The great over-arching challenge facing IT groups across the CIC is the culture gap that exists between those of us on the frontier of new educational technology and a great part of the community we try to serve. This was certainly apparent in the ways the conference theme of collaboration manifested itself in the presentations and talks given over the two days. Take how each IT group approaches the use of social media for example.
I was able to sit in on several sessions where IT groups (from Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Indiana) talked about using social media tools to reach their audience, particularly Twitter and Facebook. The challenge they faced was twofold: first they needed to identify the audience using these tools and second they had to come up with an appropriate way to communicate through them. The first part was easy. A majority of students and a great number of faculty use either or both Facebook and Twitter frequently.The second part is a bit trickier.
By nature Twitter and Facebook are informal and open. That is they are very stream of conscious oriented, contain a great bit of the mundane, and occasionally become something greater, e.g. the use of Twitter to capture the election discord in Iran. As Clay Shirky point out, most times it has nothing to do with the actual content. It's because we care about and are interested in the people posting it that we follow.
So the question becomes, why should our audience care to follow us? And how do we stay connected with them through these medium? Do we make informal chit-chat or do we simply post official announcements? It's not a simple question to answer.
I know I struggle with representing myself and my unit in these areas. When I joined Twitter and Facebook I joined as myself (Twitter: jeffswain; Facebook: Jeff Swain). Quickly I encountered the problem of separating my personal stuff from my work stuff. It all bleeds together in the either where everyone can connect. Now I also am the persona for our symposium and e-portfolio initiative. Well, how do I represent them? Is it strictly business or is it personal?
It seems from the presentation that Northwestern prefers to keep it all business. They use these medium to direct their followers to announcements, emails, etc. They prefer to use these as one-way channels to push information out. I do that to but I also post other items as well, such as asking attendees to participate in building things, letting them in on where we are, etc., sort of the behind the scenes look, if you will. By no means have I found a comfort level (Am I speaking as Jeff or am I speaking as the symposium?) but, I do try to make the communication as open as possible.
The results are mixed and I think it's because of two factors. One, I have not yet found "the voice" for these entities and, two, the audience is not yet sure how they feel about entities acting like people in these informal spaces. For example, I believe that if I ask for help with something on Twitter I will get a greater response than if I used the symposium persona to ask the same question. But there will come a day when I am not the voice of the event so am I doing a long-term disservice to the symposium if I speak for it as Jeff and not the event?
I do not have the answer and would welcome advice from others using social media in this manner to communicate with students and faculty.
I was able to sit in on several sessions where IT groups (from Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Indiana) talked about using social media tools to reach their audience, particularly Twitter and Facebook. The challenge they faced was twofold: first they needed to identify the audience using these tools and second they had to come up with an appropriate way to communicate through them. The first part was easy. A majority of students and a great number of faculty use either or both Facebook and Twitter frequently.The second part is a bit trickier.
By nature Twitter and Facebook are informal and open. That is they are very stream of conscious oriented, contain a great bit of the mundane, and occasionally become something greater, e.g. the use of Twitter to capture the election discord in Iran. As Clay Shirky point out, most times it has nothing to do with the actual content. It's because we care about and are interested in the people posting it that we follow.
So the question becomes, why should our audience care to follow us? And how do we stay connected with them through these medium? Do we make informal chit-chat or do we simply post official announcements? It's not a simple question to answer.
I know I struggle with representing myself and my unit in these areas. When I joined Twitter and Facebook I joined as myself (Twitter: jeffswain; Facebook: Jeff Swain). Quickly I encountered the problem of separating my personal stuff from my work stuff. It all bleeds together in the either where everyone can connect. Now I also am the persona for our symposium and e-portfolio initiative. Well, how do I represent them? Is it strictly business or is it personal?
It seems from the presentation that Northwestern prefers to keep it all business. They use these medium to direct their followers to announcements, emails, etc. They prefer to use these as one-way channels to push information out. I do that to but I also post other items as well, such as asking attendees to participate in building things, letting them in on where we are, etc., sort of the behind the scenes look, if you will. By no means have I found a comfort level (Am I speaking as Jeff or am I speaking as the symposium?) but, I do try to make the communication as open as possible.
The results are mixed and I think it's because of two factors. One, I have not yet found "the voice" for these entities and, two, the audience is not yet sure how they feel about entities acting like people in these informal spaces. For example, I believe that if I ask for help with something on Twitter I will get a greater response than if I used the symposium persona to ask the same question. But there will come a day when I am not the voice of the event so am I doing a long-term disservice to the symposium if I speak for it as Jeff and not the event?
I do not have the answer and would welcome advice from others using social media in this manner to communicate with students and faculty.
I don't know what the best answer is either, Jeff. Who knows how these tools will evolve and what our response should or will be in the future? I have some bits of advice though:
1) Trust in your own ability to maintain a professional presence. By just being in these spaces and talking openly about your work you are building a reputation.
2) Don't be afraid to let your playful, personal side show either. If anything, with the nature of electronic media being kind of "cold" on its own I'd say this is as important as anything.
3) Hold on tight and enjoy the ride. :)
I think the idea that we *need* to pull apart our social and professional lives might be a fading trend. I think people are learning to navigate the social spaces better -- I don't think my facebook persona has much to do with my professional life. I know it is a part of the make up, but I really think the tide is turning with that. Twitter is a bit more complex, but as a rule I try fairly hard to be as consistent a persona as I can be in both real time, in my blog, and in Twitter. I am not all that radical in my comments and I rarely jump to extremes, so I don't feel like I am misrepresenting myself or my organization. I don't think there is a number that is too many, but I do think it is important to think very critically about who you are in a more holistic way. Who knows! In a few years we'll all have fractured online identities and no one will care what you say ... or maybe it'll be the opposite!