21st Century Literacies Assignment

It is healthy for a critical thinker to be familiar with what is known as the 21st Century Literacies. This is especially true for those that are involved in social media. These literacies are: Attention, Participation, Collaboration, Network awareness, and Critical Consumption. When the content creator of a social media page can understand and master these literacies the more attractive alluring that content creator’s page’s will be.  One of the most key literacies in creating a great social media website is participation. The degree of consumer participation blossoms from the amount of participation/engagement capabilities that each site is using

Let’s use  the most common of examples, Facebook. Imagine two identical hypothetical businesses.  Each are the same in every form: same location, same products, etc. There is only one difference, their social media sites. Business 1 creates a Facebook page that has very little content, most importantly in our case, no links clicks or games to interact with.     Unlike Business 1, Business 2 does have a Facebook page that has participatory content. Small little click games or links allow for customer engagement.

Now that we have identified the difference between Business 1 and Business 2, let’s analyze the likelihood of each businesses increase in profits compared to each other. The most likely result is that, Business 2 will see an increase of profits while Business 1 would not. Ultimately it was the level of Participation/Engagement that determined the results of profit increase. Business 1’s social media page allowed for deep engagement of those visiting the site. The more people can participate/engage with the site are not only being constantly bombarded with name brand awareness in advertisements, but also develop an emotional attachment to the site. Business 2 on the other hand had no profit increase. This is because Business 2 had a social media site that used no participation/engagement abilities. Potential customers that view Business 2’s social media page are more likely to view the page and quickly move on to another leaving little time for exposure of advertisements. But when it comes to potential customers viewing Business 1’s social media page, they are more likely that person is to stay on the page longer. The longer a person is exposed to advertising, the more that person becomes likely to become a customer. Business 2’s social media page exposed constantly advertisements to the person participating/engaging with the page. These advertisements conveyed the message to the visitor of the site that the product was of great value and that the customer should buy it.   This concept of advertising through participation/engagement is why Business 1 increased its profits.  Rheingold’s 21st Century Literacy idea of participation has helped to morph the economy. Different companies have realized the benefits of social media pages and also the benefits of implementing participatory/engaging capabilities.

These companies see their profits increase greatly. It is not rare for some companies to create a whole division dedicated towards the companies social media page. These major companioning using the participation/engagement techniques  will continue to see a very great rise in profits.