• I hope you have reviewed your privacy settings on Facebook so that your posts are only visible to friends. If not, please review this tutorial today: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/facebook101/4. As it was created in November 2010, it may be somewhat outdated since Facebook makes almost daily changes, but the information is relevant and should get you on the right track.
• Even if you have set your Facebook privacy settings to “Friends Only,” if you are the type to have 700+ friends, how well do you really know them? Even if they are your “friends,” it’s probably best to not post statuses like: “Leaving on a two week vacation this afternoon!” unless you utilize lists and feel safe posting that type information to a select group of close friends. Sure, you want people to be jealous of that awesome vacation but no one is going to wish they were you when you return to an empty home.
• On Twitter you can protect your tweets but nothing stops your followers from retweeting or replying to you, which may show up in their unprotected feed. Consider that before tweeting: “Leaving home for an 8 hour road trip to Vegas!”
• “Check-In” sites have become popular due to incentives like coupons many businesses will give you. Facebook Places or FourSquare may be good for a free cookie, but “checking in” at the airport just announces to potential ne’er do wells that your property is now fair game.

Should you become paranoid and stop using Social Media altogether? No, but it’s just a good reminder to not over-share what you are doing and where you are. Take a look at what information you’ve shared about yourself and consider whether these details could be used by those that aren’t so nice. You may even want to think about what you say when you are home; posting something like “Home alone watching The Princess Diaries for the 30th time,” especially if you are woman, could invite trouble as well.

What other suggestions do you have for making sure Social Media can be used safely?

Have a great (and safe!) holiday weekend from GCFLearnFree.org!

HootSuite

This app is great for managing and viewing your timeline, especially if you have created Twitter lists or have multiple social media accounts. You can view separate feeds for various lists or functions like @mentions. You can even add other accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn along with their feeds. In the below image, you can see that I have organized my timeline into three feeds for my Home Feed, elearning list and GCFLearnFree list.

HootSuite also allows you to schedule tweets ahead of time to be posted whenever you desire, which can be a great time-saver if you have multiple tweets to go out.  In addition, HootSuite is web-based and includes a mobile app, so you can access if from anywhere you can get the internet.

Twitpic

Twitpic enables you to post photos or videos to Twitter that can be directly viewed in Twitter’s details pane or through the Twitpic site. You can also set up this app on your mobile phone to post photos directly after taking them.

Bit.ly

Many of us like to post links in our tweets, but long links can take up quite a bit of our 140 character limit. Bit.ly will turn any link into a shortened url that you can then copy and post to your tweet.  When clicked, the shortened url will go to the original link.

Deck.ly with TweetDeck

Even though Twitter is made to be short and sweet, there are times when you may want to send a message that is longer than 140 characters. Deck.ly is a feature of TweetDeck (similar to HootSuite) that allows you to compose a tweet of any length. The full message can then be read on TweetDeck or a hosted web page. For example, say you want to share an interesting passage from an article, but not the whole article. Instead of linking to the article in your tweet, you can just copy the passage and post only the part you want with Deck.ly.

Twitter Mobile Apps

Using Twitter on your mobile device is very popular and there are a lot of mobile apps out there for various smartphones. If you do not feel like researching which app is best for your particular device, then using Twitter’s official mobile app is a good bet.

These apps should help you get started and then when you are ready for more you can check out our Twitter Resource Guide: Apps from our Twitter 101 tutorial.

We have launched the first three lessons, but additional lessons on Who to Follow, How to Tweet and Twitter for Mobile Devices will become available throughout the month of April.

Get a look at a sample of our new topic with this video on “What is Twitter?”

New Twitter 101 Tutorial

You may notice that the presentation of this new tutorial is a slight departure from our traditional style. Because Twitter 101 is a social media topic there is always going to be a need to address new features, varying uses and changes. Therefore we have chunked our content into shorter lessons that can be updated or expanded upon if necessary. In true social media style, we have also included a lot more outside resources that we feel you can benefit from.

So check out the new Twitter 101 and be sure to follow us on Twitter.

Twitter’s Evolution

Over time Twitter has evolved.  In the beginning, sharing information about what you were doing made up the bulk of Twitter.  Therefore, it tended toward being a public address system for the terminally narcissistic.  Mundane tweets about eating a Big Mac or getting excited about the weekend were the “Tweet du jour.”

If you encountered Twitter in its early days, you may have been turned off by it. Why should you care that someone is watching Golden Girls re-runs with his cat? Twitter probably seemed like a one-sided conversation of useless information.

You may still see Tweets such as “I like how my shoes are laced,” but they are no longer what make up the majority of Twitter. Today’s Twitter has emerged as a viable and valuable information source.  With a new focus on sharing relevant information and engaging in conversation, you may want to take another look.

Twitter is now less “What are you doing?” and more “What’s going on?” It has become a source for instant news, a site to turn to for local information, and a place to network with professionals in your field.  Depending on your motivation for using Twitter, you can search and find followers that are relevant to you and are based on your interests.  You control who you follow, so you control what information you receive.

A News Source You Control

Unlike traditional media, the news you are receiving isn’t packaged and fed to you-it forms collectively.  As this information is typically coming from a person, the information is more reliable and instead of waiting until the 6pm news, you’re getting the story instantly.  Many traditional media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations, and television have Twitter feeds and share information straightaway about current events, traffic, weather, and more.

Example:

Local Interests

Seeking out favorite organizations and businesses you frequent can also be a way to be the first to know about events, sales, and other announcements.  Your city’s performing arts center Tweets about a pre-sale on an upcoming concert.  Your favorite restaurant is now serving Sunday brunch. The local team just traded their star player.

Example:

Networking

Following colleagues on Twitter means you can share information about the latest trends, products, and events happening in your career field.  Building an effective and powerful network of people you trust can help make your knowledge base stronger.  You can use Twitter to build contacts and connections for sales leads and vendor suggestions.  And when you tweet out a question, you can feel secure that the answer is from a reliable source because it is from a network you have personally cultivated.

Example:

Should You Use Twitter?

Since launching five years ago Twitter has seen incredible growth as more people discover its usefulness. The majority of Twitter users are very selective and deliberate about who they follow. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 81% of all users follow less than 100 people and 65% check the site for updates at most once or twice a week.

In addition, most users have less than 100 people following them, so if you join Twitter, there is no pressure to gain thousands of followers or to spend hours Tweeting your life away.  In fact, you don’t even have to join the conversation. You can always just follow your interests and get information whenever you want without ever composing any Tweets.

So how you use Twitter is totally up to you. Whether it is for discovery, networking, conversation, news updates, questions or more totally depends on your interests and needs. Twitter can be a convenient tool to get the information you want, how and when you want it, with very little effort on your part. So give it a try and see what you just might discover.

[poll id="18"]

Please take a minute to answer our poll.  As soon as you’re done, you can view the results.

If you are interested in a social media topic that is not listed in the poll, leave us a comment.  We would love to hear from you.

Do we need to think, before we hit send? Consider the following examples:

• A teacher complains on Facebook about the behavior of her students and she is now suspended from her job.  Think, before you hit share, especially when posting about work.
• A job candidate sends a scathing email when he is rejected by a hiring manager.  He may have been considered for a second opening, but instead he “burned his bridges.” Think, before you hit send, especially if you are upset, frustrated or angry.
• A politician uses his work email to send romantic messages to his lover.  They are published in the media causing great embarrassment.  Think!  Never post or write personal or inappropriate content in your work accounts.  It is not private and any content usually belongs to the company and can be used against you.
• An administrative assistant takes a sick day and heads out to the beach for a day of fun.  Unfortunately, her tweets about her great day at the beach get back to her boss.  Think!  Managers are now using social media more and more to catch employees participating in unprofessional behavior.

Most of these technologies are used for casual communication and socializing, therefore it’s easy to become careless. A good rule of thumb is to remind yourself not to write or post anything you would not be comfortable telling an entire room full of people. For more information on Netiquette, check out www.albion.com.

I’m either talking on my cell, texting (not while I’m working of course!) or emailing someone for about 12 hours per day. There are even times at work when someone who is sitting 6-10 feet away sends an instant message instead of walking over to talk. I have a certain friend that I met about a year ago. I bet I’ve heard this person’s voice and seen his/her face less than a dozen times,  but probably received thousands of text messages from him/her! I almost feel like I would be stepping over the invisible communication line by calling or suggesting we meet somewhere for a conversation!

Have we as a society placed digital communication on the same level as face-to-face communication? We’re raising a generation of bloggers, Twitterers, and texters. Will this new digital generation understand the art or rules of communication? Or will these skills simply not matter in the future? How do you prefer to communicate? Good old fashioned face-to-face conversations or using some sort of digital communication?  Weigh in and let us know your thoughts!

Social media is a hot topic world wide! Everyone from your neighbor, your  teacher, your grandma, the President, and your favorite celebs are using sites like Facebook and Twitter. This week actor Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a Tweet-Off to see who could reach over 1 million followers. Who won? Ashton Kutcher was the first person on Twitter to reach over 1 million followers. But CNN didn’t do so bad, lagging by only 1,200 followers. What’s the prize? Ashton did it all for charity. He pledged to buy 10,000 mosquito nets for the  Malaria No More Fund. So who’s the next big Twitter star? Well of course Oprah! Today, April 17,2009 Oprah will make her Twitter debut. She hasn’t even made her first Tweet and already has over 60,000 followers. Impressive! We’ll have to stay tuned to see if Oprah reaches over 1 million followers. My guess is YES! I bet she can reach it by tomorrow Morning.

Consider this your official invitation to follow us on Twitter. Just search for LearnFree! Hmm….I wonder if we can reach 1 million followers?