Welcome to Professional Uses of Social Media
Introductory Statement
Hello everyone! My name is Megan and I am currently a senior at the University of Pittsburgh. This semester, I have the pleasure of being enrolled in the course Professional Uses of Social Media.
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As a millennial and a communications major, I am no stranger to the world of social media. I've used it personally and on multiple platforms (tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc...); I've used it for school, in clubs and for class projects; But, I've never used it professionally. To me, this changes the dynamic of the media entirely. Posts are geared towards business instead of entertainment, therefore altering how often they are generated, how they sound, and who their audiences are.
Despite the newness of this specific use of social media, I feel confident in my capacity to adapt my writing abilities and my personal prowess on the internet into something workable for the professional world. This is because I've learned how to write professionally for various sectors of the economy: events, public relations, marketing/advertising, and non-profits to name a few. In these experiences, I've been given the tools to create pieces capable of promoting, selling, and communicating things in an eloquent and poised manner. With this writing experience, and my millennial knowledge of the inner-workings of the internet, I feel ready to take on the challenge.
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From this course, I hope to learn how to expertly navigate the professional realm of social media. More specifically, I want to learn how to properly conduct business over the internet in order to promote a cause, rather than sell a product. I also want a solid portfolio by the end of this semester that I can show prospective employers.
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Midterm Reflection
In terms of things I’ve learned about social media, I have realized, as its core, social media functions like other forms of marketing and advertising. You need to analyze the audience, the medium, the reach, the distribution, etc. in order to be successful on social media just like you need to for magazines or print ads. Everything that goes into creating and shaping the content is comparable to more traditional means of business. And, like any other communication medium, social media does better in certain aspects and fails in others. Social media is great at reaching a large audience in a short amount of time for less money but can sometimes get lost in the other content.
When it comes to learning in general—not just learning about social media—I rely on visuals. I need to see something to fully grasp it and I tend to look for examples of what I want to create instead of relying solely on what I’m reading about. In the context of this class, because of my learning style, I especially want to see a real-life example of what we’re talking about. Instead of doing activities for fictitious companies or diving right into our company, I need to see an example of how the things we’re tasked to do play out in real life. For example, when we discussed the story, I needed a model of what that was to really understand what was being asked of me. Having such tangible examples would help me to understand the assignments much better. Otherwise, it seems almost like these aren’t things that would happen in real life.
Because of my need for visuals and examples, I have found it difficult to follow along in certain aspects of the class, especially when we are being given new tasks. In order to combat this, I have started to ask my peers how they intend to tackle the projects. Hearing their ideas help me to formulate my own ideas and understanding of what we need to do. I intend to continue this and expand upon it in the upcoming weeks.
It’s because of this connection with my classmates that I really like the group work. It’s helpful to talk to my group about their projects to get a better idea about where they are and if I’m on the same page as them. I really think these are the best discussions I have in class and I think it would help if we shared these comments with the rest of the class as well.
Final Reflection
My final portfolio exists of five pages here on this website: About Me, Strategy, Process Doc, Story, and my Op-ed. All of these pieces showcase my ability as a writer and my skills in using social media effectively and for a specific purpose. My About Me exemplifies my personal use of social media. My Strategy demonstrates my ability to create a cohesive and effective social media presence for an organization. My Process Doc shows how I can work through that specific organization’s social media, analyze it, and work to improve it. My Story proves my ability to sell an idea through a series of posts. And my Op-ed displays my personal opinions about social media and my ability to convey those feelings in an editorial piece. Everything here works together to demonstrate my social media skills and how they have developed over the semester.
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My favorite piece, however, is definitely my op-ed. This work perfectly exemplified how I feel about social media and its greater impact on society. It’s difficult to predict the implications of what these new platforms will be, but I made my best prediction through this writing. I think my thoughts were logical and spoke effectively about how social media affects politics and society as a whole.
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I will take what I learned about social media in this class, and the portfolio I created, as I move forward in life. As a graduating senior, I’m not sure what kind of job I want moving forward, but something concerning social media is a possibility. I hope to utilize the tools from this class to possibly get a job.