Week Two Assignments

Here are the assignments for Week 2 of our course (October 11th – October 17th). Like last week, we have posted the assignments in this blog so that you can see how blog posts work and become familiar with navigating a basic blog structure.
Click on the linked items below to complete. Remember: Week 2 assignments need to be completed in Week 2.

FIRST – PLANNING FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROJECT:

This week we will do the planning and initial implementation for your Social Media Project, so that next week we can all “see” and comment on what you’re doing. Your project may include one of the following:

Plan and create a blog for a specific purpose

Plan and create a Facebook page or group for a specific purpose

Plan and create a LinkedIn page or group for a specific purpose

Plan and create a YouTube channel for a specific purpose

Plan and create a Twitter account for a specific purpose

Combination of some or all of the above

Or propose something else to the instructors that will best meet your needs for learning and using social media.

The project may be for personal, professional, and/or educational purposes. To help you plan your Social Media Project, take a look at these posts on planning for social media:

Engagement Planning

Social Media Strategic Plan

Social Media Policies

Social Media Strategy Framework

NEXT – DISCUSS!

First, we would like you to discuss your reflections on learning from week 1.

What are your biggest takeaways? What was new to you? Did your thinking about Social Media change, and if so how and why? Feel free to check in and share where you are in your assignments and what is and is not working for you. There is a discussion forum on our Moodle course site for this purpose: please post there.

Also, as with last week, there are specific discussion questions for this week posted in this week’s discussion forum on the Moodle course site. Please read the questions and respond to them and other students’ responses throughout the week. The assignments below will help inform our discussion, but you do not need to complete the assignments first. Again, for maximum learning, the discussion should occur throughout the course of the week. Thanks!

LEARNING ACTIVITIES & ASSIGNMENTS:

1) Read information on Wikipedia about the different kinds of Social Media Websites.

Scroll through some of these sites to see what’s happening, what kinds of social media tools exist, and what folks are doing there. Also, here are two more examples of social media being used to connect people:

UbranMamas (parenting)

CaringBridge (terminal illness)

2) Optional: Create a Twitter account (if you do not already have one):

Share with the class your username by posting it in the Twitter Forum in Moodle

Find and follow our fellow students, as well as your instructors:
@joannemccall
@alex_craghead
Also consider following these people/accounts:
@OPBnews
@CoraLonn
@boothmelanie

Throughout the remainder of this course, if you wish to share a link with the class, please include the tag “#ccm366e”.

3) Join and connect with your instructors in LinkedIn.

Also, we recommend joining the “Social Media Today” group on LinkedIn. This group provides a lot of resources and discussion on this topic for your ongoing learning.

Optional: Connect with our classmates and other colleagues in LinkedIn.

4) Continue to add items of interest to your Google Reader RSS stream. For example, we have included a couple of links to social media experts:

Chris Brogan

Mari Smith

We also recommend these blogs:

AllTop, an aggregator of different blogs, much business related.

David Eaves, a blog on communications, the Internet, and public matters.

PrattleNog, by Marylhurst's own Melanie Booth.

Or search for blogs and other kinds of sites for things that are of interest to you!

5) Begin to plan/implement your Social Media Project — next week we’ll take an initial tour and see what’s happening!

Onward!