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Running After the Social Media Bandwagon
It’s funny how things change and the world moves on. Sometimes without you. Or at least that’s how it feels to me.
I left my last job over four years ago; raising two children and a few years living overseas have meant I’ve been out of an office environment for quite a while. In fact, when it comes to technology it feels like it’s been an eternity.
Ok so I still know my way around a PC and my Excel skills are slowly coming back to me, but it’s all the other stuff that wasn’t around the last time I was regularly spending 8 hours at a desk in front of a computer screen.
In that respect, joining Manifesto has certainly been an eye opener so far, and as the self-confessed least ‘techy’ member of the team I’m having to play catch up every day. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
So, what’s all the fuss? I’m up to speed with FaceBook of course – I mean what proud mother doesn’t upload the odd photo of her younglings, post a question to a group of supportive, equally stressed out mums, or join the chat on whatever the latest phase/misdemeanour/quirk is that little one is going through?
But there appears to be a new world of social media in addition to this and I’m struggling to get on board.
Each day I spend in the office I’m confronted with terminology that is new to me (the number of acronyms used is also astonishing but that’s for another day!): Tumblr, Vimeo, Vine… never heard of any of these until now.
They all seem to be the focus of a lot of attention and seem to be generating a lot of excitement. But the thing is, I still need to be convinced that I need these things in my life or, more specifically, my job.
How will they benefit me?
I mean, part of my job at Manifesto is to keep the office running smoothly – that in itself is a task with three directors who rarely even agree on which kind of whiteboard pen they would like me to order – so I thought maybe I shouldn’t try to run before I can walk and just get a handle on being back at work first.
Until now, jumping on the social media bandwagon has been able to wait. This blog however, might just be the place for me to start…
Leave a reply
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Jim Bowes says:
As one of the people disagreeing about whiteboard pens here’s my first example of how social media could help… you could look for people that are influential about whiteboard markers on Twitter and ask them which is the best. Or you could use Quora and ask the question ‘Which is the best whiteboard marker?’. I suppose what I’m saying is I find social media most useful as a tool to help others, to be helped or to harness the collective power of a community.
Communities that are distributed by interest may not be geographically close – but social media can enable conversations to happen across the globe. So if your interest is pretty niche e.g. starting the first whiteboard marker appreciation group you might need to cast a wide net.
Or, you could just order both/all three options, we’ll try them for ourselves and then we can help others in the same situation.
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Stuart Pretorius says:
I agree with Mr Bowes. Twitter is a great place to start, pick the subjects you are passionate about and follow some of the more popular users, groups, companies or communities out there. You can remain a silent content consumer to start with, picking which of the 140 character blogs takes your interest and off you go into the big wide web! You can literally get through hundreds of tweets on a short train ride.
It’s a also a great way to track live events with the hashtag. Soon you’ll be following trending hashtags, while watching live streaming video of the things you love in this life.