Tool #1: Photo Sharing Sites
Like sharing my fitness journey...
However, I have yet to grasp how to use Instagram or any other
picture sharing site effectively for my field. Most of my pictures are of friends and events. Other people I follow have
started their own businesses on Instagram by sharing pictures of their
company products. This is extremely effective
because people see what you have to offer. You are distributing your content visually, reaching your target audience, and retaining them.
I have also noticed
that Instagram uses hashtags frequently. Hashtags are a great way to get new exposure. This is effective because you can reach so many more people from around the world. Reaching a broader audience is important because we can learn about each other. Influencing one another culturally will allow us to make an impact and a difference in the world.
My favorite travel photographer on Instagram is Murado Osmann from Russia and his photos have made a difference in me and my best friend's life. Thanks to his pictures, we made a list of places we would like to see and Italy is on our list for the fall. Osmann uses his girlfriend as a human prop leading him and therefore the audience through vibrant and enchanting scenes from the world's most amazing places. Photographers like Osmann embrace picture sharing sites like Instagram, so their photos can teach us about other cultures and allow us to see things we wouldn't normally be able to see. These photographers are effectively reaching their audience on a social, artistic, and even spiritual level.
Check out his breathtaking photos here.
I also find these types of sites practical when needing to reach your audience on a greater scale. This is because Instagram can work very well when you combine it with other social networks. For example, I post a picture to Instagram and just press the share button for Facebook and Twitter and ta-da! My picture is now on my Facebook and Twitter feeds reaching my other audiences as well.
My favorite travel photographer on Instagram is Murado Osmann from Russia and his photos have made a difference in me and my best friend's life. Thanks to his pictures, we made a list of places we would like to see and Italy is on our list for the fall. Osmann uses his girlfriend as a human prop leading him and therefore the audience through vibrant and enchanting scenes from the world's most amazing places. Photographers like Osmann embrace picture sharing sites like Instagram, so their photos can teach us about other cultures and allow us to see things we wouldn't normally be able to see. These photographers are effectively reaching their audience on a social, artistic, and even spiritual level.
Check out his breathtaking photos here.
I also find these types of sites practical when needing to reach your audience on a greater scale. This is because Instagram can work very well when you combine it with other social networks. For example, I post a picture to Instagram and just press the share button for Facebook and Twitter and ta-da! My picture is now on my Facebook and Twitter feeds reaching my other audiences as well.
Tool #2: Social Bookmarking
If I come across a website that I like whether it is for work, school, or pleasure I either post it to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or save it to my Google Chrome bookmarking folder. I never thought to use a central location to put these things and here is why this would work for me. I cannot access my bookmarking folder that is on my laptop from my Kindle or iPhone. This is where I put most of the research I do for class. When I am out and want to work on an assignment, I have to re-look everything up or search for articles I previously found. With Delicious, I was able to post links I really liked and save them for class to be used on other assignments. I also saved pages that I have previously used for class that I may need to refer back to.
So far, I really like Delicious and may check out other social bookmarking sites. You can checkout my first attempts on Delicious here.
This site is effective in reaching your audience because you can connect Delicious to other social media sites and find your friends. This way you can reach them by sharing the same content across multiple social and digital platforms. I found a cool link on Delicious and decided to share it with my Twitter audience.
6 Tips to Boost Your Twitter Conversations http://t.co/7ir7iUjfux via @delicious
— Kareta Johnson (@KAY_thewriter) May 8, 2014
You can also use tags. This will help followers or others who search the same topic find your pages. If they like the items you post or find them useful, they can add you. Also with the tags, you can subscribe to them. For instance, I subscribed to the hashtag #socialmedia and now can see anything that comes through from other people that use this hashtag. So neat!
Even though Delicious is popular, I do not know if it will be a tool in my life everyday. I love how easy it is to add and share great links that are on there with my Twitter followers and other audiences. If there was a share button for LinkedIn I would probably use this more. I think I still need to get the hang of it, but it was interesting to try out. I can see why people view this as an effective way to connect with others and use as a social research tool. For me, it seems easier to save the pages I need to my Google Chrome bookmarks folder instead of logging into Delicious just to view them. However, as I said before the only downside would be trying to access research that is only on my laptop. Delicious offers greater options and will give me the access I need on other devices.
Tool #3: Social Network Sites
Out of all the social media tools, I think social
networking sites can be the most effective way to reach an audience if used correctly. As of April 2014, Facebook had about 1 billion users from all over the world (Smith, 2014). I remember being a sophomore in college
back in 2004 when Facebook was just for college students and we really didn't know what it was. Today, pretty much anyone and everyone is on Facebook and they use it frequently. As soon as I post something personal about my work or life, I will
have over ten likes and comments within a minute! For example, as in this post:
However, I noticed that when I post something serious like news for instance, I receive maybe one like or no likes/comments at all as in this post:
What's up with that? In my opinion, people use Facebook because they want to participate in casual conversation, catch up with friends, and give updates about their day as in "Look at my new haircut!" or "Just got a new car, yay!" People want to see what their friends did over the weekend, comment on it, and engage with each other. The neat thing is that even though only one person shared and no one commented on the news of the gunman on our interstate, I know that people saw it. I posted it so people would be aware of what was happening. With everyone posting stuff to Facebook every minute, what you post needs to stand out if you want it to reach your audience and impact them. Maybe I should have put a headliner like, "Hope everyone is being safe out there!" or "Check out this story I just found!" I also could have posted it to Twitter first and shared my tweet on Facebook to reach more people.
Twitter is considered a micro-blog and was listed by itself, I actually include it in this category for myself. This is because I have started to post pretty similar stuff to Facebook and Twitter; the only difference is my audience, or “followers.” The majority of people that I am friends with on Facebook I know from high school, church, and college. LinkedIn I know everyone from previous jobs. On Twitter, I really don’t know everyone I follow personally or who follows me, but know that they are important for my field. In other words, many of them are news outlets, writers, editors, and authors.
The great thing about social networking sites is that there is such a huge demographic of people that your post is going to affect someone in your audience. You can reach your audience by using collaboration tools or group forums that most social sites offer. On Facebook last month, I created a "Join My Color Me Rad Team" event page and invited all my "friends" on Facebook that I knew was on a fitness journey. Many of my friends invited their friends. I was able to meet people I didn't know before and we all ran our first 5k together! That little feature on Facebook brought a group of girls together that didn't know each other well, but shared a common interest and an experience we will remember forever. Social networking also allows you to instant message, email, provide links or videos, the possibilities are endless. So yes, I think this tool is the most effective because whatever you post reaches so many people that share and re-post over and over again.
Post by Kareta Johnson.
However, I noticed that when I post something serious like news for instance, I receive maybe one like or no likes/comments at all as in this post:
What's up with that? In my opinion, people use Facebook because they want to participate in casual conversation, catch up with friends, and give updates about their day as in "Look at my new haircut!" or "Just got a new car, yay!" People want to see what their friends did over the weekend, comment on it, and engage with each other. The neat thing is that even though only one person shared and no one commented on the news of the gunman on our interstate, I know that people saw it. I posted it so people would be aware of what was happening. With everyone posting stuff to Facebook every minute, what you post needs to stand out if you want it to reach your audience and impact them. Maybe I should have put a headliner like, "Hope everyone is being safe out there!" or "Check out this story I just found!" I also could have posted it to Twitter first and shared my tweet on Facebook to reach more people.
Twitter is considered a micro-blog and was listed by itself, I actually include it in this category for myself. This is because I have started to post pretty similar stuff to Facebook and Twitter; the only difference is my audience, or “followers.” The majority of people that I am friends with on Facebook I know from high school, church, and college. LinkedIn I know everyone from previous jobs. On Twitter, I really don’t know everyone I follow personally or who follows me, but know that they are important for my field. In other words, many of them are news outlets, writers, editors, and authors.
The great thing about social networking sites is that there is such a huge demographic of people that your post is going to affect someone in your audience. You can reach your audience by using collaboration tools or group forums that most social sites offer. On Facebook last month, I created a "Join My Color Me Rad Team" event page and invited all my "friends" on Facebook that I knew was on a fitness journey. Many of my friends invited their friends. I was able to meet people I didn't know before and we all ran our first 5k together! That little feature on Facebook brought a group of girls together that didn't know each other well, but shared a common interest and an experience we will remember forever. Social networking also allows you to instant message, email, provide links or videos, the possibilities are endless. So yes, I think this tool is the most effective because whatever you post reaches so many people that share and re-post over and over again.
References:
Smith, C. (2014, April 2). How many people use 416 of the
top social media apps, and tools? (May 2014). Digital Marking Ramblings. Retrieved from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media/#.U2u-OfldVgo
Logo credits:
Prager, D. (2014,
April 11). Top branded Instagram accounts. Rival IQ. Retrieved from http://blog.rivaliq.com/top-5-branded-instagram-accounts/
Untitled Image of
Facebook Logo. (2013, February 12). Facebook marketing 10 tips for a good fan
page. Webwissen. Retrieved from http://www.webwissen.de/facebook-marketing/
Yuksel, M. (2013,
March 28). D starting with the letter logos. Mehmet Yuksel. Retrieved from http://www.mehmetyuksel.org/d-harfi-ile-baslayan-logolar.html
