How Are You Doing with Social Media?

Hello, Class!



We are a week and a half into our class and it seems like a good time to take a little pause here and check in with you as to how things are going. Each person in our Social Media class is in a different place in terms of skill level and familiarity, and so it's important that we make sure you're getting what you need. We don't have the luxury of those non-verbal communication signals, e.g., eyes glazing over when one has hit the limit to what they can take in for the moment, so we're depending on you to let us know if we're going too fast, too slow, or not explaining things enough for you. You may ask questions in the Q&A forum or if you are uncomfortable with that, you may send an in-course email. Please do keep in mind though that others may be feeling the same way you do and they would benefit from the conversation.



On another note, only three people have posted their reflection from week one so a gentle reminder that it is due by Sunday evening. There is still plenty of time--I just want you to be able to remember what you were experiencing at the end of week one.


Creating a Twitter and LinkedIn account is optional, but it would be fun to connect with you there as well. Nothing like jumping right in to get those brain synapses firing. Also, it's time to be thinking about those final projects, and Alex posted a nice piece on things to consider while contemplating what you want to do.




Beyond this, we want you to have fun with this class. Yes, there is a learning curve, and yes it can be frustrating at times, but you've already come a long way and once you build a solid foundation as to why Social Media is important and how it might work for you, then it really does become fun. We're here to help.



Happy learning!


Joanne

Thinking about your project

As we enter Week Two of the class, it's time to start thinking about the social media project you will undertake. This is your only major assignment, and it can feel intimidating at first glance.

First, relax.

The purpose of the project is to test the waters. As I described it in a post on our Moodle course site, it's a trial run, a test-drive, a kicking-of-the-tires. In short, it's an experiment with social media. As with all experiments, what matters is that you designed and attempted something. It doesn't have to be "complete," much less comprehensive. (It is good, however, if it is public and running for at least a week.)

You can use any social media platform or tool you want, and you can aim to achieve almost any goal you want. Last year, for example, one student started a facebook group built around a particular interest, while another started a blog about a form of dancing she likes.

Some suggestions:

1.) Keep it simple and achievable.
2.) Make it practical and about something you enjoy or are interested in anyway. Got a work related goal? A hobby? An educational goal? Build it around something like that.
3.) Be playful. Try new things, new platforms, experiment. Don't worry about the outcomes or about success, instead concentrate on trying something different.

If your project is something you enjoy building and want to continue after the class, that's great! On the other hand, if your project is something you just want to play with for the class, that's fine too. What's important is that you're planning and launching a social media project, to learn how these things work and observe what happens after you launch and run it.

So go forth, explore, and see what you uncover!

Photography and Social Media

On Moodle, one of class wondered about how social media could help her with her photography interest/business.

Photography and Social Media have been strongly linked for a very long time. One of the earliest true social media communities I can think of is Photo.net. Photo.net started waaaaaaay back in 1993, and is a forum for photographers and those interested in photography.

There are a number of photo sharing platforms out there, including Picasa and arguably the most dominant photo platform, Flickr.

Flickr can be used any number of ways to not only share images, but to build discussions and communities around them. To see how one person uses Flickr for their photography, check out the Flickr page of Portland-based photographer Zeb Andrews

Zeb posts a new photo about once a day, writing a few paragraphs to go with each. He basically uses Flickr as a photo-blog platform, and as a result has built a following for his photography. He now has 1,554 people following him on Flickr!

Like most social media, a successful use of it uses more than one platform. Zeb recently branched out and used another social site called Kickstarter. This site is a kind-of microfinance site where people can post a proposal for a project they want to do, and an amount of money they need to raise to do it. Individuals can join Kickstarter and choose to pledge money towards any project they like. If the project reaches its funding goal within 40 days, then the pledge is charged, and if the goal is not reached, no money changes hands.

Zeb, who has been working on a series of photos of Portland's bridges, put up a project to turn his series into a gallery exhibit and a book. He placed this on Kickstarter and was fully funded within a few weeks, and actually ended up raising nearly double what he needed!

There are many other ways that social media can be harnessed for photography, from joining photo sites to see what others are doing (and share one's own work) to raising money to reading about photography and sharing ideas.

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!

Questions on Facebook

Hello, everyone:

We are almost through week one of our class and Alex and I hope you're enjoying the process of learning about Social Media. Each person is in a different place in terms of her or his present abilities and we want to be sure and help you to move forward from wherever you may be at the present moment.

I have had a couple of questions about Facebook and thought we could begin by looking at some links.

The first one talks about how Facebook actually works. (Dusty needs a little work for being on camera, but that's a different class.) You will notice at the bottom of the piece there are additional links you can click on for more information.

Next we have a little video that explains how to set up your own fan page on Facebook. You may have to sit through a :30 second commerical since Youtube is monetizing their videos, but then it gets into the meat of exactly how to do it. I think this will be very helpful to those of you who are wondering how to do this--particularly if you're considering it for your final project.

Week 2 starts on Monday. We are looking forward to continuing this exploration with you.

Joanne

Thanks and Reminders for Week One

Hello class!

It's been really great so far on the course site on Moodle, and I want to congratulate you all on a vibrant discussion!

There are a few reminders, however:

1.) Are you using Google Reader yet? If not, go sign up for it.

2.) Are you reading the course blog in Google Reader? If not, subscribe to it there!

3.) Please be sure to respond to at least two of your peers' posts in each discussion question on Moodle before Sunday night. Most of you have, I think, done this, but if you aren't sure, check!

4.) Check and make sure you've looked at the course readings/browsings as listed in the Week One assignments. If you need them again, they can be found here on the blog by scrolling down to the Week One Assignments post.

All-in-all, it's a great start. Next week we will start getting into more detail about how things work, including an assignment involving Twitter and starting the discussion of your social media projects. These projects are the bulk of your hands-on assignments (no papers in this class!) so Joanne and I will be providing you with some guidance on them sooner rather than later.

Again, great class so far!

Social + Mobile: Are we all Cyborgs now?

In our class on Moodle, Peggy mentioned that mobile devices are becoming quite common. Increasingly people are using social media networks like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, foursquare, and so forth via smart phones or other web enabled protable devices.

This raises a question that some technology thinkers have been posing for a while now: are we all Cyborgs?


Robocop: not quite the cyborg I'm talking about.

Now I don't mean Robocop cyborgs here. Rather, consider the definition of a cyborg according to anthropologist Amber Case:

A cyborg has organic and nonorganic components that work together in a symbiotic relationship. Everyone is a cyborg. When you use a cell phone, you’re a not “full” cyborg, because the phone isn’t embedded in your body, but you’re a “low-tech cyborg”—the technology is an extension of the hand. A computer and a human work together symbiotically—a human stores things in a computer, and computers wouldn’t survive unless humans kept purchasing them.

I'm one of the more "wired" people I know, though by no means am I particularly exceptional. I don't own a smart phone for example, but I do have an iPad as a portable communication device and light office tool, as I am often out of the office, at meetings, or travelling for work. Social media integrates into mobile web devices in that I can maintain relationships with people across a broad geographic spectrum from nearly anywhere.

I don't think I'd want to be Robocop, though.

Read more about the new field of cyborg anthropology at Portland Monthly.