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PLN – Inclusion & Community Engagement

How Diverse is My PLN?

Diversity and inclusion are something that as humans, we have to start caring about enough to embrace, care enough about to make a difference on issue that affect marginalized people or minority race, sexual orientation, population in our society. I believe that all diversities needs to be considered and celebrated. My Personal Learning Network has certain level of alignment to diversity for example, black twitter, Indigenous twitter, LGBTQ+ and others. This is intentional engagements, conscious and strategic followings on trends and interaction as compare to the mainstream platform that are generally available with just one click. In some cases, privacy tends to restrict the level of inclusion on social media platforms PLN. On the other and using linkedln network highlights are purely for job search, professional bodies, school relationship and updates.

How Does Social Media Challenge Communications?

I think that social media challenge communication on professional lenses because someone whose worldview is restricted and has no knowledge of inclusion may hinder professional dialogue or dialogue on social issues as long as they are not affected. The challenge in using social platforms may appear to be one sided in some cases. Social media has helped me connect to a larger population, finding old school mate, and communicating with families across continents. This is generally done on Facebook or Instagram. On the other hand, it has reduced the quality of conversations that I may have with my small circle of friends. On a professional level, I have a minimal connection with people in my field of practice on the platform.

How Does Social Media Engage Communications?

“No matter what industry or space your company is in, it’s likely that your customers are a diverse bunch of people with a mix of race, religion, social status, and a number of other characteristics”.

Kimberlee Meier.

Learning from my personal and professional networks provides for me, a diverse perspective on topics, ideas, and in some cases offer me an opportunity to collaborate and make new connections with people who generally, I may not be able to access. Now I am wondering, how about perspectives that does not align with my network, because I am not getting views that are different from mine. Within my PLN, social media has helped me to communicate more than I would have if it does not exist, though my language, expressions and ideas are narrowed down to certain number of letters. i have over the years developed the ability of using fewer sentences to convey a lot of information on issues that are important to me.

Learning Outcome of My PLN

I believe that as BIPOC, the more I engage in diverse forum on discussion centered around inclusion, politics, race, diversity, the more I am able to make contribution to issues that affect people like myself. For example, advocating for equality in public spaces, in job representation, health, accessibility to social justice. The learning outcome from PLN in engaging in diverse platforms and forums on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and linkedln cuts across all sphere of life, across countries and locations. With entertainments engagements on Instagram, on the other hand political, and government policies from twitter, making connections with families, close acquaintances, a mix of colleagues and professional bodies/associations on Facebook. I even source for jobs from Facebook. Reflecting on my PLN has drawn me to the nature of diverse engagement I partake on in these platforms.

Policies of My Employer Social Media Communication Expectations

The expectation of employers for their employees to conduct themselves with a certain level of decorum on social media platforms is understandable, since employees are seen as an extension of the organizations or professional bodies. I think that professional bodies look out for their employers shared updates, and experience history shared in conversations on an employee’s PLN.

See the source image
Employees PLN engagement https://harver.com/blog/diversity-in-customer-service/

In my case, personal relationships, followings, contents posts and expressive views on diversity, advocacy, empathy and so forth are factors that are important to my employer in my PLN. Knowing this helps me to filter what I share in all my public network.

Benefits of A Diverse and Inclusive PLN in Social Media Sharing With Messaging That Impacts The Community

Think about this, if business connects people through inclusion, as a marketing professional say all platforms or means of communication, meaning that the goal is to get connected to as many people as possible regardless of ethnicity, race, status, level of educational background, marital status, sexuality and so forth, won’t that be inclusion? Now imagine that same business having one real focus in inclusivity through innovation and creativity. A tremendous strive at targeting all people. My use of social media is to make connection and establish messaging and themes that is engaging through my post to all people. Being inclusive, being receptive to learning about other people’s worldviews, perspective, values, beliefs, cultures to mention but few. “Inclusion means everyone” (Moore & Schnellert 2017). I think it is important to know someone’s history on social media because not only does it show employers and users your history but it also shows some level of growth experiences that a person has experienced over a period of time from the platform personal posts, data, and engagements.

Does My PLN amplify the views of others?

My social media engagement amplifies the views of other depending on what their views are. When it pertains to social justice and advocacy through acceptance in diversity, I am open-minded on worldviews and expression of empathy. This video link describe visibility PLN for BIPOC platforms.

Diversity and inclusion on social media: https://youtu.be/_el9j_u3i8k.

Refrences

Kimberlee. (2022). 7 benefits of diversity in Customer Service at your company. Harver. Retrieved from https://harver.com/blog/diversity-in-customer-service/

Moore, S., & Schnellert, L. (2017). One without the other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion. Portage & Main Press.

Youtube. (2020). Diversity & Inclusion on Social Media. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/_el9j_u3i8k.