Leveraging New Media as Social Capital for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Officers

Technology has fundamentally changed our lives by bringing us closer together and connecting us in ways that make the world seem smaller.  As higher education diversity professionals step into the foray of social marketing and continue to enhance their presence, it becomes even more important that they understand how to leverage important messages of equity, diversity, and inclusion in ways that promote an inclusive society and foster global equality.  In order to carry out effective social media campaigns surrounding EDI issues, it is necessary to foster activity online and offline.

My colleague Kindra Cotton and I, along with my former students, coauthored the chapter, “Leveraging new media as social capital for diversity officers: How equity, diversity, and inclusion professionals can use social media to foster equality”.   

This chapter (Cotton, Green et al, 2016) is a guide for EDI professionals on how to use social media to foster equality.  It includes a discussion on the Internet and the evolution of social media, review of new media technologies alongside emerging trends, and highlights why social marketing messages are important for diversity professionals.  It also proposes a framework for understanding social media marketing, by providing tips, recommendations, and examples showcasing how to use social media to advance social justice.

Prior to this publication, we coauthored another chapter (Cotton & Green, 2014) on a similar topic.  While most of us have grasped how to utilize social media in our personal lives, very few have been able to bridge the gap in leveraging new media effectively to enhance their careers.  This chapter is a How-To Guide for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) professionals seeking to use social media to carve a niche in the social networking arena.  The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how EDI professionals can benefit from utilizing new media marketing tools to position themselves as subject-matter experts and use this authority to create engaged communities surrounding the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.  A review of new media technologies and emerging strategies starts the chapter.  It continues with further details on the steps needed to develop and implement a successful social media marketing strategy.  The chapter concludes with how to turn plans into actionable steps and includes a social media marketing planning worksheet.  Since several media platforms have changed since the chapter was published, I encourage you to focus on the social media marketing strategy, action steps, and the planning worksheet.

We would love to hear about your old and new social media challenges and successes as EDI/DEI/JDEI professionals in various industries, from higher education to government, from corporate to healthcare.

There’s so much noise to cut through these days: How have you carved a niche for yourself and fostered equity, equality, and social justice?

Let’s share and connect. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

References:

Cotton, K., Green, D.O., Beckman, S., Hussain, A., Robb, A. and Matthew D. Green, III. (2016). Leveraging new media as social capital for diversity officers: How equity, diversity, and inclusion professionals can use social media to foster equality. In J. Prescott (Ed.) Handbook of research on race, gender, and the fight for equality (pp. 113-141). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Cotton, K. and Green, D.O. (2014). Leveraging new media as social capital for diversity officers: A how-to guide for equity, diversity, and inclusion professionals seeking to use social media to carve a niche in the social networking space. In V. Benson and S. Morgan (Eds.) Cutting-edge technologies and social media use in higher education (pp. 294-319). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.