A matter of trust

I am an expert in neither social media nor development.

I know a little. Through my job as a journalism instructor, I do guide my students toward building an online profile and relationships with their readers. I use Delicious as a regular part of my job. I have a Facebook site to keep track of graduates and inform them about job opportunities. On the development side, I give money to charities such as Unicef and the Red Cross, and I promote various causes through social media. But I don't consider myself part of the organized development community.

Well, then, what business do I have writing a blog about social media for development? Why should folks out there trust me? The short answer is, "There is no reason - yet."

In my former life as a journalist, I learned the importance of credibility. Without it, said my old teacher, a journalist has nothing. It's something a journalist earns over time, based upon a track record of accurate and balanced reporting. A big part of my job was to first educate myself and then share what I had learned with the public. Over time, people start to pay attention and open up to you. And that's the approach I'm going to take with this blog.

I realize that trust is something that must be earned whether it is in traditional journalism or in the blogosphere. If I don't post accurate information that is of some value to the social media for development community, people simply won't come back.

So I'll make a commitment to post something useful once a day. I've learned a little about social media through my job and through my masters program at Royal Roads, and I look forward to sharing it with you. More importantly, I look forward learning from the collective knowledge and wisdom of people who know more than I.

In addition to being a repository for knowledge and innovation about social media for development, this blog represents a study into building communities using social media. I thought I would be upfront with you about that. After a month of trying to build a community and gathering tips about using social media to advance social and economic justice, I will post the results of the study on one of this site's stand-alone pages. I won't use anybody's name  unless somebody requests me to use it - say, to give that person credit for original ideas.

Tomorrow, I'll begin sharing some of what I've learned from my academic research. I would love to hear what others have learned from their real-world experiences.