Today, I had a chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do, and that was to be part of a Hootsuite webinar. They do so many each week on a lot of topics and I have participated in some of them over the years and all have been very informative.
A few months ago, Kimberly Yu and her fabulous team at Hootsuite contacted me to see if I would be willing to do a webinar talking about teaching social media. I of course jumped at the chance to do not only a teaching social media webinar, but to work with the pros at Hootsuite – that was totally awesome.
I have been on webinars many times – but this was the very first time where I was the only guest. 45 minutes plus Q&A to answer questions all about teaching social media.
How did I organize the webinar? I actually broke up the webinar into three parts:
- How I got started and what professors and students need to expect from the social media class;
- A case study: My class (with resources, sample assignments, guidelines and expectations);
- Words of wisdom for teaching social media
In the webinar, I really tried to focus on a variety of things and tools I wished I knew when I was starting to build and create my social media class at UofL. I was very fortunate to talk to some amazing professors about teaching social media who were also very generous with their resources and ideas. On the other hand, I did get a lot of doors slammed and the line “This is my class and my property.”
Well, okay. That’s not how I approached this webinar at all. I believe professors today are all in the same boat and we can all learn from each other as well as our students. I had a point in my webinar presentation about paying it forward, and I firmly believe this when it comes to teaching social media. It’s about moving the profession forward.
Here are some other takeaways I had from doing this webinar with Hootsuite this morning:
- It’s not only about why we need to teach social media, but it’s all about the how: Professors know why we need to have social media in the classroom, but it’s about how to approach it. What are the best tools and resources we can use? I shared with books I used (Michael Brito’s Your Media Brand and Chris Kerns with Trendology) – which got a great reaction from the professors and webinar attendees.
- Share many resources with webinar attendees:Â This was something Hootsuite really encouraged and I am in full agreement. So, I made sure to provide sample overviews and a sample assignment I give my social media class each semester. I talked a bit about my experience incorporating Hootsuite University into my social media classes over the years, which has been amazing!
- Praise those who are excelling in teaching social media:I also wanted to point the webinar attendees to follow other professors – who may teach in different disciplines than I do – on Twitter. Always good to build the network out and give shoutouts to those who are doing well in teaching their students key principles of social media.
- Following up and answering questions: I loved all of the questions that were given during and even after the webinar! I was very impressed and pleased to see so many people had questions to extend the conversation further. That’s what it is all about! 🙂 I also had fun sharing some stories from my own classes and which assignments my students loved and which ones I felt needed some improvement.
- Reviewing the feedback from the webinar for the future: I was able to see some of the feedback both on Twitter and the comments about the webinar after it finished. WOW. I was pretty blown away and really happy with the feedback!
If you are interesting in hearing the webinar and were not able to participate in it live, you can go to this link and register for it. The webinar recording will be available in the next week or so.
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone at Hootsuite, especially those who helped me today on the webinar (Kimberly, Rhett, and Kelsey) for their continuing support and encouragement.
Hootsuite IS the real deal – not only a leading social media company,  they are the real deal when it comes to building a strong social media community with amazing employees and professionals. Each person I have met, talked to, and worked with have been absolutely phenomenal.
And, a special thank you to Kimberly Yu. You’re truly a rockstar and thank you for your continued support for all of us in higher education!
Thanks and hope you all are having a great evening!
Best Wishes,
