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This article on Resource Link, September 21, 2011, captures the learning environments we wish to bring to businesses, nonprofits, and membership associations. "Social Media - what do you need to know? In the 21st century, learning networks are richer than ever before. Social media, including tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow connections with professionals to be developed in offline and online worlds in new and exciting ways. No longer are we limited geographically. Social media allows us to connect not only to those we know, but also to those who we don't know, but who share our passions, our interests and our profession. Despite never having met in the physical sense, it is now possible to share links, comment on educational research, debate, collaborate and create new knowledge with individuals no matter where they are working." Another excerpt: So….Social Media and Professional Learning Communities? What is the connection? A school which is a professional learning community focuses upon removing the walls between classrooms (metaphorically, in all cases, physically in some!), encouraging collaboration, dialogue, ready access to colleagues and an openness to challenge understandings and current 'accepted' knowledge. Excerpt: Roberts and Pruitt, in their book Schools as Professional Learning Communities (p3, 2009) quote research that suggests that the major obstacle for schools who wish to develop as learning communities is the provision of resources such as time to collaborate, leadership support, information and ready access to colleagues. Social Media is not the total answer; but in schools where money and time are in short demand (and which school isn't in this situation?), they can go part of the way in meeting these needs. 1. social media providing to time to collaborate 2. social media providing leadership support 3. social media providing information 4. social media providing access to colleagues

Blog by Kevin O'Keefe, "Real Lawyers Have Blogs," on the topic of the law, firm marketing, social media, and baseball, February 23, 2014. O'Keefe reviews a study by Gerry Moran on using social media to teach, not to sell. Other key points that O'Keefe makes: Build a large social network of people modeled after your customers and their influencers. 75% of B2B decision makers use social media to learn. (wonder where this stat comes from?) Pass on valuable information. Don't use your social media and networking channels to promote yourself. You want to be known for handing out knowledge and not brochures. Use social so that people will want to visit with you in person. 73% of customers are willing to engage with you on social media, so the opportunity is there. Use social media to teach, not sell. Selling is best done face-to-face. However, Social Media Today reports B2B buyers look at an average of over 10 digital resources before ever making a purchase. Since customers need to learn before they buy, use this opportunity on social media to connect. Teach and connect with today's technology. Connect and get on the radar of your customers and potential networks by retweeting, sharing, commenting and favoriting others' content. Develop Insights. Before you teach and connect with your customers, you need to listen to the customer and their customers. Social is an excellent listening tool. Be a publisher. In addition to curating and passing on the great content to your network, create your own assets on a blog. Organizations who blog get clients. Later Excerpt: Over the years LexBlog as been all about helping lawyers understand how to use the Internet in a real and effective fashion so as to grow their practices. By sharing information from third parties along our own insight via blogs and other social media we established a reputation as trusted advisors. Even when I reach out to meet with lawyers and law firms I have never met f

""Women small business owners are not just more optimistic about their own businesses, they're also more bullish about the prospects for female entrepreneurs who are just starting out," said Billie Dragoo, national board chairwoman of the National Association of Women Business Owners. "With a positive outlook and strong entrepreneurial spirit, women business owners continue to be a driving force of our economy." The research also gauged how female business owners are using social media to help grow their companies. While 85 percent of the women surveyed believe social media is important for building customer relationships, only 67 percent currently use social media to connect with customers. The study found that just 25 percent of female business owners are posting on social media at least once a day, with 23 percent rarely posting at all. When they do use social media, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are the preferred platforms."

blog post by Beth Kanter on social media guidelines, March 20, 2013, yet another practical body of knowledge to become comfortable with in working with orgs on using social media for learning, promoting, educating, inspiring, etc. excerpt Social Media Guidelines or what some call a social media policy summarizes your organization's social media goals, how staff will participate (dos and do nots), identifies legal and privacy issues, a social media work flow, and staffing needs.

Blog post by Sylvia Browder at the Story Exchange--where women mean business. "Challenge 2: Undefined Niche To Niche or Not to Niche…that is the question. What is a niche? A niche business is one that targets a very specific group of people with specific shared interest. A business with an undefined niche is like a ship sailing in shallow water. By creating a niche business allows you to market to your ideal clients. For example, if you were a behavioral psychologist targeting teens, you would market your services in places where parents are likely to find out about you; such as advertising in parent magazines, providing resources to local middle and high schools or joining organizations geared towards parents. Solution: By understanding who and where your ideal customers are; it is easy to craft a marketing plan to target them. Here are three easy ways to target your potential clients: * Improve your website's SEO with specific key words * Generate exposure locally and virtually with professional speaking, seminars or publishing a book or articles. * Craft a clear message that speak at the heart of your customer " Challenge 4: No Social Media Plan Random tweets and meandering Facebook posts will result in a lot of time devoted to zero results. Before making another useless post, sit down with pen and paper and make a list of what you want to achieve from social media. To which social media do you belong? What are some social media marketing strategies that you have noticed from other companies? What do you have that will offer value? You may find that your company is spread a little too thin across the social media spectrum. Quality truly is superior to quantity in this respect. Solution: Create a social media marketing plan and stay the long haul. Establishing a strong presence can be a very time consuming process. It is unwise to expect your list of fans, followers or subscribers to grow overnight.

Article in U.S. News & World Report on physicians using social media, January 1, 2013. About one in four U.S. doctors uses social media daily to scan or explore medical information, according to a new study. The survey of nearly 500 cancer specialists (oncologists) and primary-care doctors also found that 14 percent contribute new information via social media each day, said the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore. Sixty-one percent of the doctors said they use social media once a week or more to look for information, and 46 percent said they contribute new information once a week or more, according to the study, which appeared recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. More than half of the respondents said they use only physician-only communities and only 7 percent said they use Twitter.

Article published 10/3/12 in Medical Economics by Brandon Glenn. "Nearly one-fourth of physicians use social media on a daily basis to scan or explore medical information, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The researchers behind the study set out to examine physicians' level of social media usage for the purpose of exchanging advice, ideas, reports, and scientific discoveries with other physicians. The study was based on emailed survey responses from 485 primary care physicians (PCPs) and oncologists, and it had a response rate of 28%. They found that, whereas just 24% of physicians use social media to "scan or explore" on a daily basis for those reasons, that number jumps to 61% when measured on a weekly basis. Physicians who use social media to "contribute," rather than merely scan information, stood at 14% daily and 46% weekly. "

Slideshare by Amer Naslund on Social Media Time Management, 21,658 views Has a great social media slide on how time should be divided between listening, measuring, creating, etc. Suggests unplugging, routines, communication and expectations, leverage tools, etc. Like slide on Social Media Maturity

****This post by Derek J. Keenan explains his Social Professional Learning Model that served as his Masters Capstone paper at Alberta University, April 23, 2012. Its core is an action research approach to learning enriched by and anchored in social media. Substitute teacher with "other named professional" and it works for people in all types of work/interests. There is also a short (s cultivating connections with the people who have the same self-directed learning quest as you. The next step is reciprocating by publishing and sharing what you know or believe to be true. Throughout it is your experience that informs your participation and your participation informs your level of understanding--you are constantly learning and eventually building your personal learning network relationships to be there for you.

Vision Critical's recently published study, From Social to Sale provides answers to exactly how a company's social media strategy could be tailed to drive sales. The study evaluated social media purchasing against participation in Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Top Findings: About 40% of social media users have purchased an item after sharing or "favoriting" it on these sites. (The company uses "Shared or Favorited" to mean pinned/repinned/liked on Pinterest; shared/liked/commented on Facebook; tweeted/retweeted or favorite on Twitter.) Facebook is the network most likely to drive customers to purchase. Social media drives not just online purchasing, but in-store purchasing as well - and at about equal rates.

An amazing project that utilizes gaming, social media, digital badging, and virtual worlds as methods to promote digital literacy to youth in high risk areas. These after-school programs are designed to "Global Kids believes that youth be not merely critical consumers but active producers of digital media". Kids produce games on social issues impacting them (such as neighborhood violence or racial intolerance) that are designed to teach others about not just about the issue but how it feels to be impacted by the issue.

The Global Kids definition of leadership is very in tune with what we have been trying to convey, I think. Here is there goal statement: "The Global Kids Online Leadership Program (OLP) integrates international and public policy issues into digital media programs to encourage digital literacy and technical competency, foster global awareness, promote civic participation and develop 21st Century skills. OLP was created in 2000 to bring new media into Global Kids' after school programs, introduce these programs into online communities, and explore how the combination of the two could develop 21st Century Learning Skills. Through programs utilizing video games, virtual worlds, social media, and other forms of participatory media, youth involved in our programs now have the opportunity to have their voices heard and make a global impact in ways that were previously unimaginable."

From Nonprofit Tech for Good blog, 1/11/14 Interesting to see how this list meshes with the list from 2015 from the business and not for profit side. Top of the list is mobilizing online communications and fundraising campaigns. Although not free and costly to small not for profits, social media and responsive designs for websites, blogs, and e-newsletters will become common. Flat design - making sure everything is optimal for mobile is crucial. Donate buttons on social media sites. Google Wallet will be integrated into Google+ pages. Already on YouTube Channels that participate in YouTube's nonprofit program. Live reporting on social media of org events, maturation of mobile fundraising apps, and increased employment opportunities in new media jobs in the nonprofit sector are the other 2014 trends.

Blog from Nonprofit Tech for Good 1/5/15 10 processes to turn into goals for the year including: Write LinkedIn Recommendations and endorsements; Add cause awareness days; experiment with at least one new social network; download and study nonprofit mobile apps; refresh your social media training; experiment with crowdfunding; host or participate in a tweet chat; create a social media fundraising success spreadsheet; take an Adobe Photoshop class; take regular breaks from technology

Mother lode of social media leadership ideas from BlogHer Conference, July 2013, from Ananda Leeke's talk Seven archetypes of social media leadership: creativista, empirista, empowerista, enchanista, evangelista, flowista, lifestylista Excerpt: ) The Digital Sisterhood Leadership Project has identified 12 key leadership roles that women in social media are currently playing. They include the roles of: Advocate Community builder Content creator Content curator Educator Influencer Mentor Motivator Promoter Social do gooder Storyteller Thought leader

This blog post by Beth Kanter, January 24, 2013, has lots of considerations for working with nonprofits on social media adoption and use. Good links to other resources, too, including legal counsel-type guidance. Raises several issues for me including blending uses of social media (external, face forward kinds of promotional and educational sharing as well as learning with each other, for example) and legal angles to understand, and guidance for volunteers in addition to staff, especially in professional membership associations where members may do far more sharing than staff. A social media policy for a np--professional membership association--with volunteers in addition to or instead of staff doing most of the representation for the organization would need to be explicated as well. We need to understand this thoroughly as we work with organization

Great blog by Nick Bilton in the Sunday NYTimes July 16, 2014 about how social media sucks us in to spend a lot of time on it. Although there isn't data as such, scientists are beginning to wonder if this diversion of our time sucks creativity too. The author ends the piece by saying instead of spending the first hour of the day on social media, he has been reading a book and finding it much more satisfying, enlightening, and stimulating.

Excellent page from Rheingold's social media classsroom wiki on interactive media resources that his learners may use to present knowledge and engage active participation.

article in Amednews (American Medical News) in September 26, 2011 by Pamela Lewis Dolan. Data already old but interesting. "However, although physicians appear to be embracing social media, they are still feeling their way around it. According to QuantiaMD, 87% of physicians make personal use of social media, but a lesser amount, 67%, use it professionally. And one thing that hasn't changed during those 18 months is the lack of patient-physician communication on social media. One-third of the QuantiaMD survey respondents said they had received a friend request from a patient on Facebook. Three-quarters of the physicians declined those invitations."

blog post by Clive Andrews at NixonMcInnes, creating meaning in business. 9/26/2013 on using immediacy of messages being shared on social media to make operational choices.

Blog post by Gerry Moran, 3.9.13, at Marketing Think on how to calculate your Facebook and Twitter success Excerpt for how B2B brands need to use social media: Amplify: Increase the awareness of the brand story and solutions. Engage: Drive customer and prospect engagement with related content. Convert: Provide a way for the customer to convert interest after they become aware and have consumed enough content to move to the next step in the buying journey. To help you understand if you are reaching your goal, it is important for you to understand the right questions to ask to get the right social media measurement. Marketers need to map key social metrics to strategic questions vs. just measuring and blindly reporting how a channel performs.