Professional Communication Technologies

Monday 1st October 2012 - First day as an official BAPP student!

Reader 1 - 'Professional Communication Technology'

If you have seen the film 'The Social Network' you will know how Facebook began and how quickly it developed and became a worldwide phenomenon. I have now realised how important web 2.0 and social networking have become in both every day life and in the workplace. It makes me wonder how people ever survived without it...

We share so much through social networking such as: personal details, where we have been, photos of recent events and what we're doing at a particular moment in time. It has become a whole new 'world' which is constantly developing and expanding. These details that we share are then seen by hundreds, and if you're lucky enough to become a Youtube sensation, millions. Just by one click of a button we can share a piece of information or image etc that maybe another few hundred have already 'shared'. The chain continues and before we know it, billions of people have seen the same thing, which connects us all. 
It reminds me of 'chain mail' from my childhood. If you were to send on a certain letter to 10 friends, and each of those friends sent it on to 10 others etc, you would receive a chocolate bar (which I realise now was a bribe to send it on).. unfortunately I never actually received any chocolate but the idea is similar, a network of people building from the same singular piece of 'chain mail'. 

That links me to 'participation'. Without everyone taking part in the 'chain mail', it wouldn't work and the networking would collapse. As for social networking and web 2.0, if we all participate, we can interact with those around us and who share our interests, and build up strong relationships. These relationships could be important contacts who will potentially lead us down other paths and introduce us to new and exciting opportunities.

Participating in such a way, as a creator of our sites but consumer of other people's information takes us on to 'produsage' - a term used by Bruns (2007) as "a portmanteau of production and usage". We take an idea from another creator, edit and adapt it to our own taste and it becomes a development of the original piece. We, as a creator, consume an idea from a producer, then taking the role of the 'producer' ourselves, we make something new. If another consumer were to take on our new development and edit it, the ideas would always be improving and moving forward.

All of this takes me back to the idea that we are all networking and connecting because we share the same interests which leads us to become a social group (most of which we have never and will never meet). Sites like Facebook are intelligent. It understands what we like and will suggest pages that we should join, or people that we may know so that we are able to make further connections all of the time.

Just by having a Facebook site, you are immediately within a social network group. If you meet someone new, more than often you will add them on Facebook first before writing their number down. I find it fascinating how it seems to have become a norm in society to talk in 'Facebook language'. From walking around and being in public spaces, I hear sentences such as: "did you see [name]'s status this morning?" or "I saw that on his wall". A few years ago, these wouldn't have made any sense, but now, we don't think twice about their meanings.

I see Facebook and social networking as useful tools in our lives and communities. They allow us to keep on top of our social lives but also connect us with potential employers or people who may help us along our career ladders.

My sister, a freelance copywriter, uses networking sites daily as part of her career. Updating on Twitter, Facebook etc for companies, ensuring that a wide audience reads them and takes the information on board. Without social networking, she wouldn't have a job, so I'm thankful to social media for allowing her to continually climb higher and higher within the industry. 
She is currently travelling in America (yes, we're all jealous) and visited a talk in Los Angeles the other day.. I found it interesting as it links to the ideas of 'Professional Communication Technology' and shows how companies use social networking at a high, professional level. The link to her write up 'Who really owns your social media?' is as follows:

http://www.elephantcreative.co.uk/2012/09/28/social-media-week-los-angeles-who-really-owns-your-social-media/


I shall end with a quote from Reader 1 'Professional Communication Technology' which I hope, is the case for my blog:
"The users add content to the site, and the more the users access the site and add data, the better the site becomes."