When I first heard of MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, I thought
it was a platform that teenagers used to express themselves; so I did not find
a need to secure an account and indulge. However in 2010, a colleague shared
with me her experience of having a Facebook account. She found friends from her past and shared how
it was fun to get in touch and to keep in touch with them. She also shared how
she enjoyed sharing goals that she had set for herself and how in doing so,
others who were among her friend list encouraged her and shared resources to
support her efforts. I was inspired by how fun Facebook appeared to be that I
asked her to help me to create my account and page. I must say; it was love at first post!!!! I
love Facebook! I have been able to find friends, make friends, receive local
and distant news coverage, Bible scriptures for the day and what I love the
most, I receive resources for self help. I am a member of health organizations
and just recently; grief counseling organizations. The grief counseling organizations
such as Motherless Daughters and In Memory of Our Angels In Heaven, have
been my source of comfort and are currently helping me as I am dealing with the
recent loss of my Mother. I can honestly say, I am on Facebook every single
day.
Social media tools certainly lend themselves to effective
advocacy. Through Facebook, businesses and organizations can create a business page
to promote their business or foundation. You can give and receive information
regarding initiatives, implementations, and or plans regarding issues such as
advocacy. There are also advocacy sites. What is truly amazing is that millions
of people can search and learn. On Facebook you can even invite others to
search and learn; giving information and receiving information. This is
certainly a powerful tool for advocacy.
I can definitely use these social media tools to educate and
inspire others in my advocacy work. My advocacy objective is to promote
increasing efforts for early childhood caregivers/providers/educators to be
afforded ongoing and relevant professional development. Social media can
enhance these efforts because I can reach more people in a quick way. I can
even target a certain audience of people to promote my advocacy efforts. I can
gain friends who share the same interest to join in coalition with me.
I spoke with a colleague and asked them for suggestions as
to how I could use social media to promote my advocacy efforts. I was strongly
encouraged to get a Twitter Account. This will enable me to communicate quickly
and effectively using an additional platform. I can share information with as
many as one person to a million people.
I love that you were able to use social media as an outlet for your feelings and a way to navigate through them by finding support in others who are dealing with similar feelings. When my cousin passed away my aunt did the same thing. She was already on Facebook but somehow she connected to other women, most had not been in her shoes, who became close friends and a source of support for her. When she passed away suddenly I went to her Facebook page and those same women were then comforting each other and a year later I can go on her Facebook and see beautiful posts about my aunt that her friends whom she never met are still posting today.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer:
DeleteYour reply is very heartwarming. I appreciate how you can relate to this. Yes, Facebook has been a source of strength. Thank You.
Kind Regards,
La Neisha Murphy-Carter
Hi LaNeisha,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post. I too was skeptical about social media and in some ways I still am. But I am learning that if we use it to share positive and meaningful experiences, it can be very resourceful.