Systematic social media following/archiving

November 6, 2015 11:54 AM

I am going to ask my undergrad students to systematic follow celebrities on social media. Is there an easy systematic way to do this?

I'm going to require that my undergrad students follow a few celebrities on social media [Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, wherever they are] and write assignments and do in-class activities that will require them to look back at the social media activity. (i.e. find an example of your celebrity performing authenticity and describe it using X framework.)
I think that probably it won't be too difficult for the students to scroll back through the profiles, but perhaps there is a systematic way to archive all the activity? I bet RSS feeds would be easiest but maybe there is another way. I'm envisioning something like TwapperKeeper (RIP) but for all social media platforms. Maybe there is some sort of If This Than That recipe that is easy.
I'll take any suggestions for ways to do this that won't require that I give a bunch of technical assistance. Students' own technology skills vary and we can't make assumptions about a particular level of savvy.

posted by k8t to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I'd be shocked if your undergrads didn't have a way of doing this already. The thing where you look at someone's social media activity in aggregate and not as part of your full newsfeed is a very, very standard thing. (See for example every Buzzfeed thing about accidentally liking someone's instagram from a year ago. That happens because you were "creeping", or looking at deep cuts from their particular profile.)

If the issue is being able to look at this information all in one place, at the same time, without having to open multiple tabs or the like, Hootsuite is probably your best bet, though they don't support every single social media platform.

What devices are they using to access this information? There are some things that are easier accessed on a computer vs. a tablet or phone.
posted by Sara C. at 12:07 PM on November 6, 2015

Oh, and if the issue is how to present it to you in a way that is easy for you to look at/for them to "show their work", screenshots are the typical response to this. I'd also suggest something like Storify, but I think it only brings in stuff from Twitter.
posted by Sara C. at 12:09 PM on November 6, 2015

Response by poster: For clarification, I will be asking them to follow 4 different celebrities and they'll be asked to generally monitor them to get a feel of their general social media presence and the fan audience. But then imagine that at least twice a week I'll ask "find some examples of "authenticity" in your celebrity's social media presences." Most of the time this will occur as an out-of-class writing assignment so they'll probably be on a computer. I can't imagine that any of those sort of demands would require them to use a mobile device, although I imagine that the more general monitoring will occur in different places.
I'd like for them to more easily find all of the content archived in one place rather than having to go to the profiles, search through them, etc. I fear that making this more tedious than it already is will make the task less enjoyable.
Again, we can't assume a high level of tech savvy. So while some of them are probably following some celebrities on a platform or two (following Rihanna on Instagram or whatever), I can't imagine that many of them are following in this systematic way.

And finally, I wouldn't force any system on anyone. I would merely say that if it seems overwhelming to follow these celebrities by going to the different platforms that there is a tool called X that can archive posts if they want to use it.

I won't even need to see their work.
posted by k8t at 12:13 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, then definitely HootSuite, though check what social media platforms they support and try to consider whether that will limit your students' options. Twitter and insta are the go-to platforms these days for this type of content, so as long as Hootsuite is currently supporting Instagram they should be good to go.
posted by Sara C. at 12:18 PM on November 6, 2015