How to Use Social Media to Reach Niche Markets — Educators

Angela Modzelewski

Like the military community, teachers and faculty must operate in accordance to guidelines when it comes to social media. These guidelines are often provided by schools or school districts, although in some cases, there are state mandates prohibiting teachers from interacting inappropriately with students through social media. In their personal lives, many teachers join social media sites, but they are careful to keep their personal accounts private and separate from any professional social media activities.

• 80% of K-12 teachers use social media for personal or professional reasons
  
• 80% of K-12 teachers worry about potential conflicts with students or parents because of social media
  
• 55% of college faculty used social media in a professional capacity in 2013, which was up 11% compared to 2012

The following graph from Pearson Learning Solutions illustrates the breakdown of teacher activity by social media platform.

One platform that wasn’t included in the 2013 Social Media for Teaching and Learning Report by Pearson Learning Solutions was Pinterest. Pinterest is quickly growing in popularity among busy teachers who are looking for lesson plans, organizational ideas, inspiration for classroom decorations, book recommendations, and more. Recently on Pinterest, there were:

• over 500,000 education pins pinned daily
  
• 400 boards with the keyword “classroom”
  
• 400 boards with the keyword “teacher”
  
• Over 700 boards titled “teacher discounts”
  
• 350 boards titled “lesson plans”

According to Mashable, nearly half of all teachers use online lesson plans. Incorporating free lesson plans and work sheets into a content marketing campaign could be a great strategy for some companies who are trying to reach teachers. Offering a teacher discount is another great way to get educators’ attention. Whatever you do, include images and consider adding pin it buttons and Facebook share buttons to your site or landing page to maximize your reach.

Stay tuned. Next week we’ll talk about how to reach college students using social media.

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