Wikis and Tracking Social Media

Myself like many others in the class, began to think a lot about wikis as a academic tool. Upon completing the wiki and following it over the weeks, it was really interesting to see how it grew in content. While this was a great opportunity to learn how to use a wiki, there were some downfalls. The wiki as a tool isn’t the issue – its how we use it. I agree with the majority class that the wiki would best work with small groups, and have each group be in charged of a particular section. That being said I do feel it will always be important to keep up with the collaborative aspect of the wiki. Similar to communications plans, consistency and roles should be key in achieving an effective final project.

 In terms of the Political Analysis, it was very interesting to see the different ideas and recommendations for the different parties, and it really encouraged me to look more at what the parties are doing to connect with us. The wiki provided a free space to add information, however I almost feel like the paper component would have resulted in more critical thinking (about the issues, are they portraying their platform properly? Etc, as opposed to ascetics).

 Martin Delany as a guest speaker is always a treat. I had previously heard from him in research methods, so it was very insightful to learn about evaluation about social media. Throughout this degree we are very heavily focused on tactics, as opposed to research (preparation) and evaluation/measuring. One part of the lecture that stuck out to me was his emphasis on participation in social media, and the importance of doing something that pulls people in (T-Mobile). Who would have thought that such an easy initiative would have such huge results? Social media is meant to be used to help achieve this.  

 His suggestions on how to track social media (benchmark, traffic, engagement, brand, sales, loyalty) provided some great insight that I know I’ll take with me on any social media campaign I become involved in. As frequent users of social media, you can become accustomed to assuming you know it all, when really, there is so much more out there and more ways to evaluate it than you may have previously thought.  For me personally, I know I’ll be sure to check out the tracking tools Martin mentioned, such as tweet deck, blog pulse and google trends to help track any social media efforts I do for projects, as well as future professional efforts.

  All in all, great learning experience in using the wiki and great lecture from Martin!