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MY ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

NAME

DATE:
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My engagement with Social Media

With the consistent development of technology in the current world, our obsession with

social media is at an all-time high. It is uncommon now to get through the day without checking

one form of social media, and this is evident as the average person spends around 2 hours a day

on social platforms. Most businesses have embraced the use of this new dimension of life. I use

an array of social media outlets all for different reasons. These are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,

WhatsApp, Snapchat, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These are both professional and nonprofessional

platforms but still serve the purpose to socialize people from different places of the world.

I engage in different ways on these different platforms of social media. Likes, comments,

and shares are the most common ways of engaging with people’s posts on Instagram, Twitter,

Facebook, and LinkedIn. I take extra caution while commenting on people’s posts so that I

conform to community guidelines which ensure a standard of behavior expected on the platform

to create a safe environment for users to interact and have fun is met. I could also get people to

engage on my social media accounts by using different types of posts like polls and surveys,

infographics, videos, live videos, or space conversations on Twitter.

Making new acquaintances, chatting online, and staying in touch are all made simple by

using social networking and social media websites. Meeting someone online, especially if you

don't know them or haven't seen them in person, can be risky. Remember that once a message,

photo, or video is published online, there is no way to control where it goes while conversing and

sharing ideas and information with individuals you don't know or trust. Effective privacy

controls make sure that you have control over who you choose to "friend". Good standard

practices include keeping the password to yourself, making your profile private, and refusing

friend requests from strangers. I use different privacy settings such as limiting people who can
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comment on my posts, limiting my activity status, limiting people who can message me, and

limiting people who can tag me in other posts. These allow me to control how much information

or the type of information that can be viewed by other people.

Among the uses of social media that I embrace are, communication, brand monitoring,

job seeking, collaboration with other people and companies, opinion and review seeking, media

sharing and advocacy of social matters like health awareness. This is unfinished without

mentioning entertainment. Social networking has aided me in fortifying my bonds with others,

making new acquaintances, and locating social support through trying moments. Most people in

today's world utilize social media to stay in touch with friends and family.

New employer review of my Social Media presence and its impact on my professional

presence

Social media in this day and age helps firms conduct multidirectional surveillance while

hiring new employees. Depending on whether technology was used ethically and responsibly to

facilitate the practice results, this can have both positive and bad effects on a worker's

professional presence. For the best resolution of such situations, both parties in such cases should

act with moral rectitude and professionalism in accordance with the NASW code of ethics. When

ethical dilemmas arise, the Code provides a set of values, principles, and norms to direct

behavior. The general ethical guidelines that follow are based on the key values of social work,

which are: service, social justice, respect for the person's dignity and worth, the value of

interpersonal connections, integrity, and competence. These guidelines lay out ideals that all

social workers ought to pursue.

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When a new employer is reviewing my social media presence, several things must be put

into consideration in order to come up with a detailed and fact-based conclusion that will greatly

determine the impact of the review on my professional presence. Engagement, impressions and

reach, voice and share of voice, referrals and conversions, reaction rate, and time are the most

prevalent and frequently significant indicators to consider. An employer will have a complete

picture of my social media performance when they are combined. The most likely findings an

employer would get from my social media presence are; I am a very active person on social

media. This is seen in the number of engagements I have on my profiles. This may not be of

great importance till much information about the relevance of my engagements is obtained. Most

of the social media activities I engage in are educative and sometimes entertaining. When

looking at the time I spend on social media, it will be very important to check this for the

respective platforms. The expected findings are that I spend relatively most of my time on

LinkedIn, a rather professional social media platform for career development and seeking career

opportunities. These expected findings conform to the Standards for Technology in social work

practice. The standards were formulated to create a unified set of technology standards that

professional social workers may use as a reference in their work, NASW collaborated with

ASWB, CSWE, and CSWA.

A question worth answering is, how will these findings affect my professional presence?

Well, of course, because these findings conform to the Standards for Technology in social

practice, they are most definitely going to increase my chances of being employed by the

employer. Such surveillance by employers of social workers helps them understand the type of

person they are going to recruit as many people assume that social media cannot be a useful tool

when it comes to the evaluation of someone’s character.

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New client review of my Social Media presence and its impact on my professional presence

Different clients might have different requirements of whom they want to have working

on their work. They sometimes resort to social media surveillance of a social worker. However

much this may seem to be unnecessary, it may be of great help. A social workers social activity

should clearly depict his or her work profile. The work profile should contain different reviews

the worker has gotten from previous clients, the completion rate of work, the response rate to

inquiries, and sometimes the rating. This has been made possible through some social media

platforms like LinkedIn which have a recommendation section on one’s profile. This could also

be possible through comment sections on posts by a worker. This information might however not

be legitimate as it is very possible nowadays for people to buy such data and place them onto

their posts to appeal to the eyes of their prospective clients. A shortcoming to this might also

arise when a social worker has no or dormant social media accounts therefore getting such

information about them is almost impossible

Looking for such information on my profile would be possible however, I lack much

experience with previous clients who would then recommend me on my social media or rate me.

The client would then make a negative conclusion based on this information thus affecting my

therapeutic relationship with them. This is an example of how this method of social media

surveillance might be an undercut to a social worker’s therapeutic relationship. It is however

important that the client backs up such information with information from other sources.

Changes regarding my Social media footprint and behavior

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On realization that my social media footprint and behavior have a great influence on my

professional presence, it will be very wise and important to make some necessary changes on my

social media in order to accord to the NASW code of ethics. To be specific, ethical principle

number five. According to (NASW, 1985)

Value: Integrity

Ethical Principle: Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner. Social workers are

continually aware of the profession’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical

standards and practice in a manner consistent with them. Social workers act honestly and

responsibly and promote ethical practices on the part of the organizations with which

they are affiliated. (p.2)

Making appropriate changes to my social media profile like finding more genuine

reviews and recommendations from previous clients will build trust between me and a client or

an employer. It will also be very important to be candid with the information I post on the

different social media platforms so as to embrace honesty as an ethical principle.

It will also be wise to limit my social media interactions to different platforms and only

focus on professional platforms that can be used to get a true image of who I am. This is what

will aid me in demonstrating professional and ethical behavior.

Education is a crucial technique used by social workers while interacting with clients and

the community. The core of how social workers learn from the people they serve and how they

may help with information delivery and skill development is these educational exchanges, which

are not always overt. I would also love to get this education to further my knowledge of social

work.
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References

“Practice.” NASW, National Association of Social Workers,

https://www.socialworkers.org/Practice/NASW-Practice-Standards-Guidelines/

Standards-for-Technology-in-Social-Work-Practice.

“Social Work Student Handbook: Department of Social Work: Department of Social Work.”

Social Work Student Handbook | Department of Social Work | Department of Social

Work, https://www.uaf.edu/socwork/student-information/checklist/.

Journal of Social Work Education Vol. 41, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2005). © Copyright 2005

Council on Social Work Education, Inc. All rights reserved.