The last post?

There was an interesting article on Click this morning about online advertising targeted at kids. It mentioned some research in the Wall St Journal and I thought how interesting it would be to read around the subject and do a blog post about ‘cookies 4 kids’. Then I remembered. I’m almost time-expired:  I created this blog because it was a requirement for the social media module of my MSc at LeedsMet.

My blog about social media had to run from 1 November 2010 to the end of January 2011. I’m virtually at the end of the line for assessment purposes. So I thought I’d use this final post to offer a review of my learning journey. And now I’ve got used to blogging, I wanted to be brave for my final fling and do it as my first ever webcast ….. so I thought aboout what I wanted to say, recorded it all and then found out I’d have to pay $59.95 for a  video upgrade to upload the wmv file – or do it via Youtube.  I don’t think my musings merit posting on Youtube – it’s too mainstream! So I’ll post the snapshot and its essence instead:

Ready to webcast

When Clay Shirky wrote ‘Here Comes Everybody’, it wasn’t meant for me.  I’d have been included in a postscript  saying ‘wait for the laggards – they’ll be along eventually’.  Well – here I am!

When I first knew I’d have to write this blog, I thought … I can’t.  I don’t want to. I’m too old.  I don’t have a clue where to start. I want to live my real life not a virtual one. But three months on, I feel quite differently: you’re never too old. Technology makes it all easy. Social media tools and channels are extremely powerful and a great leveller. Everybody is out there – you can’t afford to work in marcomms and not be out there with them.

 Social media offer fantastic opportunities to connect to people with shared interests. I conducted an email interview with Andrew Gossen,  who runs Cornell’s alumni engagement programme.  I loved his ‘you’ve got to experiment’ attitude. Actually this is all new and to some extent we’re all learning together. Some things will work, others won’t. So we’ll try something else. That’s quite liberating.  

 I titled my blog after Professor Dunbar’s premise that the maximum number of connections we can maintain is 150. I don’t think I’ve got anywhere near that from my blog. But I’ve realised that sites such as LinkedIn can be of huge networking value. And I have made some new contacts through blogging.  I’m still not convinced about Twitter though – there are so many haystacks to search in for that one needle! I’ve tried short posts and long, reviews,polls – and nearly made it to a webcast! But most importantly, I’ve engaged with social media and started to think critically about the impact of social media on me and my professional practice. 

 I’m not sure now whether this is my final post – it’s the last one before I’m assessed on how I’ve done. But it’s certainly not the end of my social media learning journey – I’m enjoying it too much  … I think I just might be a convert!

 

Media fragmentation research

Today’s social media experiment is to see whether tweeting, blogging and posting on LinkedIn will give me any pointers for my literature review on media fragmentation. It’s an academic area I know little about – which is partly why I chose it. I love a challenge! So here goes … can anyone out there offer any advice?

Quick update on 10 December: it appears that people did not want to engage with this subject  via any of my LinkedIn groups or Twitter. It’s down to me then …

Tweet to learn better!

I’ve already said I wasn’t brought up as a digital native –wrong generation for that! But I’ve continued my social media learning journey this week, joining Twitter and LinkedIn. I’m starting to  see how online social networks work and appreciate the value they can bring. As I work in comms at the University of Plymouth, I’m very aware of the need for evidence-based decisions  – both in the learning and working environment.  I was interested to see that a study in America has found using Twitter can help students engage better with their studies and achieve higher marks.  This is only one study and the sample size seems to be relatively small.  But the students who speak in the video appear convinced of the learning benefits of Twitter …

I look forward to reading the full article in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

Not very social media

It’s Hallowe’en and instead of playing dress-up with my daughter, I’m sat in splendid isolation at the PC, registering a new twitter account and trying to get to grips with WordPress. I want my new ‘social media blog’ to look a bit more professional and have some relevance to someone other than me. And I’m finding it hard going. I watched the Youtube video post of an 84-year old woman driving the wrong way down the State highway. That’s a bit like how I feel – really going against the flow! I still like reading newspapers;  I use my mobile phone just to make calls and send texts;  I connect with my real friends not my Facebook friends …. and until today, I revelled in not tweeting.  Apparently  there are 90 million posts a day on Twitter … I’ll find out if taking part will enrich my life, but for now I’m going to leave the lonely computer screen to play witches with my biggest real-life follower!