I've created a quick Social media skills test while doing my MBA research considering social media leadership. This test got it's roots from my own experiences and also from my observations how colleagues are acting and struggling while trying to use social media as part of their leadership.
As test's results there are four levels for social media (SoMe) users:
- the 0- level person is SoMe- Preventer, who has never been in online social media networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). He or she is afraid of social media and defences himself/herself against social media which is nonsense and waist of time. He/she feels fear against social media.
- the 1- level person is SoMe- Suspector, who has created profiles or accounts to social media networks. He/she is a passive watcher, who follows what others are doing, but he/she is not participating e.g. online discussions. He/she feels unsecure while being on social networks.
- the 2- level person is SoMe- Tester, who is both active and passive social media user, while sharing and participating online communities. He/she is wondering is or isn’t social media "my cup of tea". He/she feels unsecurity/security while acting on social networks.
- the 3- level person is SoMe- Crowdsourser, who is an active social media user in several social media networks. He/she gets positive feedback from others participants and therefore he/she is also engaged in social networks development work. He/she feels security and success while acting on social networks.
These four levels aren't really as linear step by step as the picture describes. We all humans have better and worse days. Sometimes we have time and energy to participate online groups and sometimes not. Therefore, time from O- level SoMe- Preventer to 3- level SoMe- Crowdsourcer may vary from some months to some years. It has taken three years from myself to become active on social networks.
I'm developing scores for this social media quick test. What do you think? What are reasonable scores for today’s school organisations to pass this kind of social media user's test? Should all personnel work at least on 1- level as SoMe- Suspector or is it OK that some are still on 0- level as SoMe- preventers?
Some framework you present here, wow, Kati! Intuitively I'd say we can't force everybody to the same role. In addition, SoMe-positiveness might also "walk" hand in hand with other personality features, eg. those (us?) who are out-going, positive, talk-a-lot, like-to-share kind of people vs. somewhat reserved, need-to-think before sharing what's on my mind, keeping-to-oneself types.
VastaaPoistaThirdly, from community leader's perspective it might be more important to recruit or develop SoMe-capability in certain teaching roles than force all roles to same behavior, at least in the first phase in the organization.
I hope you get a lot of opinions! It'll be nice to see what the outcome will be.
Thank you Johanna for your comments. Personally, I think that "the force generates only weak head children", and also if we force people to use social media, the outcomes are not going to be good. On the other hand, would it be a bad thing, however, that all personnel try SOME- tools in order to even know, what possibilities SOME have...
VastaaPoistaI agree. Plus I'd say that one of the basic features of being a teacher should be curiosity, at least to some extent =) A good teacher is curious about if there are other ways of doing the same thing, what else is out there, etc. Thus SoMe should be included in their field of "let's try this at least once".
VastaaPoistaNow here's of course a challenge to you, early adaptors, colleagues of slower ones: What could you do in order to encourage easy adaptation and experiencing?