Ten Revelations

Megan GarofaloTen RevelationsGoogle alerts are not scary! At the beginning of the semester I had never heard of Google alerts, and to be honest they sounded a tad alarming. The idea of a website having a website analyze my preferences was a bit overwhelming but once I created a few Google alerts for my Social Media 4 Change project I realized that they can actually be very helpful. They keep me informed without hours of scrolling through different sites full of nonsense. The fact that I was able to tailor my Google alerts to my own needs was great because it really helped me stay centered around my project and it made my workload lighter. One

If you pay attention to popular hash tags, you can ride them straight to the top. They are another great way to let the internet do work for you. Using popular hash tags on your campaign posts (that are relevant to your campaign of course) can get your campaign a lot more attention than it would receive through hear say alone. Lets face it, not many people are going to be looking up my campaign in their free time however, they will be searching trends and if my campaign is attached to those trends they just might stumble upon it. This really occurred to me when I was searching for my classmates blogs and other platforms because I saw how easy it was to start off at one blog and end up on another simply because it was right there staring me in the face.two

Blogs are fantastic home bases. In the text, the experts spoke about the importance of having a central location for all of your platforms to come together. Not only does this give your campaign more exposure, it keeps your posts organized across all of your platforms making your work easier and faster, after all time is money. Blogging really came in handy for me when I wanted to share posts from multiple platforms at once because I could simply post to each platform and then send viewers to my blog to see all of the posts live in one place. It saves a lot of aggravation, confusion, and once again time. When viewers/potential clients see consistency and organization without a ton of navigation and scrolling they are more likely to pay attention to your campaigns purpose rather than how frustrated they are with your site. three

Facebook pages are great because you can make one using your own personal profile, which most likely already exists, while still keeping your professional business separated from the business that goes on in your personal life. In addition to the separation, Facebook also gives you the ability to send everyone on your friends list a link to your professional page with simply the click of a button, if you so choose. This makes sharing so much easier, and it can even boost the amount of views your page gets. If a friend of yours sees a project that you are working on they are more likely to support you and share it with their friends on their own page because they probably care about you and your passions. That means double the page views with just the click of one single button! four

Sometimes less is more. You dont have to have a flashy or expensive platform in order to get a point across here in the 21st century. If you are somewhat resourceful you can get exposure easily through social media platforms. If students can create campaigns for change using free social media accounts any one can. You dont need to hire professionals or pay for high end software to kick off a campaign, you just have to know where to post. Five

On the other hand, according to the text, sometimes professional help can take your campaign to the next level. The experts in the text made it a point to discuss the fact that just because you dont need a professional to run a campaign doesn'tt mean that it wouldnt be a good option to consider. Professionals work on campaigns all of the time so they really know what theyre doing. Even if you are not a novice to the web, everyone can use an extra hand here and there. The professionals may have alternate perspectives or tools that you may not have access to, which can really give you an advantage. six

Twitter is not the enemy. For the longest time I was afraid to use Twitter because I didnt understand it. Everyone told me it was just like Facebook but better. Than for this class I made a twitter account and I subscribed to a bunch of different accounts, including those of fellow students, and I realized that it is a lot like Facebook but better. Twitter seems to me, to be the platform that the younger generation views the most which is very important when campaigning for social change because our generation is the generation that has the time to truly make an impact on the world. Our generation also consists of the most active consumers of social media, meaning they are the most likely to see your campaign and share it. seven

Much like choosing the right platforms to post to, it is important to choose the right audience to post for. The text talked a lot about client bases and the importance of figuring out who you are trying to reach and from there figuring out how they are responding to your campaign. Just because Twitter happens to be used more so by the younger generation doesnt mean that other generations are worthy of your cause as well. It is crucial to your campaign to know your audience across each platform separately. You cannot just assume that all of your platforms are going to have the same viewers therefore you have to adjust your posts to fit each platform. eight

The media is your friend, but it can also be your foe if you dont treat it right. If you allow open comments on your posts across your media platforms you have to monitor what is being said and by who according to the text. I have noticed this is especially relevant on Instagram and YouTube. Many successful YouTubers pay a lot of attention to the discussions occurring in the comments, and they limit the extent of what people can say so that there isnt a negative stigma attached to their channel, for example profanity if their audience is primarily young. Many YouTubers also ask for viewers to post their opinions in the comments about what they like/dislike about their video content and they use that feedback to improve their channel. After all, without viewers there really is no point to having a channel so you might as well give them what they respond to well.nine

Who knew Instagram could be good for business? At the beginning of the semester I certainly did not. I thought Instagram was used simply for posting cute pictures of animals and hipster edits of coffee bars. I didnt understand the potential Instagram had as a platform for conducting business or spreading a campaign. Its fantastic because it is fast, simple, and it gets the point across. I feel a lot of times with other platforms posts can get kind of lost in the sea of other unrelated posts but with Instagram not so much. Nowadays people dont usually take a lot of time to read posts and analyze them some Instagram is perfect because all viewers have to do is look at a photo and read a brief description for a few seconds.ten