With #SocialAdvent in full swing, and rapidly growing, we wanted to lend a hand for schools over the weekend.

Of course, some of you will have busy weekends planned. And you most certainly don't want to be getting up early Christmas Day to tweet!

So here are some tools to help you easily schedule for days you cannot live-tweet.

Buffer

A "catalogue of ideas" - This is how the founder of Pinterest describes his website. It inspires users to "go out and do that thing".

Pinterest is a blank canvas, a bulletin board. Within boards users can pin images, videos, and other resources creating a collage.

All social media networks are expressive and give us the opportunity to be creative but all in their own unique way. When we are deciding which social media channels to use, we look at the content and must decide which channels to share the content on.

Creativity and Social Media

Creativity are expressive, inspiring and need a social platform which allows inspiration to blossom. Sure, it's possible to be creative on Twitter up to 140 characters, but it's not exactly a match made in heaven with the creative arts. Certain creative subjects have obvious social platforms. 

• SoundCloud - Music
• YouTube / Vimeo - Video
• Instagram / Flickr - Photography

Social media has given the art world a fantastic platform in which people can share their inspirational work! Pinterest is a place for individuals who are highly visual and creative.

So what can I do on Pinterest? 

With 70 million unique visitors a month, 38 million registered users and being voted in the world's top 10 tools for education and e-learning, it would be very surprising if you have not heard about SlideShare before, but what is SlideShare? 

What is it? 

When launched in 2006 SlideShare was described as a website similar to YouTube but for slideshows. With the internet becoming more and more accessible SlideShare was launched to put a stop to the dreary days of Microsoft Powerpoint, carrying paper presentations in a briefcase and mostly importantly to put a to stop this....

The Math

How many letters have you found crumpled up in your child's bag? How many newsletters were you given at school? 

Social media is constantly changing, and NOT just amongst the younger generations. One moment a certain platform is insanely popular, then it falls into obscurity the next.

It seems like parents have a challenging time trying to keep up with all the shifts.

And rightfully so.

But then there are others that completely ignore the networks all together. Maybe they are on Facebook, but anything more than that doesn’t get a second look. Meanwhile, their children are bouncing from platform to platform all around the web.

What is it that makes parents stay in one spot (and resistant to dive in and learn more)? Why don’t parents take the time to fully understand social media?

Well, there seems to be a few reasons we hear about a lot! But are these justifiable reasons, or just excuses to avoid the inevitable change that every generation needs to tackle head-on?

[EXCUSE 1] Parents do not have the time

Ask any parent, and they all have their own views, values and ideas in raising their child. There is no magic formula. We learn from past generations, but past generations themselves are not equipped to advise on the new generation.

Parents must provide (first and foremost) for every need and cater to their children's various desires. This means spending each day working, cleaning, cooking, supporting, and loving just to meet the child’s basic needs.

People mistake social media for socialising. WRONG. People do socialise on social media, but that's just a tiny part of how we use social.

Social is used for learning, collaboration, productivity, writing, curation, entertainment, storytelling. Not just socialising with friends.

Students natively use social media to communicate, curate, and share ideas online.

As teachers, this gives you a great opportunity to increase their passion for learning. Giving access and implementing strong educational resources is a great way to engage students both inside and outside the classroom.

It’s important to incorporate your lesson materials using this new medium. It reaches students through a medium they use everyday. And it also chronicles all the tips, lessons and answers you provide in your stream.

Finding bold and innovative ways to use social media is a great way for your school to progress into this new generation. These are just a few ideas that you can infuse social media into your lesson plans to.

Using Snapchat for Quizzes

Schools are seriously misunderstanding Snapchat, and how people use it. Snapchat is trying to replace TV. It understands that people are moving away from tradition television into YouTube, Netflix, and other mobile channels.

Big media companies (Sky, Daily Mail, National Geographic) have set up their own channels on Snapchat because they understand that's where people are spending their time looking for entertainment.

Because of Snapchat's ephermal nature, teachers can use it for memory quizzes. Simply set the time (1-10 seconds) that you want the image or video to appear, and publish your story to Snapchat.

Many schools haven’t branched out past core communication platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And this leaves many of the most popular content channels untouched by school marketers.

People migrate to new networks all the time. And if your school is interested in keeping their attention, then they need to migrate with them.

It’s time to start embracing the future.

Places like Instagram and Pinterest can provide a lot of opportunity for schools to increase engagement among prospective families, pupils, and current parents.

The constant developments in the online world makes it important to embrace new channels as they emerge. This isn't to mean you should just start using them - but certainly to understand them

It’s the only way to keep up with pupils and continue engaging them in an online forum with inspiring stories.

People are Turning to Visual Platforms

We live in a very visual world, and young people are leading the revolution.

The success of visual-focused social media networks proves the trend. And–if for no other reason–that’s why you should invest resources into visually appealing content.