Back in May, I posted about Prestwick House and how they are a great example of a publisher using Twitter the way it is meant to be used - based on the priciple that social media is about conversation and engagement (if anyone has the right - or gall - to make such a call, anyway...).
Since that posting went up, I can't really say I've seen any major improvement in the way educational publishers are using Twitter, with one definite exception.
The ELT publishers in particular are certainly getting more active on Twitter, however, and one of the bigger ones even has several different Twitter profiles reflecting its different departments.
But what do we mean by "more active"?
Are publishers still not "getting" Twitter?
If not, then they're certainly not the Lone Ranger on this front, with a recent study showing that even 57% of TECH companies represented on Twitter use it purely for one-way marketing activities, with a staggering 43% of them never replying to a single tweet!
In any case, there's a sure-fire way for you to test the publishers on Twitter yourself to see whether they are actually engaging or just advertising...
Ask them some questions!
If you want to probe a little deeper, consider asking them three types of questions (but not in the same hour or even on the same day, perhaps):
A. Ask them a question about something they've just tweeted
B. Ask them a question about one of their products (or if they have a product that caters to a specific teaching interest/need you have)
C. Ask them a question about English Language Teaching in general (an issue or a development not directly related to a product)
I know this may be a fairly crude simplification, but based on the response(s) you get, you might like to score or rank their social media engagement factor:
0 points = No answer to any of your questions or tweets
1 point = A reasonably helpful answer in response to question types A and B above
3 points = A reasonably helpful answer or contribution in response to question type C above
5 points = A reasonably relevant and communicative message to you (but not plugging a product) based on something YOU tweeted (not necessarily a direct question to them), or an ongoing discussion or exchange with other teachers on Twitter
Okay, this isn't a rubric that is going to get your findings published in a journal, but it could give you a very rough score out of 10 as to how "engaging" a publisher is on Twitter.
And if you don't feel publishers need or ought to be genuinely engaging on Twitter, well please forgive and ignore this post.
And get off Twitter, would you?
(Just joking - take it easy!)
:-)
