Social Media

When I think about how social media has expanded and changed over the last ten years I am glad I have grown with it and not after it. Once I am a certified speech and language pathologist I will use social media to research, network, advertise, counsel, and treat clients. While there are some cautions in using the world wide web, social media can be beneficial to my field of practice, help me grow my business, find ideas, and build networks. Thankfully, I am part of an era, that while I’ve had to continue to use various engines of social media to keep savvy, my experiences with them have been a simple yet awakening path to the many benefits and disadvantages such access provides to the world.

   

Several years ago I set up a Facebook account to establish connections with my high school and college friends. A few months after that I realized my distance family and I can also connect, share pictures, and daily information. This was the best idea!!! Until one day I changed my relationship status from committed to single and at least 25 people contacted me to see how I was feeling. I knew something was odd but didn’t understand where this sudden curiosity in my personal life aroused from. A friend who I confided in said “well you changed your relationship status on Facebook”. Until then I had no idea of the power of social media!

That somewhat pivotal moment in my life opened my eyes to how social media is available to the public. What you post online could be the cause for you being dismissed from a company, the reason you were not hired, and in some cases even law enforcement conducted investigations. And as my luck would have it, an ex-coworker was on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list for child molestation. My immediate concern was “is he my friend on Facebook?” Thank God he was not. After that I scavenged over 500 list of names on my list of “friends” and reduced the number to less than 200. My account became private and my daily posting halted; I accessed my account about three times a year. I became the aunt that looked at my nieces and nephews accounts with awe…“how can they post such things, don’t they know this is available to the public?” Consciously, I was careful of any posting, response, or “like” vote. Just as I scrutinized my loved ones, I knew I could be under a microscope just the same.

My education and search for a new job has pushed me back into a daily use of the internet and social media. Through school I was assigned to view videos on “YouTube” and register on websites which regularly post information, host blogs, give workshops, and connect people with similar interests. I also posted presentations on the internet and built webpages with classmates as a group project. I also had the opportunity to have mentoring sessions via “Skype” to discuss treatment strategies and evaluation procedures. My “social media” outlet became anything but social. I set up a “Linked-In” account for networking and job search reasons, “liked” pictures on “Pinterest”, and read articles on Facebook regarding topics of interest on Teachers College of Columbia University and Western Kentucky University (WKU). Considering the fact that I will be looking for a job, I conducted “Google” searches for my name “Anel Martinez” and reviewed websites that possibly had any information on me. Luckily as odd as my name, and that there are hundreds of Anel Martinez’, none had anything that would represent me in a bad way. As I started my final semester at WKU, I posted my resume online, and on more than one social networking site.

Venturing back into the realm of “social media” I realized that I must make an effort to access several different sites and on a daily basis. Aside from taking extra care in scrutinizing what a “like” vote, comment, or association to a person or organization can have on my reputation, in order to keep up to date with this vastly changing and growing media outlet, I have to access many different sites regularly. This can be time consuming. On the positive side, there is so much information available on the internet and at no cost. When I had no idea what an oral motor evaluation entailed I searched for it on YouTube. I saw many complete oral evaluations, oral motor exercises, bedside dysphagia evaluations, and cases of people who stutter to name a few. In addition to following parents’ questions, comments, and/or blogs, treatment methods/procedures, I was able to look up videos of children on the spectrum. On “Pinterest” I can look for lesson plan ideas/activities and save them by clicking “like”. I can follow people, groups, and organizations by simply registering on a site.  

With social media I believe there is a lot of opportunity to grow the business, network, and service clients around the world. For example, I recently heard of providing speech and language services via a webcam. As noted on the American Speech Hearing Association (ASHA) website: “Telepractice offers "the potential to extend clinical services to remote, rural, and underserved populations, and to culturally and linguistically diverse populations." Within the next couple of weeks I will be observing exactly this; telepractice with bilingual SLPs treating clients in Bolivia. With a computer, internet access, and an account (i.e., Skype) a therapist can provide services for clients around the world. I anticipate using several forms of social media, such as the ones I previously mentioned, professionally. I would use as many aspects of social media to my benefit to network, advertise, and collect resources. I do not believe social media is the end all, be all however it is another important piece of the puzzle. And while keeping up to date with the vast array of outlets, at the end of the day, anyone who wants to succeed at what they do has to put time and effort into their profession.