Some thoughts on Leon Benjamin's 'Building brand me?'

How do I build brand me? from Winning by Sharing

Leon Benjamin, a blogger at Winning by Sharing has posted an excellent presentation, How do I build brand me?, on Slideshare. It contains some very useful and (for me) timely advice on social media networking and prompted me to add the following (now, slightly edited) comment:

Thanks Leon, seeing your blog and Slideshare has been timely for me. I spend a lot of time sharing links, writing posts and creating resources for my students and to build my reputation as a counsellor who is passionate, committed and knowledgeable about the profession of counselling. I have evidence from students, clients and colleagues that this is successful, but your blog and presentation has helped me to be patient, focus on the process rather than the outcome and to remember that influence cannot always be measured by immediate reactions and change. In fact these principles apply as much to client work in counselling as they do to my involvement with social media. And the fact that I am now thinking, 'This could make a good blog post' shows how much I have begun to think in terms of creation, curation and sharing. Best wishes, @MarsdenTherapy

So, here I am creating the very post I mentioned in my comment. I think this is an example of why I like social media and its networking potential. I'll make a list:

• I have Tweeted the link to Leon's blog on my Twitter feed to alert my followers to something interesting I've found on the Web. I'm particularly thinking of those followers who are also colleagues at the University Centre, Blackburn College and interested in developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) and using social media to engage learners.
• I have followed Leon on Twitter, 'liked' his Facebook page, added his blog to my feed, added his blog to my newsletter on Scoop.it and subscribed to his Slideshares. So I'm now 'connected' and have expanded my network. He may or may not subscribe to any of my social media sites but either way I'm going to be notified whenever he uploads content.
• Finally here I am embedding Leon's content in my own site and adding my own reactions. For me this is fun but it's also learning.

So, I shall continue giving time and attention to my social media accounts. It's fun to create and curate; it enables me to connect with colleagues from across the world; I'm able to engage with different opinions and experiences, new ideas and research; it develops my writing and critical thinking skills; and builds my reputation as a counsellor, supervisor and teacher who is working at being authentic and is certainly passionate about his work ... 

Now ... I need to add this to my blog and post a link on Twitter ...

Social Media and Curation for Edupunks

I've been fascinated this evening by the notion of curating, watching videos on the topic by the 'Great Curator' himself, Robert Scoble. Turns out I've been curating for years! It involves reading content on the Internet and then sharing it with others by, for instance, 'liking' it on Facebook or Tweeting it. In the old days if I liked something then I'd share it with friends by copying the URL into an email and sending it to them. Now this process is made easy by applications designed to store and share content.

I've just started using Scoop.it, which allows me to read articles or watch videos on my favourite topic - counselling and mental health - and then share that content with my "community" - of students, colleagues, friends and Twitter followers - by clicking on a 'bookmarklet' on my bookmarks bar. The article is then placed in an on-line feed or 'topic' and presented as a high-quality newsletter, it is automatically posted to Facebook or Twitter depending on my preferences.

So the time I spend on the Internet has become pretty involved. If I read an interesting article I use my bit.ly button to shorten the link before sending it out on Twitter; I use Scoop.it so the article appears as a topic there and automatically posts to my Marsden Therapy Facebook Page. I then use the Evernote Web Clipper to save the article to a folder in my Evernote account.

So, the question that crosses my mind is, 'What's the point?'

The first thing I would say in response (to my own question) is that I find it enjoyable. I enjoy searching the Web for articles, reading them and sharing the best of them with others. Secondly, I feel part of a community - I read articles posted by counsellors and mental health workers all around the world and I respond by sharing content that I have found interesting. Thirdly, I believe my efforts help establish my credibility as a counsellor: someone with passion for my subject who's engaged in the 'conversation' about counselling, psychotherapy and mental health. Several clients have made appointments because of my blogging and Tweeting. I think it raises my profile. Finally I think that social media and curation has a role to play in teaching and learning and that's what I want to talk about next.

I experimented with Facebook a couple of years ago. I invited all my students to join, thinking I would be able to create a "community of learners" on the Web. I soon realised this was a mistake that crossed professional boundaries. I felt uncomfortable reading about the private lives of students and after one week I explained my mistake, apologised and deleted my account. When I rejoined Facebook a year later I restricted my circle of 'friends' to people I knew, people who really were friends. I then started thinking about how else I could communicate with learners. But the key lesson from my first experience of Facebook was that social media needs to be managed properly and boundaries have to be protected. I think I do that pretty well now.

One of the ways I use curation to promote teaching and learning is by using Twitter. I encourage learners to join Twitter and follow my account. I don't follow back and that helps to maintain clear boundaries. I've had a number of students comment on the links I've posted to relevant articles and videos, but generally the take-up rate amongst students has been pretty low. I'm considering other innovative ways to include Twitter in my teaching: I may try holding classes in one of the computer rooms where I can use Twitter to canvass opinion and assess learning.

Facebook seems to be much more popular amongst the students I encounter and now I've found a way of automatically posting articles to my Facebook Page I shall promote that too as a way of engaging learners. My Marsden Therapy Page allows me to share content on the 'walls' of students who have 'liked' my page but without becoming their 'friends' or seeing their personal posts. I'm going to give this a go in September 2012.

Finally, Scoop-it allows me to share content with my students. First of all it creates a smart looking e-newsletter out of the content I have bookmarked. This comes with its own URL that I can copy into emails or advertise on my other Web Sites. Secondly Scoop.it has a widget that I have been able to install on the University Centre's virtual learning environment - in this case it's Moodle - for all my students to see, and ignore, or click on. My real hope is that learners will also begin using social media to curate about counselling and mental health topics - and that will be very satisfying.

PowerPoint as an On-line Resource

It never occurred to me before to embed links into my presentations for learners to access on-line. That's because I have associated PowerPoint with "front of the class" presentations. Embedding links turns PowerPoint into a powerful on-line resource. This is one simple way to introduce learners to connectivism and the edgeless university. So, with a PowerPoint I can present my slides with narration, include links to websites and videos and then link students to a wiki where they can write their thoughts and reactions. Just like I've done here. And although I am providing the links, once my learners click on them who knows where they'll go! I am going to complete the learning cycle now and develop my own enhanced PowerPoint.