Social media is a completely generic term in my mind that encompasses the spectrum of platforms from Facebook to Twitter, with their varying speed of message to market. The venerable Wikipedia (social media) defines social media (today… as after all it could change in a few minutes) as “online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies.” This blog is, of course, an example of social media. In fact, the term social media is so all encompassing of so many of the most important tools in use on the Internet at this point that I believe the term may have lost its meaning.
The inspiration of this post came from a note that I received on Linkedin from Jan Boxill, a colleague at UNC-Chapel Hill. I very purposefully noted Jan as a colleague, as I never had her as a professor in any course. I met her through the very social endeavor of calling plays at field hockey games. Via Linkedin, true to its purpose, Jan was updated that my work situation had changed. Just for the record, this information was also posted to my Facebook account, and it generated responses from several individuals. The difference is that Jan and I might not have communicated formally for at least three years. Additionally, the power of the targeted social network was able to deliver this relevant information to an interested colleague in a filtered context (very unlike Facebook which is aiming to be an information faucet).
In the public school setting, nearly all social media (including Google Docs) was blocked from our use or to use with students. Compare that restrictive environment to my new situation which offers me the freedom to use nearly any tool I desire. In fact, I found out about the various first-week tasks I needed to complete (from an orientation perspective) on a Google Site. For someone that is so technology-literate, I think I’m only just beginning to have an authentic awareness for how social media can be used to conduct business — social busimedia if you will — and how powerful it can be to make connections and get real work accomplished. These are the words of someone who finally Twitters not because I didn’t know (member since 2007), but because I finally can.
