Facebook Use

All three organizations that I have been following have been using Facebook to their advantages. CCRI has been, in my opinion, done the best job of using social media out of the three. They update their Facebook page almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. They posts that they put up appeal to people; they show what they do and what they need by sharing images on Facebook that are real and to the point. They heavily promoted Giving Hearts Day and judging by their post after that they were successful. They do the same with twitter but they use different images to get the same message across.

The second organization I’m following has done almost as good of a job on Facebook as CCRI. They don’t post every day but the images they post are meant to tug at our heart strings and they do; the pictures of the children in their costumes are so cute that it’s hard to look away! They do a very good job of showing what their organization is and throughout Giving Hearts Day and leading up to it they posted extra images that had hashtags attached asking for donations. They did end up repeating a lot of images but they never posted them in the same way twice so it was okay. They also had a video that helped show what their organization is that asked for donations to keep the program going for those adorable children they share photos of on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram. Overall they got their message across even though they don’t post as often as other organizations.

Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota has a lot of images on Facebook that provide inspiration to the people looking at their page. They don’t show what they do as an organization directly but if you really think about it the images do show what they are about. They’re an organization that wants to spread God’s word so that His people can live better lives; they help people get out of bad situations and into better ones. The inspirational bible verses help bring a little bit of that peace to people. They have a few images depicting the people that work for them and they have a video that shows employees and the people they’ve benefited speaking highly of the organization. They do get across what their organization is, you just have to really think about what you’re being shown.

Vlog

vlog

Here is the link to my video blog. It’s a PowerPoint with audio recorded over it. In it I talk about the importance of investing in videos and the power of images.

Media Ecology

 

Media ecology is a concept that needs to be kept in mind when you’re trying to get your organization noticed. In chapter three of Social Media for Social Good by Heather Mansfield, Mansfield suggests that Non-profits sync their Facebook page with their website, letters, and other printed materials that are seen by potential contributors.

Just having a Facebook page isn’t enough. You have to put yourself out there and update it so your followers have something to look at. In the Pew Report it was mentioned that the use of social media isn’t as good as it seems to be in the art community; it adds more pressure to the artists because people have higher expectations.

I think that social media does add pressure to art but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can stand to be a motivation to artists. It’s easier to share your work with people because of social media cites such as Facebook and Instagram and when you share your work with someone you want it to be as good as possible to avoid criticism.

I took an introduction drawing class last spring and at the beginning of every class we would hang up our drawing so that the class could critique them with the intention of helping each other improve. Knowing that I had to hang up my art on a wall for a group of ten students to critique was nerve racking for me so I was inclined to do my absolute best.

One of the drawings critiqued by my peers

My drawings were nowhere near perfect, especially compared to some of the more experienced people in the class, and that made hanging them up next to their art hard but they were nice about helping me improve so in the end it was okay but it was still more pressure than posting an image online to be critiqued; you don’t have to face the people responding to what you’re producing and you can choose to ignore negative feedback.

I see both sides of the argument of social media being bad for the art community; I agree because you can choose to ignore helpful criticism that could potentially make you into a better artist and I disagree because you can make a name for yourself using social media. I really enjoyed my art teacher’s work and I can follow what she’s doing even though she moved back to New York. She’s made a name for herself here because of her careful use of twitter and Facebook. If it wasn’t for social media I wouldn’t be able to see her art without physically seeing it in person. In this scenario medial ecology is in play for both of us; I get to enjoy her peculiar paintings and she gets publicity.

Using media is important today when you’re trying to make a name for yourself. If you use it to your advantage it can help guide you to success.

Style

When it comes to style of writing online, the short form is what I have more experience with. I’ve been texting since I got my first phone in high school and have been improving my style ever since then. I’ve improved my writing in the short form considerably since I first started; I used to use full sentences and spell everything out but I’ve done what’s recommended in 140 Characters and Less. I’ve learned to get to the point and use the proper symbols and words (or no words at all) to spell what I want to get across without overdoing it. Texting is really were my experience stops with the short form. I’ve used it a little bit on Facebook but I don’t use it enough to have an established style there. I have almost no experience with twitter. I’ve looked at it and read other people’s tweets but I never got into it.

I have some experience with blogs but not enough to have come even close to mastering it or establishing a style. As I was reading the text, Social Media for Social Good, I couldn’t help but feel a little lost because of how much information there was to take in. There are so many dos and don’ts that I think the best way to learn about them is to put them into action. I’ve been thinking about starting my own blog outside of this class so that I can get some more practice and because I really do enjoy writing about the things that interest me. I’ve played around with Weebly and it seems fairly simple to use so if I was to start a blog I would use that platform because I would be able to express my style more easily there. I haven’t quite figured out how to use all of the features on WordPress and I feel a little constricted about by it. To change this and develop my style I’m going to continue to explore the features so that I can stop being hung up on the style of the website and focus more on the style of my writing.

What do I want to be online?

When I’m online it’s easier to be my true self. I have a hard time expressing myself in person because I’m afraid of what people are going to think. When I express myself online I can say what I’m really feeling because I don’t have to face other people’s reactions; if someone makes a comment about what I’m writing I have more liberty to ignore it than I would if someone told me what they think to my face. For this reason, I can be myself online; I can express my opinions and show my creativity freely when I’m online.

I’m far from the most sociable person. The internet allows me to interact with people in ways that I can’t in person. I can speak my mind more freely when I’m using the internet because, as I mentioned before, I don’t have to face the comments if I don’t want to; I can choose to ignore them if I want to, usually, without consequence.

The internet also helps me socialize with people that I don’t get to see as often as I have in the past; because of the internet I feel like I am still close friends with a girl who lives on the other side of the world. I can socialize with people that I don’t as well, people I have stuff in common with. For example, on YouTube I can subscribe to YouTubers I like and have conversations with people in the comments section about we’ve watched. We can also socialize on other outlets, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

When I’m on the internet I can learn about almost anything I want to. I’ve taught myself to cook based on recipes I’ve found on Pinterest and instructional videos I’ve watched on YouTube. I’ve also improved my crocheting ability because of YouTube. Whenever I don’t understand the directions in a pattern I search for an instructional video and I watch it over and over until I figure out how to complete the project I’m working on; I used multiple blogs with the instructions to complete the stitches used to make this little toy octopus.

To summarize what I want to be online, I want to be able to express myself freely, I want to be able to communicate with people, that I know and don’t know, and I what to learn when I’m online. The internet is place that can help me feel better about myself but it can also hurt me. When I’m online I do the things that I should be doing in person; I should be building my relationships by spending time with people in person and I should be expressing myself outside of the internet. When I’m not doing so in person at least I can do these things online with the ultimate goal of transferring these skills into my life outside of the internet.