Social media for professional learning and growth
The emergence of social media along with other benefits offered by Internet has provided lot of opportunities and challenges. If one is to look into the brighter aspects, then the opportunities far outweigh the challenges. The opportunities provided by social media can be leveraged by a career aspirant or even a working executive on a full-time, part-time and freelancing basis. Even while it is in vogue with a not-for-profit intention, social media opens up a whole lot of opportunities for all professionals simply on the basis of its reach, pace, benefit and cost.
Full time social media professionals are those who are leveraging social media as part of their profession on a 24x365x7 basis for their role as an employee or a social media based entrepreneur. Part-timers are those using social media in their spare time either for professional or personal purpose and freelancers are engaged in using the tool for accomplishing some projects for an individual or organisation. However, in all these instances, learning through exploration holds the key as it is a continuously emerging area with research still in the infancy stage. Furthermore, the need for localisation and customisation commensurate with the environment where it is being used, other than the purpose play a significant role in its success. Some of the tools that can be used are as follows.
Blogs
Blogs are virtual notebooks/notice boards that can be used to impart knowledge, share perspectives or even provide know-how and communicate with a target audience. The ability to use the audio-visual mode along with inherent benefits like pace, reach and cost makes it a viable and potent tool for all professionals. Yours truly manages and uses two blogs as part of the teaching-learning role.
Micro-blog
Micro-blog or twitter is another effective tool that can be used by professionals of all hues. The benefits remain mostly similar to that of blog with the limitation of using only 125 words to the maximum to pass across the message to participate and share in the discussion.
Facebook pages
It is commonly known for personal and to a smaller extent for professional networking. However, ability to use this tool for professional purpose both by individuals and organisations in order to reach out to an audience with the versatility and flexibility makes it very powerful.
It is a tool that is solely used for professional purpose both by institutions, organisations and individuals. The ability to headhunt and present individual as a prospective job-seeker, other than sharing knowledge and insights makes it a focused way of reaching out to the world at large. Seeking information about organisation not available in public domain play an important role for all interviewees and this provides the best option for the same.
Various other tools like Behance, Youtube, Slideshare, Google Plus can also be leveraged, however one need to know the objective and the target audience to use them judiciously and efficiently.
