Social Media Basics

Syllabus

Blogs:

Example One (BBQ Bible)

Example Two (White House)

Example Three (blog aggregator0

Forums:

Example One (Crochet)

Example Two (Reddit Aww)

Internet Chat

Example One (IRC)

Example Two (IRC)

Microblogging

Twitter Sign-up

Example One (Bacon!)

Example Two (celebrity twitter)

Example Three (informational twitter)

Example Four (humorous spoof twitter)

 

 

Social Media Basics Cheat Sheet

Web 1.0 Social Media

Blogs

• What is a Blog?
• A longer explanation of a Blog.
• Blog Directories: Best of the Web and Blog Search Engine.
• Blog aggregators: Techmeme, Memeorandum, and popurls.
• How to comment on a blog.

Email

E-mail Providers

• Google webmail (aka gmail)
• Yahoo! webmail
• Outlook webmail (formally known as hotmail, live.com)
• Hushmail encrypted webmail
• Setting up Outlook or Thunderbird to read email on your computer.

Composing Messages

• The parts of an e-mail address
• The e-mail header
• E-mail header analysis
• Where did the e-mail come from?
• Ten tips on how to properly send an e-mail.
• How to reply to an e-mail.
• How to forward an e-mail. (Did you remember to check snopes to fact check?)
• Opening attachments and sending a file as an attachment.
• E-mail privacy issues.
• Recovering your password on gmail, Yahoo!, or Microsoft Outlook.

Forums

• What is a forum?
• Find a forum on your hobby or interest by clicking here, clicking on Forums in the upper right hand corner, and then typing in your interest.
• Are you interested in Crocheting? Interested in getting support as a Cancer Survivor?
• Craigslist is an online forum / bulletin board that is used to meet people or buy used goods.
• An example of a forum.
• Another example of a general forum called reddit. Interesting video about social media from one of the founders of reddit.

Web 2.0 Social Media

Internet Chat

Instant Messanging

• What is Instant Messaging?
• There are a number of instant messanger services still in existance. You can download an instant messanger like Pidgin or use a web based like Trillian to connect using your already established yahoo, google, or msn screen names.
• Stand alone text only chatroom websites and services are on the wane. Mibbit is web based accecss to some old fashioned IRC chatrooms.
• Many websites offer free customer support using live webchat. For example, if you need help ordering from Newegg, you can chat with a live customer service representative without picking up the phone.
• Example of a chatroom.
• You can also instant message using your phone. This is called texting. There are a variety of ways to text on your phone, including SMS / MMS (uses cell towers) or apps like WhatsApp, Kik, SnapChat, or Facebook Messenger.

Voice Over IP (VOip) and Voice Chat

• Many different programs (including Instant Messengers, gmail and Skype) allow you to make phone calls over the internet to either landline phones or other internet based computers, or both.
• Some companies like Cablevision or Vonage allow VOIP phone calls over the internet using traditional land line phones.

Video Chat

• What is video conferencing (aka video chat)?
• Facetime (Mac, iPad and iPhone)
• Skype (Standalone and iPhone)
• Google Hangouts (Google+)
• Oovoo (Standalone, Facebook, and Smart Phones)
• TinyChat (Through the Web)

Microblogging

Twitter

• What is Twitter? Twitter is a cross between chatting and blogging using 140 characters or less.
• Tweets often use URL shorteners because of the character limit. Examples include goo.gl, nyti.ms, ow.ly and bit.ly. Think about installing an extension to Firefox or Chrome to extend these shortened links for your safety.
• Example of a celebrity twitter.
• Example of an information twitter.
• Example of a humorous spoof twitter.

Other Microblogs

• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Instagram (Primarily a phone app)

Social Networks

What is social networking? Basically, it is the combination of e-mail, chat, forums, video chatting and microblogging in one integrated webpage that allows multiple people to share on-line experiences.

• Facebook is the largest social network online.
• Google+ is currently the second largest social network.
• LinkedIn is social networking for professionals and functions like an online resume and professional forum.
• Some basic rules about Facebook etiquette.

General

Social Conventions and On-Line Etiquette

• Top ten rules of proper internet behavior known as basic netiquette
• Have a specific netiquette question? Netiquette is a great e-book resource.