Did you know that originally Facebook was only available to those who had a “.edu email address” (www.oregonstate.edu)? Today, Facebook has over a billion users. Facebook provides a free forum for people to extensively share information, photos, videos, web plug-ins, ask questions, provide answers, and share successes. Members can post, read, and respond to classified ads, find others who have the same interests as you and interact, publicize an event, invite guests, and track who plans to attend, create and promote a public page built around a specific topic, see who is online and engage in real-time chat, connect with other sites via Facebook, and it’s all free. When you try to put it into context, it’s overwhelming. The trick is not only to know how to use Facebook but how to use it effectively (http://whatis.techtarget.com).
“Most people know that Twitter is a micro-blogging network of real-time posts that are limited to 140 characters or less, but few people understand how they might benefit from Twitter” (http://www.gcflearnfree.org). Twitter is a great way to get share information quickly whether it is news updates, career related information, or what’s happening at the moment with friends and family. Business uses for Twitter might include a restaurant tweeting the Special of Day, retail stores alerting customers to special promotions, and notifying customers and employees of closure due to weather. In the learning environment an educator might tweet an assignment update or a student might tweet a great resource he just stumbled upon. Whatever the need, Twitter is a great way to share important or not so important real-time updates.
“For millions of people, the web is a social space that connects them with their friends, colleagues, family members and even total strangers” (Hung & Yeun, 2010). I see both Facebook and Twitter as great ways for our facilitators and our development team to stay in close contact with our online and workshop participants. I also see it as a way for our participants to engage with and stay in touch with each other. Through Facebook we will create a community of practice (CoP) where our target audience will be able to stay engaged with each other and share Best Practices, new ways of doing the same thing, work related photos and videos, any challenges they may be facing, solutions, and resources that will help them maneuver their daily landscape in the service drive and at the parts counter. As administrators of the Facebook page, we will post access to new resources, answers to their questions and moderate their discussions. We will link to other pages and resources they will find relevant. Facebook will enable provide us a mechanism to invite our participants to special events. We will also use this tool to seek their feedback on existing training as well as what they would like to see in new training.
We will utilize Twitter to post breaking news in the
automotive industry, create awareness of workshops coming to their area, special
workshop pricing, and alert them to new resources being available. These are just a few of my thoughts as to how
we can utilize and make the most of Facebook and Twitter. Since our experience with social networking
is at a novice level, we’ll take baby steps in our implementation and see where
it leads us.
References
(2014).
What is Facebook and how do I use it? Retrieved from:
http://oregonstate.edu/international/sites/default/files/atosu/Facebook_Tips.pdf
(2014).
Understanding Twitter. Retrieved
from: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101/1
Hung, H. & Yeun, S. (2010). Educational use of social networking
technology in higher
education. Teaching
in Higher Education. Vol. 15, No. 6,
December 2010, 703714.
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