An Introduction To Social Media

By

John Melville

For Senior Net, Warkworth.

Social Media seems to be overtaking the world. It has an effect on everything we do, either directly or indirectly. Every day we see more and more businesses, large and small adopting some form of Social Media as a marketing tool. One only has to watch ads on TV where it seems every other ad now has a social media URL somewhere. (Mostly  Facebook)

 

To the older generation, such media appears to be risky because it seems to expose us to a loss of privacy, but many of us have been forced to adopt some form of social media as a way of keeping touch with our families, especially when they leave home to travel overseas.

 

When we do use it we never cease to be amazed at how easy it is to use media such as Skype, facebook and Email to keep in touch, instantly. Just last night we were chatting to our daughter and her husband, on a video link, inFrancesome 12000 miles away on the other side of the world. How good is that! An airmail letter used to take 10 days and a phone call was reserved for emergencies only.

 

This workshop is part of a series of workshops covering Social Media that I have compiled and presented to Senior Net members in the Warkworth and Mangawhai areas ofNorthland,New Zealand. Each workshop is not exhaustive, but designed to remove some of the mystery surrounding Social Media and to provide some step by step procedures enabling the older folk to move ahead with increased confidence and safety.

 

This workshop introduces a number of Social Media web sites and provides some insight into how to set the level of privacy you desire.

 

Networking In Plain English (Video)  http://youtu.be/6a_KF7TYKVc

Go on line and watch this YouTube Video. It’s a great introduction to social networking.

 

Definitions

How is the word Social defined:

As an adj.

1.         a. Living together in communities.

             b. Of or relating to human society and its modes of organization: social classes;                      social problems;

2. Living together in organized groups or similar close aggregates: eg ants are social

insects.

3.         a. Inclined to seek out or enjoy the company of others; to be sociable.

             b. Spent in or marked by friendly relations or companionship.

             c. Intended for convivial activities.

 

How is the word Media defined:

As a noun (May be an adjective)

1. The plural of medium.

2. (usually used with a plural verb ) the means of communication, as of

radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence

people widely: eg the media are covering the speech tonight.

What is Social Media

Combine the two and we have Social Media which may be defined as the tools that let people communicate with each other.

 

It’s not what the software does, it is simply what user does on line that really counts.

Lets Explore Some Social Media Sites

 

Here are some of the Social Media sites we will cover during this workshop:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Google+
  • MySpace

 

Facebook, everybody’s friend that you either love or loath. Before Google+ Facebook was the one medium that provided the best resources for sharing. Business is beginning to catch on to it in a big way.

 

Twitter the micro blogging site has evolved from the aimless “what are you doing now” to a very useful resource and networking resource.

 

LinkedIn is the professional network designed to serve the needs of the professions and business large and small. It in my opinion it replaces the “Old Boy” network and gives each and every professional the opportunity to network no matter what his or her background is.

 

YouTube has been around for a considerable time (relatively speaking). It is the repository of millions of short videos made and shared by people such as you and me.

 

Google+ is the new kid on the block. It is very much like facebook, but it has some essential differences which make it easier to use.

 

My Space is one of the older social media sites. It is not used as much as it used to be, but is a great medium if you are interested in the Arts or Music.

 

Facebook

 

Facebook is probably the best known of the social media sites. It is certainly the largest with 600 million members and rising.

 

Facebook provides a medium that had no real rivals until the recent advent of Google+.

 

Facebook provides its users with:

  • The ability to communicate privately or publicly
  • The ability to share posts, photographs and just about every thing else.

 

Facebook is a social net working site intended to connect you with friends, family, and business associates.

 

Facebook enables you to:

  • Connect with old friends you may not have seen for years.
  • Set up special interest groups.
  • Organise events such as reunions, parties etc

 

A Little History

  • Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg as a means for his class mates to keep in touch with each other.
  • It was originally only available to schools.
  • It is now available to everybody and anybody all around the world.

 

Facebook Has Contributed to Major Changes in The Way we Communicate.

 

  • Facebook has enabled people to have a voice.
  • Facebook has enabled people to express themselves when otherwise they couldn’t.
  • Facebook has enabled people to come together and mobilise in a more co-ordinated way.

 

Who uses Facebook

  • Just about everybody (600 Million)
  • From children to the elderly
  • The over fifties group is now the fastest growing group on facebook.

 

Facebook Enables You to:

  • Keep in Touch With Your Friends and Family
  • Net Work
  • Create special interest groups;
  • Organise Special Events
  • To Become Fans
  • Search For Old Friends
  • Share Photographs

 

Signing Up” for the First Time:

Find Facebook on Google and you will arrive at the sign up page.

Enter your details and sign up, then follow the instructions. You can skip the first three steps at this point.

Complete a basic profile; and then set some of your privacy controls.

Every part of Facebook can be revisited at any time to change it.

 

Account.

Under the account tab account you can access and change your various settings such as:

My Privacy Settings

  • Edit Friends
  • Use facebook as a page
  • Account Settings
  • Privacy settings
  • Help
  • Logout

 

Looking for Friends

  • Let facebook suggest friends
  • Search facebook for people you know.
  • Use your email contacts address book.

 

Decide Who Are Your Friends

  • Accept only those friend requests from people you wish to be friends with.
  • Group your friends according to their relationship to you. IE  close family, extended family, club associates, Senior net members, and just friends.
  • Remove friends you no longer wish to associate with, without embarrassment.

 

Messages

  • Send personal messages. No email address required.
  • Your Messages are private between you and the recipient.
  • You can receive a personal and private reply.

 

News Feed

  • This is your home page where all your news comes in from your friends.
  • You can select whose news you see.

 

My Wall

  • Is where I can write about what’s on my mind.
  • I can make comments
  • I can add photographs, albums, and video.
  • It shows all the pages I have “Liked”.
  • It is accessed through “My Profile”
  • My friends can also write on my Wall.

 

Create a Group

  • Groups can be created by users. These can include anything from school connections to hobbies and interests.
  •  Groups can be public and available to everyone or private, meaning only those invited can join and view discussions.

 

Organise Events

  • Events feature allows friends to organize parties, concerts, and other get to-gethers in the real world.

 

Become a Fan (Now called a “Like”)

  • Users can also become fans of everything such as people, organizations, television shows, movies, and musicians.
  • All you have to do is click the “Like Button” to become a fan and then you can follow through your news feed.

 

What is facebook

  • It is a social net working site intended to connect you with friends, family, and business associates.
  • A place where you can search for and connect with old friends you haven’t seen for years.
  • A place to set up special interest groups.
  • Organise events e.g. reunions; and
  • Share your experiences.

 

 Twitter: The Micro-blog Site

 

Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that is now much

more than what began as a site that allowed you answer the question, “What are you doing?” by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called “tweets”, to your friends, or “followers.”

 

Twitter is now used for both personal and business uses.

 

For business Twitter can be used to:

  • broadcast your company’s latest news and blog posts,
  • interact with your customers, or
  • enable easy internal collaboration and group communication.

 

Visit the Twitter website and click “Join for free” to create your account.

  • Consider using your real name as your user name to help your friends find
  • you more easily.
  • Followers are more likely to trust you if you use your real name, or a
  • derivative of your real name. For example: John_Mel

 

Using Twitter

A micro blog is called a Tweet. You can “tweet” from your Twitter page, your mobile phone, IM account, or via a third-party Twitter client, or you can send personal messages via twitter.

 

Following and Tweeting!

  • You can follow other Twitter users and they can follow you with your tweets appearing on their home page. They may also re-tweet so that in a very short time your original tweet can be seen far and wide.
  • Their tweets will appear on your home page.
  • Your tweets will appear on your follower’s home pages.
  • Finding and adding friends to your “Twitterverse” is easy.
  • Connect your other social media accounts to Twitter which means you only have to tweet once in one place.

LinkedIn

 

LinkedIn is the worlds largest professional network. It is specifically designed for the interaction of professional people and businesses.

 

LinkedIn enables you to:

  • Establish a professional profile
  • Search out colleagues and to stay in touch with them.
  • Build professional networks
  • Find experts in a particular field
  • Find employment
  • Form or search for groups of like minded people
  • Ask a question and get an answer, usually a well informed answer.
  • Explore opportunities
  • Run events
  • Interconnect with Twitter and Facebook, and
  • When you have found whom you are looking for, you can check to see if you
  • have any mutual acquaintances that you can talk to before you make contact.

 

LinkedIn Privacy

 

Account and Profile Settings:

  • Make your Profile Public
  • Control and Manage what others see about your activities.
  • Setup your network. Eg Check “Find a Job” even if you are not looking. You may even be offered an opportunity from within your own firm.

YouTube

 

YouTube has been around for a long time (relatively speaking). It is the major repository for millions of videos compiled and uploaded by people such as you and I.

 

YouTube is a wonderful resource because if you want to know something or how to do something you can be almost be certain that somebody has made a “How To” video, or if you are simply looking for some light entertainment  such as BBC comedy you will find it on YouTube.

 

On YouTube you can:

  • Make friends and be invited to be a friend;
  • Subscribe to a particular channel of interest and be able to view the latest creations. For example I subscribe to several Photoshop Elements channels where I can see the latest “how to” videos on this subject.
  • Create your own videos and upload for viewing by your friends and the world at large.
  • YouTube Videos can be embedded in Web Sites, emails and just about every place on the web.
  • YouTube has its own Video editor where you can edit a video and add a sound track to it.
  • YouTube enables you to find “Creative Commons” videos. This means that you have the rights to use the video virtually as your own, but always check the licence out before doing so.

Google+ The New Kid On The Block

What’s In Google+

At first glance it looks a lot like facebook and functions in much the same way, except it has some important differences.

  • Circles – ways of sorting people you know into groups:
  • Hang Outs – group video chats, can be initiated by anyone with a webcam,
  • and these can be joined by anyone who knows about them.
  • Instant up loads – lets people send any photo they capture from their Android Device (cell phones) directly to their Google+ account to be shared.
  • Sparks –encourages a person to choose things that “spark” an interest for them,
  • Huddle – a mobile feature which supports group texting—much like the BlackBerry Messenger—for up to 100 people at once on any device that uses SMS

 

So How Do I Get It

At the moment it is still in Beta project mode but will be made available to the public very shortly. In the meantime however:

  • Limited numbers are being allowed access at any one time unless you are invited by an existing member, and even then you may not get immediate access.

 

  • Immediate access seems to be almost guaranteed if you have the “Google Chrome” browser and Gmail.

Security and Privacy with Social Media

 

Each Social Media site has its own Privacy Policy which is quite similar to each other. Make sure you read the privacy policy and implement the level of privacy you desire commensurate with your intended use of the media. On LinkedIn for example you may wish to share your whole profile with the world, whereas on Facebook you may only wish to share certain things with your closest friends.

 

The Greatest Risk is Ignorance [of Social Media]!

  • To me the greatest and most damaging risk facing any activity is ignorance.
  • When you don’t know what you don’t know there is rich ground for poor decisions, human error and missteps.
  • On the other hand fear [of Social Media] has been likened to the fear of death itself.

 

Your Real Name??

  • Google+ Says ‘Use Your Real Name Or You’re Out’
  • Facebook also has a no pseudonym rule on the books, but it doesn’t appear to be particularly well enforced.
  • Social networking companies want people to find each other easily, they say, hence the rule.

 

Use Up To-date Security Software

  • Make sure your computer(s) has anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
  • Know how to update it regularly; better still
  • Set the update function to automatic.

 

When Shopping On Line

  • Look for safety symbols, such as:
  • padlock icon in the browser’s status bar,
  • An “s” after “http” in the URL address, or
  • The words “Secure Sockets Layer” (SSL) or
  • “Transport Layer Security” (TLS).
  • These are signs that the merchant is using a secure page for transmitting personal information.

When ever possible I use PayPal to pay on line.

 

It’s all about making sure you only share things that will never affect you if they become public.

 

To see this Workshop online and others like it visit:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seniors-on-Line-Today-with-John-Melville/229334793745419

 

While you are there please click the “Like” button. I need four more to be able to get rid of the extra numbers in the URL. If you don’t have a Facebook account visit and go to the resources page.

 

http://seniorsonlinetoday.com