The Power of Social Media

Umbrella Term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio

Overview: Types of Social Media Services Bookmarking Sites and Social News Sites (Digg) Blogs and Microblogs (Twitter, Tumblr)Twitter Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Google+)Facebook Shopping Sites (Amazon) Multimedia Sharing (YouTube, Flickr) Virtual Worlds (World of Warcraft, Second Life)World of WarcraftSecond Life

#1 online activity beating porn & personal for total time spent online 650+million active users on Facebook 50% log in per day 23% of children between ages 0 and 5 use the Internet & 82% use it on a weekly basis 1 billion tweets are posted per week 460k new accounts are created on Twitter per day

YouTube has 490+million users worldwide 92 billion page views each month 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link 78 million monthly visitors on Wikipedia 90 million users on LinkedIn More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60 day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years.

What is social media? Social media is a term used to refer to online technologies and practices that are used to share opinions and information, promote discussion and build relationships. Social media services and tools involve a combination of technology, telecommunications and some kind of social interaction. They can use a variety of different formats, for example text, pictures, video and audio.

What is social media? Social media is different to traditional forms of communication such as through newspapers, television, and film. Cheap – anyone with access to the internet (for example through public libraries) Accessible – the tools are easy to use Enabling – allows almost anyone to do things that previously were only the preserve of well-resourced organizations The use of the word “ Social ” implies a conversation. Social media is definitely not about one-way communication to a large audience from big organizations.

Megatrends 1 – the death of control The age of influence  Big organizations and companies had a monopoly on mass communication and got used to controlling the message  Anyone literate with an internet connection can self-publish for free  Hard to control, can only influence The age of control The old era The new reality

Megatrends 2 – Fewer gatekeepers Many to many  Manage the gatekeepers  One-way, broadcast model.  Managing reputation = managing the media.  Less reliance on media: people get information direct from the source, and from each other.  New-style comms must reach beyond media to a complex interactive model. One to many The old era The new reality

Megatrends 3 – Fragmentation A huge cloud of interaction  People got most information from a handful of news media.  Organizations could efficiently manage (or at least monitor).  Conversations are distributed wherever people form opinions: blogs, social networks, YouTube  Separate provider for the content, and the platform for the content A few centralized channels The old era The new reality

Megatrends 4 – New web landscape Pull communications  The Web was a channel for pushing out information.  Sites were static e-brochures.  The Web was utilitarian. People felt neutral about it.  Now, people spend most time on interactive social media.  The social web is informal, immersive and emotive. Web as distribution channel Web as community Push communications Old (web) era The new reality

Megatrends 5 – New journalism Messy and opinionated  The world of press releases, news conferences and interviews was well ordered.  Journalists knew the rules of the game and were predictable.  Balance, professionalism, accountability  Huge and distributed.  Everyone can report.  Each sets his/her own rules.  No obligation to be balanced.  Complicated recourse for inaccuracy.  Opinion dominates content. Ordered and predictable The old era The new reality

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Among those who use social networking sites, 53 percent said that they d o not have an online persona different from their offline selves, but 1 5 percent admitted that they are m ore “outgoing and talk more" online.

Social networks

How I (as a new user) formed my networks After setting up an account on a given platform – e.g. Facebook or Twitter, I then used the search tools to find people with similar interests to me. For example: - Career - Sport - Academia - Campaigns For each interest, I was able to build up a small “ virtual ” network that looks something like the diagram below Everyone within this network of interest is connected to each other

How I (as a new user) formed my networks This gave a picture that looked something like this: Represented by the large yellow circle, I have links into a number of different virtual networks as represented by the small yellow circles:

How I (as a new user) formed my networks As people have multiple interests, some of those interests are shared: Accordingly, they may already have links to the same communities of interests that I have – represented by the green lines

How I (as a new user) formed my networks Through the use of social networks, other people start linking up too - denoted by the blue lines, There now is a very complex virtual web of people linked by mutual interests. The stronger each of those individual links is, the stronger the web is.

How networks can be used Having a virtual web such as this can serve three key purposes: 1) For “ support ” 2) For the search for greater knowledge 3) To challenge those in authority.

Social Media & Marketing (Using to sell us stuff)

So, Who’s Doing it Right?

32 Source: Dr Daniel Churchill, Today’s (new) Literacy [+ “Social Network Literacy”  trusted social connections] Information Literacy Ability to identify what information is needed and the ability to locate, evaluate and use information Visual Literacy Ability to understand and produce visual messages Traditional Literacy Reading, writing, speaking, listening, Critical Literacy Ability to question, challenge and evaluate the meanings and purposes of texts Media Literacy Ability to question, analyse, interpret, evaluate and create media messages Tool Literacy Ability to use tools to manage, consume and create information Digital Literacy Ability to use digital technology, communication tools and networks to locate, evaluate and create information

33 Digital Curation ©

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35 Aggregation & Filtering Finding Relevance

36 Take-Aways Social Media is ubiquitous. The numbers keep getting bigger. But we’ve sacrificed quality for quantity and accuracy for timeliness. The most important skills for a 21st century knowledge worker are the ability to network and socialize.