Week 2 Part B - Education-Based Businesses Research

I researched five businesses that related to math education in different forms. These are my findings listed below:

✶ Mathematical Association of America

https://www.maa.org/

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a national organization that focuses on pushing forward the understanding of mathematics. In their 2019 Impact Report, which was released on their website, the MAA had a total revenue of $11,813,365. The top five sources of income were development, grant and donor funded programs, math competitions, publications, and membership fees, in that order. They are a large organization whose members include math faculty at all levels of education, college students, and STEM professionals. 

The MAA promotes their social media in a clear and easily accessible way on their website. The social media icons appears on a banner at the bottom of every page on their website.  In addition to the banner, there is a page on the site that connects the viewer to social media. The social media they use are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, a blog called Math Values, and a Career Resource Center. I think they mistakenly classified the Career Resource Center as social media, when in fact, it reads as a separate website.

The MAA uses Twitter and Facebook more frequently (counting the nearly daily postings). They deliver news about breakthroughs in math and science or interesting features about the subjects. They also have their announcements pinned at the top for news relating to the MAA. There aren't many comments left by followers, and a MAA usually doesn't reply to the comments either. That made me feel that a dialogue between business and consumer was missing. 

✶ Khan Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org/

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that offers a wealth of instructional videos and practice exercises, which are organized in a way that allows for independent learning. The content in the American site is targeted to learners K-14. Khan Academy is going international by translating their videos to 36 languages. They also have full sites for the U.S., India, Mexico, and Brazil. In 2019, more than half of their $47,988,831 income came from gifts and donations from foundations, individuals, corporations and the community. Khan Academy employs a full staff to develop learning materials and create videos, with expenses that are in the range of their income.

Khan Academy uses Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for social media. The icons  are listed in a banner at the bottom of the pages on their site (easily accessible), however, they do not stand out. The icons are placed on the lowest point on the banner along with the "Terms of Use" and "Privacy Policy," which are items frequently ignored by users. They also did not promote that they had a YouTube channel. Khan Academy integrates YouTube videos to their site, so it may not be needed to promote their YouTube channel.

Khan Academy posts educational videos almost as frequently as they post on any of the other social media platforms. That has to be challenging since content videos require more time to film and edit. I also noticed that they post socially relevant pieces on Instagram, in addition to purely educational topics. Their most recent post is about a young Black activist and the books she is promoting that feature people of color as the protagonist. They will also pose a question as an entire post, inviting the followers to engage and comment back. Unlike the MAA, they also have the founder's face associated with the company, Sal Khan. He makes regular posts and talks to the viewers. Overall, Khan Academy does a great job humanizing their company on social media and inviting people in.

✶ Wyzant

https://www.wyzant.com/

Wyzant is a company that facilitates the online search from students looking for tutors online or in their area. The student can vet the tutor from the description offered and from student reviews. Wyzant offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee for the first lesson. From the tutor perspective, the site offers an easy way to coordinate tutoring appointments, however, Wyzant will take 25% (plus another fee) of earnings from the tutor's hourly fee. As far as I can tell, Wyzant is a national company, which was started in Chicago. Wyzant offers over 300 subjects and more than 80,000 instructors/tutors are associated with their company.

Wyzant uses Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for their social media. The icons are posted on a banner on the bottom of the Wyzant homepage. Many of the posts are about promoting tutoring services and the exam prep that they offer. The social media links are easily accessible, but the first click leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Instead of taking you to their Twitter page, the link prompts you to advertise on your own Twitter account for the company. If you cancel the post, which I did, then you have to search for Wyzant. The whole experience was annoying and inconvenient.

✶Professor Leonard

https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorLeonard/featured

Professor Leonard is similar to Khan Academy in that he offers great instructional videos. However, Professor Leonard is the only person featured in the video, and he focuses on math-related videos. This is a much smaller scale than Khan Academy. The videos on YouTube are free for viewers, so supporters are asked to donate on the site Patreon. Professor Leonard also has a modest merchandising line on myshopify.com.

Professor Leonard's business centers around YouTube, Facebook, and Patreon. I had to search online for his YouTube and Facebook pages, but once I reached those, I could see the Patreon link promoted on each of those platforms. Patreon also seems to have social interactions and places for members to comment. This site is marketed as a more direct and exclusive way to connect with Professor Leonard. The perk for donating and subscribing to Patreon is that you get access to additional locked videos.

Given the infrequent posts, social media does not seem to be Professor Leonard's way of connecting with an audience, other that it offers a platform for his educational videos. However, he still has a strong set of YouTube subscribers, so perhaps students are promoting the videos to their classmates. 

✶ Palomar College Teaching and Learning Center - Escondido

http://www.palomar.edu/tlc/escondido

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) is a space on Palomar's Escondido campus, where students can receive learning assistance from tutors and staff in such topics as technology, English, science, math and Spanish. During this time, they have transitioned their services online. This business model is most closely related to what I currently do in math education.

I chose to focus on Palomar's Escondido branch because I was having trouble finding social media for the tutoring center on the main campus. On the TLC Escondido homepage, there is a tab on the left for their Facebook icon, which is easily visible below their contact information. TLC Escondido does not post often, posts can be spaced out by months. The posts promote workshops and major TLC changes, such as going online for remote instruction. There are "likes," but not comments from followers.

My Conclusions

From the five businesses that I explored, Khan Academy and MAA used their social media most frequently and had a well-rounded offering. These are larger organizations, with the staffing power to be able to keep up with posting. Khan Academy had a more personal touch which was reciprocated by more comments and viewer-involvement. I think they used their social media in the most positive way for their business. They included posts about educational concepts, asked viewers what kind of videos (product) should be created, and touched on relevant social topics without preaching. 

From the smaller educational organizations, I noticed fewer posts and posts that were more event-driven. From my observations, this model is pretty typical (I do this for my work social media, too) smaller educational settings or higher-ed settings. Usually, there is a small staff group, or even one person, in charge of creating and posting material in addition to other work responsibilities. The model follows a viewpoint that the main purpose of social media is to deliver information about events and solely educate on a focused topic. I'm starting to see that even in a business setting, we can diversify our use of social media to entertain, to create connections, and to deliver our community's voice.