My experience with the Social Web
My experience with the social web began like everyone else, on MySpace. I reconnected with my old high school buddies and found new ones, I read my friends blogs or rather thoughts on life and posted some of my own. But, not until recently has my need to be better connected affected my career and education.
As a journalist it is our job to be social creatures. It’s not enough to just write, we must interview and establish a good repertoire with our contacts, and these relationships used to be our lifeline. But, while five-years ago being social was the norm, knowing the web was not, and today that’s all reversed, the social web has become our new lifeline.
One example of my expereince with the social web is a recent story I worked on for my International RPA class. My assignment was to write a human rights story about another country and I chose Thailand. So, I found a famous blogger living in Thailand and wrote to him using his blog, he then emailed me and I got an interview.
Another example was my recent work at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago national marketing department, where my job was renovating their website. The departments goal for 2008, was streamlining their paper communication into e-communications so they could reach their customers more effectively. I worked on the e-comm team and learned that even giant banks were finding better ways to connect with their customers via the web.
While I was there I also learned that many employees used Linked In, a networking site for business people and kind of like Facebook. So, my experience was not just streamlining the communication department I also learned how to stay connected professionally.
3 years ago