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Social-Media Activities

Use the following activities to improve your social-media skills.

Research a Topic

You can use social media to research interesting topics for yourself or for school projects. (See pages 275–287.)

Your Turn Follow the instructions below to research a topic of your choosing, using social media.

  1. Select a topic that you are studying in school or that otherwise interests you.
  2. Brainstorm a list of questions about the topic—things you want to know. Consider asking one or more friends to help generate this list.
  3. Use a microblogging service or social-media site to search for information about your topic and to connect with experts on in that area. (See page 277.)
  4. Start an account with a social bookmarking service, and explore any shared “tags” related to your topic. (See page 280.)
  5. Don’t settle just for text. Explore multimedia—graphics, audio recordings, video, animations, and webinars—related to the topic. (See page 280.)
  6. Create a wiki or Google Doc to use as a research hub for taking notes, storing important links, and organizing your research.
  7. Use your research hub to identify any gaps in your knowledge and to organize production of your project.

Start an Advocacy Campaign

As you have learned in this chapter, social media can provide a powerful platform for advocacy. In this activity, you will pick a cause or issue that is important to you and use social media to raise awareness and take action.

Your Turn Choose a cause or issue that you care about—something at school or in your community. The cause can be anything from encouraging volunteerism at a local institution to promoting a school club or organization.

  1. Brainstorm with friends a list of causes you care about.
  2. Select one cause to champion in a social-media campaign.
  3. Brainstorm ways you could use social media to raise awareness for that cause.
  4. Make a plan, identifying your goal, the steps to achieving it, the social-media tools available to you, roles for members of the group, and a target end date. (See pages 355–362.)
  5. Put your plan into action.
  6. Once the project is over, take time to review what you learned, including which social-media sites and strategies were effective.
  7. Make notes of best practices for your next social-media project.
  8. Share in class or in a blog post the story of your social-media project so that others can benefit from your experience.
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