Class Cloud

When trying to predict what type of weather is coming, meteorologists turn their gaze upward. We, too, may look to the sky with curiosity. Understanding the difference between cumulus and nimbus clouds can help us to predict what type of weather is headed our direction.

Can the same be said for life in the social media world? Do we have tools that can help understand what is coming? Tools to provide more clarity in what we see? I would suggest that we do, and it isn't too different from the signals that we as people have been using for centuries. We just need to look at the clouds. More specifically, Tweet Cloud.

According to one author, “Tweet cloud analyses the text in your tweets for up to one year and renders a visual cloud of the words you use most… with the most in the biggest fonts.”

Wondering what might be the benefit in doing something like this? That’s not a difficult question to answer. Consider those people that you follow on Twitter, or even Facebook. If those people begin posting things that you don’t care for, or are offensive to you, will you continue following them? While you may argue that you would, I would submit that there are many with a differing opinion.

Having followers may not even be of importance to you, but the cloud serves as a great reminder of that message that you are sending to the world. Remember that once clicking the “submit” button, you no longer have total control over what has been said. The cloud may help you to understand the way that you brand yourself for, not only your friends, but also your potential employers.

Recently, our social media class participated in a “Class Cloud” assignment. Both before and during the established day, we were to make tweets using the hash-tag “socmeddiscuss”. We invited fellow tweeters to join us for a discussion on social media that took place during our class our. While I found this to be helpful in understanding Twitter, I couldn't help but notice a few other results.

Throughout the period, there were quite a few tweets written by class members. I heard several state that they had started losing followers as a result. Whether that was due to content or frequency is unclear, but this brings illumination to an important aspect of tweeting. Like the cloud mentioned above, it is important to be mindful of what you are putting on Twitter, and how much of it. The argument may be made that ‘it’s my account and I can write whatever I want’, and while that is true, realize that it may come at a price.

To clarify, I am not suggesting that you should limit what you tweet. Depending on the situation, you may find frequent use and varied topics may be of great benefit to you. In fact, I found this class activity to be of benefit to me; I gained five followers throughout the period of about an hour.

During our class, we tried to get our hash-tag trending. We tagged celebrities to see if they would get involved in the conversation. And, while we didn't show as a top trend on Twitter, we were able to see the hash-tag on a tweet map of our area. This brought another thought to mind. When using any kind of social media, it may be beneficial to know what your goals are. If you want to be involved in trending hash-tags, you may take different steps than you would if you were trying to gain attention from potential employers.

The following images are from the “Class Cloud” experience that I part in:

There are tweets prior to the designated class period-

Tweets from during the class period-

During class, students (and professor) took a selfie, resembling Ellen's top-trending photo. Naturally, I had to re-tweet that.

Later, there was a picture of the picture taking process that was tweeted. I was excited to re-tweet that as well. Find the masterpiece HERE.

What do you think is important to know when using social media, such as Twitter? Do you think it's a more effective tool in connecting with friends or for networking for a potential career?