When asked to write an article about social media, I thought the task would be impossible due to the ambiguity of such a broad topic.
Because social media are so broad, I decided to answer three important questions about social media:
• What are social media?
• Why should you care about social media?
• How will social media benefit our Jewish community?
According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro-blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages and other contents (as videos).”
The top three social media websites, according to ebizmba.com, are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Each serves a unique purpose in online communication and networking.
Facebook, the most popular of the three social media sites with more than 600 million users, provides its users with a social experience.
Users of Facebook log on to keep in touch with friends, to join an online community of people with the same interests, to plan and invite friends to events and to archive memories and pictures.
Business will use Facebook to build an online community around a brand as well as help market a product or event.
Twitter is a content- and news-driven social media website. Using 140 characters or less, users will post updates called “Tweets” to “followers.”
Twitter updates can be news links from credited news sources like CNN.com or Foxnews.com, blog postings, or they can be personal updates, like what you ate for breakfast (although usually are not the most interesting).
LinkedIn is a more business-related social media site. LinkedIn focuses on current and past employment and is mainly used for professional networking.
Why should you personally care about social media?
In a society where you read news directly from your phone, shop from the convenience of your home, synchronize your calendars from one location to the next, and check sports scores with the click of a button, why wouldn’t you care about social media?
News Flash: We live in a technological and social world. I know it is scary to some people, but it is true.
An irrational fear exists out there that social media will replace social interaction, but that is just not true. Social media acts as an enhancement to social interaction.
On social media sites you can find people with the same interests as you and connect with them instantly.
Social media sites are also helping the invitation process. Instead of spending time calling people and money sending out paper invitations, event features on a lot of the social media sites make inviting friends easy and free.
Not only are social media enhancing social interactions, they can also be used as a central hub for news and resources.
Twitter is a great example of a social media website that provides that central hub. Instead of searching for your news in many different locations, you log into one spot, and the news comes to you.
Bottom line: social media are the future of communication and research.
How will social media benefit our Jewish community?
Simply put, social media are making it easier to be Jewish and are making it easier for community organizations to communicate and connect with their constituency.
How have social media made it easier to be Jewish?
Social media have converted the Internet from being an information storage locker, into a two-way conversation.
The beauty behind it is that conversation now reaches much farther than our Wisconsin borders. It allows us to have a deeper and more personal connection to Jews around the country or even the world.
Before social media, a community was limited to the resources it had, local rabbis, cantors, educators, and whatever resources the local library carried. Social media opens the line of communication between people all over the world and allows us to find resources elsewhere.
How will social media open lines of communication within our Jewish community?
Social media are helping to bridge the communication gap. For example, Facebookpages like “Wellness at the JCC,” “Hy & Richard Smith JCC Water Park” and the “Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center,” the JCC is doing just that. Event information, program updates, news, and community are immediate and sent directly to you.
With social media your community possibilities are now endless.
Deborah Carneol is social media coordinator at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; or contact her at dcarneol@jccmilwaukee.org or 414-967-8221.
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