My End of the Semester Personal Social Media AssessmentÂ
http://rainedoc.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/social-media-hand.jpg
I greatly enjoyed the Mass Communication 4002 Strategic Social Media class. Before taking the class, I honestly did not understand the importance of having a strong and effective presence on social media. Hence, I had no idea how to go about establishing one. However, within the first week of being in the class, I immediately realized that social media had the power to benefit and advance me on so many levels. Therefore, I knew it was essential that I set my social media goals, make my plans, get to work, stick to it and achieve my goals.
The class truly challenged me to make a conscious effort to strategically improve my use of social media. And now that the semester is coming to an end, I can honestly say that I have learned so much in this class as I see a significant improvement in my use of social media. The most important thing that I took away from this class is that it is important to know your audience. Once I discovered the type of content that my different audiences liked, I saw a significant increase in the number of likes/favorites, comments/replies and shares/retweets I received. For example, I discovered that my Facebook friends and Instagram followers really enjoy seeing posts about my personal and academic achievements. However, that type of content does not appeal to my followers on Twitter. Due to the fact that I have established a more professional audience on Twitter, my followers enjoy more PR-related and professional development content. Once I made this distinction, I was able to do a much better job of ensuring that I post the ârightâ kind of content on the ârightâ social media platform.
My Twitter handle is @jolenaa_ann, and I have been active on Twitter for approximately one year and three months now. Twitter was one of my personal social media accounts that I wanted to focus on improving and advancing over the course of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, I set a goal to gain approximately 50 more Twitter followers. I also wanted to focus on gaining a more professional audience as well, such as public relations professionals, agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, etc. I knew that in order to gain the attention of those companies and individuals, I would have to conduct research on the companies and professionals I especially wanted to connect with and make a conscious effort to post content relevant to them.
I began the semester with 230 tweets, and I followed 43 of my 57 followers. On average, I received approximately one retweet and/or favorite for every five of my tweets. During the semester, I managed to exceed my goal of gaining 50 new followers. I now have 577 tweets, and I am following 81 of my 108 followers. I now receive approximately one retweet and/or favorite for every two of my tweets. I also succeeded in growing my professional audience as well.
I am JoLena Broussard on Facebook, and I have been active on the platform for approximately three years and three months now. I began the semester with 550 friends, and I struggled greatly with maintaining a consistent presence on Facebook. On average, I received approximately three âlikesâ per post. In order to increase my consistency, I set a goal of working to integrate content I post on my Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and LinkedIn onto my Facebook page. I also set a goal to increase my average number of âlikesâ per post from three to five.
I have made great improvements on my Facebook account throughout the course of the semester. I now have 585 friends, and I have managed to make more than 50 posts. I have managed to exceed my goal of wanting to increase my average number of âlikesâ from three to five as I now receive an average of 18 âlikesâ per post.
My Instagram username is @jolenaa_ann, and my account has been active for approximately one year now. I began the semester with 38 posts and following 209 of my 214 followers. On average, I received approximately 17 âlikesâ per post. I primarily struggled to maintain a consistent presence on Instagram, but by working to integrate content across my various social platforms, I managed to improve my consistency. I now have 56 posts, and I am following 286 of my 275 followers. I also managed to increase my average number of âlikesâ from 17 to 27.
I am JoLena Broussard on LinkedIn, and I began the semester having 85 connections. My LinkedIn goal for the semester was to establish 100 connections, and I especially wanted to focus on making connections with public relations professionals. I actually managed to exceed my goal by connecting with 115 individuals with a majority of the connections being PR professionals.Â
My Tumblr posts can be viewed here! I began the semester with eight posts, and I only had one follower. I struggled greatly with getting into the habit of posting regularly. So, I was absolutely thrilled that blogging was a requirement for the strategic social media class. At the end of the semester, I now have 18 posts and three followers. I definitely plan to continue blogging. However, I still need to work on establishing an audience for my blog. In order to do this, I intend to do a better job of promoting my blog on my other social media platforms.
The only goal I set for the semester that I did not achieve was my goal to post at least five relevant videos on Vine. I created my Vine account at the beginning of the semester, and I currently have zero posts and zero followers. However, I am following one viner. Although, I did not manage to establish a presence on Vine this semester, I do plan to eventually figure out how things work on that social media platform.
I also created a Hootsuite account at the beginning of the semester. After having a class that taught me about the many functions of Hootsuite, I now feel comfortable and familiar with the platform. If I ever take on a position that requires me to manage social media accounts, I will definitely utilize Hootsuite to manage them.
An additional goal I set for myself this semester was to create a personal website to showcase my professional work. I am determined to strengthen my online brand, and I definitely believe the best way to accomplish this is through the creation of my own website. I currently have an about.me page, but I believe my own website, jolenabroussard.com, would certainly set me apart to potential employers. I have not launched my personal website yet, but I have began to work on it. I plan to finalize all aspects of my website during the summer and launch it then.
Overall, the Mass Communication 4002 Strategic Social Media class was very effective. Each day in class I learned something new I could do to improve my effectiveness on social media. By strategically applying all that I learned in class, I have achieved great success on my personal social media platforms! I owe all the credit to my professor Paige Brown for helping me to advance my knowledge in the strategic use of social media!
discoholicmusic
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner