Because of the social media unit, my way of viewing social media has been shaped so that I understand how to use it and implement it strategically in targeting specific audiences in promoting something like a school project or idea. Instead of seeing social media as a way to contact people or a popularity contest, I now see it as a tool. In my unit project, I campaigned my idea of reducing your risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes by using social media as a way to promote my idea and get other people on social media to see my work. Before this unit, I wasn't the biggest fan of social media. I always thought that social media was just a big popularity contest where the pretty girls would get all the followers and the comments and the likes. Now, I view it differently; social media can be a way to contact not just family members, but experts too. A lot of the students that created a social science lab had to contact 10 professionals and interview them, many of the students used social media to find their experts in the field.
There are many different social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest. For my social media campaign, I used twitter because it is easier to use for this particular project. Twitter is probably one of the easiest and most convenient ways to use social media to promote your ideas. I enjoyed twitter especially because I could follow multiple doctors and people that had news about diabetes and I could re-tweet them so that my followers could learn more about diabetes. I could also post my own content on my twitter page too, like my videos from my unit project. I can also easily link my website on to my twitter profile too so that any of my followers can go see more of my work that I've been doing which will further help to spread the word on what I'm doing in school. I loved how twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet so that I can keep it nice, simple and clean so that my followers aren't intimidated by big paragraphs that will take forever to read. Twitter is easy to understand, I never had a twitter account before creating my social media platform but it was really easy to utilize. If ever needed again, I will definitely consider twitter when I need to create another social media campaign in future school projects or even anything outside of school.
In conclusion, the social media unit has been very beneficial to all N.E.W. students, especially me. It has opened my eyes and changed my view of social media and how I can use it as a tool to make me more successful in school, future jobs and any other activities. Social media is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family and show off that new haircut, but it's also a free way to advertise my ideas and work that I'm currently doing. Not only can I take what I've learned to my other classes, but I can take it with me through college and well into my future job. Thanks to the social media unit, I have a new tool that can take me to great places.