Is there an audience for what I have to say?

Social Media Tools

I will be sharing my research paper with as many people as possible and I need to figure out which social media tool will reach the biggest audience.  After reviewing the many chooses available I decided on 3 which I believe will reach the biggest audience.  

https://www.facebook.com/leona.davisbrown

First, is Facebook: This social networking site already has a list of my close friends, family and work associates so this will reach the main group of people who are interested in what I'm doing in my daily life.  These people will more then likely look at what you post and click on any links you may share with them.


@LeonaTheWriter

Second, is Twitter: This social networking platform will reach more then just friends and family.  If what I have to tweet is interesting others who follow me will re-tweet and so on and so on.  This site is very fast moving so I could get lost in the shuffle but the opportunity to reach a large audience is still possible.



leonasview.blogspot.com

The last platform I will use is this current blog.  I can update as often as possible and be interactive with those who do view my paper.  The audience takes time to build with blogs but by using Twitter and Facebook I can steer people this way.

Unrestricted Web Posting

There's a great commercial where a lady post on social media that she's going on vacation and there is an immediate response from a man who has a face mask on like the picture above that tells her to have a nice trip.  I loved it because the thief was concealing his identity even though he has taken a picture of himself, I associate that mentality to unrestricted web posting.

Unrestricted web posting, to me, is having full access of providing information to the world but not holding any accountability of the information being given.  Delivering false information is not a new practice, the web just provides a larger audience and a faster means of delivery.  In this era of opinion blogs and everyone claiming to be an expert puts individuals in the position to become fact-finders.  Research is not only for educational settings, we now have to compare and contrast the vast amounts of information out there to view.

Our society has become accustomed to researching products through customer reviews and consumer reports; we just need to apply that same technological advantage to other forms of information.  Researching cited sources isn't a common practice because it is not something we are spending our money on, it's free information.  We don't see how incorrect information can put us in more trouble then purchasing a defected pair of tennis shoe.  We know our purchasing habits have power so we strive to get the best deal through research, we also know that education is power but we don't hold that truth as high.

I read a NY Times article for my assignment and tracked every source.  They were all verifiable but I assumed they would be since the distribution company relies on giving the public accurate information.  Not all distributed news is reliable, there are many news media outlets that high jack the look of a professional news company but have a bias agenda on what information they relay.  This is when you will need to use the criteria to evaluate the credibility of WWW resources.  These techniques will help distinguish what is legit and what isn't but overall scholarly printed information is still refereed to as being the safest bet in acquiring empirical facts.

Social Media and Truth

The truth is a tricky thing in social media.  We would assume that the truth is simply that, the truth, but with millions of opinions and thousands of (so-called) experts the truth can be interpreted and many ways.  My assignment to learn something new using social media was a success and failure.  I found out about a lot of new things going on with my friends on Facebook; a friend from high school just got married, my cousins baby is due in September and she's having a boy.  I went to Twitter to see if there was something to learn there and most post were about attending the BET awards.  Checked out LinkedIn and read a couple of 2014 trends in social media which all seem true because of what I see when I check out different sites.  I didn't research further because I believe socialmediaexaminer.com to be a reliable site and all of the examples in the article can be found on popular websites.

I don't go to social media sites to research information or find out information that would be important to anyone other then me.  I go to my Facebook account to see what my friends are doing, Twitter to see what celebrities are doing and LinkedIn to see what people in my field are talking about.  None of that, to me, is intentionally searching for news updates and solid truths; but, there are times when social media does provide that for me.  There are always celebrity RIP post, which aren't always reliable, but social media may be the first time you hear about someone's passing.  I said that learning something new through social media was a success, in that I found out a lot of new information; but it was also a failure because I didn't find out anything I can concretely say was the truth through statistics and chronicled research.  I cannot say that social media is a good resource to use when looking for credible information but it's probable that you will find out things first through social media and then it is up to you to confirm that the information is correct.

Influence of the Media

There are the social media crackheads who always need their fix, their is the social drinker crowd who only respond to interesting posts or post for Birthdays and special events and then there are those who feel social media is too evasive and don't participate at all outside of owning the newest cell phone on the market.  I am a bit of an oxymoron, I rarely communicate through social media but I have set up accounts in all popular social media outlets and I just got a job where I will need to use all forms of media outlets on a daily basis.  The only form of new media I currently use daily is email (if that is even considered new media), I don't have a smart phone but I do have a cell phone that I use daily as well.  With my new job I see that I will have to do a lot of catch up to be successful in my field.

I know I will never become the social media crackhead because I like my me time.  My kids get kicked out of my room if they over stay their welcome.  I do not believe social media has changed my perspective on daily activities.  Don't get me wrong, I scroll through Facebook just as much as you do but I can go months without posting anything.  I can say that I do add others post to my timeline which makes it look like I am more involved on Facebook then I truly am.  This will change only because my career demands it, I can't say if it will make me post to my personal accounts more or if I will only post for clients.  I do not believe that being exposed to social media more often will result in negative influences but my background in Communications might help me decipher what to take interest in and what to discard.  My new position will open me up to so much more information but because it is professional I still think most of the images, articles and post I come in contact with will practice ethical guidelines when publishing information.  Only time will tell.