Archive of ‘Social Media’ category

02
Apr
2017

Arizona State University Libraries

categories: Arizona State University Libraries, INF506, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0

ASU Libraries demonstrate that they are definitely making outstanding progress with providing information to the users of their library through a range of social media tools.  “Once viewed as tools for young people, social networking sites are now mainstream tools of communication for individuals in all age groups” (Cardon & Marshall, 2015, p. 274).

The Library Minute videos are such a clever way to connect to people. Firstly, they are short so immediately one knows they can learn something very quickly.  Secondly, they are quite humorous and quirky so they are entertaining to watch and thirdly they are keeping students and staff informed and connected in such an easily accessible platform.

When perusing the ASU Library Channel suite it was interesting to look at their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.  Once again these were extremely informative, the Facebook and Twitter pages obviously had similar content but the Instagram page was quite different.  ASU Library is clearly reaching students and staff by using Web 2.0 tools and quite a few of them which in turn makes it easier to reach a wider group of people as I am sure they would be hoping that if someone isn’t using Twitter that they are using Facebook and they are then receiving the information in that format.

In all of these platforms, they allow for collaboration of thoughts and ideas, conversation regarding what has been posted, a sense of community as everyone can be involved and content creation as a result of Web 2.0.  It is evident that there is a great sense of community however there was not a ‘large’ amount of conversation or co-content creation as the university provides such fabulous amounts of information however people were not responding to it with their thoughts and ideas.  Many factors can contribute to this such as lack of time and wanting to see the information but not feeling the need to respond.

Overall, ASU Libraries are connecting with their clientele on such a great level.  It is easy to see in The Library Minute videos that thousands of people of watched these and there are many people connected to their Twitter and Facebook feeds so even if people are not necessarily conversing in these forums they are still seeing them and receiving quality information.

References

Cardon, P. W. & Marshall, B. (2015). The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team communication. International journal of business communication, 52(3), 273-293.

doi: 10.1177/2329488414525446

27
Mar
2017

Online User Reviews

categories: INF506, Online User Reviews, Social Media, Web 2.0

When perusing user reviews such as Tripadvisor, I believe the credibility and quality of these need to be looked at with a critical eye.  I have used Tripadvisor and Urbanspoon on quite a few occasions and I believe they can contain extremely useful information and reviews.  However, I never read just one or two comments, I read many to understand the overall idea as to what the ‘general consensus’ is.  As long as one reads them with a critical mind, I believe they definitely have a place in the world we live in and I have had great success by choosing cafes or hotels based on these reviews.

I believe they could be used as evidence of the quality of services or products, however I do not believe this can be done alone as there needs to be other types of evidence to back this up.  This may include a panel of people who review these hotels or restaurants based on particular checklists and you can then make comparisons and put them together to get a ‘general’ idea.  It is like any review, people have different needs and wants as well as different opinions, some may agree with you and some may not.

It is difficult to believe that hotels would charge patrons who leave negative reviews and it is difficult to believe that this can even be legal in this day and age.  However, I am sure it has happened which is very disheartening to think is possible and it is also concerning as patrons who are aware of this act will not write what they actually believe and then the ‘general’ pattern of reviews is not as evident, or it may be written in a way that does not necessarily reflect the service.

We are living in an age where anyone can have an opinion published and I strongly believe the most important thing is to have a critical mind and encourage others to do the same.  Many of these reviews can be helpful as long as one keeps in mind how they may be filtered and what the reasons could be behind some of the comments.