Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/109814
Making a difference Students work social media for Chamber and WJBR Social media: So much more than talking on Facebook The Governor gets it. The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce gets it. WJBR radio gets it. hey understand that social media can help sell Delaware to employers in other countries; help students find jobs; help businesses find customers; and help organizations involve more people in their activities. And each has enlisted the digital media students at Delcastle High School to help them. Gary Phillips teaches digital media ��� web design, social media and entrepreneurism (how to get work in this field) at Delcastle High School (New Castle County VoTech) in Newport. He has one colleague, Elizabeth Abell, who teaches video production. A 1972 graduate of William Penn High School in Colonial, Phillips became a graphic designer because of his high school graphic arts teacher, Don Glovier. ���It was his passion for the work, the product. He was an amazing teacher.��� Phillips worked for an ad agency, for Delaware Today magazine, and then had his own company, Gargoyle Design, for eight years. He taught imaging and publication design at Wilmington College. Then a position opened up at Delcastle because of a retirement. ���At the time, the department was known as the Academy of Communications and Publishing. This was in 2003. There was no web, so we got together as a staff and reinvented the department, changing the name to Digital Media,��� he explains. T Gary Phillips thinks it may be time to reinvent the school���s Digital Media Dept. to keep up with how organizations are changing to reach their audiences today. Social media strategies can enhance results Last year he began teaching social media strategies that companies are using to expand their businesses. First problem: Public schools are blocked from social media sites. It took the Governor to get that solved. Here���s what happened. Before social media outlets were opened, students used their phones to post daily on Twitter at #NetDE (a hashtag for anything related to Delaware) or at #dthcarpedm. They posted one goal for the day, something in their life that they wanted to make better. That���s how the Governor���s office found them. It was Felicia Pullam, deputy director of the Dept. of International Trade and Development. The students started getting tweets back from Pullam as well as Gov. Markell and others. WJBR saw them. The State Chamber saw them. They were all impressed that these students were thinking about self-improvement every day . 24 February 2013 DSEA ACTION! Pullam began wondering if these students could figure out how businesses in India use social media as well as what they needed or wanted to know about Delaware. They accepted the challenge. On the day that Gov. Markell announced a trade mission to India, he tweeted the students at #DelcastleSocMed, thanking them for helping Delaware to use #NetDE to reach India. Before he leaves for India, the students will tell him what they���ve discovered and how their social media strategy will better connect the right people in India with Delaware and #NetDE. Says Pullam, ���Gary���s enthusiasm and creativity are a huge asset. I was extremely impressed with his students��� energy, ideas, and professionalism. I think their work could enable us to bring our business development efforts to a whole new level of engagement.��� They���ve done a live Twitter feed for a Delaware State Chamber of Commerce event. For WJBR 99.5FM, they videotaped two bridal fashion shows which they will edit for the station���s web site. Once a month, Phillips invites someone in communications to visit his students and talk about their industry and how to break in. ���It became very obvious that many organizations only hire free-lance workers for these areas ��� graphic arts, videography, social media campaigns, writing, web development ��� and that our students will have to know how to market them ���I���ve reinvented myself three times since I���ve been here, trying to keep up with the world,��� admits Phillips. And he���s been there just nine years. ���And students have to also. They just have to get used to change.��� selves in order to keep working.��� They also know now that they have to go to college. ���Ninety percent of our students in Digital Media do go on to college. Employers want college graduates in these fields,��� reports Phillips. So, just a few months ago, he began teaching his students entrepreneurism, to help them understand that as free-lancers, they are entrepreneurs, managing their own personal businesses. Phillips knows that the department has to keep up, too, which isn���t always easy within the walls of a highly-regulated public institution. ���Maybe,��� speculates Phillips, ���the term Digital Media will limit us in the not-too-distant future. I���m wondering if it might be time to rebrand ourselves, to make sure we stay current for our students.��� He���s leaning towards New Media. ���New Media can be anything. It doesn���t limit your thinking to digital, and involves the web, social media and video for the web.��� How does he keep up with the teenagers? ���I���m passionate about this field, integrating messages and information with images and platforms that will engage audiences. It���s very exciting, always changing, and always challenging.��� And, he says, no matter what he���s teaching, ���I want to inspire my students, and make them better.��� www.dsea.org