Brian Murray
A Social Perspective
Below you will find a personal assessment of my relation to social media. This comes across both personally (as the social media audit displays how I use social media) and professionally (as I assess my involvement with developing professional campaigns throughout this class).
Social Media Audit
Social Media Audit by Chris Matich
Google Search for "Brian Murray"
In the search results, you have to scroll past quite a few links for Brian Murray, the actor, and a link to a law firm run by one Brian Murray before you find a link to a Facebook search of Brian Murray profiles near the bottom. Other than that it is quite difficult to find anything on Brian Murray the Pitt student via Google.
Social Media
Finding Brian on twitter would probably be the most difficult had I not exchanged info with him during class. On both Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin I could find his profile's with no difficulty, but when I did the simple name search on Twitter so many different Brian Murray accounts came up, and I couldn't find his without going through a few pages of search results.
Social Media Behavior
On Brian's Twitter and Facebook, it's apparent from the get-go that he is a writer. From the retweets of Roxane Gay on his Twitter feed to his Facebook profile where he lists his employment with Creative Nonfiction. In fact, across all of his social media, he does inform you in some way or another he is a writer.
On his Instagram, although his work as a writer is less visible, his bio still says, "Can never have enough books, music, movies, or margaritas (well, maybe you can)," and he has pictures of typewriters, books, and himself. His Instagram bio also shares a link to his blog, further telling me he is a writer.
On his Linkedin, I got the sense that he was also very active in his field. I also get the sense across all, excluding Linkedin of course, that Brian is a very fun loving person who enjoys being around others. He is in a lot of pictures with people at events on his Facebook, and he reposts a lot of funny videos and pictures. I can see he uses Facebook to keep in touch with actual friends. OnTwitter he will talk about and @ things that aren't as personable to him, but broad, like the Oscars or Stephen King.
Assumptions
First, I can assume that this person is aware of socio-political issues, and nuance, based on the impressions his social media gives. His social media profile's present a person who would be happier to stand in a museum or a library than say, a rodeo or monster truck rally. I get the impression from his posts about politics that he cares about vulnerable people's, which leads me to assume his is on the left end of most political barometers. Moreover, I see that this person cares about other people. He has a lot of friends and he seems to be very enthusiastic about each of them and their meaning to him, and I credit this to the many pictures and posts he has with him and other people on both his Facebook and Instagram.
I don't need to assume Brian is a student. His Linkedinboarder image is the Cathedral of Learning. Based on his nonprofessional social media accounts you wouldn't be sure what exact type of writing he did, but you could assume working at "Creative Nonfiction" means he has some sort of actual profession involved with his writing, and it's not just a hobby or a passion project. When you reach his Linkedin and glance at his experience you find that he is a teacher and an editor. Because he worked in Mt. Lebanon for one of his first jobs, at a movie Theatre, I assume he was raised outside of Pittsburgh but in the near area.
Recommendations For Improvement
Brian is very present and active on social media, across the platforms I found. His enthusiasm for what he does shows. For some people, they don't want their professional life to bleed into their personal lives on social media, but for people like Brian who are writers, it most definitely should.
I really am not sure what to critique. He gets a lot of likes on his IG posts, at least for what I consider a lot; he usually gets around 50 or so. Perhaps he could try and promote more of his own writing on his Facebook and/or Twitter. Or even his Instagram, he should try to take advantage of his 200 some followers to spread the word about his writing projects or pieces. Same with his Linkedin, I didn't come across any sort of portfolio of pieces. That could be helpful.
Reflection
Looking back on this audit, I found myself quite pleased with how everything managed to comes across. Over the last several months, I have taken strong action to tailor my social media presence to be more professional and outreaching. I am happy to see that my interests, strengths, and career goals come across clearly across these platforms, especially on Twiter and Instagram (my two most used platforms. I definitely would like to work at being more consistently active across various platforms, especially on LinkedIn and Facebook, with even more posts promoting my own work.
My social media map demonstrates a clear divide I maintain between my personal and professional life. While some platforms see the two working in harmony (namely my professional Twitter and Instagram), others exhibit a clearer distinction. For example, I have two Gmail accounts, one for personal use and the other for purely professional use. Others I use exclusively for one purpose or another. For example, LinkedIn serves as a completely professional platform for me, whereas I use YouTube, Snapchat, and Goodreads to develop and/or share my own personal interests. Mostly, these stay completely private, as they would not work to develop my professional profile based on my usage.
I would say I maintain two separate personal brands across social media. The first primarily showcases my passion for reading, writing, publishing, and culture in general. I promote my own work related to these areas, interact with others who share such interests, and stay up to date with these industries. Here I promote myself as a reader and writer by showcasing how these interact with my daily life, such as updating with what I am currently reading, posting about a writing session, on sharing my thoughts on the latest trends. My other brand, however, I primarily use to show the more comedic aspects of my personality. I primarily do this with a close, closed circle in my private Twitter and Snapchat. I mostly use this to interact with friends and family.