Digital media is the primary form of social interaction in this era, it helps with jobs, and meeting people halfway across the world. Because so many people can see what you put on social media, even with privacy settings, it is important to be wary of what is posted and how it reflects the individuals image to others looking at the profiles. I am a consultant to my client, Grant Morgan, who is a freshman at VMI, and has limited access to the online world due to the strictness of the school within the first year.
To begin with I interviewed Grant to find out what he wants his social media to present about himself. The biggest topics and positions that he wanted to make sure were evident were his faith and beliefs in God, sports specifically wrestling, and he want to pick up an Army contract. Grant wants to remain himself on social media yet he wants to avoid seeming narcissistic and self centered.
I took a look at Grants social media sights. He uses twitter the most, then his Instagram, and his Facebook looks as if it hasn’t been touched in years. His activity on all three has stopped since arriving at VMI and not being allowed to use any of the sights. Due to this unordinary situation, I have evaluated his use from before he matriculated at VMI.
He uses his twitter the most so I decided to analyze that specific media. There are several modes that apply to the effectiveness of social media.
The image used as his cover photo on twitter uses position and color from the top of a mountain looking over peaks with the contrasting greens, blues and white tops, with arms spread out, ready for anything that comes his way giving the viewer a sense of adventure showing that the outdoors are a great sense of adventure. This image emphasizes that he enjoys the outdoors and adventures, that he enjoys a challenge, small or big. In his bio, he says that he lives for God and he used to be a wrestler, which gives the viewer a small idea on where he stands politically and that he enjoys athletics. He retweeted a post by The Gospel Daily, @the_gospels, which said “Praise God even when you dont understand what He’s doing.” This here, along with many other retweets from this account helps to enforce what he said about himself in his bio, that he lives for God. The amount of retweets he has on his feed with a variety of accounts such as John Piper, @johnpiper, Christian Athleats, @AthForGod, and Bible time, @Bible_Time, show that he is serious about his beliefs and proud of them by retweeting for really the entire internet to see.
The next item in his bio is his love for wrestling. If someone includes a sport in their bio, it is assumed they like sports in general. This is also supported with the amount of sports related tweets he has on his feed. He has retweeted from Sports Center, @SportsCenter, Wrestler Nation, @wrestler_sweg, and Dicks Sporting Goods, @DICKS. These tweets seem to take up of Grants Feed.
Looking back at what Grant wants to achieve with his social media, he achieves two aspects within his twitter. HE achieves his representation of God, and his love for sports with his use of retweeting. The one aspect he does not address is his desire to join the Army. This aspiration could be new when he matriculated at VMI, and has yet to post anything due to his inability to use social media. If this is the case, when he gets the opportunity to do so, he needs to include some tweets about the Army, to show his interest in the branch.
Looking at what Grant uses for his online identity, for his benefit, he needs to reactivate his Facebook. Facebook is one of the leading social media sights and is often looked at if an employer wants to find out more about the person they are thinking of hiring. I say Facebook because he does have one, yet the profile picture is at least two years old and has no other information on his Facebook, not even a cover photo. When an employer looks and this inactivity, they may question what type of person they are if they don’t use the typical social media offered. Grant has expressed concern with appearing narcissistic and only want to update personal information for family and friends. My suggestions is to update profile and cover photos., and follow army on Facebook to be able to share posts he thinks are interesting and maybe something he may want to so in the army in the future. The following is a mock up of a Facebook profile I think would be helpful to Grant:
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