The partnership ‘Social Media Savvy – Part 2’ reports that social media use increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. In line with the growth of the past few years, more Dutch people have again started using social media. 13.7 million Dutch people aged 15 and older are active on social media, in 2020 this was 13.5 million and the year before 13.3 million. On May 25th 2021 the Social Media Savvy 2 Partnership had their 5th Zoom meeting: The idea is that we will keep you up to date about the social media use in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Italy and help young people to appear professional on social media, to increase the chance of the getting the job they deserve. SMS2 also supports youth workers, trainers and teachers on social media guidance.

Dutch Social Media Users

The traditional top 5 remains the same. A total of 13.7 million Dutch people are active on one or more social media. If you count WhatsApp as part of the social media – and that is a big if, because WhatsApp lacks public character – that platform is still by far the largest. Facebook also ranks above 10 million Dutch users, and YouTube completes the top 3. The high position of Instagram is no longer a surprise, and LinkedIn is tapping the 5 million Dutch users for the first time, completing the top 5. The entire sequence has been relatively stable for years.

TikTok Pinterest

TikTok, Pinterest and LinkedIn are growing faster than previous years. Facebook is losing popularity among young people in the age category 15 to 19 years, daily Facebook use decreases significantly! Quite a difference with other channels where use has increased everywhere. Almost all social media platforms grew in the past year, with Snapchat and especially YouTube as notable exceptions, which show a slight decline. The explosive growth of TikTok is of course the first to notice. The relative newcomer now has over 1 million more Dutch users than a year ago – an even greater increase than last year’s 700,000. Pinterest and especially LinkedIn are also growing faster in user numbers than in recent years.

SMS – Part 2

The partnership Social Media Savvy Part 2 consists of 3 partner organisations of three countries:

• Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (The Netherlands)
• ARES (Italy)
• Werkcenter Scotland (United Kingdom)

The partner organisations will be further introduced on the Social Media Savvy website.

SMS2 Zoom May 25th 2021

On Tuesday May 25th we had our 5th SMS2 Zoom meeting. Each partner organisation is almost finished with its country report. A part of the Dutch country Report is the introduction of this article.

• Netherlands Country Report is almost finished
• Italy Country Report in progress,
• UK Country Report in progress

During the Zoom meeting we discuessed it would be interesting to have more focus on certain sectors, because social media is more important in those sectors… The SMS platform is coming soon. The platform will have a social media newsfeed, generated from accredited sources (like the post, LA Times, Telegraaf, Huffington Post, etc.). As regards to security we will make sure a SSL certificate is implemented (this is also already implemented on the SMS2 website). We will also check where the WORD Press servers are in relation to GDPR (to check if it’s not in America). When the news feed is ready we will try to attract young people to our website and platform. This could be done by using key words (what words people search on google: e.g. social media advice,  Social media savvy): So we have to put relatable content on the platform through a lot of articles and blogs. We will first attract the young people to the website: and then set it up, to forward them to the platform, with ‘read privileges to students and youth workers/teachers…’ (but this could change when implemeneted).

The final meeting of the Social Media Savvy (#SMS) Consortium was held in Glasgow, UK, January 27^th-28^th 2020. The most important topic during this Final Meeting was how to ensure that the SMS website remains up-to-date and actually provides support for young people and youth workers in the digital world. This implicitly means that all social media linked to www.socialmediasavvy.info must continue to take place after the official completion of the SMS project. Below the Dutch and English SMS e-Newsletter. The Spanish version will also be published soon…

Social Media Savvy e-Newsletter Number.4 – English Version

SMS e-Nieuwsbrief Nummer 4 – Nederlandse Versie

Cyber Security

Data is now the most valuable resource in the world. We will soon give you some more information about this specific important topic.

The Third Transnational Partner Meeting (TPM) of the Social Media Savvy (SMS) Consortium was held in South Holland. The partnership met end of August ( 29th -30th) in the city of Papendrecht. The Social Media Savvy topics on the table focused in particular on providing tailor-made services and SMS strategies to be pursued towards our young people and youth workers on www.socialmediasavvy.info.

SMS in Holland

At the end of the partnership meeting in Holland we decided that we would publish a new SMS E-bulletin (Nr.3). It is very important that in the last period of the SMS project the young people learn good social media ’tips and tricks’ to be able to present themselves professionally on their own social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram): 9 Social media trends in 2019 that will give your company a boost! That’s why we focus in our newsletter on these topics.

SMS Newsletter

For a wee read of our last newsletter, see below:

Via the Social Media Savvy Website and the associated SMS accounts, the partners will intensively share posts, blogs and articles, whereby the younger job seeker will be supported in her search. The partners will do this in English, but also in Dutch and Spanish. It has been decided that the SMS website will only disseminate and function in English for the time being.

The social media landscape in 2019 in “5 highlights”:

• Instagram is growing strong, while Facebook is decreasing in number of users. Facebook as a group remains stable

• Facebook still has more than 10 million users in the Netherlands. Instagram is about half of that

• People under Facebook in particular fall under 40. Trust plays an important role in this

• A third of the dropouts actually cancel their account at Facebook or Twitter

• Confidence in social media was already limited, but has fallen in all age groups in the past year (source: https://raetendaet.nl/2019/02)

Important SMS data

– The SMS Days in Spain, Scotland and the
Netherlands will all take place in October. It has been agreed that the
organizations will communicate the data loud and clear about their social media
channels and websites.

– The SMS Learning Mobilities will take
place in Seville during the period 20-27 November 2019

– The next Transnational Project meeting of
Social Media Savvy will take place in early 2020 (January) in Scotland.

Social Media Savvy (SMS) is a one stop shop to help you harness the power of social media platforms and kick start your career. The partnership SMS comes to the Netherlands on 29th- 30th August.

It’s a Social Media Mad World

Source: Instagram successfulmaster

Agenda Dutch SMS Meeting

Below the Agenda of the Dutch SMS Meeting:

Day 1 – Thursday August 29th

Day 2 Friday August 30th

The second Transnational Partner Meeting (TPM) of the Social Media Savvy (SMS) Partnership was held in Spain. On the 3^rd and 4^th of January 2019 the new year was kicked off in Sunny Seville. Main topic during the TPM were the country reports on Social Media ! To read  the Dutch orange and Spanish red SMS eNewsletter, scroll down.

Social Media Savvy Research

Social Media Savvy has done some research. Facebook is still the most used social media platform used in the world. Keep in mind that with all data disseminated in the country reports that Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook as well (source). The facts and figures in the three SMS countries are that in the Netherlands WhatsApp (11,5) and Facebook (10,8) are on number 1 and 2 with the most users (in millions). In the UK, Facebook (32) is the number 1, and Twitter (20) the number 2, closely followed by YouTube (19,1) and LinkedIn (19). It seems that WhatsApp is not included as a social native application in the UK research, although it’s clear WhatsApp is not that much in use in the UK in relation to the Netherlands and Spain. In Spain there are only 25,5 million users (which seems low for such a big country). Also in Spain Facebook (87%) is topping the charts, followed by WhatsApp (also 87%), then YouTube(69%) and Instagram (49%). Three of four most used Spanish social media is thus owned by Facebook. So, even though Facebook, as a platform is loosing ground as regards to users, as a company they are only getting more users! 

Dutch eNewsletter Number 2

Spanish Boletin Info Numero 2

“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter? I use that everyday. Who needs to be trained in it?” Young Employee sentiment like this has quickly become the stuff of nightmares for companies and employers today. Why? Well, because somebody who grows up being a social media native, doesn’t make them an expert in using social media at work or getting a job. While businesses are racing head-on into the social media arena, the contemporary young workforce is still seriously ill-equipped to help unlock its value. And that value is simply enormous. The Social Media Savvy (SMS) Partnership will plug in this young social human capital !

The SMS Partnership will take young people on a interactive and challenging journey of social media creativity; enhance their digital skills, personal branding and presentation skills. The idea is that this partnership will make it easier to progress into work. They will create a workshop targeted on young people still in school (potentially to graduate within 2 years) and/or or recent graduates (age 14-24). The idea is that all those young people have a lack of work experience, but have a lot of smartphone experience. So the only thing they do have is their own personal brand. A professional digital identity is the first step to gain any kind of formal work experience which will lead to a substantial improvement of career development. In this workshop to be developed SMS will help them to apply their smart phone experience on Facebook, Twitter, etc. in connection with the world of work. So, smartphones allowed!

SMS Newsletter

To update you on our progress we publish the first SMS Newsletter: Social Media Savvy Newsletter 1 EN 

We believe that opening up this method to synergies of SMS partners will lead to a attractive Social Media Savvy Programme, developing a transnational social media savvy identification and support programme targeted at young people aged 14-24 & possibly their teachers & trainers.

This project addresses their experiences and their needs & provides early intervention starting at secondary schools, incl. dropouts & works with all appropriate agencies and will answer the following questions:
How to spot, identify and support a Young Person (aged 14-24 and NEET 16-24) social media savvy?
How can we identify & support the professional social media ’mindset?
How can we provide all the support materials to young people, teachers & trainers?

To provide young people, teachers and trainers support in their “Social Media Savvy Journey” is complex & requires discipline & motivation from all actors involved. Successful practices have emerged from different places & examples. We will run, test and fine tune a Social Media Savvy Programme with young people & for young people during the project period 1/3/2018 – 1/3/2020. This will show that progresses is being made every day on the field. SMS aims at acting at different levels upon young people, educators, processes and tools that mediate support, in order to give leverage, propose sustainable innovations, and promote the sharing and appropriation of innovative entrepreneurial practices across Europe.

If you want to know more about our work in the SMS Partnership, see our Social Media Savvy Project Website and click here

Last week the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work delgetaes were attending a Social Media Savvy Partnership meeting in Glasgow, United Kingdom. The Social Media Savvy is a small partnership with 3 organisations. From Spain (AEBL), the Netherlands (Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work) and the United Kingdom (Werkcenter Scotland).

Werkcenter Scotland

Werkcenter Scotland, although a very young organisation, has been a partner of the Dutch Foundation since 2012.  Our first collabouration with Werkcenter was with the KA1 project From Work to work, That’s the way it Works. After that we started up the success programme Journey to Work. If you want to read more about the key success elements of this Erasmus+ KA1 mobility project, click here. Currently we are in progress with Journey to Work 4 and at the start of implementing Journey to Work 5.  Werkcenter is already a very experienced EU project Coordinator and supervises the SMS KA2 YOUTH project.

Asociación Española de Bienestar Laboral  (AEBL)  

AEBL is a fairly new EU-partner at the SMS-table and is approached by the Dutch Foundation and Werkcenter  – to participate in this project. AEBL collabourates with Werkcenter and the Dutch Foundation in Journey to Work 4. As a young organization AEBL is already very active with young entrepreneurs in Seville and involved in the local and regional educational ‘framework (filled with SMEs, youth service providers, schools, colleges & their entrepreneurial  culture). AEBL is a  innovator and has worked in Seville on Projects of a similar nature in the past albeit not with the same international focus as this one.

Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work

The Dutch Foundation does not need any further introduction. The SMS partnership will be introduced quite extensiveley the upcoming weeks. The 3 SMS Partners agreed in Glasgow to produce SMS Newsletters. The First #SMS Newsletter will be published soon and will give an update on progress made around SMS, specifically aimed at creating a  social media savvy professional identity for young people.

 If you want to read more about the project, please also follow our SMS Newsletters.