For me, I always enjoy talking to someone about my experiences and how I got started in the field.  A few days ago I had the honor and privilege to be interviewed by Brooke Roberts from Inside Study Abroad.  (I highly recommend her website for other great interviews with people in the field of international education as well as other great resources).  It was great to get to talk about how I got started in the field as well as social media.

You can check out the video of my interview below and click here to read the entire post.

Talk to you soon!

Here is Part Two of Frank Merendino's Guest Blog post on how he uses social media within international education.

Let's find out why Frank continues to use Social Media today!

What is one social media tool you cannot live without now?

This is a tough choice because I have an equal affinity for Twitter and LinkedIn—but if I have to pick, I would say LinkedIn. Mainly because it provides more robust features like networking, marketing yourself, seeing what colleagues are up to, and the forums act as an information aggregator (I suppose most of what I just said could be applied to Twitter as well).


What is one thing you wish you knew about social media that would have made getting involved with it easier?

Prepare to be overwhelmed at first—especially with Twitter. When I stated using Twitter, I felt like I had to read every tweet and every article that the people I followed were posting. I was on information overload. It was a good thing because I felt like I was made aware of so much more information…but it was also a bad thing because I was made aware of so much more information! There is a lot to process at first, but after a while you get the hang of it. Tools like tweetdeck and hootsuite are great for creating filters. Learning how to quickly skim your Twitter feed and only read what interests you is something that will develop over time.


What do you think social media's biggest impact has been on international education?

Quickly spreading information and ideas—but I think that’s what’s great about social media regardless of your field.


Why do you continue to use social media?

I’m hooked! In all seriousness, using social media has made me feel more connected and informed. It allows me to access a huge pool of information that is catered towards my interests in international education. I can’t even describe how much I have been exposed to via Twitter that I wouldn’t have found on my own. The best part is that the info is all peer-reviewed. I have come to trust the opinions of many of the international educators I follow based on the info they tweet about.

Frank Merendino is the Sr. Admissions Officer for International Partnerships at the University of Cincinnati. He has presented or volunteered at NAFSA: Association of International Educators since 2007. He currently serves as the Region VI State Rep for Ohio and nationally as a member of the Leadership Development Committee. Frank holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from The University of Akron.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Frankie_James.

If you are interested in being a guest blogger please email me at mandy@mandysmashups.com

This is post is by my second guest Blogger - Jeramy Johnson from API - Academic Programs International.  He discusses how he leapt into social media kicking and screaming but is now one of the most prominent users within international education.  Here is what Jeramy has to say.

How does social media influence your international education job?

One of my responsibilities at API is to administer our social media presence. This includes developing content for major sites like Facebook, Twitter, the API Blog, etc, but also monitoring our organization's online reputation, and the field of international education in general. As many know, I'm constantly connected (willingly), so I would say social media plays a very important role in my career.

How did you get into social media?

How did I get into social media? Kicking and screaming ;)

No, not really, but close. I was a relative late-comer to social media in general (but apparently an early adopter as far as the study abroad field is concerned). In 2008 I was visiting with a friend (in between attending study abroad fairs in the Baltimore/DC area for API) who told me "I have a surprise for you - I'm making you sit down and create a Facebook Profile. You complain that we don't email/call anymore and it's true; we do THIS." And the rest was history. Last year when I was on an extended international trip, people actually asked my wife if anything was wrong with me, because they hadn't seen me post on Facebook THAT DAY! Since then, I've become more and more fascinated with social media in its various forms, at one point or another creating profiles/accounts/pages etc on just about every platform that I came across (Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Tumblr, Posterous, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Green Passport, Gowalla, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Quora, Plancast, Audioboo, etc.). My personal and professional interest in and involvement with social media are intertwined.


What is one social media tool you cannot live without now?

Based on my previous answer, this is a tough question to address! If you limit it to hardware, I'd say my Smartphone - I have apps for all of these various sites (including Hootsuite to organize the main ones) on my iPhone, so I couldn't live without that. If you mean application or utility, I'd say Hootsuite (which I use to monitor, schedule, and post to my personal, API, and Aspire by API accounts), with Google Reader a close second. These tools together are invaluable for creating/distributing content, monitoring personal/brand reputation, and seeing what others in your/related fields are doing - there are a lot of smart people/organizations out there to be followed and to learn from!


What is one thing you wish you knew about social media that would have made getting involved with it easier?

I found this out pretty quickly, but I think that many people are nervous about starting (Facebook, Twitter, etc) because they don't know "what to do." I learned quickly that it is okay to a) ask questions - social media is inherently "social"... it's collaborative, and most of your peers are willing and able to help, b) lay low for awhile - if you're not sure what to do, watch/listen to others... you can catch on pretty quick what the norms for a particular network are, and c) be yourself! The most interesting/successful people/organizations using social media have a personality and are run by a real person... nothing is more of a turnoff than someone trying to sound too official on Twitter or their blog IMO...


What do you think social media's biggest impact has been on international education?

In general, I think that international educators have been a bit behind on the social media curve - but this is FAST changing. Thanks to schools like Penn State Altoona, Washington State University, The University of Texas at Austin, Eastern Illinois University, Miami University of Ohio, sites and organizations like Mandy's Mashups, API, CET, Australearn, ISA, IES, GoAbroad.com, EDU directories, Abroad101, Go! Overseas, and others, we have begun to spread the message that social media is here to stay and presents great opportunities for marketing and outreach, advising, program development, on-site learning and post-program evaluation and reflection.


Why do you continue to use social media?

Personally, I really enjoy using social media. It allows me to share a more candid, humorous side of myself with my friends and contacts that I think they appreciate. On a similar note, social media allows me to put a friendly, approachable, transparent face to API and Aspire by API. API has always been about the personal touch - and our social media strategy attempts to embody those values as well.

THE END

Jeramy Johnson lives in Austin, Texas, and is the Vice President of Development at Academic Programs International (API). He enjoys running, traveling, and spending time with his wife and two young children. Follow Jeramy on Twitter at @jeramyutgw, @APIstudyabroad, @AspireAbroad, or connect with him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeramyjohnson.

This is the first post in what I hope will be a continuous series of posts by guest bloggers within the field of international education.  I have asked all of them the same questions in the hopes of offering more information on how social media actually does impact the field of international education as a profession and impacts the professional.  I also hope you will be able to discover how easy it is to get started with social media and some new tools you might be able to use.

My first guest blogger is Frank Merendino.  Here is part one of his guest blog.


How does social media influence your international education job?

I would say there are two main ways that social media impacts my job as an international educator—networking and staying informed. I’ll start with networking. LinkedIn and Twitter have become tools I don’t think I could live without anymore….ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but they really do make networking so much easier and more accessible for me. LinkedIn is great for keeping all of my contacts in the cloud instead of worrying about business cards (full disclosure: I am old school and have several Rolodex folders filled with business cards, so I haven’t completely abandoned older methods of staying in contact with people). Don’t believe me or think that LinkedIn and Twitter aren’t great ways to network? Let me share a real-life example to illustrate one way these tools worked for me.

At last year’s NAFSA conference in Kansas City I met several people at the Tweet-up who I had been following and interacting with online via Twitter. The Tweet-up was great—I was able to put faces to Twitter handles of other international educators I follow. A short while later, I was looking for potential community colleges to partner with and stumbled across a community college that fit the profile I was looking for and just so happened to be the place of employment of someone I met at the Tweet-up. I reached out directly to my “Twitter colleague” who worked at the school, and ultimately a partnership was formed. I believe the level of comfort that Twitter allowed us to have strengthened the relationship that I wouldn’t even have had if it weren’t for connecting via Twitter. This partnership may have been possible without social media, but the amount of time that was cut out from initially developing a relationship via Twitter cannot be discounted.  


How did you get into social media?

I was loath to join Facebook at first, but eventually caved after it became apparent there was no way to avoid it. I still don’t use Facebook very much. It did however introduce me to the general idea of connecting with people virtually and was very much the gateway for other social media platforms like LinkedIn and twitter, which I use more frequently today. I have been using LinkedIn for a while, but in the past three years it has become a site I find myself on at least once a day. As I mentioned above, I use it as a networking tool and as a “digital rolodex”. LinkedIn has also become a way for me to chart my career path. By connecting with other international educators, I have been able to see their previous and current positions, the path they took, and what skills they have developed to help them move down that path. With the background information LinkedIn provides, I have had topics to talk about when I meet people in the real world.

Example

Me: “So, what school did you like attending more, Wisconsin or Ohio State?”

Colleague: “Wow! You really did your homework!”

Me: (thinking this but not saying it out loud) “Yes…I quickly looked at your LinkedIn profile on my mobile about 15 minutes before meeting with you.”

I’ve also had instances where colleagues reach out to me via LinkedIn or I was able to contact them to ask a question. Sure, I could send an email, but I don’t always have their email and it’s nice being able to manage all of your contacts digitally in one place. 

As far as getting started with Twitter, I can specifically point to three reasons why I jumped on the bandwagon and started tweeting: 1) I watched the Social Media Revolution video by Erik Qualman and it gave me chills, 2) I worked with @srah in a previous position (if you are an international educator on Twitter and don’t follow @srah you really should), and 3) I experienced the excitement of “live-tweeting” last year at NAFSA’s Advocacy Day. The video got me interested, @srah gave me a crash course and showed me the ropes on best utilizing Twitter, and my live-tweeting during Advocacy Day showed me a very practical application for Twitter. To see more about how I used Twitter during Advocacy Day, please see the guest blog I wrote for David Comp’s IHEC Blog here.

A comment made during a conversation I was having with a colleague at the Tweet-up in Kansas City last year really put Twitter into perspective for me. The comment he made was this, "Twitter is whatever I want it to be and that’s why it’s so useful.” I couldn’t agree more. The ability to craft Twitter into what you want it to be makes it more versatile than some other social media formats.


End of Part One - More from Frank in the coming weeks!


Frank Merendino is the Sr. Admissions Officer for International Partnerships at the University of Cincinnati. He has presented or volunteered at NAFSA: Association of International Educators since 2007. He currently serves as the Region VI State Rep for Ohio and nationally as a member of the Leadership Development Committee. Frank holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from The University of Akron.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Frankie_James.

If you are interested in being a guest blogger please email me at mandy@mandysmashups.com

I saw this post and felt I needed to share it.  I feel it basically hits the nail on the head when it comes to talking about how to be successful in using social media as well as technology in general.

You can check it out yourself here - http://www.brasstackthinking.com/2011/05/your-secret-weapon-for-standout-social-media-success/

One of the main points this article makes is that responsiveness is key.  I couldn't agree more.  It is so important to one simply respond back to people and two to do so in a timely manner.  I can't tell you the number of people that simply don't respond.  I can tell you that you will get further by simply responding even if it is to say you don't have the answer now but will shortly.  Sometimes it is the small things that can make all the difference.

The article even suggest some general guidelines of how quickly you should respond according to the various forms of social media.  What do you think of their suggested timelines for responding?  Do you agree or disagree?

Many people in international education often wonder "Why should I use social media?" or will say "I work in international education so how does social media fit?" In this post I want to address this idea.

All of this, of course, is my opinion but it is based on over five years experience in the field of international education which  includes starting my own office from scratch, working in a one-person office, as well as developing and implementing faculty-led programs among many other duties.

I have found social media to be a perfect fit for international education.  Here is why.

It allows people who are being asked to do more with less to be able to continue to do more.  For example, instead of having to read three or four newspapers every day or go to four or five different websites I receive the news instantly via my Twitter account or through Facebook.  For instance, when the State Dept. posts a travel warning it hits Twitter first before it hits my email.  This also allows me and others who I have talked to about this to actually more effectively and efficiently do our jobs because it saves time and we actually get the news much quicker and can respond, if need be, much faster.

In addition, I am also able to monitor much more closer what is being said about my programs as well as my office.  Instead of waiting for a complaint to come in via someone calling or coming in in-person (which they still do), I can monitor the internet using key terms as well as various social media sites to see what students are saying about our programs and can address any issues (positive or negative) much faster. (People actually do say some really great positive things about what people are doing within international education that most won't know about unless they were on social media.)

Finally, I love using social media to promote our programs.  I post photos, repost student blog entries, post news articles and much more.  This not only allows me to let other students know about the great things we are doing but also lets faculty, other universities, our providers, as well as the general public know the great things our students are doing to make themselves citizens of the world. 

Social media really does have reach.  I have actually been contacted by the press after posting information about a program.  So what you post really does matter.

These are only some of the reasons that international education and social media are a great fit.  I encourage others within the international education field who are using social media to add further to my list by commenting to this post.

Thanks and more soon!

P.S. You can also find out about a lot of great free or low cost resources, workshops, and webinars by being on Twitter and Facebook.  With these economic times that is a major plus.

Since it is that time of year and many of us are preparing for the 2011 NAFSA Annual Conference in Vancouver I thought I would write a post about how to make the most of the annual conference, whether you can be there or not, by using social media.

First of all, I wanted to mention that my cell phone provider is Verizon and they told me that any texting I do will be part of my normal package so I plan on communicating primarily through these means.  So if you have Verizon this may be a good way to go.  You can use your texts to update your Facebook and Twitter accounts even when you cannot access the internet so this is a nice, inexpensive alternative.

Second, I want to say - Make Use of Your Resources.  This is extremely important.  For this I am mostly talking about social media but this also pertains to networking in general.  This can mean the people you know, the sessions you attend, the receptions you go to, etc.  You can learn quite a bit from the simply conversations you have with people in passing at any of the above events.

Now in terms of social media, the NAFSA Annual Conference is a hot bed of activity for those both at the conference and those that are unable to attend but you are using social media.  If you haven't started using Twitter or something like this, NOW is the time.  There will be thousands of tweets happening from the sessions, official and unofficial TweetUps, receptions, information meetings, and the exhibit halls.  So you can find out what is happening even if you can't be in the other session you want to or if you can't be there at all.  In addition, if you can't be there you can also ask questions and many times others tweeting will see these questions and either answer or ask the presenter for you and get the answer. 

For those attending the conference, I want to highly recommend you attend the TweetUps to meet others using social media technology.  Plus, I have been assured there will be free wifi for the TweetUps so it is your chance to take advance of this plus meet a great group of people!

I also love all the pictures people post of attendees in action.  This could be of presentations, the exhibit hall, receptions, whatever so if you are going this is your chance to let everyone know what they are missing :) and encourage people to attend a session.

I also encourage everyone who has a social media account or who is thinking of having one to start using it before the session to find out what the popular sessions will be, the popular events, and the great places to visit in Vancouver will be.  You can also ask questions so you can head to Vancouver ready to hit the ground running since it is a sprint not a marathon of a conference.

Finally, I would like to suggest that everyone log in and create a profile using the NAFSA Conference Connection so you can set up your agenda and schedule meetings with organizations/institutions you want to meet with and so you don't double or triple book yourself (not that I ever did that :)).

I hope you have found these suggestions useful and hope to see many of  you in a few weeks in Vancouver.

I recently gave a presentation on Advocating in a Web 2.0 World and thought that would be a good topic of discussion for my blog.  When people think of social media many times they don't think of advocating for their causes using social media.  Well, I want to tell you it is extremely easy to advocate for your chosen cause using social media.  If you can tweet or retweet, blog, and/or write a Facebook post then you can advocate. 

Since one of my areas of focus is International Education I want to mention how easy it is to advocate using social media and this field as an example.  Basically, there are a number of tools you can use to advocate for this cause.  You can follow blogs, tweets, and Facebook pages.  In addition, almost every Congressperson and Representative has a Facebook and/or Twitter account that you can follow/like.  If you do this then you can post messages to their walls and retweet messages and mention them using their Twitter name.  Furthermore, almost every government agency has a Facebook page and most have a Twitter account which means you can follow the agencies that pertain to your field/cause.  Twitter also has lists already created so all you need to do is follow the list and you will be kept up-to-date on the happens of the people on the list.  For example, their is a Twitter list for republicans as well as democrats.

Finally, some tips on proper etiquette when it comes to interacting with people you want to advocate with or to.  One of the biggest tips is to proofread everything before you click submit.  Grammatical errors can take away from the message you are trying to send.  In addition, don't write an anonymous message.  Make sure to leave your name.  This gives more credence to your message.  Finally, if you are going to tweet or send a Facebook message make sure you don't post all of your tweets or posts at once.  It is better to spread them out during the day and there are tools available to assist with that so you don't have to be at your computer to even send the messages. 

Some of the resources you can look into specifically for International Education and advocacy are:
http://www.nafsa.org - which has blogs, a Facebook page, a Twitter page, etc.
http://www.connectingourworld.org - a grassroots resource for International Education

If you are interested in additional resources which are available to advocate for international education please let me know.  I am happy to provide the resources I have collected so far.  Talk to you again soon.