2010 - Public Relations Society of America

It gives me a window into their world. It’s a much less formal kind of relationship with
social media. I get to listen in, and if I hear or see something, or if somebody asks me a
specific question I can answer. It’s much more passive and more personal. I’m pretty
much an open book – on Twitter and on Facebook. And so students are that way with me.
And I sort of role modeled that – to use social media in that way – and so they’re
comfortable with being open appropriately so – being able to share their life and who
they are. And that gives me a window into their world and being there without having to
set up a coffee date or meet on a regular basis. It can be a quick thing.
Offering resources. Educators felt positively about using social media in their
mentorships because it also allowed them to share resources easily with students. As one
professor from the Midwest US mentioned:
I’m finding it to be really helpful because a part of mentoring is to help students find jobs
and on Twitter there are all these accounts for PR jobs. It’s definitely useful for
mentoring because these are great resources that I can easily direct them to. That’s one of
the greatest things about social media, and online media – I can read up on it and study it
and share that with my students.
Another professor from the Eastern region of the US enjoyed using Twitter in particular
because it allows her to “learn some new strategies or events in my community that I can share
with my network of people.”
Allowing students to choose their own mentors. One professor brought up the very
salient point that social media allows students to dive into the field and choose their own mentors
if they so desire:
There are so much more mentoring opportunities because of social media and there is a
variety of mentoring opportunities. Because from the academic standpoint, students are
not just limited to their teachers. They can cultivate relationships and choose mentors by
really developing relationships with them through social media. It’s changed mentoring –
in the sense that if you follow certain blogs and you comment on those blogs, you can
choose mentors and build relationships with them. By commenting on their blogs,
retweeting tweets, you can build and nurture relationships with leaders in public relations.
And that ability to broadly choose mentors is greatly influenced by social media. You
don’t need to be at a cocktail hour to meet someone. It’s really opened doors and that’s
exciting.
Showing the value of social media. Lastly, educators use social media in the hopes that
it can show students its intrinsic value. One professor felt her efforts have been successful, as she
stated that “implementing Twitter in the classroom, that’s when I felt the shared mentoring
developed. When they’re seeking out assistance, or career advice or just somebody to listen to.”
Another professor in the Midwest US felt that she is still working on this issue, but making
progress:
I’m hoping that in following my lists they see the value of Twitter and to me that is
something as a mentor I can do because I can’t force my students to open an account. But
if I can at least encourage them to check out what’s available and see how others are
using it then I’m hoping that will help them when they get their first job that they can
speak intelligently about Twitter.
RQ3: What Challenges Do PR Educators Face in Using Social Media for Their Mentoring
Relationships?
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