Throughout the discussions of social media during this class, and last semester in 551, I have been an adamant supporter. Yet, as I was working on my portion of the group memo we were assigned, I was amazed by how frequently I wanted to use social media to connect with individuals who could physically, not virtually, “get me in the door” at other organizations. Since we are working to create a new human rights organization, it is important that we get support from others working in the human rights community, for them to understand the work we will be doing, and to provide us with credibility as we move towards the implementation phase. As I was working on the memo, I continuously wanted to use Facebook to connect to “person 1” so they could get us a face-to-face meeting with “person 2.”
I was curious if anyone else was thinking in a similar manner? Are you planning to use social media to spread information only or are you using it to get a face-to-face with someone or to get people in the door of your event or organization?
Hi Casondra,
ReplyDeleteI agree and think using Social Media to spread information only is using a small portion of its full potential. Part of getting people engaged in a cause is allowing them a way to react or participate, which can’t be done if you’re simply posting information. Matt brought up the topic of voting, which is a great tool. In addition to gauging what people want, the number of votes is also a good indicator of how many people you are successfully reaching out to.
Since I am in a group working on an established organization our problem isn’t so much as gaining credibility, but reaching out to the community to get them to become more engaged with the museum and figuring out how to enlarge the museum’s social network and make use of social capital. The museum is a physical space that relies on visitors (unlike some social media campaigns where the goal is to collect money for specific purposes like the Haitian relief effort) so face-to-face interaction is an important end-goal.
I remain focused on Kanter and Fine's emphasis on letting your goals define your actions. What is the end result you want? Are you clear why you think specific actions (connection through Facebook, as opposed to other tactics) will achieve that goal? Make your assumptions explicit and challenge them!
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