One last word from an AU student…

My excitement is going up as I keep looking at my watch and see that I’m only one hour away from completing my master’s degree in public communication. Yes, I am positive that I will pass the social media class :)

Had you asked me a couple of weeks ago why I chose to attend this class, I would have answered that options were very few for summer classes, and that this class “could be” more entertaining than other ones. Yes, this is how I have always seen social media: entertainment. Although I enjoyed reading the Groundswell book because of its simplicity, yet richness and clarity, several thoughts came to my mind as I was going through it: “is this whole thing really worth it?” “I don’t even know if I will ever use this in my professional life,” “who cares!” and many others.

Don’t be surprised, those are typical thoughts that cross the mind of any individual coming from a place where organizations could not care less about Facebook, never used Twitter (or probably never heard of it) and cannot understand the “blogging” culture… Organizations where the “take it or leave it” culture prevails. Add to it that many social media tools are “officially” blocked in my country, but people are surprisingly managing to access them on daily basis.

Wait a second! Why am I talking about organizations? Am I not acting the same way? The first time I ever heard of Twitter myself was in my strategic communication class (Fall 09). The first time I logged in to Twitter was six weeks ago, because I felt I had to create an account. I didn’t want to feel like an “alien” among social media savvies in class. I was only active on Facebook, which, for me, is only a tool to communicate with my friends.

Throughout this six-week semester and after having read so many articles and case studies, I started – just started – appreciating social media and see that it could be of help to many businesses and organizations. My appreciation increased as I went more in-depth when working on my case analysis paper. I was like “wow, this social media thing can really be dangerous!”

And here I am! Not only am I tweeting (still baby steps), but also I reactivated my ASMALLWORLD and LinkedIn accounts. My Gmail status is no longer “I hate blogs, blogging and bloggers.” I found out that after all they’re not that bad :P

During my MA at AU, I have learned that any communication strategy should have measures of success. If I take this to a larger scale, I would say everything we do in life should have measures of success. This simple attitude shift from a “non-social media believer” to a “social-media advocate” is but an indicator of the course success.

Thank you professor Kumar and thank you my classmates. I really enjoyed this course.

Best of luck to all of you and CONGRATULATIONS to those who have just completed their MA!

Tamara