Notable individuals often use social media to grow their following and entertain their current supporters. In fact, this is one of the various benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN. Through their PLNs, public figures are able to reach a lot more people and organizations that would contribute to their success, in a short and easier way. For example, through a simple tweet, an artist can announce the release of their lastest work; a politician can publically announce that they are running for office or organizing a party conferance; and an activist can promote or raise awareness for certain topics. Sharing this information through twitter (and while having a public account) removes so many retrictions concerning who will see it and engage with it. Anyone who uses Twitter, around the world, could see it and engage with that information. Moreover, those who do see it can share it, allowing more people (possibly even farfetch) can see it as well, engage with it and broaden their PLNs. The only incovenience here is that, just as accurate and harmless informatin can be shared quickly and to great extents, so can misinformation or “fake news”.

Building a community with online tools provided by an employer can be limiting as the employees likely have to follow very strict guidelines concerning the topics they can communicate about, the style and language they can use to communicate and moreoever, it would be seen as unprofessional to frequently continue communicating on those platforms outside of work hours. For example, workers may not be able to discuss certain topics that may be very enriching to their personal lives but touchy in a professional setting, they may not be able to freely use humour as they sense it, and simply can’t fully express who they truly are outside of work. However, such tools also curate somewhat of a safe place for workers to communicate effectively while preventing communication incidents as much as possible. They would also minimize the possibility of misinformation or disinformation occuring as the employer would be able to oversee the communication taking place. Overall, these tools may not really allow employees to build a strong sense of community, but they will enable clearer and more accurate communication to take place within the workplace.

To build a PLN to rely on in the age of “fake news”, it is important to ensure that our PLN is diverse and inclusive of people or organizations with contrasting views, so that we can personally use think critically and sort between what is true and false, and perhaps even between what is right and wrong. Veteran storytellers could minimize the risk of sharing misinformation, and others can mimize the risk of believing misinformation.