What are some of the social media trends that are being implemented in higher education?

by Serena Ehrlich, SVP Social Media on August 2, 2009

Question: What are some of the social media trends that are being implemented in higher education?

Answer:

Social Networks: Higher education social networks are an excellent way to provide an easy way for teachers and students to share information as well as a platform for teachers to build their own online reputations and marketibility. One of the easiest ways to create your own social network is via Ning.

Ning is a social media platform. While there are service you can add on, the primary service on Ning is absolutely free.

So what could your higher educations social media platform on Ning contain?

Lesson plans
Research notes
Licensed ebooks (or links to ebooks)
Chat room between your students (consider holding a moderated weekly chat here!)
Links to supporting reading/research materials

Document Sharing: Now, if you are looking for something a little less interactive, but with equally powerful capabilities? Check out Docstoc.

Docstoc is a document sharing service. It is a platform that allows educators to share their own written works with the world. Docstoc has very high natural SEO, ensuring your published works appear higher in search engines.

Docstoc recently launched several ways that you can actual sell and/or make additional revenues from your uploaded works. Consider uploading your own written documents as well as your own blog posts, creating a rich, online directory of documents searchable online, enhancing your reputation and visibility thoughout the web.