Sharing is something that all human beings need to effectively know how to do. It begins with teaching toddlers to share their toys, and from there it never ends. As those toddlers turn into teenagers who turn in to college students, they learn a new type of sharing that is important in the digital age: social sharing. Being able to share things effectively in the social media world is important for students to understand, as it helps them better their personal brands and recognition.
Teaching sharing is not hard, and teaching your students how to effectively share things on social media is important for their overall grasp of understanding social media. Teach your students good sharing practices, and they’ll be better prepared in the digital world.
“A RT is Not an Endorsement”
You’ve seen it on hundreds of Twitter profiles across the web: professionals stating that a retweet on their personal Twitter isn’t an endorsement of what they’re tweeting and that retweets don’t reflect their views. If what you’re retweeting doesn’t reflect your views, why are you tweeting it? Make sure your students know the importance of what it is that they put on their social media pages, and how what they share looks to people on the outside.
Authenticity
Your students know as well as you do that the authenticity of things on the web isn’t always fantastic. Teach your students to understand the importance of knowing the facts about something before sharing it with their followers. Often times, no thought is given when sharing a cool picture or story on social media. Stress to your students the importance of fact checking when sharing things on social media.
Personal Things
When it comes to sharing things on social media, there’s a lot to be said about sharing personal things. Your students should understand the difference between posting an image to Twitter and posting that same image to Facebook. Privacy considerations aside, using your “professional” Twitter to post pictures of your lunch will only make you look less professional. Additionally, having a “professional” Twitter page shouldn’t be something your students should be doing. Stress to your students that if they wouldn’t share it with the world, they probably shouldn’t be sharing it at all.
Start Discussions
Lastly, make sure your students know that they should share things to start discussions. This goes for any professional field, as facilitating discussion is a great way for your students to be noticed. This includes responding to things that others have shared by adding a unique perspective, and backing that perspective up. Encourage the creation and use of hashtags amongst multiple social networks. Friendly discussion is different than inciting an argument, as your students should already know.
