Blog 4 – Reflections on This Course
By Yifan Xu
The first important skill I have learned is to curate relevant content as part of content marketing. It not only can save time and energy while establishing a meaningful way to present business, but also can engage customers and curate a profitable business. Content curation adds value, insight and attribution to social media today and leads to be a possible trend in the future. The second essential skill I have learned is data collection under the digital age of social media. As social network today cannot be separated from data analysis, more and more analytical tools exist and the results we get may sometimes alter our decision-making. Learning to collect and use data well on social media helps us to figure out the reality and make the most beneficial approach, thus making it really necessary for today’s media people.
Other than useful skills I have been training in this course, I also figure out two significant lessons about the future of social media. On the one hand, we have already entered a “visual communication” age. Just as we have learned every time we analyze the social media trend and phenomenon today, instant videos, short stories, and pictures have become the main method people share and access information on social media platforms. After decades since the existence of social media, we can no longer ignore the large extent people are relying on visual communication today. On the other hand, people nowadays should learn to “brand” themselves as both promotion and protection in today’s social media tendency. Every single detail about us today can be reflected through social media and every decision or action we do can be known by everyone. Thus, considering the future path of each of us, we need to learn how to “brand” ourselves among social network as soon as possible.
The course’s impact is far more than simply influencing my behavior on social media later. I believe it has already benefited my blueprints and future plans on my career path. I may still be staying in the advertising and public relations field, but to some extent, most marketing campaigns in the aspect today would be closely related to social media. The things I learnt in this class bring me a clearer idea of the media influence on every step I do in the future. Moreover, right now I have known how to engage my audiences efficiently as well as representing a persuasive social campaign to supervisors in the future. Probably after this course, I can really adapt my “learning” to my action plans and get to know the authentic meaning of “learn and connect.” Thanks to Dr.Z and the course theme in this class which helps me understand “social media” thoroughly as a potential media person. Also, hope every student taking this course in the future would really enjoy exploring “Social Media Spotlight” phenomenon, which is so fun and always keep changing.