Melanie McBride is an educational new media content developer and consultant, and a faculty member at the Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario. She advocates for the integrated use of social media technologies in the workplace. Here she describes why.
What Advantages Does Social Media Have in a Work Environment?
For my corporate clients, social media serves as a means of extending their brand reach, driving traffic to their websites and offering a variety of ways for audiences to engage their content.
In today's competitive workplace, emerging professionals should spend as much time using online tools for professional knowledge and development as they do developing their social life and personal interests. This is the difference between today's world and the past. Insight is professional currency.
What are the Critical Issues to be Aware of when Using Social Media?Time management is obviously the most important issue for all of us with always-on technologies of participation and communication. Second to this is the mastery of and respect for personal boundaries, privacy and consideration for people's time.
One thing I've become a lot more sensitive to is the issue of signal to noise - my own and that of others. As I have learned from virtual community pioneer, Howard Rheingold, to have social value in any context or community, one has to contribute as much of value as one consumes. To consume more of the collective good than you contribute is a big problem for people who require a lot of attention. Rheingold, among others, points out the problem of viewing those you engage online as an audience rather than collaborators or participants. When I create content for social media, I'm always thinking about what the value is for others - not just my own interest in sharing it.
Do You Feel Web 2.0 Tools Have Improved Your Ability to Work Effectively?
I tend to follow a lot of other early adopters. They tend to be the first to find useful ways to apply new technologies to conventional work problems. With most of these tools, there's an initial investment of time for learning but it ultimately pays off once you've learned how to use these tools to save time.
For example, a blog or wiki provides a central repository for information, rather than having to send multiple emails, attachments, etc. With a wiki, you simply make an update to the page and all earlier versions are stored and saved -- rather than the time-consuming back and forth for a traditional document.
RSS features allow users to subscribe to content, eliminating the need to check for updates or email an update. I also really like using Skype, which allows me to have face to face video, voice or chat conversation while I'm working. I sometimes work directly with project members this way, creating a kind of remote office in which we're all accessible to each other from distance locations.
Read more on effective uses of social media from Melanie McBride.
Lisa Manfield - Lisa Manfield is a Vancouver-based editor, writer and publishing consultant. She has worked in print and online publishing for more than ...
