Syme is providing a five-part series on social media education for student-athletes ranging from middle school through college. She is the former CoSIDA New Media/Technology Committee Chair. You can follow her on
Twitter or via
her website. See the first three parts of this five-part series here:
Part 1
Part 2
Social Media Education: What Student-Athletes Need to Know about Privacy
Part 3
The University of Indiana set a precedent recently with the announcement of a
comprehensive Student-Athlete Bill of Rights. The first of its kind, the document lays out a list of benefits to incoming athletes that includes a “lifetime degree guarantee,” medical and health services, academic services, and even specialized social media training.
As schools seek to make social media training part of their regular education programs, there are four important areas of curriculum that should be considered: privacy, best practices, personal branding, and cyber harassment. In this fourth of the series on how to put together a social media training for students, we’ll address the issue of personal branding. Links to the first three parts of the series are at the end of this article.
Step One: Buy-In
We constantly remind students of all ages that every tweet and every post they send is building a personal brand or reputation. But why is that important to an 18-year-old? First and foremost, any discussion of how social media can build or ruin a reputation must address why students should care. There needs to be an immediate value for them personally.
In order to answer that question of value, we must first understand
how and why different age groups use social media. Knowing that different ages have different pain points when it comes to the concept of personal responsibility will help us understand how behavioral decisions are made. I’ve found that buy-in for responsible use of social media comes in different forms at different ages. Where middle school students just want to experiment with independence, younger college students may be using social media to establish their position in the differing communities they belong to. Most middle school kids give little thought to how social media affects their ability to get a job. Consequently, their buy-in to responsible behavior looks different than a 22-year-old.
Build Your Brand
There are aspects of personal branding that appeal to every age group. The key is finding which piece of school curriculum it fits into. Whether it goes in career exploration, media training, leadership development, or life skills, it should be age appropriate to where they are in their education experience.
Specific points for differing age groups:
College Age-Athletics Specific (First Year)
I think it’s important to gauge the competency level of incoming freshmen when it comes to personal branding on social media. This can be done with a simple survey or through interviews in individual team meetings. Know what you are up against. It is possible some students at this age know nothing about the digital world of personal branding. Some may need very beginning information. A refresher like this also gives more savvy students an idea of what is expected of them at this level.
I believe that this age group needs to be coached on how to set up personal profiles online, and the
about.me site is a good place to start. It gives students an opportunity to practice setting up a digital resume in an environment where they control all the information and can set up their template to reflect more of their personality. They will need instruction on setting up a digital resume and help understanding basic concepts like mission or goal statements and choosing the right pictures. The need here is very practical. For most it will be the first time they have ever tackled the digital resume. Starting with about.me will prepare them for the more “adult sites” like LinkedIn and Google Plus. However, some of them may have already covered these bases in high school. Ask them to share their knowledge with the group.
Help them understand that their other public channels (Facebook, Twitter,etc.) are a part of this mix, so maintaining digital consistency of character and reputation will be important. I’ve found that many students revert to privatizing their social media channels at this stage because they are overwhelmed by the fact that strangers are looking at their social media. Many have not had much public scrutiny of their social media channels yet, and this may be their wake-up call. Remind them that detractors are out there—media, fans, and opponents--who may be looking at their social media to re-post their exploits to the public.
I also like to help this group understand the scope of their personal brands. I’ve used a graphic similar to the one featured above as a starting point in the discussion. Many of them need a broader understanding of how different roles shape their personal brands. They cannot pick and choose - everything in this graphic plays a role in shaping their personal brand.