This post is about experiences related to the course.
Before I took this course, I realised that I spent too much time on my social media accounts. I thought that with this tendency, along with being a member of Gen Y, I would be naturally inclined to take on a role, such as this one.
However, this course, along with an unusual event, has made me reconsider.
If I had to create public content on a social media account, and be responsive to subsequent comments, I think I would be very, very busy! The discussion forum has given me a taste for this.
I enjoy the discussion forum for this course, but it is a lot of work keeping up with it, while I work full-time and take another masters course at home. At times, I have needed to focus on my work or to write a paper for my other course.
Sometimes the forum is very busy, when I am very busy. I left it for two days at one point and there were 56 messages to read when I next logged in! Recently I attended a special family event in Auckland for the weekend. I had trouble logging into UBC connect on my phone and so I used my Mum’s tablet. This wasn’t ideal, but I was at least able to log in while I was out of town. A weekend away is nice, but becomes challenging when you have digital profiles to monitor. I wanted to be meaningfully present with my family, but I had to check in with my online courses. This gave me a taste for what it would be like if I was responsible for a social media account. Am I able to allow myself to switch off?
I love to mull. I love to think about ideas in terms of other ideas I’ve had, especially across disciplines that are not traditionally related. I love to ‘chew the fat’. Being immediately responsive to an idea within a week is a real challenge. Sometimes I don’t have an opinion on something yet, even though I want to. The digital world doesn’t always allow time to chew the fat. A social media professional would need to be able to understand many topics inside out, and be able to formulate a succinct, intelligent response immediately.
Another event this week made me realise that I might not want to be responsible to the media. One morning this week I woke up to discover that I was in the national news. A response I had given to an information request from a member of the public was on page 2 of our local newspaper and the main headline on our national news website! I had not given permission for my name to be published. The words that were attributed to me were actually provided to me by someone else! I was just the messenger! I wasn’t happy at all with the way I was portrayed. What startled me was that the online story was updated and changed every few minutes throughout the morning. The digital world moves fast. I felt completely out of control!
Someone plastered it on my facebook wall (which I removed half an hour later). My phone and email went ballistic. The bombardment overwhelmed me. The General Manager and his office spent the morning trying to control the media. I don’t come across looking bad at all, but I didn’t like the way it played out, especially without my permission. It was a verrry trite story and it was a verrry slow news day to make national news!
But this experience made me realise that being responsible for information that is being smeared around the public domain may not actually be my cuppa tea!
These two recent experiences would not be typical of working as a social media professional. But the taste for it has made me realise that it would be a very demanding job being responsible for an organisation’s online presence!
Hi Beth,
I’ve also had the experience of logging back in to the course to find 50 messages awaiting me. That can definitely be overwhelming! And I agree that it seems like if you are a social media manager for an organization it seems like you really need to be available to respond to users very quickly. Although I think I’d like a lot of aspects of working in social media, I wouldn’t like that feeling of being constantly “on call.”
Sorry to hear about your experience making the national news. I think it shows how much influence social media has now in the way that people, organizations, and “brands” are perceived. Every day it seems that there are multiple stories about something an organization or person did poorly being revealed via social media. It makes you realize how careful you need to be with what you say.
Hi Liz 🙂 Glad I’m not the only one to have experienced a flurry of messages on the discussion board.
And yes, it does seem to be happening more and more in the media. I guess it’s a warning to us all that we need to check our facts before publishing anything.
This is a good reflective post Beth. I agree keeping up with information in online classes is a slog. My advice is to go at it slowly. I often make the mistake of thinking I have to read and process (“chew the fat”) faster than I am able. I try to resist the temptation to respond immediately.
On two or three separate occasions, I was national news in Canada. I had written a few editorials about Google, web 2.0 and changes in the information landscape. I was interviewed by our national broadcaster, the CBC. It was a bit scary, I admit. However, I really felt I made a difference.
In retrospect, I think it was best to challenge myself and my fears. I felt I grew a lot, and the exposure helped my profession and my career.
Thanks Dean. Yes, I do think it’s good to pause and reflect before hastily responding in online forums. Sometimes things move quite quickly though, and it can be hard to learn to get the timing right.
I’ve been thinking a bit about challenging myself and my fears. I heard an amazing talk from Claire Shipman about women and confidence in the workplace. There’s a great article about it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/
This has motivated me to try and back myself more! However, this news incident was not a particularly good one and it didn’t really involve me. I just conveyed someone else’s message. Unless we say that ‘any publicity is good publicity’?
It’s a personal choice to participate (or get involved) online. I don’t think one answer fits all for every librarian, archivist or information professional. I hope you don’t think I’m suggesting you need to challenge yourself. In terms of this class, you are doing perfectly well. ~Dean
Wow, Beth. Sounds like you’ve been having a really busy time. And the media attention sounds horrible, especially knowing that you have really been involved by mistake!
The idea of never being away from work is definitely something that concerns me with professional social media use. I also struggle at times to keep up with all the postings and blogs for this course, and your example of tying it to what being in charge of a professional social media account would be like is really striking.
Hi Colleen,
Yes, I’m concerned about never being away from work. I think if I were a social media professional, I would have a frank discussion with my manager and lay down some boundaries. If not, I’ll go hiking in the mountains at the weekend!