Nathan Eklund, Senior Education Consultant
First the good news: using social media effectively will allow you to connect organizations and people in your communities in ways that far exceed more traditional forms of emails. Who wants a flyer stuck under their windshield wiper?
Unfortunately, you might not feel all that comfortable and knowledgeable using social media. You might be asking, “So, wait. Am I supposed to tweet this to your Facebook?”
Back to the good news: your community initiative just happens to have an almost-unlimited access to experts in the field of social media. Right in your own backyard you have hundreds of people who live, breathe, and “get” social media—your youth. Those of you who are in the challenging, joyful, and sometimes swirling work of connecting your community in order to build assets for youth know that one of the main things you’re trying to do is change people’s perception of youth. You’re moving them to see youth not as a “problem to solve” but a “resource to be utilized.” You want your youth both engaged and empowered. And guess what? Social media is a fantastic platform for doing just that.
If you’re planning an event or trying to build a network, have youth in your community take the lead role in using technology to reach your aims. They have a fluency and acumen with social media that will likely exceed your own. So not only are you using technology more effectively, but you’re also modeling the assets themselves. One of the biggest things youth will offer is a fresh perspective. Most adults consider themselves part of a “real” community and an “online” community. We make a pretty clear distinction. Young people don’t. Their online community is as real and as important as any other community. Generally, as adults, we fear that. But we don’t have to. As you build a community coalition around youth, let youth bridge the digital divide by leading the efforts to build a social media network. You’ll show young people that you respect them and that you’re willing to be a lifelong learner.
And the end result? A robust social media network and empowered youth! What could be better than that?
Good luck!
