The Impact and Ethical Use of Social Media

    

    Social media has become an incredibly important tool in higher education. It really is used in every part of higher education. I think one of the most important uses for social media is student engagement. Student engagement can be increased through the use of social media by faculty, staff and other students. Student affairs staff can create engagement by connecting directly with students, as well as posting content that informs students about opportunities on campus and encourages them to participate. Faculty can engage students during classes through the use of interacting polling, and also asking students to poll their social media followers. Social media can be used by faculty to communicate with students, ensuring their success. Virtual office hours can be set up using a social media channel, if needed. This method of communication should be used by faculty with caution, so they are not sharing too much of their personal lives with students. It is a good idea for faculty to create a professional profile separate from their personal profiles. Students can engage other students through social media platforms as well. Facebook groups for incoming freshman classes have become very popular for new students to be able to connect and ask questions in advance of getting to campus. These groups are also useful for students in a particular major or class, as well as activity groups. Many students now feel more comfortable initially speaking with someone online before meeting them in person. These give students a way to connect with each other and with other campus members.

    Another incredibly important use of social media that has a huge impact on a campus is its use in emergency notification. In a dangerous situation, it can literally mean life or death if students are made aware of what is going on. As many are already on social media, this is a seamless way of quickly notifying students of danger on campus. It can also be used in social norming campaigns, in an attempt to get students to stop engaging in some activity, like drinking or smoking. Although this use of social media in higher education is very important, it is also important to have some restraint when publishing emergency notifications. It is important to publish only when you have enough information available to provide full details. Announcing danger too early without enough detail could simply cause panic. 

    In the Hootsuite article, the best practice they provided that I most appreciated was the suggestion for universities to create a social media hub. This is a landing page on their own university website where all of the university linked social media pages are listed. Some universities have dozens of social media pages, and a central location for them all is a great idea. Sometimes students don't know what social media page they're looking for and this can be a great way for them to discover new pages that they didn't know they were interested in. It's also incredibly important to establish guidelines for posting on university related social media accounts. Having a unified voice and style across all of the university social media pages is important. Finally, the suggestion to engage in social listening is also important. Your audience will stop reading your posts and stop following you if they are not interested in what you're saying. Do some research and find out what students are talking about, what they want to know, and post content related to that. If students see posts related to topics they're interested in, they will feel heard, and will also follow your social media content more closely.