Social Media Tools

Blog 6-2 Social Media Tools

            Although all social media tools have the possibility of being an adequate medium for sharing information, a few tools do have some advantages over the others.  Writers need to have an audience in mind before choosing which tools to use however, because different audiences will be drawn to different media outlets.  Efficiently conveying a message to an audience needs to utilize a medium that can present some sort of familiarity with the audience.  People will be more concerned about topics they can relate to.  I don’t have a lot of social media experience, so most tools have not even been broken in for me.  I kind of like having a sort of beginner’s aspect of the workings of modern media presentations, because it truly gives me an unbiased approach to almost all of the outlets. 

            The list of new media tools listed by (Aids.gov) seems to favor a few outlets over others, however I look at them individually and potentially paired.  I rationalize that utilizing a couple of media outlets simultaneously will lead to greater success than only using one.  For example I think that blogging is a good way to create a very professional looking website in which the writer controls the input, however some blogs don’t really reach that many people.  This is where I feel that writing the initial post as a blog is great, but then go one step forward and share this information over a broader social networking site.  It would prove to travel faster and further to make a publication available for mobile device users.  Just as it takes more than one tool and resource to build a good piece of architecture, it takes multiple writing tools to build a better story.  While some tools are good for certain aspects, I feel users should use complimentary tools to cover the weaknesses of other outlets. 

Although being overly enthusiastic sometimes can cause people to publish misleading information, and if the writer is not careful many ethical boundaries can be broken in the process.  This can cause harm or disrupt the lives of individuals involved in any certain situation.  Journalists do have the responsibility of keeping the public aware of newsworthy events, as long as they do so in a manner that is respectful of the parties involved.  I think different combinations of these media utilities will be more effective if they are presented to the appropriate audiences in a professional manner.   

References:

New Media Tools. (n.d.). New Media Tools. Retrieved May 11, 2014, from http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/index.html#tool-bookmarkingNew