Social Media is the pathway to the future. With the premise as described and initiated by Tim O’Reilly (2005) of Web 2 as a platform it allowed web contributors to collaborate with many others in contrast to the static pages of Web1 that had previously been available. Web 2 platforms were seen as technology that was both liberating and empowering (Weibrands, 2010). Until that time only those who knew the codes of webpage construction HTML were able to construct webpages. Communication and collaboration became available to all people through hypertext and was embraced wholeheartedly universally. Blogging (originally web log became blog) (Rettberg, 2008) was a new experience and users soon came to use blogs as an easy way to keep in touch with family and friends. However companies wishing to reach a wider market for their products realised that they had to rethink their approach (New Media,2009) to their marketing strategies. So it was not just everyday users that saw the advantage of blogging and marketeers and industry alike saw the reward of being able to communicate with an extensive audience. Whilst there are already millions upon millions of users undoubtedly the numbers will rise to meet the requirements as users become more conversant with the features of blogging and an easy availability with which to reach a wider audience.
The motorhome and caravan industry has grown immensely and everyday travellers are taking up the call of seeing Australia and I am now one of those “Grey Nomad” travellers. Blogging had been described as “on-line diaries” (Rettberg, 2008) and this was the format for the way I chose to relay my recent travels; in the form of a daily account of my journey around the countryside. This therefore determined the theme I followed. I used Google to lead me to blogger.com to create my online presence and because I am new to this type of social media decided to use the basic template. In retrospect I think that I perhaps could have tried a different template that may have better improved the visual layout. Some of the aspects of constructing the central node was a little difficult but most was fairly easy due to the site management tools. In the initial stages of putting together my web presence I endeavoured to construct an online identity which clearly indicated my personality and interests. I found that my blog was easy to update and change in any way whilst promoting my web presence in real time (Disher & Mannino, 2010). My three contributing nodes were Twitter.com, Delicious.com and Facebook. In these nodes I used similar personal information about my identity whilst being fully aware of the importance of privacy
The issue of privacy was one of the important considerations for me.. The documented information on social networks by countless users becomes public domain and I am totally aware of this. I was also very aware of the consequences of divulging too much in-depth information about myself whilst at the same time endeavouring to give enough information to interest the reader. However I also know that the blog reader/follower has to be given a certain amount of information that will encourage further following and I believe I have achieved this in my About Me section.
I understood that the use of colour, photographs and interesting content was extremely important and I therefore experimented with these various aspects before finally settling on the present design. My central node was designed around my recent experiences as a motorhome driver who travels solo. My bookmarks primarily concern travel. In April I embarked on an ambitious undertaking to drive to Young, Hay and Echuca and Deniliquin and I have included some of the photographs that I took along the 1,800 kilometre journey. The inclusion of the photographs was to break up the monotony of the reading matter. I anticipated that the colour of background and colour of photography would further enhance the visibility of the blog.
This venture into the word of social media and of constructing a meaningful blog was my first attempt to so do. Whilst I had known vaguely about social networks it was in general terms of reference. Twitter, blogging and Picasa were names only that I had heard but since delving into the possibilities of each of the social communication networks I believe it has empowered me to a large extent. I already had a Facebook site but rarely looked at it. YouTube I sometimes sought out when I heard about an interesting post but not on a regular basis. Each of the suggested sites that were included in the study notes (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr) (Topic 2.1 Study Notes – Blogging) I looked at in order to familiarise myself with the totality of the social media networks. As I stated in the beginning of this exercise. Social media is the pathway of the future.
References
Anonymous NewMediaAge (2009) Review of 2009: The Year in Social Media
Dishner, Mannino N., (2010, Oct) Are Writer Blogs Worth It? The Writer, Boston Vol 123, Issue 10 Pps28-29
O’Reilly, T., (2005). “What is Web 2.0, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software”. Published on O’Reilly http://oreilly.com/1pt/a6228. Retrieved 4 March 2011
Walker- Rettberg, J., (2008) “Blogs, Communities and Networks” Ch., 3, p 57-83 from Walker-Rettberg, Blogging, Cambridge: Polity Press,. Retrieved March 2011.
Wiebrands, C, (2010) Creating Community: The Blog as a Networking Device Curtin University of Technology Library and Information Service email: c.wiebrands@curtin.edu.au
