Thinking back to the start of the twenty-first century, the concept of a teacher, trainer or author promoting his or herself online in the way we’re expected to today was almost unimaginable. The word blog wasn’t coined until 1999, and blogging didn’t really hit its stride until around 2004. And what about Facebook and Twitter? They both feel so much a part of our day-to-day lives that it’s easy to forget that they were only founded in 2004 and 2006 respectively. I probably check Facebook and Twitter upwards of twenty or thirty times a day. How did these things become such an integral part of my personal and professional life?
As many of us know, websites and services such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress come under the broad heading of social media, while the use of these applications is termed social networking. Social media and social networking are elements themselves of a wider phenomenon (for want of a better word) – that of Web 2.0. If Web 1.0 was about the Web as a ‘pipe’, where information was poured into one end and consumed at the other, then Web 2.0 is a ‘platform’, where users collaborate to create content and meaning amongst themselves (thanks to Cleve Miller at English360 for the analogy). Put simply: Web 1.0 was top-down, while Web 2.0 is bottom-up. Put even more simply, think about what YouTube is without the videos that its users upload: an empty shell.
Aside from book sales, an author’s influence in the world of ELT used to be judged relatively crudely by their success on the conference circuit: how many plenaries they’re doing, that kind of thing. Social media has given us new ways of gauging that influence, and, when combined, they’re appropriately referred to as the author’s platform.
Some examples. How many Twitter followers does she have? How many people retweet her? How many people visit her blog each month? How does that number compare to people with similar blogs? Do her blog posts get linked to by other blogs? How influential are those other blogs? Does she have fans on Facebook? How many? When she writes something on her Facebook wall, how many people click ‘Like’ or write a comment? What kinds of things do they say?
Publishers are interested in an author’s platform for the obvious reason that it represents a variety of marketing opportunities. The platform is the author’s fan base, and it’s not difficult to convince your fans to buy your book; they already like you, after all. But what if you’re not an author and have no desire to be one? Should teachers and trainers be worried about their platform? Absolutely.
Your platform is a marketing tool, and marketing is all about creating opportunities for you to get your message out there. That message could be ‘Buy my book’. But it could also be ‘I’m a highly effective teacher’ or ‘I can help you achieve your language learning goals’. Curating a successful platform for yourself can reap benefits in a variety of ways: a new job offer, a new client, an invite to speak at a conference, a tap on the shoulder from a publisher or publishing agent.
Image by Flickr user 'gagilas' reproduced under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
So how do you go about it, and what are the potential pitfalls? The bare minimum, I’d argue, is a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, a presence on Linked In and a regularly updated blog. If you’re worried about some cross-contamination between personal life and work life, then simply create multiple accounts and use them selectively. Bear in mind, though, that the more accounts you have, the more complicated they get to manage.
Once you’re set up with those basic four – and you’ve begun following people, adding people, connecting with people and blogging – you’re on your way to becoming part of the online ELT community. And that word community is an important one to remember. Membership of a community is reciprocal: you can’t be part of it if you don’t take part in it. So read and comment on other people’s blogs; you’ll find that they’ll start commenting on yours. Retweet some interesting posts from someone’s Twitter account; they’ll often thank you, follow you back and retweet you themselves in the future (and if you’re worried about building your Twitter following, it’s amazing what a retweet from someone with 5,000+ followers can do for your follower numbers).
To finish, two warnings. First, authenticity is paramount, and people can sense a lack of it; always be yourself. Second, remember that promoting yourself through these channels is a delicate art. If you put enough in, there’s a tacit understanding that you can once in a while take something out. So if you’ve spent the week posting links to interesting content on the Web, sharing resources, and supporting fellow members of the community, no-one begrudges you promoting a new blog post, an upcoming talk or even your new book. But if all you do is talk about yourself or promote yourself, you might as well be speaking into a black hole.
(A version of this blog post appears in TESOL France Teaching Times Issue 64.)
Interesting post, Nick. I had this talk with my brother recently, because he didn’t think FB was the place to share work related stuff. I’ve tried to keep FB as more of a personal platform, but I realized recently that about half of my friends on there are in ELT. Google + seemed to have the answer for that, but unfortunately few have jumped on board.
Re: Twitter. To be honest, my favourite tweets are those from tweeters who promote their own posts. I like their writing or the resources that they share in their own blog posts, and I’m eager to read something new. When Shelly, Brad, Tyson, Ceci, Ken etc. post something that says NEW post, I’m so happy. (I like their RTs too, but their own stuff is the best, and I love when they have time to post more than “once in a while”.) And if someone tweets a new post four times to reach a greater audience, I don’t judge them. I think it’s wise. While I can understand that there are some people who don’t share other people’s stuff as often as they could, it’s more likely that they haven’t set up all of the auto tweet/retweet channels that some of our more tech savvy friends have. Personally, I only retweet or share stuff that I’ve read, but I don’t judge those who have other methods because they are typically expert curators. I wish people didn’t have to think of it as a delicate art. We’re all different, and we use platforms for different reasons. As Deepak Chopra says, “It’s none of my business what other people think of me.”
Hey, Tara! Great to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I suppose what I meant by the use of the phrase ‘delicate art’ is related to digital literacy – of having an awareness of the modes of behaviour that are appropriate in these new channels. For me, Twitter especially is a classic example of “the more you put in, the more you get out” – not in terms of retweets and hits on your blog, but more in terms of becoming more deeply involved in the community, of learning, and of making meaningful new connections (personal and professional).
I never dipped my toe into the Google+ pool, but like you I’ve realised that Facebook is blurring the lines between the personal and the professional. I’ve actually realised that I don’t mind. I don’t *think* I do anything too shocking on Facebook (apart from take lots of photos of what I’m eating!), and if I ever did – well, we’ve got Deepak Chopra’s quote to turn to in that case …
You have given me a needed new perspective on using social media to promote your books or blogs. I knew the importance of networking to getting your ideas out to lots of people, but I now see that self- promotion requires finesse. You point out two considerations to the successful use of social media: to receive support you have to give support, to be acknowledged you have to acknowledge others; and you must be willing to make communicating with others a major part of your daily life. The first consideration is easy as mutual support and care are an integral part of being a good person who has a positive influence on individuals and therefore on society. But the latter poses a problem for those introverts on the Myers-Briggs temperament scale who process internally and are more private. Introverts are not shy, they just think and create as a more personal, self-contained process. Sharing the (mundane?) personal details of their life might not come naturally and could be downright distasteful. Social networking done well, as you point out, is a commitment of time and effort. Blocks of alone time to think and process is crtical to the introvert’s well being and and creativity. The extroverts have a clear advantage in the realm of social networking since it is their nature to think out loud and they require less down time. I and other introverts face a challenge if we are to get our ideas out there and connect with and support others who share our interests or concerns. It is a much more involved process than I had realized. I’ll have to work at being a more effective social networker. At least it is more pakat
Hi, Liz!
Lovely to hear from you, and thanks for the comment.
I hate to admit it, but I’d not given much thought to the difference between introverts and extroverts with relation to social networking (is that a sign of being an extrovert, I wonder – the lack of empathy … !). I’d love to hear some perspectives on that, especially from people who consider themselves introverts.
On a related note, did you see that piece in The Guardian from back in March called ‘Why the world needs introverts’? I’d post a link, but it looks from the website like they’ve had to take it down because their copyright expired. I’m sure you could find it if you searched around for a while.
…palatable than using the phone! (sorry for the premature post)
Lots of interesting ideas. As a freelance ELT “writer”, I’ve been blogging quietly for years, but it’s only in the last year or so I’ve got into other forms of social media for work. I was initially a bit wary of opening up Facebook to work contacts, but like you, I realised that most of my status updates weren’t actually that personal and were mostly fairly innocuous (food, gardening, the weather …). I do wonder whether it actually helps to build professional relationships if people have a little insight into you as a person as well as the serious stuff.
So far, I’m a bit less convinced about Twitter. When I joined up at the beginning of this year, I was initially quite excited about it all, clicking through to lots of blogs and soaking up lots of ideas. Recently though, I’m starting to feel like there’s rather a small ELT clique with a rather niche agenda, which is interesting, but not always that relevant. But maybe I’m just following the wrong people … I’m not writing it off just yet.
Hi, Julie! Thanks for commenting.
I completely agree with this: “I do wonder whether it actually helps to build professional relationships if people have a little insight into you as a person as well as the serious stuff.” If you work in a field where relationships are important (and, let’s be honest, name one where they’re not), then I can see a real benefit to using social media to help build a more complete picture of you as a person (within limits, of course … !).
I’d stick with Twitter if I were you. I’ve found it an amazingly rich resource of professional development and have made some proper, real-life, in-the-flesh friends from it. If nothing else, it’s nice to be able to recognise people at conferences from their profile picture; I’ve used that as an ice-breaker more times than I care to remember!
I will never again reply to a blog when I just wake up in the morning or on my iPhone! First, I lost my completed reply and had to reconstruct my thoughts and rewrite it. Then I published it prematurely without finishing the last sentence and having a chance to proofread it. The result is a reply that is less than perfect. Please excuse my grammatical errors.
Always the perfectionist, Liz! I think you can edit your comments on WordPress. There’s a small ‘Edit’ button on the top-right of each post.
I will search out the article on introverts.Thanks.
Social media can easily overload the introvert. I find marketing myself an awkward task and casual conversations a challenge, so I tend to do exactly what you warn against and find myself in that black hole. I communicate in spurts rather than nurture online relationships.
In one way, social media can help introverts communicate. We are almost anonymous. We have a detached way to share our ideas with many people at once, and we can do it from the comfort of our own home or office. This is the reason kids say and do things on the Internet they would never say or do in person, and cause each other a great deal of emotional harm.
Writing articles and books shares some of the detachment of the Internet.The big difference is the regularity of communication and the need to share what might be incompletely formed ideas. When I write, I think, conjure, research, analyze, compose, edit, revise, polish, and publish, a process that can take days or weeks for a blog, or months and years for a book. I don’t even like to share my writing with others for feedback until I’m about done, and even then it is with just a chosen few I trust and whose opinion I value. I think too much input is paralyzing for introverts.
It isn’t that we don’t consider the ideas of others when formulating our own. On the contrary, we are quite introspective. We process all the information we can find to home in on what we want to say or do. This clarity takes extended private time for reflection. To be a successful social networker requires a shorter time frame for turn around. A tweet of something that popped into my head? Not likely. A blog exploring a concept or issue? That’s more like it. A one-on-one focused conversation? All the better.
Thanks for the fantastic insight, Liz.
Very sound advice Nick. I find it really interesting that ‘the online community’ is the essential element for all aspects of a successful platform. Promoting oneself is not about being in a self-contained bubble saying “look at me”. Rather the ideas and thoughts we have come as a result of learning from the community we are a part of. This is what comes across really nicely in this post. Cheers, Paul
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Paul. You’re based in Barcelona, aren’t you? I’m surprised our paths haven’t crossed; I’m there fairly regularly, and I’m sure we know lots of the same people.
Hi Nick – I am indeed. It’s good to know you’re over a fair bit. Let me know when you’re next going to be here and we can try and get something beer-related sorted with some of the other twitter people
I think you two may have met briefly at Tesol Spain, by the statue of Carmen!
Very interesting comments here! I have gone through the same process of realising that it is not so easy to keep the social and professional separate. In the last few months I’ve found myself adding lots of ELTers to Facebook. Mainly because the line between work and play is often blurred, when you have worked together on voluntary projects, or at conferences! As both Nick and Julie say, as long as we are sensible about what we post, there isn’t really a problem.
“I think you two may have met briefly at Tesol Spain, by the statue of Carmen!”
We did!
Thanks for takin the time to comment, Michelle.
It is difficult for those of us who are both teachers and authors, because so many school districts strongly emphasize deleting all social network accounts. Many a job has been lost by a mis-worded post or being tagged by a friend in an unfriendly compromising situation. I’ve had to change my accounts to similar versions of my name. You can’t get followers or blog readers without saying something a little funny, off-putting, or slightly controversial at times–things that could get me in hot water with my district.
While I’d love for my writing career to take off and fully support myself (especially with the negativity surrounding education right now)…it just doesn’t seem feasible. So I have to toe the line on both sides.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Chris. I’ve certainly heard of other teachers and academics in a similar position – who have had to remove themselves completely from social media either because they’ve been made to or because they’re worried about what might happen if something goes wrong.
I wonder how other people have dealt or would deal with this?
Nick, thank you so much for your post, this is something very interesting for me! I have started building my own platform recently, as I’ve just had a baby and have been looking for ways of not losing touch with elt world for this period. So i started a blog where I share my teaching materials and at the moment i am looking for different ways to make it more popular.but i quite agree with you thqt it’s very important to support other people in your environment and not just to promote yourself blantly. This helps to build a real community of “your” people. I’ve also noticed that the more often I post something in my blog, the more likes and follows I get ))
Many thanks for taking the time to comment, and congratulations on getting the blog started. It looks great! Best of luck with it.
Nick,
thank you!
Svetlana