Professional Uses of Social Media 

 

Introductory Statement 

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My name is Noel George and I'm a freshman Political Science & Economics major at the University of Pittsburgh. I'm excited to learn and grow my knowledge and skillset in social media technology, especially as it becomes more and more integral to everyday life and global communication. In my free time I like to play basketball, read books, and play video games. The main social media platforms I use Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, respectively. Although I haven't had any social media related internships or work experience, I was social media coordinator for my church's youth group and helped facilitate information about church related events throughout the year.  I hope to be able to use the skills I learn from this class to be able to incorporate it into my daily life and hopefully use it to my advantage in the future. 

 

Midterm Reflection

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By taking this class I’ve realized that social media and the strategies associated with it are more calculated and complex than I previously thought. I realized the importance of spacing and illustrations when it comes to social media. Content can be made more interesting, important, noticeable based on simple formatting that makes a big difference for the final product. What I’ve learned about my learning process through this class is that I learn best through group work and interaction. The main difference I noticed between this class and my other classes is that this course is more about learning in the moment rather than memorization and studying. No matter how much reading you do for this class, the true learning experience comes through group discussion and “bouncing” off ideas from each other and incorporating them into your thought process. I feel that the Process Doc is helping me to develop the most. The Process Doc allows me to handle different situations/facets of social media while making it flow together with other things to makeup a big picture (the website). I wish we had more PowerPoint presentations before we entered a new aspect of the course. PowerPoint’s with example and suggestions just as a guiding factor for us to implement for our own websites. The most challenging aspect of this course for me has been trying to keep up with the readings. I feel that the readings reinforce what we learn in class, but to a much more technical, intricate extent. However, by doing the readings I’ve been able to gain insight from professionals on how they would handle the same situations we are given in class. I feel connected with the class material because I am able to take my work wherever I go and use inspiration from my everyday life into my work, which I can’t do for my other classes. The learning environment given by Ms. Leavens is very good, in my opinion, because it’s open and collaborative. This type of environment makes it easy to voice your opinions and take in information from others that may have similar/different perspectives than you, which can be used in a constructive way. I feel that Ms. Leavens does a good job of giving people the opportunity to answer her questions with genuine answers and goes more in-depth than a superficial level when answering questions. I’m extremely satisfied with how this course is set-up, and I feel that this set-up of class is more realistic of the “real world” compared to how other classes at the University of Pittsburgh are designed.

 

Final Reflection

 

Welcome to Noel George’s Portfolio. All my Social Media related works are showcased on this website. My Final Strategy Plan will explain why Bucks County is a county on the rise and its attractiveness for tourists and residents of all kind. Helping to add the Bucks County’s social media brand was an extremely rewarding experience to participate in throughout this semester. I feel that this specific project helped me to view social media in an extremely proactive and professional way. My Process Doc contains the components of my social media strategy. My story project helps show how I was able to tell a narrative through social media posts and be able to apply common techniques and characteristics to this story. My Op-Ed was an example of my analytical writing to social issues that concern the public today.  My about me section explains my social media usage and preferences, as well as, a review from a peer editor on my work in the class at that point.  All these different projects helped me to call onto different strengths and perspectives to adjust my writing to social media or types of writing relating to social media. I hope that viewers of my work can see that I tried to use social media in a persuasive and professional style. This work process has allowed me to showcase myself through social media, which is a skill that becomes more and more important in our society today.  I hope that after you have seen my work that you get a better understanding of who I am and how I use social media.

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