Social media and networking

This lecture looked at the way we use social media and various social networking sites and their uses. Social networks are a way of connecting individuals who would never gain real world contact. The lecture looked at a variety of sites, ranging in purpose from personal, such as Facebook, professional, such as Linked In, and commercial sites, such as Red Bubble.

The Lecture also provided 20 social networking and blogging tips:


Top 20 tips for successful blogging & social networking
1. Be Social – Don’t always talk about ‘YOU’. People quickly become bored if you are always
talking about yourself, your opinion, the way you feel about stuff.  Include opinions from
other sources such as your favourite artist, designer, musician or guru.  Say if you agree or
disagree with what they say and explain why.  Talk about the work of other students that
you admire or respect.
2. Visit other blogs – Read the blogs of your peers and comment on their work.  Everyone
waits around for others to comment on their blogs or web sites but when was the last time
that you commented on someone else’s blog?
3. Respond to comments – It is disappointing when I don’t receive a reply to comments I
have posted. It is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments
and they will be encouraged to comment again.
4. Be generous – Be constructive in your comments.
5. Subscribe by email – It is great to be able to subscribe to a favourite blog by email.
Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors.
6. Share – If you think you have something in common with another blogger, send them links
to other sites, events and feeds that may be of interest to them.
7. Know what you have posted about yourself – keep your profiles up to date. Make a
note in your calendar to update information periodically.  Out of date information could be
unhelpful in the future.
8. Assume that everything you put on the internet is permanent -  Even if you can
delete your account, anyone on the internet can easily copy, paste, save anything you have
put up there. Their records will live on after yours have been deleted.
9. Be a conduit - As well as publishing your own content, stay on the lookout for things that
will interest your audience elsewhere on the web. As well as helping you to develop
relationships with others, this will help to develop your reputation as an expert or ‘the place
to go’ for information in the eyes of your readers. Do this by adding links to your posts.
10. Be original – Simply feeding or replicating existing material is not enough. Keep thinking
about new ideas for content that haven’t been explored as these will secure your position as
an independent thinker.
11. Create a news feed - Pick some favourite artists, designers, writers, journalists and create
a Google News feed that tracks new mentions of them, so other fans can follow them via
your weblog.
12. Credit your sources – include links to your sources so your readers have the option of
following and idea ‘upstream’ and to lend authority to your research.
13. Use key words – always label your work using as many relevant key works as possible.
This helps the reader to find their way around your site. Tags help people to find your
articles but be clever about the way you use them. Don’t use long phrases; split them up to
improve the chances of people picking up on your posts.14. Interview somebody – to take the focus away from you and your thoughts and feelings;
why not interview someone. You could use write it in a Q&A style or you could even insert
a short video. 2-3 minutes is the optimum length.
15. Post frequently – every day is too much. Once a week is not enough.
16. Fun Widgets – If blogging is new to you, you may get distracted by widgets. Too many
widgets will detract from the content of your blog. If you must have them; limit them to
three at the most.
17. End with a question – reach out to your readers by asking a question. Blogs that consist
only of statement and thoughts are boring. Engage your tutor and other readers by asking
for their thoughts on your subject.
18. Left align your writing – Centred text is what you see on menus and posters.
Professional writers for newspapers, magazines, books and web sites do not centre their
text because it makes it very difficult to read.
19. Use paragraph breaks – every time your post changes subject or introduces a new idea,
start a new paragraph. Blocks of continuous text are not inviting to read.
20. Don’t copy and paste from MS word: This is a bog ‘NO’ Doing this can give you bad
code that will mess up your blog layout.
If you want to copy and past from MS Word you should paste the text into the HTML
section of your editor or paste the text into notepad ( or Mac ‘text edit’ in applications)  and
then copy and paste that text into your post editor.
19. Stick with it – One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make is to give up too easily. Stick
with it and reap the rewards.