Blog Post #6 Community Engagement & Your PLN

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.