This document summarizes the student's experience exploring and promoting an underground music community on social media. The student chose to focus on the local Baltimore music scene. They used Twitter, Instagram, and Vero to promote their Music Shoutout blog, which featured show reviews, interviews, and playlists. Twitter was most effective for gaining followers and exposure. The blog reached over 250 views and 145 visitors. The student also researched social media usage in Western Europe, finding platforms like Xing, Lovoo, and censorship policies like Germany's NetzDG law. Overall, the course provided a valuable hands-on experience exploring and promoting a real community online.

1. PBDS 751
Social Media Community/
Global Research
William M. Conte

2. Social Media Community
This course has been unlike any other I have taken throughout my
education. Here, I was tasked to choose any social media community
to explore, study, interact, and eventually become a part of.
The community I chose to explore was the local/overall underground
music community. Baltimore has a thriving arts/music scene with great
venues for lesser-known acts and artists who are just starting out—to
me, Baltimore is a hot spot for these types of musicians and artists to
stop by while traveling up and down the east coast.
What inspired me to choose this community the most, was the hobby I
developed of checking out these venues and discovering
new/underground music that hasn’t hit many ears yet. I usually always
end up in conversation with some of the band members after
complimenting them on a good set, so why not take it a bit further and
really try to spread the word of some these musicians?

3. Social Media Platforms
The platforms I chose to promote my
community were Twitter, Instagram, and
Vero—while posting content to a wordpress
site on a weekly basis, along with weekly
Spotify playlists, that I would also post to
wordpress, and promote on Twitter.

4. Music Shoutout
Music Shoutout is the blog page I created to post my
weekly content. Since this blog is more geared towards
the local/underground music scene, I post reviews of
shows, music events, and interviews.
This does not mean that mainstream/popular music was
totally excluded, just not as emphasized. Sometimes, if I
couldn’t make it out to a show or set up an interview, I
would post an opinion piece. In pieces like that,
sometimes mainstream/popular music would be the
subject, however usually in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek
fashion. Also, some of my weekly playlists, curated via
Spotify, do contain mainstream music—especially if that
week’s playlist was “themed”.

5. Twitter
In exploring my community, I was most
active on Twitter. Twitter is filled with
musicians trying to get their name and music
out there, so if I could promote Music
Shoutout as a blog for musicians in that
stage of their career, my presence would
almost create itself, as more and more
artists start following, looking to gain more
exposure.

6. Twitter (contd.)
72 followers

7. Instagram
From my experience in using Instagram to promote my
content, I found that unless I have images and videos to
post on a regular basis, Instagram is not as much of an
“online cocktail party” the same way Twitter is.
Yes, Instagram is a very popular platform, but did not
seem as appropriate for my project in it’s beginning
stages, although now, since the wheels have been
running, I’m very open to eventually focusing more on
Instagram as a go-to platform.
A great trial and error experience that lent insight on how
timing plays a role in building social media presence.

8. Vero
Vero, a new social media platform where I decided to
post content once I realized it was not a great time for
my blog to try to build a presence on Instagram.
Vero is meant to give its users more control over their
shared content, and who they share it with, which
sounds great. However, in my experience, I find it more
difficult to gain followers because the element of
“stumbling upon” stuff is less common. To get content out
there, it seems as if extra work is needed if people aren't
particularly searching for your type of content.
I ended up with 4 connections and 2 followers.

9. Conclusion
Music Shoutout, in my
opinion did provide service
to the local/underground
music community. With
251 views and 145 visitors,
readers consumed my
content that gave a
shoutout to local artists,
promoted local shows,
reviewed events that
highlight diverse
musicianship, and readers
also read some comedic
pieces.
Surprisingly, Music
Shoutout reached 9
different countries, not
including the U.S.

10. Global Research
The other aspect of this course that made it
interesting and informative, is that we were
to choose a global region, and study their
social media usage, habits, and platforms.
I chose Western Europe.

11. Points of Research
In my research, I found that Western
European countries were very similar to the
U.S when it came to social media.
Here, we explored how new social media
platforms, job search app, and dating apps
were used, while also researching social
media censorship.

12. New Social Media
Vero (see slide 8)

13. Job Search Apps
In 2006, Europe’s xing.com was a viable competitor to LinkedIn. According
to Search Engine Journal, Xing may not take over LinkedIn, but a Xing
profile is essential for business in Europe. Their exact words…
“Founded in 2003, Xing is a serious European competitor to LinkedIn
where you can find jobs, partners, advice, or list an opening in your
business. In fact, Xing boasts that it’s the largest business network in
German-speaking countries and has more than 14 million members.
However, Xing is also used by professionals in over 200 countries and is
available in the following languages: English, German, Dutch, Finnish,
Swedish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish,
Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Turkish.
The basic membership is free but to have access to features like searching
for people with specific qualifications, business book summaries, and
travel discounts can only be accessed by those with a premium
membership. Other features included in the platform are a directory of
professional profiles, discussion forums, and event coordination. While
Xing may not overtake LinkedIn, it’s a great option if you reside or do work
overseas.”

14. Dating Apps
In western Europe, Lovoo is the go-to in
Germany, while the rest of Europe has been
jumping on the Tinder train. However parts
of the region with less dating app users,
social media apps like Facebook and
Instagram are the plan-B.

15. Social Media Censorship
A lot of what I found when researching social media in Europe,
were articles about social media platforms taking down content
known as "hate speech".Germany made it a law that no hate
speech would be tolerated on social media, and requires sites
to remove banned content within 24 hours or face fines of up
to 50 million euros ($62 million). Law is called NetzDG.

16. Conclusion
I thought Western Europe would be a little more
different than the U.S. in the ways of social
media usage and platforms, but not very
different at all.
One of my favorite courses I’ve taken at UB. A
true experience that required us to actually go
out there and actually do real-life work, not
hypothetical projects.