Social Media Policies

Social media is changing the way we communicate, offering new ways to engage and learn. This interaction is imperative to mass media and should be embraced and encouraged by media educators.

I am excited by the prospect of extending the educational conversation outside of the classroom.

You can review my personal social media policies below.

Facebook

I have two Facebook accounts–one personal and one to complement my professional media blog.

You are welcome to “like” me and engage with me on my professional Facebook account. I use the account to:

• engage with other media industry professionals,
• promote content from this professional media blog and
• share links to interesting content, most of which is related to media or media education.

My personal Facebook is where I engage with friends and family. My posts there are related to my personal life and include a ridiculous number of photos of my children and dogs. I do not “friend” everyone who requests my friendship on my personal Facebook page. I do not “friend” any students on this page until after graduation.

Twitter

I am on Twitter, and you are welcome to follow me @profkrg. I use my Twitter account to:

• engage with other industry professionals,
• promote content from this professional media blog,
• share links to interesting content, most of which is related to media or media education,
• learn and engage via Twitter chats, and
• provide internship and job opportunities in the media industry.

Follow Backs. I typically follow back any student who follows me. Therefore, if you don’t want me to follow you back, please let me know. I will not be offended.

When determining who to follow back, I ask these questions:

• Is this person following me? I mostly follow people who are following me as well, although I do not follow back everyone who is following me.
• Do I know this person? If so, I’m likely to follow back.
• Is this person in the media industry? If so, I follow back.
• Is this person followed by other bloggers I know and respect? If so, I follow back.
• Did I engage with this person in a Twitter chat? If so, I follow back.
• Is this person’s Twitter profile interesting/relevant to me? If so, I follow back.
• Is this person a media educator? If so, I follow back.
• Is the account for a media agency or organization of which I am part or whose content I consume regularly? If so, I follow back.

I do not use any service that tells me when someone stops following me. If you aren’t getting what you need out of our online relationship and you would like to unfollow me, you are free to do so without fear of retribution.

Responses. I respond to just about every reply sent to me. I often thank people for following me or retweeting my posts. I do not, however, typically read or respond to direct messages. I use email for this purpose. I also often forget DMs are there.

Activity. I am an active tweeter, as you can imagine from the list of uses of my account. It is not unusual for me to tweet up to 100 times a day. You are welcome to follow my conversations and engage with others with whom I am conversing. You also are free to ignore my conversations. Because I participate in many Twitter chats, I do not recommend that you have my Tweets on an alert. You can use Muuter to silence me during chats, or you are welcome to just join in.

LinkedIn

I have a LinkedIn account, which I check a couple of times a month. You are welcome to connect with me there for professional reasons. However, if you would like to list me as a professional reference, you are better served to call or email me.

Google+

I have a Google+ account, but I hardly use it. You are welcome to include me in a circle if you would like to do so.

If you have questions or concerns about these policies, please email me at kennagriffin at sign gmail dot com.