Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/939681
By @samdemuro T H I N K I N G O F S T A R T I N G or upgrading your social media platforms? An active social media presence for your local chapter or classroom can provide quality connections and great audience engagement. A few considerations: WHY BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Don't do it just because "everyone's doing it." Get motivated because you want to share information, connect to a larger audience, strengthen your voice or your members' voices, and enhance your brand identity. WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE? Whether members, parents, students or other educators, keep them in mind as you craft messaging and curate content. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? To spread awareness on issues? Connect to members? Reach out to other educators? Thinking about your goals will help shape content and messaging. WHAT PLATFORMS DO YOUR MEMBERS OR TARGETED AUDIENCES CURRENTLY USE? Send out a survey, or ask in person. Pick one or two platforms and do them well. WHY SHOULD THEY FOLLOW YOU? You follow social media accounts because the content is engaging, funny and relevant. When creating and curating your content, always think about why your audience should come back for more. DO YOU HAVE THE CAPACITY TO MAINTAIN A PRESENCE? For a local chapter or a group of people, it may be easier with multi- ple administrators/editors working together. If it's just you, check out tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or Facebook's own scheduling tool to plan out your posts. This depends on your social media goals. FACEBOOK: the most popular, with the most features (posts, photos, videos, Facebook Live, etc.). Public-facing Brand pages can be "liked" by users; can help with branding and connecting with a larger, external community. (Paying to boost posts ensures your audience can actually see your content in their news feeds.) Facebook Groups lets you control privacy options, allow for doc- ument sharing; a great way to engage users around a specific topic/interest. TWITTER: arguably the most activist; users can connect over hashtags and issue-based content. News media's Twitter is useful to connect to journalists and news outlets. Many educators use Twitter to build personal brands and connect with other educators. Also helpful for conferences and professional development opportu- nities, like Twitter chats. INSTAGRAM: provides an easy way to share photos and memes to illustrate resources and messages. Hashtags are an excellent way to find relevant con- tent or archive classroom content. Instagram Stories let you create in-the-moment, 24-hour-expiring content without the stress of post- ing the "perfect" photo or video. Have a great social media presence we should know? Tell us at social@cta.org and we'll give you a follow! Which platform to use? Add to Your Skills Brush up on your social media, photography and other skills with CTA webinars only available to members. Coming up: Best Practices on Twitter & Instagram, March 15, 4-5 p.m., and Visuals, Memes & Photography, May 17, 4-5 p.m. Resources and video of past webinars are also available. See cta.org/onlinetrainings. Getting Social DIGITAL BUZZ DIGITAL BUZZ 15 F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 018 D I G I T A L B U Z Z I