Web 2.0 and Social Media Development Worshop Experiences

I have never quite taken social media seriously. While I do live in this great information age and am neck deep myself in a couple of social media platforms, my use of them has only been limited to personal, non-professional uses. It has been interesting to discover how these platforms can be used as a valuable aid to my work. Firstly as a Training and Staff Development Officer I can use Google groups to communicate easier with members of staff who are studying abroad in different parts of the world. Through Skype we can connect faster and get instant responses on issues that need urgent actioning. LinkedIn has enabled us to track some members who had not returned from their studies. As a professional on a personal level LinkedIn keeps me in touch with other professionals and through that I have been able to network and share ideas in order to continuously improve my own work. I have learnt how to create a blog, post on it and share it with others. Certainly this allows me to share my views on various subjects and receive feedback from other individuals I have shared with. There is a myriad of social media platforms out there, I do not have to be on all of them but depending on the message I want to put across and the audience I am targeting, I can select the most appropriate one. Social Media has really shrunk the world for me and in spite of security risks, the benefits are well worth it.