No Guts No Glory: Seeding a Digital Culture of Social Media in Institutions

Amy Hayward @amykinshay – University of Aberdeen

The workshop will explore embedding a digital culture by developing social media frameworks and overcoming challenges faced in educational settings. At the end of the session members will be provided with a toolkit for change, allowing them to develop their own strategy for the future.

This session will involve various group activities exploring how individuals can use ‘business cases’ for accounts (allowing them to establish digital interaction as institutionally important to their peers) and allow the adoption of social media channels in environments that are less digitally savvy; accurate and honest measures of success; collaborative working across departments and colleges; and establishing best practices where no policies currently exist to ensure the institution can see the value of social media work. During the workshop participants will also be given a chance to explore their own institutional challenges, gaining insight into how they can encourage positive change while minimising institutional risk.

Digital policies are often meaningless in a setting where the underlying hunger for digital engagement is not present, so the workshop will go on to explore how professional services along with their academic and teaching colleagues can seed this appreciation for social media by creating a positive and creative space for the exchange of ideas, and allowing departments to trial methods without fear of failure while ensuring the institution as a whole is safe from negative effects.

The session will include several mini scenarios allowing participants to gain a practical understanding how all of these techniques can benefit them, and be used to gradually seed a digital culture within their workplace.

We will conclude by discussing how support can be given, and asked for, from both sides of the table and common oversights and misunderstandings that arise during the development of a socially switched on university.

Handouts used in the session