Using social media for education

It's been a while since my last blog post and it's good to be blogging again. I came across the latest Social Media Revolution video by Erik Qualman (@equalman), author of the best-selling book Socialnomics, and was once again amazed at the statistics and the huge impact that social media has on our everyday lives. Can you believe social media as a whole is probably less than five years old? Now think about what the future would be like for online engagement and communication five years from now? Isn't that just exciting!

Now how does it relate to our current (and future) education system? I believe that schools at all levels from primary to post-secondary should use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to better engage with students both inside and outside the classroom. Online group discussions on Facebook or Twitter should be the norm in order to encourage social and continuous learning among students anytime and anywhere. A recent study showed that using Twitter for educational purposes in the classroom doubled student engagement compared to traditional learning methods. Interestingly enough, it also increased students' GPAs. Although a small sample size was used, this study still shows that there is opportunity to use Twitter and even Facebook in class to teach and engage students in discussion since most students are on it anyway while their professor is lecturing in the background.

Do you agree or disagree about using social media in (and even outside) the classrooms to better engage students? I'd like to know your comments.

Using Twitter to find a job

There are tons of job postings posted on Twitter daily. If you haven't tried using Twitter's search function and hashtag searches, then give it a try this new year! For example, using the hashtags #toronto #jobs to do a basic search in the Toronto area, here's just a few jobs that I've found today:

Best Buy is hiring a Mobile Specialist
Loblaw's is hiring Part-time Store Associates
Accenture is a hiring full time CRM Manager

If you're looking for more specific jobs, then try using more specific search words such as: insurance, marketing, bartending, web developer, etc. Here's a video from Mashable that explains more in detail. There's so many ways you can use Twitter and search for information! So give it a try if you haven't yet! Would you like me to help you search for a job on Twitter? Send me a tweet to @jreandino! Follow me on Twitter too!

Four lessons about social media for an entrepreneur

When it comes to social media and digital marketing, I've learned four important lessons from reading Mitch Joel's book Six Pixels of Separation.

1. Create meaning - If you focus on making money, you are bound to FAIL. The right path focuses on making meaning by empathizing, making a change by solving a problem, and making the world a better place. It's amazing to see how people are more than willing to support a cause that is beyond themselves.

2. Communities are the new currency - In any market, there are always small and large communities (on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) that share similar interests, stories, needs, and a respect for each other. As a marketer, you can either lead this community by connecting people or become part of it as an equal. You cannot simply barge in and act like a multi-billion dollar corporation and expect people to listen to all your self-promotion. I'd unfollow you on Twitter right then and there!

3. Trust and transparency - Now that people have the power to choose, you have to earn their trust in order for them to be your customer, become a Facebook fan, or subscribe to your YouTube channel. Like in any relationship, the best way earn trust is by being genuine and human. People hate talking to voice recordings, seeing automated emails, and encountering mechanized interactions. They can even smell if you're not being honest with them right through your computer screen. Focus on building the relationship first by being REAL!

4. Listen, listen, listen - If you think having the largest marketing and advertising budget is necessary to win, then you are sadly WRONG. We have all become desensitized to TV, radio, print, and web advertisements. The key is to start listening by following people's conversations on Twitter, Facebook wall posts, and YouTube comments. People are more than happy to share their opinions, issues, and suggestions in an open and non-intimidating atmosphere. All you have to do is ask.

Overall, these four lessons may seem somewhat general and may differ depending on the situation. But I believe they are the basic values that every marketer and entrepreneur needs in order to do business right. Do you agree or disagree? What else am I missing?

What's all the Buzz about?

Ok I'm writing this blog post to test if my Blogger account has properly linked with Google Buzz and hopefully to Twitter! Let's see what happens! Blogger post test 1. Fire in the hole! Are you in the Buzz yet?

Internet is a treasure hunt

Ever since my last blog post, I've been spending a lot of time on the internet just constantly reading countless of articles and blogs about social media, online marketing, entrepreneurship, and blogging. If I found an interesting blog or site, I would follow the blogger on Twitter, subscribe to their site's RSS feed using Google Reader, and even bookmark their blog/site to revisit again later. It has been such a fun and amazing journey for me so far and I'm enjoying every moment of it. I feel like a treasure hunter scouring across the wilderness of information, searching and discovering valuable treasures to collect and share with others. Sounds cheesy I know! But that's how I feel when I dive into the information wilderness we call the Internet.

I have two main sources of information. The first is Alltop. It's like "an online magazine rack" that collects and compiles many of the best stories, blogs, and websites about any of your interested topics such as fashion, sports, blogging, marketing, and much more. Thank you Guy Kawasaki for making Alltop! Your site has changed my life by opening my mind to the vast information I've been missing out on all this time! FYI, as I'm writing this, he has over 209,500 followers on Twitter!

Now my second source of information is Twitter via TweetDeck. It's a Twitter client program that allows you to easily use, manage, and monitor your Twitter account without having to go to your Twitter website. I absolutely love it because I can easily track the Tweets of the people I'm following, track hashtags and keywords of topics I like, reply to Tweets, make Retweets, and follow new people all in one place! Plus, I can also track and update my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts through here too! Talk about multi-tasking! What's cool is that you receive instant updates that pop up on your screen every time someone posts a new Tweet or even Facebook status/news update. It's fantastic! TweetDeck gives me the ability to receive and find the latest topics about whatever I'm interested in! It's so much better than the reading or watching the traditional news!

Well, I'm very excited about blogging this week! I have a list of over 20 topics that I found interesting and inspiring to write about. Yey!

Twitter day

I just feel like talking about Twitter today. First, I added the Follow Me button today to add more flavor to my blog site. There were so many different options to choose from so I might change it again later this week just for the fun of it. Second, Bill Gates joined Twitter yesterday and I followed him when he had 40,000+ followers! As I'm writing this, he has over 196,000 followers already! Unbelievable! Third, I read an article yesterday, Twitter's Growth Slows Dramatically, that really caught my attention. According to the line chart, Twitter's growth peaked back on January 2009, but soon afterwards has been declining sharply. I wonder why... What's more interesting is that only 18% of Twitter users have more than 100 followers! Woah! If that's the case, then my guess is that Twitter isn't that appealing to the mass consumer market. I will definitely do more research and "Digg-ing" on this topic.

New Discoveries

So I joined several new social networking and social media sites today. First, I joined LinkedIn and I'm in the process of finalizing my profile information and other administrative details. Soon I'll start exploring this amazing social networking site. Hopefully I'll be able to find a lot of other entrepreneurs such as myself there.

Second, I joined SurveyMonkey, its a free online survey site. I plan to use this service for asking students their opinions and ideas related to books exchange, classes, courses, and other academic related topics. I will check it out again soon.

Third, I created an account at HootSuite and I must say it is such a convenient service that allows me to control all my social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so far all in one website. It is neat and well organized too. So I'm really excited to play around with it some more.

Fourth, I found an excellent blog article by Louis Gray called 10 Pointers for Generating Traffic to Your Blog. Two of his points that stuck with me were: "Quality content is key" and "Be a two-way blogger". My ultimate goal for the Book Hook blog and even my own blog is to share informative, original and interesting topics that will attract people to come back for more. I also need to start commenting on other people's blogs and add valuable comments to the online communities and conversations on Twitter and other sites. What else can I do to become better?

Clean up

I did a lot of cleaning today, both physically and digitally.

It's such a great feeling to clean my room. It's that same good feeling I get after clicking the Refresh button on my browser. I've had too much paper, books, and clutter that needed to either be thrown out or sorted properly. Now I finally have more visible space on my tables while everything is neatly arranged. I guess it's because of my OCD personality.

I made something cool as well. I had a problem... I really needed a container to store all the business cards I collected from people over time. So I thought to myself... "What can I use?". As I searched in and around my room, I found the Kodak box of my camcorder... Then the idea hit me! Aha!. The box was perfect in size, about 8 x 6 x 4 inch, and I was able to fit all my cards, my extra spare change of coins, and other little accessories and medications all together into one place. I feel really proud of myself because not only did I remove all the clutter from my side table, but everything is all organized now! Yey!

Now as for digital cleaning, I added a new app called Symplaris Blogcast that links this blog to my Facebook profile. I also found a great site called Listorious and there I was able to find a whole list of entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter! Yey! From there I was able to find and make an account at PartnerUp and Startup School. I think they're great sites for entrepreneurs. I will look into those sites later. Right now, I'm in the process of adding Google Analytics to this blog. Searching and reading online now...

I also added and edited information on Youtube, and then linked my account to Facebook and Twitter now. However, I can't seem to add Blogger to the My Blog section for some reason. I'll have to try it again later.

I wonder what other great websites I can find today? Also, should I make an account on LinkedIn? It's tempting...

Tumblr!

Well I just made a Tumblr account! And I must say that I like it better than Blogger! Why?

Pros:
1) So many themes to choose and so user-friendly
2) You can upload pic, videos, links, and others easily
3) You can connect it to Facebook and Twitter so I only need to post it once!
4) I can follow my friends!

Cons:
1) There is no Share button that viewers can use to share my blog to Facebook or Twitter.
2) I find it irritating that you have to keep scrolling down to view friends' blog posts.

Here's my link: http://jreandino.tumblr.com/
That's what I've found out so far after using it for an hour. More to come!