In all honesty, I hate social media; I think the social media platforms have been a key player in the chaos we see in our nation and around the world. These tutorials were wildly out of date for modern times and it was kind of painful to read this stuff just because we're so beyond this as a society. This read like something that was written when MySpace was a thing with Baby Boomers as the intended audience. I have accounts on most of these platforms, but I've deleted most of the apps off my phone. I'm not really interested in them at all so I chose to focus on the other areas of the Wiki doc to try and learn more about the "How it works" type of information. The first activity is in the list of activitiese from the Wiki but the other two were from links followed in the footnotes.
One of the activities I completed was centered around understanding the Honeycomb Model for social media. This model focuses on seven key blocks that structure social media functionality: Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence, Relationships, Reputation, and Groups. What I found particularly interesting about this framework is how it helps clarify the core purposes of different social media platforms. By breaking down the key aspects, I learned how businesses and individuals can better utilize each platform to achieve specific communication and marketing goals. In a future environment, I envision applying this model when planning social media strategies. Whether it’s building a brand presence or fostering community interaction, this model helps ensure each action serves a defined purpose, resulting in more cohesive and effective communication strategies.
The second activity I engaged in involved exploring how social media platforms utilize user-generated content (UGC). User-generated content is content created by users, such as reviews, posts, and multimedia, which significantly shapes the perception of a brand or individual on social media. What I learned here is how UGC builds authenticity and trust in a way that paid advertisements often cannot. I realized that encouraging UGC can lead to a more engaging and authentic brand presence. As much as I don't want to use UGC for the purposes of business, its potential is undeniable and is almost necessary in the modern world. Marketing nowadays is Influencers trying to trick their viewers that they actually use the product they talk about, while making it look like natural content. Its a gross practive in my opinion but its how its done.
Lastly, I examined the role of social media analytics. Through this activity, I explored various tools and metrics used to measure engagement, reach, and overall impact of social media campaigns. What stood out to me was the ability to gain real-time insights that allow for data-driven decisions. Learning to analyze key metrics like engagement rates, impressions, and conversion rates is crucial to ensuring that social media efforts are aligned with overall marketing objectives. In my current position I see how the company I work for uses our platform to enable our clients to engage with their customer more efficently and effictevly. Tooling the site to give them the leads they need to make sales is a big reason why our clients keep coming back to us.
These videos are so old and outdated that I'm only posting them here to prove how irrelevant they are. From COVID and working from home, to Facebook Marketplace, Twitter changing its name to X, Tiger King, and ChatGPT... need I go on? We're almost at Web 3.0, and those videos are still talking like Web 2.0 is the "bee's knees." The combination of social media and smartphones has the power to disrupt entire generations, especially if enough young people gain access to it early on. We've allowed these companies to run social experiments on us for years.
The only thing I needed to hear to leave social media was that the CEOs of these billion-dollar companies want to keep their own children as far away from the product as possible. They send their children to low-tech high schools where they don't use the tablets that these companies so desperately pushed into the hands of kids around the world. Is it malicious? Probably not, but the path to hell is paved with good intentions. They know the psychological issues that too much exposure can cause, but they have enough money to sweep that under the rug. I do think there will be a social backlash against this at some point in the future—a movement toward more in-person interactions over online ones is my prediction.
Week 5 Slideshow