Week 3: Social networking (and keeping it all connected).

Week 3. January 24- January 30th.

Learning goals

• Understand social networks like Facebook and their relationship to tweeting and blogging.
• Work on the craft of the short form.  Analyze others’ tweets, work on your own craft.
• Gain a broader picture of social media use and users from the Pew Center for the Study of the Internet and American Life.  Simply learning about the Pew Studies should be invaluable to all of you–great resource for academic work about social media and any careers related to social media.

Reading:

• Read chapter 3 in SMSG on Facebook.  Discuss via the class Facebook group page?  What role does Facebook play in your lives? I hear lots of causal observations that young people do not use Facebook, but according to 2016 data, 18-29 year old were the highest percent users of Facebook.
• Read chapter 3 in SSM: “Establishing Community.” When the text talks about how corporations build community, always try to think: how do non-profit organizations build community?  What are their similar and unique challenges?  Be sure you internalize / memorize the 4 dimensions of a community.
• Please read the Pew Foundation’s “Internet and American Life” research report on how arts groups are using social media.
• Read about best practices for nonprofits using Facebook.

Writing:

• Blog essay #3: How does the “media ecology” of blogging, tweeting, InstaGram posting, and social networking seem to work?  How are organization’s using social media to maintain or build communities? Be sure to draw on course readings, including the Pew Report if it is relevant, and specific examples of groups you are following. Consider reflecting on how well we are doing establishing our personal online presence and our community. I learned last week that long posts (800+ words) get shared more frequently than short posts, and my wordiest bloggers in past courses have often had the most success gaining readers and followers.
• You might be starting to wonder: how do I manage my WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook accounts?  Here is where we start to get techie!  Make sure that your blog posts send an automatic Tweet when you post from WordPress (go into the settings to make this happen).  Do the same with Facebook, except you need to go into the Twitter settings.   I’d also recommend you try out a service like “HootSuite” or “TweetDeck” where you can move quickly and easily between the platforms, write a status update that you can share on one, two, or more of sites.

Interacting:

• Send me a friend request on Facebook, or share the email address you use with FB so I can invite you into our class page. https://goo.gl/forms/2EZHnkZUILS2Ikb12
• Keep following people in our class on Twitter and InstaGram; join our private Facebook group, keep interacting with classmates.  When you “get techie,” don’t be afraid to post a call for help, crowdsource all of life’s problems.  You never know who might answer your call.
• Keep following the two or three non-profits, ideally from our list but you can go beyond if you have a favorite organization. Every day or two, make notes about their social media use and any other “appearance” they make around town. Take pics, tweet or make an Instagram post when you see GHD signs around town.  Keep paying attention to the use of short and long-form communications. Try to get people in your circle to pay attention to Giving Hearts Day.

Learn more from this info graphic found on “Anatomy of the Perfect Facebook Post.”