Becoming a reluctant convert to Social Media

In the early days of Web 2.0 I would happily consider myself to have been one of the naysayers, believing it to be both anti-social and a waste of time. Whilst my initial cynicism on the matter has not changed, seeing many both waste their time and engage in a banal (and probably anti-social) exchange of useless information.

I can see where the medium and method has considerable benefit.

Being a late convert, principally in the last two years, I have found the many tools have enabled me to engage with a wider range of individuals irrespective of location, commitments on the part of all parties and level of participation.

I can work with whomever, where ever and more essentially when ever, using what ever platform is available.

Via, email, smart phone, web browser, RSS feed etc, I can stay in touch, but not necessarily on demand, more at what ever timescale pleases me. Natually the same applies to those with whom I am in touch (or following, being followed by, in my facebook, linked in pages etc).

Now this is when for me it becomes very workable.

I do not need to go to each tool, to maintain the relationship or communication, this information can be directed to me, where ever I am, at whatever time.

More impressive, is that I can send one communication, like this blog entry and see it unfold into many platforms. Sitting at my laptop I am typing this into my email, it will be posted to my blog, which is RSS fed into Twitter Feed, which pushes to my twitter account, which in turn is fed into both my Linked in and Facebook accounts.

Now there is scope for more places to send this one email, but then that may be too greedy ....

So, now as a convert, I would recommend to all who maybe reading this, consider what benefit social media has, how you may use one standard form of information and direct it to many in a format that will reach them all. In teaching the challenge is often in getting information to students. Now from one medium, you can send one message that will appear on many formats, all accessed by your students.

Worth considering isn’t it?

Andrew Smith
Follow me on Twitter: @teraknor

Comments

  1. Nick27 February 2010 at 08:30

    there are a couple of interesting Ted talks by Clay Shirky, which explain how social media on the net is changing our lives - they're worth a listen :)

    ReplyDelete

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