10 Social Media Practices

After 10 weeks in my Social Media Management class, I have learned a lot about how to effectively use social media tools. Here's a list of ten practices I find to be most useful when utilizing social media.

1. Blog - Blogging is an easy way to share any type of information to the world. They can be completely customizable and updated whenever you feel necessary. Individual blogs can be used to share personal information and interests and businesses can use blogs to post company news and brand and market themselves. Blogs are one-stop sites to push vital information to anyone.

2.  Networking - Social media connects people with technology and social interaction. Having a personal or professional profile can show others who you are and what you do. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can connect people with similar interests and creates a network of related people. 

3. Globalization - Social media globalizes people and businesses. The internet removes geography as a barrier to connecting to others. Communication has become more efficient and community-centric because of the collaboration with people from all over the world. 

4.  Wikis - A Wiki is a collaborative tool that pulls information to facilitate communication within communities of contributors. Having a single place where a group can pull vital information from makes work easier. The virtual work environment simplifies communication and can help distribute workloads.

5. Collaboration - Social media provides a 2-way dialogue of information sharing. Anyone can share information on a social media site and get instant feedback from other users. One simple idea can start a conversation or discussion among a group of willing contributors and can further develop that original idea. 

6. Community - Digital relationships may seem impersonal, but social media can bring together a large diverse group of people who actively participate in the community. Personal and private communities can connect online to collaborate together. 

7. Cloud Computing - Social media tools that use cloud services raise the expectations of technology, accessibility, and availability. Using cloud services is efficient because it maximizes functionality and condenses space by not relying on hardware. Cloud computing allows us to go green and rely on digital bandwidth rather than physical storage hardware.

8. Branding and Marketing - Social media provides an outlet for individuals and businesses to brand and market themselves. Social sites can attract and retain customers or viewers, allows you to share news about yourself or a product, and it raises awareness. Social media can launch a personal or product campaign.

9. Technological Advancement - People are expecting more and more from their online experiences. The capabilities that social media tools give us cause the devices we use them on to stay up to par with each other. 

10. Discovery - The combination of the nine practices I just listed all lead to a world of discovery. The millions of people collaborating together create new ideas, the networking brings them together, and the community shares it. Social media allows us to push new thoughts and ideas to others and we have the ability to pull new ideas to ourselves. 

Reality > Virtual Reality

In this video, Rhonda Lowry is a big supporter of virtual realities like Second Life. She puts a big emphasis on how in order to successfully use virtual realities, we need to change the way we see our "identity." Rhonda is a credited professional with many skills and talents, yet her online "identity" is an alias. Her Second Life identity is Grace McDunnough, an avatar that she controls through her computer. Personally, I think that's silly. Social media tools and websites give us the opportunity to explore, discover, and connect with so many people and topics. I don't understand the necessity to have a different identity or avatar that is different from yourself to participate successfully. I think that your online presence should reflect your own personality as much as possible.

For networking purposes, it makes sense to have your online identity be the same as the person you really are. If I'm looking for advice or people to connect with and create a network, I want to know who it is I'm connecting to. The online profile and the actual person should be the same. Your real identity should be portrayed truthfully online because of our converging culture too. People use multiple social media sites and their presence online should be consistent for each. We are definitely moving away from the Industrial Age and virtual realities are going to become more common, but people are still people. We have new technologies and social tools to help us connect and make work more efficient, but we need to understand who we are connecting to.

A Few Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice

1. "Subscribe to 50 or more blogs in a similar space as yours, including competitors, and any industry blogs. "
 - Get connected with as many people as you can. Find out what other people are saying and get used to the type of conversations people have. 


2. "Use tagging and other metadata to improve your blog’s search features. Most newer blog software has this built in. If not, look for plugins."
 - Get noticed! Establish yourself and get people interested in checking out your blog.


3. "Look for cross-promotional opportunities for like-minded blogs in your space."
- Share with your peers. Promote your network and they will promote you back.


4. "Remember to comment on other people’s blogs frequently, and show your participation in the communities where you have presence."
- Social media is a 2-way conversation. Don't just absorb everyone's information, comment and share it!


5. "If you’re blogging, make that a home base for all your other efforts."
- Have a personal profile on the internet. With everything you read and post, make sure it is nice and organized in one place. 

Brain Technology

This type of technology is amazing! Our brain is super complex and scientists don’t even have a full understanding of how and why the brain works the way it does. This headset can gives us so much insight into our brains. 

Although it is a fascinating tool, I can only see a few ways in which it can help human communication. People with disabilities can use this technology to help them function and communicate with others easier. The scary part of this technology makes me think of Disney and Pixar’s movie Wall-E. If humans rely solely on technology like this then we can become super lazy and dependent on machines and technology. 

Work Together

Howard Rheingold has a great TED lecture on the importance of collaboration and cooperation. People are starting to realize that sharing and working together can produce creative and innovative products and services. Traditional methods companies use like keeping projects and software a secret and only work on them with internal resources has limited their development. The Open-Source Movement puts an emphasis on community collaboration. Instead of developing something from only within the company, open sourcing opens the project up to a community and allows anyone to alter and make contributions.

I think the open source movement is awesome. Collaboration from a community that is interested and dedicated to something is way better than the same small group of people working together on every project. The open source movement gives everyone a chance to make suggestions for improvement. My only concern for open source projects is standardization. The constant collaboration is great for making improvements, but too much change in a product can become annoying. Then again, is constant changes due to improvements a bad thing? Saying yes to improvements seems silly, so I think people need to start contributing, collaborating, and working as a team.

Dear Fellow Millenials,

We are the result of millions of years of evolutionary success. Can we please not screw this up?

Generation Y, we are living in a pretty awesome time. Sure there will always be the older generations that have the notion of "those were the good ol' days," but the old days suck! We live in the new and the now. We have such advanced societies and technologies that we shouldn't have to worry about the future of humanity.
I could rant forever about what really grinds my gears with humanity today, but I'll keep it simple.

Go Green & Stop Hatin'

It really isn't that difficult to do your part to keep our Earth clean. We take for granted all the resources the Earth provides for us. It's totally okay for us to use the natural resources available, but we have to give back and take care of the planet so it can continue to take care of us. Recycling is a small step that makes a difference and littering is ignorant - please just throw your trash into a garbage can.


We need to become a global society. Technology has given us the opportunity to communicate and connect with anyone in the world. Our planet has such a diverse group of people, cultures, and societies that we need to understand and respect each other. We must spend less time hating each other and more time learning from each other. Peace, love, and respect will bring our world closer together and keep us here longer.

MDIA 470B Social Media Management

Most Interesting Concept - I enjoyed our discussions about Blogs and Wikis. The "push" concept of blogs is something I've always been aware of and now I'm participating in with this blog, and I'm learning a lot. I have a better understanding of blogs due to my experience as opposed to wikis. I haven't been a part of an organization that uses wikis to "pull" important information but look forward to using one.

Boring Lectures - The IT involvement with cloud computing is a little over my head and not very relevant to me. I have a good understanding of "the cloud" and have been using more cloud resources like dropbox.com. The networking and data jargon about cloud computing is a snooze-fest.

Application - Once I get the chance to use a Wiki I'll be eager and willing to learn how to use it. I also need to start marketing my blog. I have received feedback and have a better understanding of marketing for my blog. Not only marketing myself but other organizations I'm involved in and finding the best way to "push" information.

Blog Comments

I agree with Chris Brogan's thoughts on blog comment etiquette. Readers don't comment to every blog they read or respond to every post because it's time consuming and easy to forget. Commenting should be constructive and add something to further explore the topic or subject in the post.

Here are some of my contributions to blogs:
Chris
Mary
Doug

Dan Harmon Poops

http://danharmon.tumblr.com/

Dan Harmon updates his blog when he uses the bathroom - what a cool idea!

Dan Harmon is the creator of my favorite TV show Community. He is a very creative but busy guy. I look up to him as  TV show creator for his characters, stories, and work ethic. He works very hard and long hours so finding time to blog is difficult. I'm glad he discovered he can multitask by blogging and pooping at the same time!

It's not that I like to know when Dan Harmon uses the bathroom, it's just that I like to know what's going on with that guy. His "celebrity" blog gives fans an insight to what kind of guy he really is. We get to know what other projects he's working on, read his funny stories, and he comments on what is happening with the show.

Social Media Tools

Social Media websites have completely eliminated geography as a barrier to communication. They are tools that make communication easy and efficient. Any company must rely on good communication throughout the entire organization in order to be successful. It would be foolish for a company to not take advantage of the myriad of social media tools that can enhance their operations with better communication.


Wikis are social media tools that many companies are using to help facilitate communication within the organization. I personally have never had a job where we used a Wiki, but they sound very resourceful. I can see a Wiki being beneficial for new employees as well as experienced employees. New employees can gather information from one place rather than bothering their superiors and upper management can provide updates and information in one place.


Social Wiki sites are fascinating. Wikipedia is one of the greatest resources we have available to us. It's a place where you can find general information about anything. I thought that alone was amazing until I discovered Wikia.com. Wikia is a social media site that has specific communities for information. Many of the communities were for video games and although I'm not a gamer, I learned so much about Mass Effect from the Wikia site. They have information about the game, the backstory, game-related downloads, hints to play the game, and conversations about what users like and don't like.

The internet is so cool. It truly is an endless library of information. There is a lot of non-credible information out there, but Wikis are generally places you can trust. They exist because of a collaborative effort to provide and share all of the knowledge a community has to offer.

Scavenger Hunt

Today in class we had a group scavenger hunt. We were given a list of things that we had to get a picture with. Take a look at what we found!

Here's our group picture with "something purple," our professor.

$0.83

Personalized plates.

Getting coffee from a local coffee shop.

This guy was wearing a name tag, check that one off the list!

Here's one with our group members on a bridge. You gotta look really close.

An engraved brick. This one came from Nelsonville, just like most of the others.

The library is a great place to read books.

Police car.

Political bumper sticker. Obamacare? More like Obama-don't-care!

Historical landmark.

Cheers! Mugs with OU logos.

Reddit.com is my favorite website on the entire internet. The site contains thousands of pages that are dedicated to a specific topic called "subreddits." There are subreddits for just about everything: Pictures, science, business, beer, hiking, cooking, travel, books, and so many more creative niche hobbies. The content on the site is entirely user-generated because users post the content. Then other users can either comment and share their thoughts and start discussions about the post.

I visit reddit.com multiple times a day. New content is always being added and updated and there is a constant dialogue about so many topics. I honestly don't think there are any flaws to the website. It's an awesome resource that I encourage everyone to become familiar with.

I began my internet usage with American Online. I remember signing into my AOL account and hearing "Welcome! You've got mail." AOL was the starting platform that showed me what the internet had to offer. After exploring other websites and seeing the services they had to offer, I grew away from AOL. It only provided me with basic services. Other websites offered similar services but with a different experience. AOL is a "general" website whereas I look for very "specialized" websites that have a better focus on the service they provide. AOL is not a bad website, but I want more out of my internet usage and AOL doesn't offer me that.

My goal for this quarter is to fully understand how social media effects our society. The internet has an endless supply of news and information and I want to absorb as much of the information it has to offer. This blog will help me filter the information that is interesting to me. It's a place for me to share thoughts and ideas about what I think is important. I also want feedback and interaction with other bloggers. Absorbing news and information is one thing, but using social media like a blog will help me create a dialogue about important topics and issues. I've added a Google News Gadget to encourage people to stay informed about what is happening in the world they live in.

Hey there!

I'm Andrew, a senior Media Management major who loves media, technology, and learning. This class is going to help me find my voice in the social media network. My entire life I have consumed media and have seen the value of advancing modern technology. I'm constantly adapting to new products and services and learning how to utilize them in my life. Social media and the ability to connect and share with anyone, however, is not something I have participated in. I want to stop being such a social media lurker and actually get involved with the sharing. My goal for this quarter is to be able to fully understand how social media effects our society. The ability to share and connect is a powerful tool and I want to find ways to use that tool to add value to the world.

I came to Ohio University to study video production. My interest in media sparked during a news broadcast class in high school. Once in college I realized movies and TV are cooler than news broadcasting and that I liked TV more than I like movies. I now have a focus on working in the TV industry with my dream career being a producer for my own TV show.

^^^^^^^^^^Thats a picture of my best friends. We are OU Improv, an Ohio University student organization that performs long-form improv comedy. Don't know what improv comedy is? We make up scenes and skits based off suggestions from the audience; nothing is rehearsed, everything is made up on the spot. We do free shows every week in Bentley 124 - you should totally check us out :)  Improv is such a huge part of my life. It taught me to be more creative, think quicker, and say yes to more things in life. My friends are the some of the smartest, funniest, and most talented people I've met.








< This here is a picture of me getting pied in the face. I've worked the past few summers as a camp counselor for kids in K-5th grade. Easily one of the best jobs ever. Being around kids helps keep me young at heart, makes me look at the world in a more creative way, and encourages me to teach and learn.