Reflections on Working Collaboratively Using Social Media
I've found, over the duration of this course, that I have begun to appreciate social media in a way that I didn't previously.
As a performer I made use of Social Media; I used my pages on Facebook and my Twitter account to promote myself and my work, often posting teasers of acts and costumes, and to advertise myself and look for work.
Recently I have been doing a lot of work using social media as a promotional tool for other organizations (and apparently I'm awesome at it - not my words! Honestly!) and I have realised the power of social media to make connections beyond my immediate groups. For example; I am currently working on a festival of new writing, and the production team were at a loss to explain why the opening night had sold out yet the following night was nearly empty. We realised in the morning of the performance that the ticket-sales website had glitched and it was urgent that the links were reset and this information was disseminated immediately and widely. I used Twitter to announce that tickets were still available, making use of hashtags and scheduling tools, and by the time the play began the venue was three-quarters full.
I'm not going to take sole responsibility for this ( :P ) but I feel that by harnessing the power of social media, the message was received and promoted through likes and retweets (honestly, my phone was bleeping constantly throughout the day as people shared the message far and wide!)
I know this tale isn't necessarily relevant to collaborative working, however I feel it is a good example of the ways in which I have begun to understand the power that social media has as a promotional tool, beyond "look at my pretty costume, book me for work."
I have found that my SIG on Tumblr is a very useful tool as it allows me to make contact with users who share the same interests, again through the use of relevant tags. I was able to follow accounts, and they were able to follow me, despite not knowing each other directly. The information shared on Tumblr is directly relevant to my interests and my inquiry, and the interaction allowed between users enables me to ask or answer questions that have expanded my thinking on the subject I am investigating.
The Facebook group is really handy for asking questions and posting thoughts and updates on progress, and obviously the Skype is handy for group chats and one-to-ones with peers and tutors!
I have also found, in my professional practice, that Google Docs is becoming increasingly useful. I don't know whether this is officially 'Social Media' however it does allow multiple users to work collaboratively on a document or spreadsheet which is handy!
Which Social Media Tools are you finding the most useful?
As a performer I made use of Social Media; I used my pages on Facebook and my Twitter account to promote myself and my work, often posting teasers of acts and costumes, and to advertise myself and look for work.
Recently I have been doing a lot of work using social media as a promotional tool for other organizations (and apparently I'm awesome at it - not my words! Honestly!) and I have realised the power of social media to make connections beyond my immediate groups. For example; I am currently working on a festival of new writing, and the production team were at a loss to explain why the opening night had sold out yet the following night was nearly empty. We realised in the morning of the performance that the ticket-sales website had glitched and it was urgent that the links were reset and this information was disseminated immediately and widely. I used Twitter to announce that tickets were still available, making use of hashtags and scheduling tools, and by the time the play began the venue was three-quarters full.
I'm not going to take sole responsibility for this ( :P ) but I feel that by harnessing the power of social media, the message was received and promoted through likes and retweets (honestly, my phone was bleeping constantly throughout the day as people shared the message far and wide!)
Image Source: gsmnation.com
I know this tale isn't necessarily relevant to collaborative working, however I feel it is a good example of the ways in which I have begun to understand the power that social media has as a promotional tool, beyond "look at my pretty costume, book me for work."
I have found that my SIG on Tumblr is a very useful tool as it allows me to make contact with users who share the same interests, again through the use of relevant tags. I was able to follow accounts, and they were able to follow me, despite not knowing each other directly. The information shared on Tumblr is directly relevant to my interests and my inquiry, and the interaction allowed between users enables me to ask or answer questions that have expanded my thinking on the subject I am investigating.
My SIG on Tumblr: danitougher.tumblr.com
I have also found, in my professional practice, that Google Docs is becoming increasingly useful. I don't know whether this is officially 'Social Media' however it does allow multiple users to work collaboratively on a document or spreadsheet which is handy!
Which Social Media Tools are you finding the most useful?
Hi Dani,
ReplyDeleteWell done on harnessing the benefits of using Social Media! On a recent taster day at a school, the teacher told me how she had advertised it through Facebook and a few of the people there had actually found out about it from Facebook as apposed to the official website!
How have you been the blogs and Google+ in a collaborative aspect? Have you had much interaction or comments from other BAPP students or professionals via your blog?
xx
Hi lovely :)
DeleteThank you for your lovely comments! I do think people are more likely to find out about things through social media these days, as opposed to actively visiting websites of their own accord. Because so many people have a social media profile, I think they visit websites if they see something interesting or relevant on their newsfeeds or timelines, where they wouldn't necessarily have gone to that site.
I haven't found Google+ particularly useful, in all honesty, except for having a place where most of my online activity can be focused (as it's connected to here, YouTube and Gmail, for example) but I've not seen or received anything useful through that platform.
The blogs are an interesting one, as I used to blog as my performer persona as well. I have had a couple of interesting connections and conversations with practitioners through commenting on their blogs or them commenting on mine, but there seems to be relatively few peers from the course commenting on my blogs - I think it's because my inquiry topic is quite removed from many others; you comment, and there are one or two others that do as well.
I find blogging quite cathartic though so I'm not going to stop! :P
How are you getting on with your inquiry?
xx