Everyone likes to score maximum points in each subject. It’s what the final public examinations in our country are set up for – to see who can get ‘full marks’!

Do you detect a cynical tone in my voice?  I love learning it’s true – but I also love learning and teaching to include an understanding of the online world that our students will be living and working in when they leave school.  So as the next round of marks are about to come out in NSW I wonder what these marks will tell us about the flexible and agile minds of our students and their potential to succeed in a world wrapped in new media.  New media? Social Media?  Is it really relevant? Do teachers need to know any more than the basics?  Perhaps it’s Business Studies that should take the most note of the shifts taking place, while other subjects should incorporate social media more into the whole learning process. Why?  Because from what I’m reading below – it’s driving a lot of change in the workplace and in marketing.

2009 was surely a banner year for new and social media. Fueled in large part by the impressive growth of Twitter and Facebook and the adoption of both by major brands and recognizable individuals, it’s safe to say that social new media truly went ‘mainstream’ this year.

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently conducted a new in-depth and statistically significant study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. This new study revisits the Center’s study of Inc. 500 social media usage for the third consecutive year, making it a valuable and rare longitudinal study of corporate use of these new technologies. Questions probed respondents about their familiarity with six prominent social media (blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards and wikis) tools. This included the popular microblogging service Twitter and other popular social networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook, and MySpace.

Adoption and awareness continue to trend upward, with 91% of firms using at least one social media tool in 2009 and three-quarters describing themselves as “very familiar” with social networking. Social networking and blogging have seen the most growth in adoption, while other technologies have flattened or even declined in use, including wikis and online video. Twitter usage, of course, has caught on quickly—more than one-half of businesses reported tweeting in 2009. This was the first year respondents were polled about Twitter.

One impressive change over time was in the percentage of Inc. 500 companies that did not use any form of social media. It dropped precipitously from 43% in 2007 to just 9% in 2009.

The Internet has provided us with the platform of information sharing. In the Web2.0 era of social media marketing and information – so much is FREE!!

It’s like fishing where the fish are. Social media is where our consumers are at the moment. There’s no better way to amplify your message…..

…according to Michael Donnelly whose role in Coca-Cola’s global interactive marketing group is to help increase the understanding, testing, adoption and use of digital marketing and emerging media among the company’s marketers.

Coke used crowdsourcing to enable all of their consumers to vote on which team will travel the world for a year in search of what makes people happy. It’s a program that will be completely socially enabled. The team will blog, shoot video, conduct interviews and participate in events. Voting concluded and the three-person team of “Happiness Ambassadors” was announced online on November 16. The trip begins in January 2010.

Oh my!!  I feel as if we have a bit to learn don’t you think?

So I thought this study presented at Harvard University by the “Society For New Communications Research” (SNCR) in November 2009, was  a rather interesting read.

Amongst the findings that caught my eye (which should have relevance to educators) were:

Professional decision-making is becoming more social,  traditional influence cycles are being disrupted by Social Media as decision makers utilize social networks to inform and validate decisions.

The big three have emerged as leading professional networks: LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter.

The average professional belongs to 3-5 online networks for business use, and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are among the top used.

The convergence of Internet, mobile, and social media has taken significant shape as professionals rely on anywhere access to information, relationships and networks.

Reliance on web-based professional networks and online communities has increased significantly over the past 3 years.

Social Media use patterns are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation with younger (20-35) and older professionals (55+) are more active users of social tools than middle aged professionals.

There are more people collaborating outside their company wall than within their organizational intranet.

Connecting And Collaborating Are Key Drivers For Professional Use of Social Media.

So how are you as a teacher or teacher librarian using social media to help your students ‘score full marks’??