One of the issues that is facing corporations today is to whether or not have a policy for social media. In academics, we are also faced with what are the academic policies regarding social media in the classroom. There are some issues that arise like whether to friend your students or not, what type of assignments to incorporate in the class that uses social media, and what information is appropriate to post regarding your online presence.
I believe that it is important to have a policy in place when it comes to academics using social media. Professors and students should be able to interact with each other on social media networks (ex. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) Both parties have to recognize that the other can see what the other is posting – and should view it as a proactive and professional medium to share information and communicate with each other.
Even with these policies, I do believe that both professors and students have to be online not only to manage their reputation, but to establish their credibility in their discipline and profession. One of the benefits to being online (ex. Twitter) is that it does establish your online presence and “thought capital” among your followers and other target audiences.
In other words, you want to present yourself as a professional, up-to-date, and collaborative scholar / professional that is willing to share the wealth with others. This “wealth” can range from sharing stories or posing ideas about certain issues pertaining to PR to retweeting something that is interesting. For example, I use Twitter to share updates on what I blog about, and what stories that I am interested in. There are a lot of possibilities – that it why social media is so exciting! 🙂
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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