Month: November 2022

“Nowadays digital technologies appear in all business segments, and are fundamental in many fields” (Giudice et al., 2019). Concluding this week’s reading, I believe this quote is very influential in reflecting on my learnings. My perception and understanding of my PLN have significantly evolved, leaving me with a great skill of understanding how to apply my PLN in the real world and find success doing so. By engaging with my PLN, I will be able to develop my professional skills beyond this course and, in turn, present many professional opportunities. For example, within this semester and enrollment in this course, I utilized my PLN to land an internship with a local alcoholic seltzer company. I landed this internship using an Instagram direct message, and the founder of the company who hired me was able to see many mutual connections we each had within our PLN, to trust and take a chance on hiring me. 

Learning from this, I understand the importance of keeping a clean image on our online PLNs. Often, our online social accounts or anything searchable under our name is at the forefront of a first impression, so it is crucial to maintain professionalism across the board on all our PLNs. For example, understanding how to utilize your LinkedIn PLN can help you prosper in connecting with alums of your school in an industry you are professionally interested in or even other unique opportunities. I would not quite say that you can rely solely on your PLN to open professional opportunities; however, I would say that if you overlook the amount of access and opportunities that your PLN can present you, you are uninformed on the fundamentals of a successful PLN. PLNs should be used to leverage connections and be the nail in the coffin in securing that job or landing that interview. 

Reflecting on this course and PLNs in the professional world, I have developed a motto: “You are only as good professionally as your PLN is,”; meaning that to avoid hindering your professional capabilities or opportunities, you must tap in and learn the ins and outs of your PLN to find success.

Reference List

Del Giudice, M. (2014). From Information Society to Network Society: The Challenge. In: Social Media and Emerging Economies. SpringerBriefs in Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02490-5_5

Embedded is my final project with my brother, Sten Petersen. We opted to portray our learning in a podcast episode, covering the topics of applying, understanding, and measuring the successes of ones PLN in the social world. I hope you enjoy my first podcast, as we had a lot of fun making it!

P.s., as a podcast conesuer, I now have a much greater level of appreciation for podcasters and editors as they are not the easiest to make!

Works Cited

Lui, S. (2022, June 6). Sophie Lui – Edci 338. YouTube. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcXgKLzOVM 

Burkard, Chris (2022) https://www.instagram.com/chrisburkard/?hl=en

Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict; why does this happen?

Julie Smith’s interview was very eye-opening and provided a new perspective on news outlets, specifically TV news like NBC, ABC, Fox, etc. Julie reminds the listeners that these news outlets are for-profit businesses. Although I was aware of this, I tend to disregard this principle when going to these outlets to obtain news. This is not a critical or bad thing. However, it is to be kept in the back of your head and reminded of when listening to different outlets’ perspectives and reporting the news. For example, Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News, is a publicly-traded company. To expand, they have shareholders that expect to see a return on their investments; therefore, Fox will present news they want you to see that benefits their business. They will give information to help persuade you to view their stories and content to benefit themselves.

What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?

Julie Smith’s perspective of “push vs. pulling” news was one I had never heard before. Technology has allowed humans to have an extensive and overwhelming amount of information readily available at their fingertips. This has led to various platforms, networks, and groups providing and distributing news and information. In turn, this allows the user to pick and choose what they want to read and how they want to interpret it. Reflecting on the topic and discussion of news sources, Bloomberg is an excellent example of a platform that tries to minimalize bias and aligns in the center of the political spectrum. Having many different information networks lying on other ends of the political spectrum and everything in between, many platforms camouflage what is real or what they want their audience to see. Bloomberg’s approach is one to be recognized as they do not push information or perspectives on the audience but instead let their audience choose what they want to read. This media literacy allows the audience to interpret information how they want to, a fundamental principle to maintain free thought in a PLN.

Cable News Network. (n.d.). Fox. CNNMoney. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=FOX&subView=institutional 

·       How do notable individuals use social media?

• Develop and grow their personal brand
• Monetize their image
• Promote and monetize their platforms in the forms of partnerships and advertisements

·       What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN?

• Able to capitalize on your image/brand and receive unique opportunities because of your outreach and PLN.

·       Building a community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting; what are the perceived restrictions and benefits?

Restrictions

• Your employer always is watching you.
  • Take caution in voicing your opinion. Although your employee might recommend you speak your mind freely in your work PLN, you should always take caution.

Benefits

• Connecting with your colleagues and promoting communication
  • In a post-pandemic world, many employees feel isolated or lonely working from home, so a PLN is a great way to stay connected with each other.

·       Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources; how to build a PLN to rely on?

• Utilize platforms that offer verification symbols next to users’ accounts for obtaining information, such as Twitter and Instagram’s blue check marks.
• Look out for fake users
  • When establishing a PLN on a platform such as Instagram, if connecting with an IRL (in real life) friend online, make sure that is their real account and not an impersonator, as bots (computers, robots, etc.) are built to impersonate individuals with substantially large followings in hopes of scamming users.

·       How do those, who are veteran storytellers, minimize the risk of sharing misinformation?

Professional storytellers such as podcast hosts, have large teams behind them to support them and the information they provide their PLN’s and followers. Although it might seem on their show, they are doing everything themselves, there are paid staff behind the scenes helping them tell a story

Blog Post #8

·       Explore the video provided and reflect on the themes and questions above, reflecting on how you would curate your social media with a critical public audience.

• After watching the video, Sophie changed my opinion on how I would use different PLNs and platforms for different uses. Similarly, I too interact and use Twitter and Instagram very differently from each other. Twitter is more of an informative, news and discussion-oriented platform for me, whereas Instagram is a lot more social and casual. If I was a public figure, I would have two accounts on Instagram. One where I have a team to put thought and effort into maintaining a professional public image accessible to any user of the platform. I would also have a second account under an alias, exclusive to my close family and friends that is on private mode. Distinguishing boundaries to what you feel comfortable sharing online is important when creating a profile for a public audience.

·       Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space – what are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

• Your life revolves around your image and personal brand
  • Notable public figures are always being watched, judged, and observed for their actions. No matter what you do or say, people will try and spin it in a negative way to hurt your image. A good analogy I like to make about an online presence for public figures is to imagine they are being followed around online by a private investigator, attempting to cancel them or find dirt on them. For government individuals, this can be even more exacerbated. For example, a government member may comment on an old friend of theirs’s post on Twitter, thinking nothing of it. However, if say this “old friend” works for a company that directly opposes the government’s current policies, the media could potentially spin this comment to say or hurt this person’s public image and brand.

·       How to best address negative replies and critiques reflective of your personal values and employer’s social media policy?

• Learn to use filters
  • Workplace:
    • When using a PLN in the workplace, individuals are addressed and treated differently than they would be treated in a non-workplace environment.
    • When receiving replies from co-workers, individuals should not get offended or take these responses to heart as most of the time they are only work-related.
    • If one feels that they are unable to express their opinions appropriately in their work PLN due to their employer’s social media policy, they should reach out to their Human Resources department to provide clarification, as failing to comply with their rules can have severe penalties at times.

Establishing a diverse PLN to use online can only help one grow their perspective on life. Social media sharing increases outreach and promotes natural growth in individuals. This can be in both categories of communities and individuals. 

The latter can play a significant role in how your PLN reacts to the content you share and educates you on how people will perceive the content you share. For example, an athlete may be able to respond better to a post one makes about them playing hockey compared to someone in their PLN that they connected with when discussing cryptocurrencies.

If you are interested in learning, expanding your horizons, and educating yourself, social media can be an excellent way to achieve this. Engaging with your PLN is also necessary to ensure that no one is offended or hurt by the content you post you share with your PLN. What you may think is ok to share online, someone of another background may disagree; therefore, it is always important to check in with people in your PLN.

Furthermore, say I was to post about an upcoming student-run event that is taking place at a student-run bar. Given that most of my PLN are students, my PLN would respond and understand where my message is coming from a lot more than if my mother was to share the same post, as her PLN is comprised of ladies her age. Understanding your followers and PLN is crucial when engaging with your PLN online.