The Power of Twitter Collaboration
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Opportunity Leaders, Young Invincibles and partners of the Opportunity Nation Coalition had an outstanding Twitter chat last week on creating more career opportunities for young people.
This dialogue showed the power of social media in connecting Opportunity Leaders and amplifying our thoughts beyond each of our individual networks. During the day of the chat, the #MillennialMon hashtag was used well over a thousand times. The potential reach of just the tweets that included the @oppnation Twitter handle was more than 700,000. Thus, when people were sharing their ideas for increasing career opportunities for young people and making them as meaningful as possible, they were getting the message out.
One Leader told me she now understood the power of Twitter for the first time and that she was inspired to start planning an in-person meet up of cross-sectors Leaders in Boston.
The discussion allowed us to hear a diversity of perspectives, from corporations to young adults. A common theme was the need to create more work experiences for young people and to be intentional about how we tie these opportunities to jobs that will employ them long-term and the teaching of skills that will most benefit them most.
From policymakers like Birmingham, AL Councilmember Jay Roberson and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health, to business leaders like Jeffery Wallace from Starbucks’ Leaders Up, to organizations like United Way, Vibrant Pittsburgh, Year Up, National Academy Foundation, Roosevelt Institution, Spark Action, Skills.com, Boston Private Industry Council, Roadtrip Nation, Philadelphia Youth Network, to Opportunity Leaders all across the country who just joined the program as well as Leaders who have been working with us for years, this conversation epitomized Opportunity Nation’s aim to spur learning and connections across sectors towards a shared goal of increasing opportunity.
What to do next?
- Check out this Storify to read highlights from the conversation. There were just too many good insights for my summation to do it justice; you have to read the tweets yourself.
- Continue engaging on Twitter with @oppnation and other Leaders and coalition organizations who were part of the conversation.
- Join our Opportunity Nation Linkedin page for discussions on that social media platform as well. We want to start by talking about this new report on the impact that place and race has on young people because at Opportunity Nation, we work to expand access to the American Dream for everyone.
- Let us know if there were things you learned during the conversation and were inspired to do coming out of it. Also, are there ideas you have for future Twitter chats and ways for us all to connect!
Thanks again for jumping in the conversation, let’s keep it going!
Paul Kendrick
Paul Kendrick is Opportunity Nation’s Director of Coalition and Grassroots Engagement, working with partner organizations across the country, as well as Opportunity Nation’s Leaders and Scholars, on the campaign to increase opportunity in America. Read Paul's bio.
