social networking – Page 55

Friday Five: pay it forward edition

Happy Friday! Why not take some time today to pay it forward in your social mediasphere? Here are five ways you can do that:

Comment on a blog. Spend a few minutes surfing some of your favorite blogs (or better than that, read some not-so-familiar blogs) and then post a comment on a post that especially resonates with you. Since the idea here is to pay it forward, the comment should be positive or constructive, but sincere. And make it meaningful — something more than, “Great post, Johnny!” (Note: I’m not purposely trolling for comments here.)
Retweet — sincerely. On Twitter, the practice of retweeting has become a big part of the experience and has become the Twitter version of paying it forward. People retweet articles and blog posts they like, so that other members of their networks can get in on the action. But as often as many people retweet (RT) posts, I get the feeling some folks aren’t really reading the contents; they’re just forwarding the links the way your Aunt Gracie forwards emails about Microsoft money giveaways or Neiman-Marcus cookie recipes. So, don’t be one of those people. Don’t gratuitously retweet. But do retweet those posts or articles you find worthy of the act.
Give a Facebook friend the thumbs up. Use Facebook’s “like” application to let some of your Facebook connections know you like or appreciate their status post.
Give props. If you’re on the popular music site blip.fm and hear a song you like, give that DJ props. Better yet, reblip the tune. (Reblipping is the musical version of retweeting.)
Send an email. Remember email? OK, technically it doesn’t fall under the social networking rubric. But still, it’s a good way to connect with some folks. How about dropping a line to someone today to congratulate that person on a job well done, or even just let that person know he or she is in your thoughts?

We are all public figures now

The resignation over the weekend of President Obama’s green-jobs chief Van Jones should serve as a reminder to us that we are all public figures.

No, we’re not White House czars of any sort, and we’re not likely to be in the national spotlight. But on a microcosmic level, we are public figures. And like Jones, whose past controversies forced him to resign from the White House post, most of us in higher ed communications, marketing and PR positions aren’t subject to intense scrutiny when we are hired. There are no Senate confirmation hearings for a university spokesperson. Not even a Faculty Senate confirmation hearing.

But on our campuses and in our communities, we are in the public eye, and more frequently than many political appointees. We serve as campus spokespersons. We present at conferences. We share our expertise and our views in the social media sphere of blogs, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. We post pictures on Facebook. Some of us freely choose to “thrust [our]selves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved,” and that, my friends, makes us “limited purpose public figures,” according to the legal definition.

I use the term “public” in a very broad sense. But the nature of the public space is changing, thanks to the always-on mediasphere. A savvy attorney could easily argue that any blogger or tweeter is a public figure to some narrowly defined segment of the public.

I’m a part of that sphere. And if you blog, tweet, Facebook, post on forums or otherwise partake in online conversations, so are you. You don’t have to be Tila Tequila — who recently has done a pretty good job of thrusting herself into the forefront of controversy — in order to be considered a public figure in the Internet age.

We should remember that.