About the Assignment

“#Hashtag” with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake

Blogging is when people publish their ideas for a (mostly) unknown audience in posts of any length. Tweeting (or micro-blogging) is when people publish their ideas in a much shorter format to a (mostly) known audience. The Twitter tweet (the name of each post) is 140 characters long. Just as with blogging, one cannot fully grasp the mode of communication without engaging with it. So, we are going to engage it over the course of the semester by using it in several ways.

But Twitter is hard—at first. As is Instagram, though the visual nature of it makes it seem much less intimidating. There is no set community (other than the one we have in class), as there is with Facebook. You have to go out and find it. We’ll discuss ways to do that. But, as with all things ultimately amazingly beneficial, the onus for success is on the individual user. The more time you put into seeking out people and engaging with them, the more amazing your experience will be.

There are several goals the social media assignment, including:

• telling (in part) your semester Story of Learning
• telling (in part) the story of your project team
• engaging our work inside and outside of class
• collaborating with classmates
• sharing information about your project team workflow
• building an online community related to your client area

BW and the course Fellows will be retweeting and reposting many your tweets from the Beautiful Social accounts, as a way to help build connections and increase the account’s visibility.

If you have not used Twitter in a professional setting before, please read:

Silver, D. (2009, February 25). The difference between thin and think tweets. Silver in SF.

Getting Started

• If you do not yet have one, create a Twitter account and install the Twitter app on your phone. The account should have a professional feel.
• If you do not have one, create an Instagram account and install the app on your phone. The account should have a professional feel.
• Create a professional bio that locates you as a student at Saint Joseph’s University, identifies your area(s) of study, and lists a few personal interests
• Make your accounts open for anyone to follow; having a locked account essentially tells your audience that you would rather not know who they are and results in them not requesting the your follow approval (if you are concerned about spam and/or who is following, in the Settings enable the option to get an email whenever you have a new follower; this will allow you to see when someone follows and to Block them if necessary)
• Add links to your web site
• In the Twitter Settings
  • under the Mobile tab, set your phone number and when you’d like text message alerts (I have it set for DMs because they are rare, and not after 11pm)
  • under Security and Privacy, I recommend UNCHECKING Tweet location, Personalization, and Promoted Content
• add a photo of yourself or something that you feel represents you in some way
• On Twitter, follow @billwolff, @beautifuls0cial, @samdigi_, @answersfromanna, @torlydon, @saintjosephs, @sjucomm, and if you would like, other Communications faculty (@aesthetically @rachaelsullivan @patchbaydoor @academicdave @jmikelyons) and everyone in #digs16:
  • @abrier, @justinjbruno, @evancainatsju, @caraalfierro, @karenfunaro, @lizzyginsberg, @megginsberg, @mjkelly2017, @kelssbeth, @caiti_lombardi, @chandlerlutz, @isabellesjucom, @cmcbride16, @ktmmclaughlin, @noransalah13, @kweber12376
• On Instagram, follow @billwolff @bsocialsju, @samdigi_, @answersfromanna, @torlydon, and everyone in #digs16:
  • to be added
• Any tweet or Instagram that is about class in any way should include the #digs16 hashtag.
• Any tweet or Instagram that is specific to your project team should also include your project team hastag
• I encourage you to experiment with one of the many Twitter desktop and mobile apps (such as Tweetdeck), which are overwhelmingly useful for organizing and posting Tweets (as with my mobile, I use Tweetbot).

Part 1: Live-Tweeting Class Discussion

Starting the 3rd week of the class, each class period will have 1 student volunteer to live-tweet the class discussion/work. The goal here is to try to take what is said in class and bring it to the online space where others, including those in class, can engage that discussion. Often these discussions diverge from what is happening in class, and that is fine.

This work is also to help show future Beautiful Social clients the active work that students are doing so those clients have a better feel for what happens in and with the Beautiful Social Enterprise.

When live-tweeting, you can tweet:

• quotes that people (including @billwolff) said
• thoughts or comments about what has been said (funny snark is okay; mean snark isn’t)
• links to things associated with topics being discussed (such as videos, photos, articles, etc)
• @mention the authors who we are discussing to let them know we’re discussing them and what is being said
• other fun stuff

Be sure to use the #digs16 hashtag. Though others in the class should join in the conversation, but we want to be sure this discussion doesn’t take away from the face to face discussion.

Part 2: Live tweeting/Instagramming your work and work process and your team’s work

I’d also like you to start live-tweeting as you are doing the work for the course. That is tweet about what you are reading about, research, doing, making, atc. These can be quotes that intrigue you or just thoughts about the texts. Be sure to use the #bsocials16 hashtag. Try to limit tweets like, “This article is boring. #yawn,” as such tweets will make to look foolish and show little thought about the text itself. You should @reply to other class members frequently so that we can begin discussions about the work outside of the classroom and then continue those discussions when we meet in the classroom.

These tweets will provide important material for your semester-long Story of Learning and your project team’s final semester project. The more you tweet and/or Instagram, the more material you will have to show that you have been engaging with and learning from the material–and the more material your team will have at the end of the semester.

There is no required number of tweets/Instagrams to post about your class-related work, but it is expected that each should garner many tweets per week (many = more than 5 per week). The more you post the more engaged the class can and will become in a dialogue outside the class. Do, however, be sure to make it clear what you’re reading, working on, or discussing. This can be done in the content of the tweet or by using a hashtag for an author’s name —you can even search to find the author’s Twitter username and add it to your tweet. This is important because we want to be sure we know which text you’re tweeting about.

Live-tweeting works most effectively when students begin discussing the texts online. And, as one student recently wrote in a reflection on their work:

From a student: “Live tweeting while reading … is helping me to read better. I think of the reading more as a conversation now.” Yay!

— Bill Wolff (@billwolff) February 27, 2014

You should consider referencing the authors in your tweets. Search for our authors to see if they are on Twitter and if so, mention them. You never know what will happen. They could fav a tweet or reply and engage you in conversation, such as:

Part 3: A little bit about you

During the course of the semester, each student will have a photo taken of them. The photo, along with a brief statement about your interests, will be posted to the Beautiful Social web site and Instagram feed. Clients like to see faces of people.

Part 4. Using Social Media to Expand Project Team Awareness

to be added