If 79% of mobile web consumers use their phones for shopping, your mobile site WILL be bringing in money – gone are the days when mobile security inhibited mobile sales. However, if 40% of those shoppers will abandon an e-commerce site when it doesn’t load after 3 seconds, you have to grab their attention fast. However, this doesn’t mean loading all of your products at once in order to appeal to the masses.

I recently read The Hobbit for the first time (stay with me here) and half way through the novel Gandalf the wizard has to find shelter for himself and a posy of about a dozen elves. His best bet is an irritable and powerful creature who values his space and time. In order to close the sale (ie: gain shelter from this irritable creature) Gandalf brings one or two elves with him to speak to the creature while the others wait out of site. The creature is put-off by their presence but Gandalf launches into an interesting story that captures the creatures attention. The creature is so intrigued by the story that he allows Gandalf to repeatedly interrupt the tale to introduce all of elves, two at a time. In the end the creature enjoys the story so much he allows the whole gang to stay with him – Gandalf the wizard of sales. See where I’m going here?

No doubt your audience wants to buy your products but when their time is limited and highly valued, it’s best to only reveal a few products at a time. Consider making your home page a full-screen image of your most popular product (accompanied by standard navigation options along the bottom of the screen). Once you’ve got their attention with your most popular product, your users will be much more likely to wait for the next product to load.

Design With Emotional Intelligence:  Many studies have shown positive results in quelling anxiety and getting people to do simple tasks by displaying emotionally intelligent signage. If you own a fashion based e-commerce site, consider adding a loading message like “We want to keep you looking gorgeous, please wait while we find you something nice. ” A loading message like this is comparable to someone in a brick-and-mortar store saying “I’ll be with you in a moment.” It’s a simple acknowledgement that can calm your users down and ultimately create a more pleasant customer experience.

Questions? Answers? Just let me know in the comment field below.

When I became aware of the Kony 2012 video last Tuesday I most definitely had to take 30 minutes out of my day to see what “Kony 2012″ was all about. Prior to the publishing of this video by Invisible Children Inc. I was unaware of whom or what “Kony” was. I have always liked to consider myself as “socially aware”, yet I had no knowledge of Joesph Kony, or of some of the hard facts, such as the fact that the LRA (the rebel army led by Kony) abducted more than 30,000 children in northern Uganda.

One of the frequent comments I have heard from those who are critical of the Kony 2012 campaign is the concern that people are jumping on the “Stop Kony bandwagon”. There have also been many videos and an overwhelming number of negative remarks being put forth about the movement, one prime example of this is the video entitled,  “Damn He Went In On The Kony Campaign” .

I have heard very similar arguments to those expressed in the above video, even from unexpected sources within my social circle. I was upset to hear the negative views of the campaign and thus went on to ask why some of these people hold such opinions. The majority explained that people with no prior political presence on Facebook are now posting Kony videos, supporting the Kony 2012 movement as a fad. They believe that these faddists are not sincerely concerned about the children of Uganda, rather, they are concerned about being a part of the latest trend.

I don’t deny that many people who may not have an interest in politics are re-posting the video and commenting, however, the actions of those who would not consider themselves as “political” demonstrate the power of social media. The speed at which information is shared has progressively increased. We are currently witnessing the influence of Social Media, Web 2.0 and smartphones, the way society shares information is further enhancing  the speed at which information is shared. This shift is quite amazing, yet it can be scary – as Invisible Children Inc. is witnessing with this current critical backlash.

Regardless of criticism surrounding the intentions of Invisible Children Inc. there are children being abducted, forced to kill and turned into sex slaves in Uganda. Despite criticism about Invisible Children’s spending, awareness about this crime against humanity is empowering people. The fact that this campaign became historically viral has created skeptics, but looking deeper into the true message and the structure of the organization, helps demonstrate why the campaign has been so successful (see a message from Ben Keesey, invisible children inc. CEO for further insight). Kony 2012 is insight into social change and movements that are becoming possible through social media. Similar to some of the actions mentioned in my former blog post “2011:  Social Media and Social Change at a Glance“, we are continuing to see the true power of social media and how we can all make a difference.

I don’t know how much influence I will have as one person re-posting a videos online, putting up posters around the city, instagraming pictures of my experience and continuing to engage in relevant discourse, but I definitely feel like I am doing my part in trying to making a difference and keeping the movement alive.

After April 20th I will continue to keep an eye on the outcomes of Kony 2012 and remain engaged in the cause. Even if some people are strictly faddists, their jumping on the trend will still contribute to the strength and success of the cause.

Keep the optimism alive and become empowered (no matter what your positive cause is).

KONY 2012

#Kony2012. 04/20/2012