Social Media Strategy for Change PaperSubmit Assignme
Required reading: Kidd Chapter 8: Social Media Toolbox
Project Overview
In this final project paper, you will consider the role of social media in creating social change.
We have completed modules that examined the potential advantages of social media in detail: it can facilitate network development, expose us to new ideas, encourage creativity, and provide ways to engage in democracy.
We’ve also learned how social media has a dark side—it can be used for eroding trust in social institutions, growing the influence of capitalism and corporations, conducting surveillance, perpetuating structural inequalities, and cyberbullying. These are just a few ways social media can be used to disadvantage individuals and society.
Keeping Kidd’s “techno-optimism/techno-pessimism” spectrum in mind, you will develop a social media strategy focused on a social change of your choosing and write a paper that discusses your issue and justifies your chosen strategy.
Assignment Directions
Select an issue or problem that is important or interesting to you. Email your choice to me, including a sentence or two about why you choose it and what you hope to learn from researching this issue, no later than Friday, Nov. 6th.
Read Kidd Chapter 8: Social Media Toolbox.
Write a well-organized and PROOFREAD paper that creates a comprehensive social media strategy for an individual, organization, or movement to address your issue. Required minimum word count: 1000 (max 5 pages—longer papers will receive a 10-point deduction).
Use 12-point double-spaced Times Roman type and follow ASA style guide to format in-text citations and references.
Required Paper Content
ALL of the following information should be included in your paper (see Kidd Chapter 8 for more about each item) – use of the headings below may be helpful for organization but is not required.
All of the information included in your paper MUST BE YOUR OWN. You may not copy anything from existing social media accounts. Cite any quotes and keep total quoted material to fewer than 100 words of total word count.
Defining the Issue
Formal opening paragraph, should contain recognizable thesis
Overview of issue, why it matters to you, why it matters to society, what can be done
Identify 2-3 specific goals for your social change agent
Discuss identity of social change agent – personality or project-based? Both?
How will you represent this agent? What pictures/avatar/name will you use?
Identify audiences – include what you would be trying to say to peers, a general audience, journalists/influencers, and policy makers.
How might your message differ across platforms?
Tagging
Develop a tagging strategy – discuss in general, what would you be trying to do? Create a database? Try to gain more followers? Something else?
Provide examples of primary, secondary and tertiary tags for three topics, just like the charts in Kidd reading, page 201-2. You can bullet list these examples; you do not have to create a chart.
Tweeting
Twitter – discuss your general approach to creating tweets and accessing your audience(s)
Create ten sample tweets – remember, 140 characters max. Think of these as your first ten tweets – they will set the stage for your Twitter identity/goals/tone/level of involvement with others/etc. Use hashtags, retweets, and tagging to your advantage.
List five people/organizations you will follow and explain why you made these choices
Blogging
Blogs – discuss the overall design for the website, with your audience in mind
Create two sample posts for your blog. Include a title and appropriate hashtags. Blog posts must be at least 100 words each (do not count toward 1000 words).
Networking
Professional sites (LinkedIn, Academia.edu, ResearchGate) – choose one and discuss how you could involve academics/other professionals in your efforts
Facebook – discuss your general strategy for Facebook, what would you use it for?
Name five Groups (existing or made-up) that your agent would connect with
Visualizing
Pinterest – discuss your general strategy
Pretend you were going to create two Boards – name each board and discuss the types of resources you would post
What types of videos and pictures would you create/post?
List examples of five videos or pictures you would post
Reflection
Posting Strategy – how often would this agent post? Which platforms would be used the most and why? Would you focus more on one audience or all of them?
Conclusion – reflect on the social media strategy you have created. How useful do you think it would be? What influenced your decision-making about how to use the different social media tools?
Reference list (ASA/APA style as per Social Media Use Project Paper–indicated your choice in parentheses after the header References)
