Social medial use in personal or professional networks helps in addressing the challenges in advocacy communication.In addition, social media has a variety of tools that can be used to inform and mobilize communities in advocacy efforts. The tools align with the personal or professional network’s psychology principles to enable individuals to participate in dialogues about social issues and work together towards a change with a sense of community. A personal or professional network can be based on one profession; however, it’s advisable to engage professionals from different backgrounds to encourage inclusivity.

After various professional and personal network studies, I decided to be inclusive and have a more dominant and marginal network. Suggestion from Luo, Freeman & Stefaniak (2020),who advocated for inclusion in PLN, I decided to follow people from various backgrounds on Twitter and Facebook. Viewing and reviewing their ideas provides a diverse knowledge of the various social aspects of the community. The network has created a filter bubble from my natural bubble where there are various hashtags on various subjects, which I would not have learned about if I focus on one specific group of the network. I had the opportunity to learn about the YouTube niches which exist in social media which I never had an idea of their existence.

Social media engaging in advocacy through various tools are used to enhance traditional strategies of social advocacy. For example, various fields had helped identify various social advocacy gaps that existed when there was no social medial. In addition, social media can be used to synthesize literature across empirical and practical sources in real-world examples. For example, when the engineering profession uses hashtags to discuss a topic, it engages other professionals. It allows people to learn various challenges in the field and ways to solve them. Therefore, inclusivity is achieved where people from differentprofessional backgrounds can communicate and contribute to social challenges in other fields.

Inclusion is engaged in my PLN due to the following of people from various networks. I have decided to form personal networking by privately engaging various professionals through private messaging to seek clarification suggestions and ideas on the topic at hand. Additionally, I actively engage in liking and publicly commenting on the post and video posted regardless of the topic as long as I understand the ideal discussed. Through engagement and advocacy, professionals can build a stronger network to advocate for solutions in the community.

Continuous exposure and diversity are achieved through interaction with people from different professional backgrounds. As a strategy to ensure continuous exposure to diversity and inclusivity in the community, Kluch & Wilson (2020) suggest continuous engagement in professional networks that solve social challenges. In addition, the idea is meant to suggest continuous outreach of other professional fields on social media to identify topics and challenges addressed. Additional suggestions from the study advocate for mapping networks across boundaries. The personal or professional network includes professionals from diverse areas where idea sharing can also be diversified. Through analysis of talents and practices, diversification is incorporated into the network.

From the videos and readings, I have identified the importance of diversity and inclusion in PLN. From One Without the Other by Shelley Moore and Leyton, Schnellertidentified that variety ensures inclusivity and the adoption of different perspectives concerning social challenges. Additionally, diversity and inclusivity allow increased knowledge sharing through targeted consultation among professionals of diverse backgrounds. Through engagement, collective contribution towards social challenges faced but the community can be achieved.

References

Luo, T., Freeman, C., & Stefaniak, J. (2020). “Like, comment, and share”—professional development through social media in higher education: A systematic review. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(4), 1659-1683.

Kluch, Y., & Wilson, A. S. (2020). # NCAAInclusion: Using Social Media to Engage NCAA Student-Athletes in Strategic Efforts to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. Case Studies in Sport Management, 9(S1), S35-S43.