Twitter is more than tidbits of daily news and tweets about trending television. It is a great source to find like-minded people in your field and even a mentor.
Twitter influencers, experts, thought leaders and kindred spirits can help improve your teaching by supplying information and ideas that you can put into practical applications. Once you find someone to follow, you can build on that virtual relationship and use them as a mentor, either virtually or face-to-face.
Figure out who you’d like to follow.
The first step is to actually figure out who’d you like to follow. Sounds easy. But, the Internet is a BIG place and Twitter is no exception.
Use Twitter’s search to seek out influencers and people you want to follow. Type your keywords in the top search. You can also use Twitter’s filters and Advanced Search to search locally, which gives you a better opportunity for an in-person meeting.
You can try these five hashtags to get you started.
- #GoogleET, #GoogleCE, #GoogleEI
- #MIEExpert
- #SkypeMT or #MinecraftMentor
- #GoogleTeacherTribe
- #STEAM
A search for these hashtags brings up the top results, but also people tied to them. This is a really easy way to start following an influencer and possible mentor.
If you’re still having an issue finding who to follow, search through your other social media platforms. How many people do you know that use just ONE form of social media? You can increase your chances of connecting with a mentor if you can overlap social networks.
Prepare to take the next step.
Once you find someone to follow that is mentor-material, do some research and learn as much as you can about them. Start a virtual conversation or check out any podcasts or blogs they have to find common areas of interest. Do they seem comfortable sharing their knowledge? If so, continue on.
The approach.
Build a rapport with your potential mentor. Promote their tweets, ask for their advice, comment on their blogs and so on. Treat the virtual world as you would the real one and get to know them slowly. The key is to build a dialog and show you have something of value to contribute.
When you’re ready, email the influencer and simply ask if they would be willing to act as a mentor to you. Email works great because it is - literally - the electronic equivalent of a letter. It is more formal than a DM but not so formal as a mailed piece of paper.
Once you create and facilitate that online relationship, you can decide both decide if, when and how you want to meet in person. Even if you never get to that stage, there’s so much powerful information out there that just following posted advice provides a great opportunity for personal and professional growth. Reach out to Arey Jones for more advice on your professional development
