Month: March 2023

Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?

I think that PLNs can be especially helpful to learn more about your profession, and the different ways to do things. PLNs can serve as an extra resource for finding out different ways to apply your knowledge to different jobs as well. For example, as a psychology student, I have learned that a great way to use your degree can be through marketing techniques since we study different ways to grab people’s attention, and also how to shift people’s perspectives.  This is something that I learned through a PLN and is not something that I would have thought of. Furthermore, PLN serves as a great way to help you apply what you know to different settings, helping to broaden your network. Additionally, PLNs help to keep you updated on new techniques and skills to use in your career, outside of an academic setting.

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?

PLNs have the opportunity to be used in many different ways. People use them to learn more about interests, to find out news, and to connect with others to help with professional development. I know personally, I can use my PLN to connect with others when looking for professional jobs. When looking for jobs I will look on social media for announcements, but I also reach out to different companies that I am interested in working with, as well as reach out to people in my PLN to see if they know if anyone is hiring. Additionally, by having a PLN on social media I can showcase to others what I am capable of doing and what I can bring to a company. Furthermore, I can use my PLN to help with professional development, because by hiring me companies not only get my assets but also get my connections with other people, helping for further collaboration on ideas. So not only does my PLN help me find jobs, but it helps future employers’ benefit from my connections.

Hi Minrui,

I really enjoyed reading your blog post this week! I agree with you that over the pandemic social media provided a much easier way to connect with others. I think in terms of inclusiveness the pandemic forced many people to learn how to better navigate technology and social media as it was one of the only ways to communicate. However, I do agree that there is still a lot of people who are not on social media, I think many more people joined social media or become more aware of using social media as a way to communicate.

https://vicmrhan.opened.ca/blog-6-community-engagement-your-pln/

Hi Felix, I agree with you that your PLN amplifies the views of others. For example, by me commenting on your post and posting this on matter most, we both have a higher chance of our blog posts being read. I think that this is important because by using your PLN to amplify the views of others you are growing your connections, as well as expanding others’ PLN networks.  This also works to help find people with similar interests to interact with.

How does social media engage communications?

Social media helps engages communications by helping to expand the number of people we can communicate with. Using social media, we can contact someone in our neighborhood, our province, our nation, and internationally. However, engaging in communications online does not stop here, you also have the ability to connect with people who have similar interests as you. Social media uses tactics that allow you to view more content that you have previously engaged with, this is especially good for meeting new people online that have the same interests. 

Additionally, social media allows you to spread more content through other users. This can be done by reposting other people’s content or sharing other people’s content by adding it to your story, tagging people, or using the same hashtag. Personally, I have tried to engage in communications using social media during my previous summer job at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. I did a lot of work in marketing and more specifically social media engagement, and this involved using specific hashtags, tagging any members of our museum or inductees, as well as reposting other posts that were related to our mission.

How does social media challenge communications? –Is it inclusive?

Social media challenges communication by potentially not having the same level of depth in conversations, or the ability for something you have said to be misconstrued.  In terms of your conversations not being as in-depth, online it is really hard to show emotions. It is also harder to have long conversations that you feel the other has sympathized with. This is not all communication however, some people are able to have really in-depth conversations, but I think that the topic of the conversation matters. Additionally, It can be easy to misconstrue what someone has said online. This can end up with someone else interpreting something the wrong way, which makes communicating a lot harder.

I would say there are restrictions to social media communications as it does not reach all age demographics since most older generations have not created social media accounts or do not use them regularly to contact others. So, this is one example of how social media might not be inclusive. However, Social media does provide inclusion by being able to communicate with a vast majority of people really quickly.

Does your PLN amplify the views of others? 

I would say my PLN amplifies the views of others, right now as a student I tend to repost many student hacks or other college students who are experiencing similar situations that I am. This in turn means that my followers will see their content which amplifies those whose content I have shared. Additionally, from my previous working experience, I would try to share content on social media from other websites that align with the business. An example of this would be that if there was a sporting event that occurred in Alberta, we would share the event and try to create more awareness because it would help grow our business demographic.

The policies of employer social media communication expectations.

I think in terms of policies on social media communication you would have to play it by ear. At work we would stay clear of any controversial conversations that were occurring in the world, however, you still have to maintain relevant trends to grow your platform. The policy also might depend based on the business that you have if you are a politician the line might not be super clear because you have to talk about controversial topics and address certain things. However, in this case, the policy would be how you address the conversation and how you can make sure your answer does not get misconstrued.

How to better use social media to build PLN – Influencers & Commentators

A lot of people have increased their social media use to build their PLN, whether it be to follow more influencers with similar passions or jobs or to start posting their own videos. I can think of many people who start posting online to give others insight into their jobs but to also connect with other people with similar jobs. I can think of many influencers who do a “day in the life” video that shows people what their job consists of and gives people who are interested in perusing that job a glimpse of what to prepare for.  I have seen many people of different professions like doctors, nurses, and teachers become influencers because a lot of people resonate with what they post.  Additionally, I have seen people have full-on conversations in the comments of videos or pictures, and I have seen the creators respond to comments or answer questions. All of this helps to build a PLN and to gain a better understanding from others.