Teachers and Social Media & Women are Social Media Power Users

Teachers in Missouri can communicate with students via social media

Teachers in Missouri now can legally communicate with their students on social networks. A recent court ruling overturned Governor Jay Nixon’s law that banned direct social networking contact between teachers and students.
Missouri teachers argued that the law interferes with educators’ first amendment rights of free speech, association and religion. Additionally, the teachers claim that social media is one of the primary methods of communicating with students.
This week courts ruled for a 180-day injunction until a final constitutional decision is made. This raises serious concerns about the use of social media as a communication tool between adults and children.
While we expect the teachers are using social media strictly to communicate school issues, there have been many cited cases about inappropriate teacher-student relationships. Security concerns on social channels is a popular topic, especially as leaders such as Facebook roll out more advanced security features.

Young women found to be key users

According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, young adult women are “power users” of social-media sites. About 89% of online women from 18-29 years old are on the sites and 69% of use social media every day.
Additionally, the overall percentage of Internet users who are on social-networking sites has climbed as well, from about 29% in 2008 to 65% this year.
This shows that social media use is drastically increasing and becoming a more pervasive, and daily part of our lives, specifically for women. Advertisers have long understood the advantage of females, specifically mom-bloggers, online and many marketing campaigns are geared specifically towards this demographic.
With the release of this study, we can expect to see more marketing campaigns aimed at young women utilizing social media tools to share their messages and engage key audiences.