Sunday, September 2, 2012

Five most important social media sites, explained by a non techie!

I am now in the middle of my social media course and I have listed what I think are the top five social media sites. I have only been able to successfully use three of them, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. I have only had one major embarrassing problem and that's been Pininterest, last on my list.

One of the biggest problems I have found is finding out what these sites are! Most people on the net seem to assume you know all about it.

LinkedIn

This is the most respected and widely used site for business networking. LinkedIn is where you share ideas and get answers to questions from professionals that you'd never meet any other way. Industry specific professional groups help each other through advice, resources, referrals, and more. Plus, employers post jobs and recruit here.

LinkedIn isn't a fast-track to becoming an executive editor or a CEO but it is good exposure that can be focused on your specialty. People get to know you through discussions. They learn about you and your expertise when you answer questions for others by responding to a discussion. Again, it's about others and earning the respect of others in your network who can make referrals.

In addition, customers and employers can post public recommendations on your page, and you can see when people in your network change jobs or location, which helps you maintain a current network with viable contacts. Your network can be as wide or narrow as you want to work to make it. So obviously very popular during a recession.

Twitter

The Twitter phenomenon has been around since 2008.

The purpose is to create awareness of your presence. Messages should provide helpful tips, entertain, or inform your target market. Yes, there are spammers and hookers here too. It's easy to block the undesirable element though. The big no-no is blatant self-promotion. Like all customer-oriented content, it's about them, not you.

The short message format is also the ultimate test of your ability to get to the point, which isn't a bad thing to practice. You build a following by offering information that people want, solving problems, and engaging in useful conversation, not by promoting your work constantly. There is an amazing amount of good research information available by doing simple searches too.


MySpace

Pros

If you are looking to meet or find people MySpace is a good place to look. There are lots of people on MySpace so finding people there is easy. MySpace has music and videos you can add to your site for free.

It had advanced Editing: you can add all sorts of things to your MySpace profile. Since you can use HTML and JavaScript in your MySpace editor you are open to adding almost anything.

You can keep in touch: with email, blogs, IM, forums, bulletins and groups you can keep in touch with all your MySpace friends.

BUT

Anyone Can Contact You: There is a privacy setting for your MySpace profile but that means no one can see your profile. MySpace offers no way to allow people to see your profile but still keep them from emailing your and trying to add you to their own MySpace friend list. You may get a lot of people trying to add you to their MySpace friend list and if you don't want just anyone sending you messages then this can become a big bother.
Options Are Hard To Find: There are many things you can do on your MySpace profile that are not obvious. Creating a MySpace slideshow is one of those things. Adding HTML templates is another. Adding other HTML or JavaScripts is yet another. As you browse MySpace you will see some pretty amazing things on some of the MySpace profiles you come across and you may wonder how they are done because MySpace doesn't tell you.

Quite frankly this terrifies me. I'm worried that I don't have the technological skill to protect myself. Also it seems filled with younger teen like people.


Google+

I've seen an advertisement for this in the cinema and feel quite excited about it.

Basically, Google+ is an amalgamation of several services we already use. The idea, according to Google, is to do them better.

Circles are groups of friends you organise by topic: Friends, Family, College Buddies, Roommates, etc.
From your Circles page you drag and drop your contacts into each of these groups, which makes it easier to share what you want with them. Each topic (writing, dogs, whatever) will get its own "Spark" page and provide links to related articles, videos, photos, etc.

Hangouts are virtual rooms where you can video chat with people in your circles. For example, if you're not busy, you can start a talk with your pals.
So, basically, it's just video chat.
Huddles is a new group messaging app

Huddles is group messaging for people within your Circles. There's a mobile app available for Android now that lets you send messages from your phone. Select your group, and everyone can chat with each other.
Instant Upload shares your mobile photos

This one's simple. When you snap a photo on your phone, it's automatically uploaded to Google+.

But the word automatically worries me. If I take a shot of my dog when it rolls in something nasty to show my husband does everyone see it?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organise and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pin boards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organise their favourite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
I keep having a go but I had a very nasty experience with pininterest. I was trying to create a board and put a picture of a dog which looks like Spock on it, I tried a lot. And then I found out that I had done something with my settings which means I had posted that picture 17 times on my Facebook page - its affected my confidence!

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