SMCEDU: Social Media Principles Can’t Be Ignored
September 30, 2009 by Yong Lee
Social media is gaining more acceptance in both the business world — both as a tool to connect with customers and for co-workers to connect with each other — and the academic world, where more educators are using social media tools such as Classroom 2.0 and Social Media Classroom to teach and engage.
But WHAT is being taught? I saw an interesting article this week about a class being taught at Parsons New School for Design in NYC called “Internet Famous.” It focuses on the how to use social media tools to gain fame on the Internet. It sounds like a fun class, and teaches useful metrics on measuring your impact in the online world.
I think the class highlights the possibility of delivering whatever message you want, whether it’s for personal acclaim or corporate visibility. The tools for saying what you want and finding out who’s listening exist, and are being taught. But I think there exists another component to social media education that doesn’t receive enough attention, and that’s the social part of the equation.
A big part of this project, in my mind, is not only to collect and share a curriculum, but also to advocate a set of principles that can help people relate to each other in a text-driven, somewhat-faceless world. Chris Heuer’s Social Media Principles provide a great summary:
- Be Human
- Dont Just Be Human, Be Yourself
- Be Aware
- Don’t Just Be Aware, Be Smart
- Be Honest
- Don’t Just Be Honest, Have Integrity
- Be Respectful
- Don’t Just Be Respectful, Live By the Golden Rule
- Be a Participant
- Don’t Just Be a Participant, Contribute Value
- Be Open
- Don’t Just Be Open, Be an Agent of Change
- Be Courageous
- Don’t Just Be Courageous, Be Willing to Fail
What we’re witnessing and participating in isn’t just another way to launch a marketing campaign, but a change in how marketing works. We’ve all heard that it’s about listening to your customers/audience, but it’s also been said (and often lost) that it shouldn’t be an act — it should be how you do things in life, how you interact with everyone.
I had a great conversation with Susan Beebe, founder of SMC-Rochester and the newly-formed SMCEDU-Roc this week. One of the important points that we discussed was the establishment of standards in social media education. As of today,I don’t know of an institution that currently accredits social media classes.
Since so much of social media is collaboration, perhaps that should fall, for now, to the teachers of social media. Although there isn’t a large number of teachers that head a Social Media class, there are many that use it, and in some way teach it.
We want to hear from those teachers. I’d like to propose another conference call on the week of October 12. As I’d like to get as many teachers participating as possible, I’ll contact as many of you as I can to see what days/times will work best. The purpose of the call will be to re-connect, and also discuss topics which will include the establishment of standards.
The social media principles of Chris is correct. I have observed that there are some people who are “plastic” I mean they have showed everybody a good pleasant manner but behind your back they will treat you as a bad person.
Yong, thank you for the mention.
Standards are a must for establishing the framework by which we build and develop social media curriculm and core accreditation requirements.
The SMCEDU initiative has broad implications for furthering the discipline of social media in higher education.
I believe SMCEDU will achieve great progress towards building a community where higher ed faculty and students can collaborate together on developing social media standards, curriculm, education delivery strategies, facility minimum qualifications, continuing education requirements, degree standards and so on.
We need to carefully build this out to adequately support this quickly emerging field in order for professionals to pursue meaningful degree programs and enter the workforce as a social media professional or *cough, cough* expert.
Looking forward to advancing the SMCEDU cause.
Susan Beebe
Founder, SMCEDU – Rochester, NY Chapter
@SMCeduROC
Marian, thanks for your comment. I agree — I think for communication to happen on any level, whether online or face-to-face, requires respect from both sides.
Susan, thanks again for your time and energy! Hope to hear you on the conference call!
You are really right about that Marian, some people are just so plastic.
Yes this is all very true their are many in this world have proven themselves to be “plastic” they can be very nice to you and all good but then when yuor not around could be a complete *sshole.
-John
Yes this is all very true their are many in this world have proven themselves to be “plastic” they can be very nice to you and all good but then when yuor not around could be a complete *sshole.
-John
What a great article. It reminds me of the Email etiquette that some people ignore today or any type of typed content and that is not to use all CAPS as it comes across as yelling. How we come across in our Social Media writing tells alot about a person. Since we don’t actually get to see the person, we can’t always tell if they are being real or being sarcastic or *ssholes. Sometimes I have a hard time communicating because I wonder if what I am saying is not being taken in the context of which I am writing. I am a guilty party of using
to show that I am having fun or to show the emotion I want.
Sorry for the late responses, we’re working hard to address everyone!
Thanks Kim! You’re right about etiquette…until someone develops a sarcasm font, we’re going to have to develop ways to communicate nuance in text. Still, as social media develops, I think (hope) a sense of civility and courtesy emerges as so much of our online personas will be tied to both our professional and private lives. Being a jerk doesn’t get you many friends in real life; it won’t online, either!