When I first started this subject the views I had towards social media and how it could be harnessed professionally have shifted. Being a millennial, I have grown up with the social world around me, seeing it develop and being aware of all the advancements and the potential that it does have. However, I have never thought how much of an impact it can make on my professional life. Being a library technician for a number of years now I had never thought to branch out and see what networks there were for me in the online world. By working through this subject, it has really opened my eyes to how much is out there for me through online networks for the library and information world.

A platform that I think has immense value to social networking is Facebook. This platform is one of the largest social networking sites (SNS) as it thrives on social relationships, strengthen existing connections and providing a space where people can form new ones. It allows for a space where people can share and communicate about socially relevant topics and as like all SNS it has a strong foundation of communication. It’s a place where people can broadcast information, discuss ideas or ask for help and this helps to cultivate positive social capital (Vitak & Ellison, 2013, p.244). Working within an environment where we need to have these open lines of communication building social capital is vital to making our networks work. Social capital when broken down is individuals working together in a network to boost each other’s knowledge and skills (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019). Facebook with its ability for groups allows for this to flourish and strength the bonds of information professionals across the country and around the world. By working thought the modules and engaging with other people in our subject though Facebook it has encouraged me to join more groups that relate to librarians, library technicians and a group that is about engaging passionate readers. As an information professional I think it is important to have these networks as we work in such a collaborative environment accessing this online environment can unlock a whole world of untapped knowledge.

A social tool which I hope to engage more in the future with is Twitter. In today’s online environment it is a place that is constantly updating with new and current topics. When thinking of personal/professional development right now it can be described as PD 2.0, because of the online access people can obtain self-regulated PD with Twitter being a great space for that.  Like Facebook it connects people globally but in a slightly different way. It’s not so much about the status update but the short tweet that gets peoples attention. With the use of hashtags, it can streamline the content to make it meet specific needs and this provides a knowledge bank for people to tap into. It’s a platform where people can post about new and current trends as they are happening in real time (Moreillon, 2016, p.65). I think moving further into my career it will need to be place where I can source new information and use it to further myself professional knowledge.

What I enjoyed most about this subject was our OLJ. The process of designing it to personalise it to how we thought it best represented us. Working through the modules I found it interesting picking the topic which I wanted to comment and express an opinion. Having a blog is a different way of using and interacting with a social networking site as it is a space that allows the learner/writer to have more ownership over their work. The content can be focused to what they want to comment on, and it still enables conversation due to the comment feature. This can promote debate and pushes further learning as it gives them another perspective to think about. The way they are written is also different as it still needs to be professional, but it can be more of a conversational tone (Hansen, 2016, p.87). Having this blog was a good change in how I was learning the material that was covered throughout the subject. Working through the modules I liked how we covered how social networking sites have developed over the years to unknown of what they will be able to achieve. Because of limited time I wanted to select learning tasks that interested me and made me think about the capabilities of social media.

A post I enjoyed writing about was developing my personal learning network. It was a topic that I hadn’t thought about prior and it pushed to explore different forms of social media to see what networks are out there. By writing that post it made me think about where I wanted my career to start to head towards and how social networking could assist with that. On a whole it was wonderful to extend my knowledge and navigate different networking sites to see which ones I think are best to work with and then report back and critically think about them. Social networking can work different for each person, its how you use it and interact with it that makes it different. As I said above, I’m already branching out my Facebook exposure and I want to start dipping into Twitter. I would have never had those thoughts if it weren’t for my OLJ making me think about how I can use SNS to best benefit me a learner and soon to be professional.

What I found useful was researching real organisations and having a look at how they are using social media to their gain. It is one thing learning about the uses of social media and seeing how it can be used but actually having to examine and critically look at how it is being used gives you two different types of views. As the organisations we had to use as reference were charities this again gives you a different perspective to how to use social tools. As these organisations are not for profit, they must engage in social media to best reflect their vison and gain exposure for their services. By looking at all the platforms that they were using it helped develop critical thinking skills when deciding how well they are engaging in social media. Developing critical thinking promotes the learner to analyse and compare information and then look at the content and evaluate it. As this is part of self-instructed learning being able to look at a resource and then reflect on that information and make key decisions is important for a learner (Wallace & Jefferson, 2013, p.248). By working through assessment 2 we had to develop these skills when it came to look at social networking sites.

What I found interesting was having to see how many platforms the organisations were using and evaluate if they are using them in a way that was giving them the best exposure. What was prominent was that all of the organisations had a presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Interacting with more than one SNS is common and being able to maintain a strong presence across all of them requires a team of people. Uploading content, replying to users and making sure all information is up to date seems simple but what was something we had to look at was that if they are doing this consistently. Evaluating the organisations and how they were are using social tools was a good lesson in what we need to think about as we move into maybe working with these tools in our own workplace.

Social media as simple as people think can be quite complex a times. At the start of this unit I had some idea on what it could do but I had never thought about how it can benefit you in more ways than one. From a business side it can help promote and give you the best exposure if used in a positive way. From a personal view it has so many more capabilities than I had ever thought providing new networks to formed and a vast amount of knowledge to be learnt. It has been a great experience looking at these tools from a different angle and getting to see how other information services uses them. The knowledge I have learnt from this subject I will take with me into my future professional life as a librarian.

References

Cambridge Dictionary. (2019). Social capital. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/social-capital

Hansen, H. E. (2016) The impact of blog-style writing on student learning outcomes: A pilot study. Journal of Political Science Education, 12(1), p.85-101. doi: 10.1080/15512169.2015.1060887

Moreillon, J. (2016). Building your personal learning network (PLN): 21^st-century school librarians seek self -egulated professional development online. Knowledge Quest, 44(3), p.64-69. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Wallace, E. & Jefferson, R. N. (2013). Developing critical thinking skills for information seeking success. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 19(3), p.246-255. doi: 10.1080/13614533.2013.802702

Vitak, J. & Ellison, N. B. (2013). ‘There’s a network out there you might as well tap’: Exploring the benefits of and barriers to exchanging informational and support-based resources on facebook. New Media & Society, 15(2), p.243-259. doi: 10.1177/1461444812451566