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  • Social Media and Ed. Tech. Companies

    By Joshua Kim October 26, 2009 8:56 pm EDT

    Where social media make sense to me are as a method of exposing the fact that organizations are made up of people. I don't want to read blog posts or Facebook status updates or tweets from Microsoft, Google, Blackboard, Adobe, Apple etc.... But I do want to hear from the people who work at these companies. Particularly the people who work in the education divisions of these companies.

    The NYTimes has now has a social media editor named Jennifer Preston. In an intervew on NYTimes Tech Talk, Preston makes the point that NYTimes reporters can use social media to engage in two-way conversations with a highly motivated community. Part of her job is to encourage this conversation.

    I think the time has come for companies to bring in their own social media editors. I know some of the people who work in ed. tech companies that we do business with, but I don't know nearly enough of you. Who are the education leaders, decision makers, program managers, developers, designers, and sales folks at Microsoft? (to pick on one). What do you guys care about? What is driving you crazy? What are you working on? What articles and blogs are you reading right now? What products and services do you use? How did you get into educational technology? What do you hope to leave as your legacy?

    I'm sure that the people who work in ed. tech. are blogging, tweeting, and facebooking (what am I missing?). I'm sure that if I knew who they were then I could build a social network relationship with colleagues in the ed. tech. community.

    But I don't know who you are. I don't know where you are.

    This seems like a natural place where EDUCAUSE could get involved. Both in encouraging the people who make up ed. tech. companies to have a social media presence and in helping to aggregate and organize this community. Social media will be the tool that breaks down the barriers and integrates the higher ed and for-profit cultures. EDUCAUSE could help this process along.

    While we wait for an EDUCAUSE vendor/school social media initiative does anyone have any ideas how to get started on building these online relationships? Does anyone have a list of ed. tech bloggers, tweeters, and facebook folks? Any ed. tech. companies that have been particularly progressive on this front?

    And if you work in the ed. tech. industry - then - hello.

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Comments on Social Media and Ed. Tech. Companies

  • Posted by Mike Jortberg , Higher Ed leader at Acxiom on October 27, 2009 at 12:15pm EDT

  • Joshua,

    I fall into your category of a person at a company who serves higher ed. Company is Acxiom, a newcomer to HE. My blog is at http://mikejortberg.blogspot.com/

     

    I focus on academic and financial aid integrity in distance education and speak regularly at the many distance ed conferences. If you are at Educause, swing by booth 589. I’ll be at Sloan this week, speaking on Thursday PM.

     

    Frankly, the media covers this topic so poorly that I spend lots of time de-bunking bad reports from Chronicle. IHE does a decent job with content, but given that up to 20% of $80B of annual student aid is at risk, there’s not much ink on the subject compared to articles about “Twittering in the classroom” and other new fads. Where are the stories about the 29 student aid fraud cases?

  • Posted by Jeff Jackson on October 27, 2009 at 3:45pm EDT

  • I worked for a edtech company and always wrote blog post, twittered, and acted online as myself. We did have a corporate acct, but we wanted to have a personal presence.

    I think all companies are struggling with this. They want to move to social media because that is the new buzz without learning about it, or figuring out the space.

  • Thank you for this article.
  • Posted by Clint Buhs , Social Media Writer at Atomic Learning on October 28, 2009 at 12:30pm EDT

  • I'm a recently hired social media writer at Atomic Learning. I run a blog (atomiclearning.blogspot.com) and a social network (atomiclearning.ning.com), both of which are fairly new and just getting legs. I also tweet as "AtomiClint".

    Just yesterday I made a pitch to my team encouraging more involvement by our executives, customer experience team, and IT department. I can't create the human presence of our company alone, and I'm currently working to enable those groups to join the conversations. I'd very much like them to share their concerns, challenges, and successes with the educators we serve. We take great pride in what we do, and we want them to know that in a more human way.

  • Join us!
  • Posted by Holly Rae , Tech & Learning Facilitator at NMSU on October 28, 2009 at 1:15pm EDT

  • Hi Joshua, thank you for expressing this need. I find that I am connected to all kinds of folks (especially in Twitter) who are doing the type of networking you describe (if I understand you correctly). Are you on Twitter? You can find me @hollyrae :) Thanks again, H.

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