Okay so I always knew I wasn't that savvy when it came to technology and social media but I really had no idea how this online world has been developing and creating opportunities for all its users, whether it be for professional practice or personal use.
So when I realised I had to start writing, my initial thoughts were that I wanted to learn more about the real practical use of Web 2.0 from a personal point of view to really understand what the pros and cons of its usage.
I am very lucky to have a close friend who works for a magazine and uses all sorts of Web 2.0 programs on a daily basis not only for personal use but also in her professional practice. I was eager to hear her point of view on a few of the questions I had found myself asking when studying Reader 1.
So I conducted a short interview with her to get her opinion on some of the points.
Name: Natalie Keeler
Occupation: Editorial Assistant/part-time blogger
How do you use social media in your professional practice? Which platforms do you use? Facebook plays a big part in both my roles as an Editorial Assistant and a blogger. Day-to-day I work for a fundraising magazine that goes out to PTAs and schools, and we find Facebook is the easiest way to connect with our readers, answer their questions, and share new ideas. Their contributions are a really useful way for us to gauge what makes our readers tick, which ideas are the most popular, and which issues are causing the most problems.
Facebook and Twitter are also great for promoting blog content, so I find them quite invaluable when I’m trying to spread the word about something I’ve written. I don’t think my blog would get much exposure at all without social media there to give it a good boost!
Which is your favourite/ most useful and why? Facebook and Twitter are my favourites, but I think they each have a mixture of pros and cons. With Twitter you’re casting a much wider net and reaching a lot more people than you would with Facebook – but sometimes it can feel a bit crowded, and your tweets can get lost in amongst a load of others also trying to get noticed.
Facebook is a bit more intimate, because when you’re posting something like a blog post, you’re sharing it with an audience that you’ve selected yourself, and an audience that has a vested interest in what you do from day to day. I find it’s also a lot easier to participate or follow a discussion/debate in a Facebook post than in a stream on Twitter. Comments on Facebook have a chronological flow, but tweets can often get jumbled.
Do you use them differently for professional work vs. social?
Yes, I post far less frequently in a social sense than I do in a professional sense. The key to running a successful social media account on behalf of a business or brand means keeping your audience consistently updated with a stream of relevant content that you know will interest them – but this is less important when you’re just posting as yourself. Some social media accounts are so lazy and naïve that they forget to consider things like format, whether their message is clear and coherent, whether it’s even relevant to the demographic they’re targeting. Spelling and grammar checks go amiss more often than they should, even with massive global companies!
How do you think audience participation in social media has changed the way we work? It’s had a massive impact and has completely transformed the way we interact with each other in a professional capacity. I’ll admit that as a blogger, it’s oddly satisfying to receive almost-instant feedback after posting something on social media – there’s something quite pleasing about getting an immediate response, especially when it’s positive! Equally, it’s nice to be able to instantly tell those writers that have produced something I’ve enjoyed reading that I liked their work.
Even in a commercial sense the immediacy of social media has completely altered the way consumers and corporations communicate with each other. It’s a hugely accessible medium. So much so that several companies now exclusively hire social media experts or consultants to manage their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts because they understand how influential these platforms can be.
Interactive social media allows communities to develop beyond their “existing professional networks” and offer a “social space for almost strangers with diverse backgrounds to come together as equals, generate ideas and act collectively.” (Feenberg & Bakardjieva 2004 pg 38)
Where do you find your “collective intelligence” on the web and how has thins helped you professionally? Having a collective intelligence is a concept that’s quite new to me – I understand it as kind of online networking, which is something more suited to the blogging side of what I do. Social media certainly is fantastic for generating ideas and meeting people with similar interests to your own – though I’ll admit it’s something I’m yet to delve into properly. I can definitely see the benefits of it though.
How do you feel about potential employers being able to Google you and what effect has this had on your profession? When you have that kind of information to hand, I can certainly see the attraction of googling a job applicant, but being on the other side of the fence it’s pretty scary how much a person can dig out before having even met you. Some employers make their minds up about a candidate based only on what they find online, but I really don’t think this is fair – often it takes meeting a person in real life to get a grasp on who they are and how they will perform as an employee. My personal experience of this has only come about through what’s on my blog, most of which is harmless, though I’m yet to discover which other gems have been unearthed!
I have found speaking to Natalie extremely helpful, bringing up points I had never even considered. With this all brought to light I will be blogging more about my learnings on Web 2.0 in my next post!
To find my beautiful friend and learn more about her please follow the link to her blog.
Thanks for this - creative use of the medium and good discussion points from your peer Natalie.
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