Using Social Media Platforms as Educational Tools

The Digital Marketing Apprenticeship framework I am now pursuing advocates the use of social media within the classroom and actually recognise that social media can actually be a really good educational tool. Which you may think would be a given, seeing as this is a ‘digital marketing’ course we’re talking about.. But you’d be surprised.
The idea of being able to openly use social media to optimise my college learning experience greatly appeals to me.
After completing my A-Levels and feeling nothing but caged and limited to what I could and couldn’t do, I find this whole new approach really refreshing.

Over the last week or so I have been spending my time setting up social media accounts dedicated to my studies so that I am able to keep my personal accounts and college accounts separate and have college related things in one place and not mixed in with personal stuff.
The idea behind this is also to try to maintain two different identities online, one more professional than the other. Building a good network of people who are either studying digital marketing, or working in the digital marketing sector appeals to me greatly and I feel I would benefit from it.

But what do I learn from doing this?

Respecting social media as an educational tool means that I can greater understand and appreciate what each platform has to offer and what it’s strengths and weaknesses are. What content thrives on each platform and what doesn’t work quite so well.

It’s this understanding that can also help me be more effective as a marketing assistant as it is my responsibility to keep on top of trends and to cater to all platforms and help content do the best it can on each different social media channel.

Each platform has its specialty, like a food restaurant with a particular cuisine. You wouldn’t go to an Italian for a curry, in the same way I wouldn’t go to Instagram for written content.
But I would go there for photography inspiration, like you would go to an Italian for a good carbonara.


Okay, these are very stripped back, basic examples but it gives you an idea of what I’m talking about and the kind of things I am able to get a greater understanding about everytime I log on.
What platforms are best for what content and what type of content does the best on each platform.

So what platform is my favourite for college?

Even though my college socials are merely a week old, I am already familiar with each platform my college personality is signed on to from using my personal accounts on a daily basis.
However; as of now, my favourite platform for college work has to be Pinterest. It’s easy to use, creative and educational. Allowing you to create virtual pin boards to stick all your favourite pictures and articles up.

Just imagine having a wall-sized cork board and thousands of little snippets pinned up, all about your profession. From smaller things like an info-graphic (my favourite content type on Pinterest) to larger things like whole article links. The creative, buildable interface Pinterest has really appeals to me and is something that is really useful to use for outside of the classroom research.

Overall; I think it's amazing that social media platforms are now starting to be viewed as educational for all demographics and not just time-wasting platforms that the youth are stereotyped to spending so much of their time on.