Self Evaluation

I created a website to contain the information I wish to convey concerning the myths about the Vietnam War (without granting ownership of my work to the Facebook people). More importantly a web page makes the information accessible to people who are not on Facebook. 

The domain name was purchased last summer for the project, which began years ago.

I could have made better use of this class if I’d taken a class that teaches the basics about using social media before attempting to take this class. Most of the time I felt left out because I could not figure out what was happening on the Facebook page itself. While I had some things explained to me, much of the explanation was lost to me by the time I had an opportunity to put the explanation into practice.

I felt that advertising the website or the Facebook page would be counter productive as viewers would find an incomplete site. Then once the site was complete, advertising would be less effective because anyone who visited the incomplete site would remember it as incomplete and not respond to the call to action.

I could not overlook this aspect because the project is very important to me and I plan to continue serious promotion in this area, once I’ve finished setting up the site. This was not a project I chose just for this class. It started well before the class began and will continue long after.

For instance, I’ve written the script and a detailed budget analysis for a film called Smokescreens, Lies and Deceptions that dispels some of the myths and calls attention to the importance of dispelling those myths. 

The campaign I am developing in this class is a beginning of the overall campaign for promoting the production of that film. I also have plans to write a book to provide more comprehensive data on the subject. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the semester that this project is the result of over 3 years of full-time graduate research.

I sent a request to my friends on Facebook, which netted some likes. I also handed out cards to people I know off line. So far the cards netted one like. Unfortunately except for friends, it seems that I can only access information about who liked me after I have the minimum 30 likes.

So I was unable to determine who liked my page to thank them and who did not so that I could request a like. So to those who liked my Correcting Vietnam War Myths page, thank you!

Without this knowledge I had to balance the idea of irritating people who have liked the page by sending out a blanked request to all class members against the prospect of not getting enough likes. I chose to err on the side of not irritating anyone, as I myself don’t like to be irritated online. Was I right, or ...?

(It's about 11:20 p.m. on Dec. 2nd & I just found a link {by accident} that connected me to a page to view about 20 of my likes)

I made cards to pass out to older veterans who seldom use social media to direct them to my website and/or Facebook page. One of the issues with one of my target audiences is that many of the actual Vietnam Veterans are old fogies like myself. Many who haven’t been to college in the last couple of decades aren’t very social media savvy.

In retrospect, I should have finished the website before taking this class, or chosen a different, less complicated product to develop so that I could spend the class concentrating on the social media instead of product development.  

I didn’t realize this would be a problem as about five years ago I was developing websites at the rate of 2 to 3 per month. At that time my code writing skills were developing progressively. However, I did not know how to market my sites, so none of them really got off the ground. 

They were up and running but I wasn’t making any money from them. I dropped most of the domain names because I could not afford to keep them and I lost interest in web development.

Now I am beginning to learn how to market my sites. But it has been so long since I developed a site that I forgot most of what I knew about writing code. There have been many new improvements in web development that the bicycle principle was only marginally effective. 

Along with taking more time to develop the sites, I spent a lot more time trying to sort out glitches than it ordinarily would have expended. Consequently, it has taken me significantly longer to get back into the swing of things than I expected.

All together I think I spent more time on the website that would be expected for all the class work. This has really slowed down the actual promotion of the product.

I am not pleased with the look or the functioning of the website.

Consequently, I am working on a completely revised website, pretty much dumping most of the design I am currently using for a design that should be more efficient and easy to use. I’d hoped to have that up and running by now. Unfortunately I just don’t the time to finish all that and finish all the other things I need to do before the end of the semester. Perhaps I can get that up during finals week.

Notwithstanding the above, I am pleased with what I have been able to learn about social networking. Once I have completed the launch of my website, http://VietnamWarMyths.org, I plan to use the knowledge I have gained to promote the launch and attract people to my site. 

I have also been networking with people in Veterans organizations, preparing to organize a lecture tour that will promote the overall project of debunking the myths about the Vietnam War.