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Oct 22, 2009

It all started with Friendster…

This morning a colleague and I attended a seminar on Social Media, put on by MIT’s Publishing Services Bureau, with hopes of figuring out how to harness the power of social networking for MIT EECS. It would be impossible and impractical to condense a 3 hour workshop into this post, but here are a few nuggets. The old paradigm was static websites and search engines that push out content, whereas the new frontier is all about engagement with individuals and igniting conversations. According to one speaker, the blog is dead, and micro-blogging is where it’s at….although not everyone in the room seemed to agree. Even the terms blog and blogger are apparently passe, in favor of column and columnist. I guess that makes me a columnist…who knew?

According to one survey, 57% of all internet users have joined a social network, and there are many of them - beyond the big three. I learned that the first social network was Friendster (circa 1996), but these days Facebook and MySpace dominate the market with 70 million users each, and Twitter trails with 17 million. As one data point, I have an active Facebook account, which I very much enjoy, and spend more time on than I care to admit (at home). MySpace is just not for me (surely I’m too old!), and I don’t think I am concise or witty enough for Twitter.

So, what to do for the department? We are sticking with our blog, in spite of the nay-sayers, but we realize we need to make it more visible on our departmental website, so that dialogue can happen. I was thinking of starting a Facebook fan page for MIT EECS, but realize the importance of putting up fresh content with frequency. Running a targetted Facebook ad is something I might consider, if I needed to reach an audience of say, undergraduates at Boston colleges and universities. This is all up for discussion, so if you have any comments or suggestions, by all means, let’s have that conversation!

p.s.
If I was going to tweet, I’d definitely tweet about this and this.
Just wondering, does that make them of equal importance?

The author has filed this entry under the "Uncategorized" category.

3 Responses To This Entry:

    Why not? and EECS at MIT on Twitter will become TWEECS! and we will be creating an entirely new app known as TWEECSing…

    Seriously, the Social Media workshop was both way overdue and just in time — to point us (perhaps) to the new wave in communication: making future forays into mobile apps. It’s time to enlist our students to create our iPhone, Android and other mobile ways for engaging with future students (and yes! alums).

    Posted by: Patsy Sampson on October 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    In case anyone is interested in the slides for the presentation from 10/22/09, they can be found here. A video will also be coming in a couple of weeks.

    http://web.mit.edu/commworkshops/102209/social_media.html

    Posted by: Janet on October 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 am

    HA - I keep commenting on my own stuff…I can’t stop talking to myself! But here is an example of the new paradigm; an MIT website just launched today on diversity and inclusion. Conversations are encouraged, and community members are invited to create their own profile. Sounds like social networking to me!

    http://diversity.mit.edu/people

    Posted by: Janet on October 27th, 2009 at 11:14 am

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