CPD Thing 12: Mentoring : Puting the social in social media

Well, here is number 12. Bit quick the other one. Part 12 looked at social media within the library and information roles. The article looked at how originally had gone from 100 participants to 750 due to social media.

For Thing 12 I would like you to consider the role of social media in building up networks and a sense of community. Possible areas to consider are:

are there any other advantages to social networking in the context of professional development than those already outlined above?

can you think of any disadvantages?

has CPD23 helped you to make contact with others that you would not have had contact with normally?

did you already use social media for your career development before starting CPD23?

Will you keep using it after the programme has finished?

in your opinion does social networking really help to foster a sense of community?

So, lets go through these one at a time.


1. are there any other advantages to social networking in the context of professional development than those already outlined above?

Social networking can assist with work. For example, creating a work a wiki for depatments to provide how people do things at work (so a form of intranet).

2. can you think of any disadvantages?

The disadvantage with social media are many told. Social media can create people sign up for things and doing nothing with them. Examples, I have many. I have a twitter and Blog. The thing with signing up for both these is having to follow twitter feeds and other blogs to keep up to date. So investment of time is extremely important.
Also, the problem with social media is its easy to promise to do something and not do anything. Whilst if you promise to do something verbally you are more likely to follow it through (or should do in my opinion).

3. did you already use social media for your career development before starting CPD23? As said above i've a blog and twitter account. I've also a youtube channel.

4. Will you keep using it after the programme has finished? I certainly hope. Dependent on time.

5. in your opinion does social networking really help to foster a sense of community? I think social media can help. Note the success Voices for the Library.